Gray Analytics Partners with SAP NS2 to Enhance Supply Chain Security

August 13, 2020

As our world continues to combat a global pandemic, the U.S.’ dependence on foreign nations for raw materials, critical goods, rare-earth metals, sub-ingredients and component parts has widened the aperture that there are relevant challenges in the global approach to supply chains. The demand for COVID-related medical supplies has exposed the vulnerabilities in our nation’s supply chains and has many in our Federal Government and the Department of Defense asking what else could be hampered or impacted.

Gray Analytics and SAP National Security Services (NS2), a market leader in enterprise application software, have teamed up to develop and release a supply chain intelligence platform, ChainShield™. The tool will be used to detect, correlate and report supply chain anomalies based on a company’s individual supply chain.

In order to advance the technical maturity of this product, the two companies hosted a 3-week-long Hackathon. Due to the imposed travel and social restrictions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, staff located across the country participated in the effort remotely. The pandemic imposed unprecedented challenges for both companies, but also contributed to an increase in participation with over 60 individuals engaging in the joint effort. These individuals were divided into three teams and competed to advance the product in the most impactful way.

Each team presented a detailed demonstration of their work to an experienced panel of hand-picked judges, including Tommy Gardner, PhD, Chief Technology Officer of Hewlett Packard Federal and former District Attorney Jay Town. In the end, stakeholders from Gray Analytics and NS2 subsequently chose to merge the best of each prototype into one final solution.

Using ChainShield™, a supply chain manager, procurement officer or government logistician official gains the situational awareness of their global supply chains in one software environment. The platform will proactively provide alerts to potential issues within a supply chain and will also provide support in the development of “what-if’s” to better secure the supply chain, and supports decision making with respect to the ethical sourcing of products and services. With ChainShield™, a subscriber can ascertain the impact from natural disasters, political unrest or U.S. sanctions, boosting confidence for supply chain intelligence and resiliency.

Gray Analytics proudly offers this vitally-needed solution that will allow for a greater understanding of your company’s supply chain. For more information, email [email protected].