Chainy
Our team joined the programme last summer and, within just eight weeks, we had created a solution called ‘Chainy’. It’s a digital supply chain assistant that brings in conversational AI to enable it do to more than a standard chatbot. It can support anyone across a supply chain by answering any question they may have. A lot of chatbots are very basic, just a Q&A tool really; we want to go a couple of steps further by taking intelligence to the chatbot in the most optimal way.
Generating ideas isn’t a new concept to TheValueChain; as a tech-driven company, it’s part of our DNA. But the 10 x 10 programme was a complete departure to the way our team would normally tackle product development.
This programme showed us that, when we develop a solution, we jump way too fast into the prototype phase. We are tech savvy people so when we have an idea, we immediately transform it into SAP tech. But what this programme did was to force us to take a couple of steps back and think about it in terms of usability, experience, and how the customer will interact with it, instead of building it straight away.
10 x 10 demonstrated how a simple video of a pen and paper sketch is enough to generate customer feedback before developing it into something tangible.
I’m a firm believer in working closely with our customers to get their feedback and the video we produced to help us to sell it in is incredibly useful, particularly given the limitations around physical contact right now. In the past, an idea was presented on a set of slides to the customer face-to-face. Even though the solution doesn’t exist when you present it in video form, using video as a medium gives you the sense that it does exist; your creativity is activated as you watch the video together.
For a company whose slogan is “your only limitation is your imagination”, the 10 x 10 programme allowed creativity to find its way. You forget about the tech: this is all about imagining something with a pen and piece of paper first so you go quickly from an idea to something you can pitch and get feedback on. Usually, we have an idea and then spend months developing it, perhaps eventually not generating an actual solution. In this case, thanks to the clear approach and way of thinking, you develop an idea in a matter of weeks and get immediate feedback before deciding whether to invest in a prototype. We’ve been looking for this type of approach and now we have the tools to implement it. This is a game changer.
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