Industry news

Cheltenham-based law firm Charles Russell Speechlys has been featured in The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases for 2023.

The list includes cases with the most significant sums in dispute, with proceedings set to be heard in court during 2023.

The disputes involve high-profile parties or issues, as well as insolvencies that have caused a tumultuous fallout.

In this case, the joint liquidators of the BHS Group are seeking to recover £163 million from the retailer’s former directors in one of 2023’s largest insolvency litigation set pieces.

Charles Russell Speechlys is acting for the fourth respondent, Non-Executive Chairman Keith Smith.

Read more on Business & Innovation Magazine here.

Over the past few years, the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) space has grown and matured significantly. Today, over 90% of S&P 500 companies publish ESG reports, reflecting the increased expectations from employees, consumers, investors, and regulators.  

Around the world, we're seeing ESG legislation turn to regulation, like Germany's Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, meaning supply chain operators must ready their reporting operations now to avoid scrambling to stay compliant later.  

The truth is, many organizations are still figuring out what their most material issues are, which goals they want and need to pursue, how they track against those goals, and how best to communicate progress to stakeholders.  

Here’s how they can get started.  

Read more on SupplyChainBrain here.

• Companies wanting to optimize their global value chains have always had to find a way of circumventing trade tensions and bottlenecks.

• There has been a recent shift towards reshoring operations to boost resilience while decreasing transport costs to meet demand for local products.

• Governments need to avoid protectionist policies and work together to increase economic cooperation and liberalize global trade.

Read more on World Economic Forum here.

Just one in five (23%) chief economists expect supply chain disruption to have a significant impact on businesses in 2023, according to a report. 

The World Economic Forum's (WEF) Chief Economists Outlook, produced for the WEF's annual meeting in Davos, found half (50%) of experts considered it either somewhat or extremely unlikely that there will be an adverse impact from supply chain factors. 

The report said this reflected “significant stabilisation after Covid-19 restrictions and integration of war-related disruptions in business planning”.

However, the report said the outlook for the year ahead was “gloomy”.

Read more on CIPS here.

Latest Study on Industrial Growth of Back Office Automation Market 2023-2029. A detailed study accumulated to offer Latest insights about acute features of the Back Office Automation market. The report contains different market predictions related to revenue size, production, CAGR, Consumption, Growth Opportunities, Market Trend and Technologies, and other substantial factors. While emphasizing the key driving and restraining forces for this market, the report also offers a complete study of the future trends and developments of the market. It also examines the role of the leading market players involved in the industry including their corporate overview, financial summary and SWOT analysis.

Some of the Major top players describe in the research are Automation Anywhere Inc, Automai Corporation, UiPath, Softomotive Ltd, Integrify, Pegasystems Inc., Thoughtonomy(Blue Prism), HelpSystems, Twenty57, OpenConnect Systems Incorporated, GNU cflow, Altitude Business Systems Ltd, Codeless Platforms

Read more on Digital Journal here.

The supply chain crisis has been much in the news of late. It’s not difficult to understand why. The crisis has had a profound impact across industries and throughout the global economy. It has contributed to surging prices, layoffs, productivity declines and empty store shelves.

However, there is hope on the horizon and it is coming in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The technology is improving the supply chain in a myriad of ways, from optimizing inventory management to enhancing warehousing and storage processes to automating critical elements of the supply chain. If properly executed, supply chain AI has the ability to improve logistics drastically at a time when every minute counts. 

Read more on VentureBeat here.

Jag Lamba, Founder of Certa, & Jennifer Chaplain, Solution Engineering & Customer Engagement Principal at Aera, on the Intelligent Procurement Revolution

As Solution Engineering and Customer Engagement Principal at Aera Technology, Jennifer Chaplain not only implements Aera’s core technologies, she also designs decision intelligence workflows for global companies.

Aera Technology was founded in 2017 with a vision to transform the future of work through decision intelligence. The company’s cloud platform integrates with existing systems to automate business decisions in real time, enabling global enterprises to gain agility and respond to disruption. 

Read more on Procurement Mag here.

Ash Finnegan, Digital Transformation Officer at Conga, reveals that most organisations attempting digital transformations are missing the point entirely

Ash Finnegan is currently digital transformation officer at Conga, which provides end-to-end solutions to help organisations transform their revenue operations (RevOps) and navigate business complexity. In her role, she works directly with customers and partners to execute these programmes in-house.

Drawing upon her 20-year-strong experience as a digital transformation consultant, she has spearheaded the development of a unique framework that empowers organisations to understand the revenue operations’ landscape and successfully tackle their transformation journeys. This assessment ensures organisations implement technology at a pace that they are ready for, only incorporating solutions that drive real business outcomes.

Read more on Procurement Magazine here.

MR estimates that global blue prism technology services accounts around ~20% of global robotic process automation market due to its improved automation and management technology. Consumers in search of hybrid robotic process automation technology are tend to find a right place for blue prism technology in their respective back-office processes.

Blue Prism’s development in a consistent manner over past half decade lead to its ecosystem expansion. This expansion then resulted in continued product differentiation along with new features acquisition that drives its demand among new users on the platform.The global blue prism technology services market is estimated at USD 362 Million in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 7,688 Million by 2032, growing at an exciting CAGR of 35.7% from 2022-2032.

Read more on The Digital Journal here.

Retail executives are worried about higher costs.

That’s according to KPMG’s latest retail executive survey in which the executives ranked inflation as the most significant concern, with the top three challenges being

increased operating costs (80%), increased product input costs (75%) and eroded margins (50%). 

The survey found that retail executives’ response to inflation has changed compared to actions they took in 2022. In 2023, 84% plan to find cost efficiencies in other ways and 67% plan to renegotiate purchasing agreements, 67%. The change was passing on additional costs to consumers via price increases, down 16% from last year to 56%.

Read more on Chain Store Age here.