ERP is Dead... Dr. Elouise Epstein on the Future of the Pharma Supply Chain

1990’s technology stacks will not give us the supply chain that 21st century customers need and deserve, says Elouise Epstein.

Speaking to the PharmaSource podcast, Kearney partner, author and futurist Elouise Epstein explains that “Third-party data exchange is the key to the future. Above all, we need to facilitate easy data exchange with suppliers.”

In her new book, How to Hack the Supply Chain, Elouise describes an experience she had during COVID-19 when was given her vaccination record on a piece of paper. With no digital record, there was no way for her to understand the provenance of the drug she was putting into her body.

“I realised that none of these entities were integrated. There is no data exchange with the third-parties developing and distributing pharmaceuticals.”

This lack of transparency comes with real risk, says Elouise.

“When we extend supply chains we make them brittle and susceptible to risk. Our inability to exchange data has created vulnerability”

Elouise has come to the conclusion that the 21st supply chain technology platform should based around cloud technologies that are able to facilitate data exchange with third-parties, rather than the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that currently represent the foundation of most pharma supply chains.

Read the full article on PharmaSource