Assessing Technology Readiness and Applying Data Analytics for Tariff Mitigation

As business leaders determine how to respond to tariff challenges, supplier diversification, inventory, and logistics decisions are front and center. A key component in ensuring a quick response to challenges is understanding your data, systems, and their limitations. Identifying alternative suppliers, streamlining logistics, and reducing costs can make it easier to adapt to tariff changes — but only if your organization’s systems and data infrastructure can support those efforts.

Questions to Ask About Your Data and Systems

Do you have the right enterprise planning resources (ERP), financial, and operational systems in place?

• Your core platforms must support agile sourcing, procurement, and fulfillment decision-making.
• The right ERP solution can leverage real-time financial insights to make timely decisions and ensure your business can adapt to external factors like changing tariff scenarios.
• Your ERP considers data analytics, financial management, and many other factors.
• Your ERP contains supply chain management functionality designed to optimize insights and improve supply chain performance.

Are your teams trained to evaluate suppliers based on factors like country of origin and total landed cost?

• Tariff mitigation requires more nuanced supplier selection and cost modeling.
• Your team should be able to perform risk assessments and develop mitigation strategies for tariff-related risks.
• Your ERP system provides greater data and information designed to support the analysis by your supply chain team.

Can your systems model “what-if” scenarios to assess tariff impact and guide strategic responses?

• Scenario planning capabilities help you stay ahead of regulatory and economic shifts.
• Scalability is crucial for managing increased data volumes and complex analytics as tariffs evolve.
• Pricing is a strategic asset, and the ability of your systems to model cost and pricing impacts is critical to navigating a rapidly changing environment.

Is your data integrated across finance, logistics, and procurement functions?

• Siloed systems limit visibility and slow down critical mitigation strategies.
• Incomplete or inaccurate data will impede practical analysis and decision-making.
• Modern ERP systems are designed to provide real-time information and facilitate forward-looking decision-making rather than responding to events that have occurred over the last 30, 60, 90, or even 365 days. Many organizations want to make decisions to optimize the next month or quarter, not respond to what has happened in the past.

Does your system utilize AI to better understand changing conditions and facilitate executive decision-making?

• AI is pivotal in helping businesses capitalize on data for innovation, productivity, and competitive growth.
• In this market, you should assume your competitors are actively using AI to solve some of these complex problems.
• Modern ERP systems are embedding AI capabilities in their systems. These systems are designed to support executive decision-making and predictive analysis to speed results.

Chances are, you’ll need help assessing the health of your data and the condition of your software before you can meet your business goals related to tariff changes.

Why a Strategic IT Assessment is Essential for Technology Readiness

Before you invest in new software, it’s critical to understand what you have and what you need. A strategic IT assessment aligns your IT capabilities with your business objectives. An assessment should be clear, detailed, quantitative, and qualitative, resulting in recommendations to better align your technology with your business goals. It should uncover capability gaps and underinvestment or excess investment that can be reduced.

What to Look For in an IT Partner

You’ll want to collaborate with an IT partner who can quickly provide actionable insights after thoroughly analyzing your current systems. They should identify obsolete technology, outdated IT infrastructures, and any gaps in predictive analytics critical to supplier diversification and inventory management. Your technology professionals should understand the unique needs of your business and industry, what differentiates them from your competitors, and their processes to enhance your ability to adjust to tariff increases and future disruptions.

Data Analytics: A Strategic Advantage to Optimize Your Supply Chain

The data inside your systems can become one of your most valuable assets to advancing your performance and optimizing your supply chain. Understanding your best and most cost-effective suppliers, your best customers, and the most efficient members of your team, you can use this information to address tariffs, reduce costs, increase profits, and streamline efficiency.

Strategies include:

• Predictive Analytics: To make informed decisions, apply predictive analytics to forecast future tariff changes and their potential impact on costs and supply chain operations.
• Alternative Sourcing: Analytics can help you evaluate alternative suppliers in regions less affected by tariffs, which will ensure continuity of supplies while managing costs.
• Streamlined Inventory Management: You can optimize inventory levels by analyzing sales data, tariff schedules, and lead times as tariffs increase and level off.
• Aligned Logistics: Managing cross-border logistics can be daunting; however, you can apply data analytics to identify the most efficient shipping routes and methods and ensure compliance with customs regulations.
• Operational Efficiency: You will be better equipped to identify inefficiencies in your supply chain and optimize processes, including automating tasks, streamlining procurement processes, enhancing production schedules, and minimizing waste.

How CBIZ Can Help With Tariff Mitigation

Once we complete your thorough assessment, the CBIZ Technology team will work with your business to implement and refine systems that capture and analyze key data essential to managing through the tariff environment.

Contact us to learn more.