Aera Technology: redefining agility in supply chains

With 15 years of experience in various enterprise software leadership roles Gonzalo Benedit joined Aera Technology in 2020 as General Manager, EMEA. “Aera is a digital platform that enables Cognitive Automation for large enterprises, such as Fortune 500 companies. So pretty large scale organisations operating mostly within the Consumer packaged goods (CPG), pharma chemicals and discrete manufacturing industries. At Aera Technology, we help them to digitise, augment and automate decision-making at scale,” says Benedit. Whilst Aera Technology is headquartered in Mountain View, California, the company operates worldwide, with more than 450 colleagues across Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Empowering supply chain leaders with Cognitive Automation

When asked: what makes Aera Technology’s Cognitive Automation platform unique? Benedit believes “its uniqueness comes from the fact that it’s a single platform that is able to address the core dimensions that are critical to deliver Cognitive Automation at scale: data, science, process, and change.”

Breaking down the four core dimensions, Benedit adds that “when it comes to data, Aera Technology is able to build a single data model. We're able to connect with all the transactional systems of an enterprise and build a single end-to-end data model. When it comes to science we help our customers to apply and deploy deterministic logic, machine learning, and simulations. In terms of process it's about digitising the way decisions are being made in a certain company, division or country. Last but not least the fourth dimension is about change on which we not only deliver an intelligent experience that allows users to easily engage with the platform, but also generate a digital record of all the decisions that have been made and the context under which those decisions were made.”

Aera Technology’s partnership with Kearney

After recently announcing a strategic alliance with global consulting firm Kearney, Benedit explains that Aera Technology is “incredibly excited about our partnership. This means a lot to us, and I would say there are two core components to this partnership.”

1. Transformations

“We're working on these with our customers and it's about redefining the way of working for them. This is where we believe in the stability of taking the best of both worlds. So combining Kearney's incredible experience, breadth and depth of knowledge of these industries and operational knowledge and our own Cognitive Operating System™,” says Benedit.

1. Opportunity

“At the same time we believe there is a great opportunity, which is also the purpose of the partnership, to leverage Kearney's IP. An example of this is through sense and pivot through our own platform. It's basically delivering [Kearney’s] Sense & Pivot powered by Aera Technology. That allows us to deliver value, incredible value, at pace to many of these companies around the world,” says Benedit.

Reflecting on the company’s overall partnership with Kearney, Benedit concludes that “for us, it's an amazing opportunity working with Kearney; it gives our customers access to incredible experience built throughout almost a century so that's invaluable for us. Combine that knowledge with our ability to deliver at a very fast pace, Cognitive Skills, and a digital platform for Cognitive Automation, together we can enable self-driving enterprise. That's a pretty unique value proposition for our customers.”