CIO interview: Merck Healthcare’s Alessandro da Luca on supply chain automation era
Summary
This is the view of Alessandro da Luca, CIO at Merck Healthcare, who gives his company’s collaborative relationship with real-time business intelligence provider Aera as an example of what can be achieved. About four years ago, recounts Da Luca, Merck was “scouting in Silicon Valley, looking for an advanced company to develop a tailor-made solution for us” in its supply chain operations. “We have built a brain on top of transactional systems to enable a non-digital-native company to work at the speed of Amazon” Merck selected technology from a firm that is now called Aera, whose current CEO Fred Laluyaux describes his firm’s activity like this: “We have built a brain on top of transactional systems to enable a non-digital-native company to work at the speed of Amazon.” Da Luca resumes the story of what has been a four-year relationship. All three sectors of Merck – Healthcare, which comprises 43% of revenue, Life Sciences, which makes a similar percentage, and Performance Materials, which accounts for the rest – are using Aera. Supply chain automation is benefiting from new technological developments, such as blockchain, 5G and machine learning, as companies such as Maersk, Opel and Nestlé are proving.