Imagine an electronic world where information in the physical and financial supply chains is automated and merged into one transparent system. It would lead to shorter trade cycles, faster cash flow, lower operational costs, and higher profitability for everyone involved.
For decades, the industry has recognized the potential benefits this kind of world would bring, but finding the technologies to build it has remained an unmet challenge—until now. To make it a reality, three of Intel’s latest processor families are helping merge the physical and financial supply chains:
- Intel® Xeon® processors: Accelerate the performance of physical and financial supply chain applications.
- Intel® Core™ i5 vPro™ processors1: Reduce total cost of ownership with advanced security and management capabilities.
- Intel® Atom™ processors: Enable a range of mobile devices embedded in the supply chain for logistics and transport.
Understanding today’s supply chain
There are far fewer paper-based purchase orders, receipts of shipment, notices, and invoices now that we can automate them electronically using a multitude of devices. From moving goods to financial transactions, online systems can monitor progress and inject a new level of efficiency into slow, centuries-old practices that cost trillions of dollars in world trade each year.
RFID chips and sensor technologies can track goods in transit, creating data that can be matched with trade documentation and streamlining supply-chain functions such as payments, working capital, lending, and certification. At any time in the process, absolutely anyone along the supply chain, from financial service providers to their customers, can immediately and securely see all relevant information—and identify exceptions to avoid costly delays.
Supplying the power behind all these innovations is the latest generation of Intel Xeon processors, which provide the energy-efficient, reliable performance the 21st-century supply chain demands.
Intel® Atom™ processors: enabling a mobile fleet
Merging the physical and financial supply chains will be much more efficient with mobile technology that manages and displays data on the move. With a compact design, Intel® Atom™ processors enable a broad range of devices, including netbooks, tablets, handhelds, and smartphones, as well as logistics and transport devices embedded in the supply chain.
Intel® Xeon® processor family: accelerated performance and throughput
With its many built-in features, the Intel® Xeon® processor family offers the reliability, availability, and serviceability you need to accelerate both performance and throughput.
- Scalability: The Intel® Xeon® processor E7 family can scale to handle vast volumes of trade data and provide mainframe-class computing with industry-standard benefits. This is ideal for ports, freight forwarders, and countless service providers in the chain.
- Performance: The entire Intel Xeon processor family offers a host of features that accelerate performance and throughput of financial and physical supply-chain applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Best of all, it does all this while reducing the cost of power and cooling. Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)2 can also enhance the performance of ERP systems to help make the most of widely distributed server resources.
Intel® Core™ i5 vPro™ processor: advanced security and management
The 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i5 vPro™ processor offers unprecedented protection for your trade clients and business data.1 Its built-in features are specially designed to address key IT security concerns, and include:
- Intel® Anti-Theft Technology (Intel® AT 2.0)3: Allows laptops to be remotely disabled if lost or stolen—a real threat in the highly mobile environment of world trade
- Intel® AES New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI): Encrypts business-critical data up to four times faster without slowing system performance45
- Remote management capabilities6: Helps reduce maintenance costs by allowing IT managers to remotely diagnose and repair machines from anywhere in the world
Moving forward
In today’s world of social media and mobility, the business processes of world trade are under more scrutiny than ever before. Business and regulatory pressures are leading both buyers and suppliers to demand a more efficient and transparent system. Merging the physical and financial supply chains is the obvious solution, and with the powerful new Intel technologies, it’s happening today.
