With manufacturing increasingly being brought to countries with emerging economies, disruptions to market supply chains are on the rise. Companies facing delays in shipments and production problems can lose dramatic sums of money and face the loss of contracts.
According to Jacob Rosengarten, chief enterprise risk officer for global insurance company XL Group, fast-paced urbanization and economic growth in emerging markets have come together to create instability, and these conditions "are now becoming more prominent, especially where supply chain risk is concerned. Developing markets are playing a larger role in producing items such as computer chips that developed markets need, and any disruption has a global ripple effect."
Insurance provider FM Global recently released their 2014 Resilience Index, a measure of the strength of market supply chains around the globe. Kyrgyzstan, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, all emerging economies, were found to be the least resilient against supply chain disruptions. The U.S. was split into three regions because of the vastly different environments of the country. All three regions were in the top 25 most resilient countries.
"Natural disasters, political unrest and a lack of global uniformity in safety codes and standards all can have an impact on business continuity, competitiveness and reputation," said Jonathan Hull, executive vice president of FM Global.
Foreign compliance another obstacle
Furthermore, research by Gartner discovered that the most common problem businesses run into when beginning to manufacture in an emerging economy is conforming to different regulatory standards. Simon Burtwell, head of Ernst and Young's U.K. general insurance practice, told the Post Online that companies often rush to outsource without learning about the rules and regulations of the countries they are manufacturing in, causing delays and disruptions.
Enterprises looking to create greater resilience in their supply chain and cut down on regulatory hassles should employ a fax over IP solution. With unpredictable infrastructure, getting invoices and other important shipping documents to the proper places can be a constant struggle for companies working in emerging markets. FoIP simplifies document transfers by making legally authenticated paperwork available in an email, eliminating the need for a traditional fax machine all together.
Fax over IP also makes meeting compliance standards simpler by creating an archived database of faxed documents available in the cloud on a dedicated enterprise server. Even in the event of a natural disaster or major power outage, records are kept secure in the cloud and are easily accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.
Enhance enterprise communication, collaboration and compliance efforts with a proven FoIP solution from FaxCore. Contact FaxCore today to learn more about their 'Partly-Cloudy' fax solutions.
