An Interview with John Blyzinskyj, Elemica, Inc. CEO: ‘We enable the Digital Transformation of our clients global Supply Chains’

“We have expanded the product line from integration technologies to a suite of transformative supply chain applications for the global Process Industries, allowing our clients to buy, sell, move, and see everything they have.”

Supply Chains are intrinsically network-centric. Businesses prosper when they are connected to a robust network that produces and transforms complex information into meaningful, actionable information. 

Elemica, Inc provides a Digital Supply Network for the process industries. The company offers various SmartLink applications that help our clients with the products they sell, move, and buy through their supply chains. Our Customer Management suite manages the complete order to cash processes between manufacturers and their customers for the product they sell. The Logistics Management suite supports all the inter-business processes for the material that is being moved by marine, rail, or truck for transport execution. Finally, our Supplier Management suite leverages the supply chain process between a manufacturer and their suppliers for the products they are buying. Together, these applications and the underlying platform enable organization to connect, automate, anticipate, and them transform their business models for growth.

Elemica was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA, with the Development Centre located in Atlanta, GA.

John Blyzinskyj, Elemica CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Why was the company set up?

At the outset Elemica was established 2000 to be the leading Digital Supply Network for the global Process Industries, (Chemical processing; the Plastics industry; Rubber, Oil and Gas industries; and some of the Pharma industry). In essence we wanted to develop tools and processes for our clients to significantly improve the efficiency and robustness of their global Supply Chains. And through achieving this our clients could reduce operating costs in a meaningful way. We did achieve these goals, and today Elemica is by far the biggest Digital Trading Network across the whole Process Industries Sector. Our clients also save money every day through significantly improved operational efficiency in their day to day operations.

How did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

Elemica has expanded in multiple dimensions since it started. It has expanded globally where our clients now represent an equal split between North America, Europe and the rest of the world. We have expanded vertically within the process manufacturing industry and encompass petrochemicals, oil and gas companies, specialty chemicals, plastics, rubber and tire, agri-science, paints and coatings, and CPG to name a few. We have expanded the product line from integration technologies to a suite of transformative supply chain applications for the products our clients buy, move, and sell. Recently, the focus has been on enhancing the solution suite with visibility solutions to help mitigate risk and improve supply chain performance.

How successful was your first project roll on? Share the experience.

Elemica’s initial project was with a chemical company called Solvay Minerals – it was around automating the ordering process for products from another of our clients, BASF of Germany. The project was successfully implemented, allowing the various parties in the total supply chain to see and manage the buying process.  This seems simple today, but almost 20 years ago, constructing the electronic tools to accomplish this was a big breakthrough in productivity improvement. This early technology was the initial steps in something we now call Vendor Managed Inventory processing (VMI) and Logistics Management.

What kind of responses have you received from your clients over the years? How have they motivated you to shape your offerings/grow the company?

Elemica clients have faced many market and regulatory compliance challenges over the years. And we were there to help them meet those challenges. We strive to continually shape our products to include both new technologies, and also address changing market demands. The new developments are constantly incorporated into our network platform and the application suits we provide in order to be adaptable and flexible in support of industry initiatives. 

About adaptability, how do you stay relevant to the client interests and needs in this highly volatile market?

Elemica is committed to be an advanced technology partner with our clients to help them achieve the visibility and control they need to succeed in the global marketplace. Our domain industry expertise is leveraged by our clients on a daily basis as we deliver solutions to our clients’ daily business challenges. We consistently strive to deliver solutions that address the growing complexity within their supply chains. Elemica believes to become a true technology partner with our clients is facilitate and support digitally transforming their organisations. Through this we believe we drive true innovation. As a result, the company is in a leading position as a proven partner in achieving the total digitisation of our client’s business networks.

How do you keep your company up and running? What are the factors that help your company to compete on a global platform?

The Elemica growth strategy focuses on sustained growth and expanding market share. With over 75 percent of the companies on IHS Chemical Week’s Billion Dollar Club list and most chemical companies on Gartner’s “2018 Supply Chain Top 25: Chemical” rankings as acclaimed Elemica customers, the company is best positioned to be the Digital Supply Network market leader across the process industries. The material value of transactions on Elemica’s network has more than doubled over the past two years to a half trillion dollars plus, with tens of thousands leading process industry trading partners leveraging their collective activities to capture real market opportunities, business efficiencies and cost savings.

Do you have any new products ready to be launched?

Elemica has always been at the forefront of providing technologies that support evolving business models and changing market dynamics across the whole Supply Chain continuum. Today, our large global clients are challenged with more competition, higher operating costs, and demand volatility. In response, Elemica has been launching new solutions for supply chain visibility to enable clients to improve customer order performance, shipment deliveries, and risk management.

As a question on sustainability, where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

Elemica helps clients improve and achieve measurable and sustainability benefits through automation of manual processes, thereby eliminating significant use of paper, additionally our optimizing of transportation processes through carrier collaboration, this leads to reduced mileage by trucks, and hence helps with cleaner air.Elemica will continue to leverage green solutions to further drive sustainable improvements in the supply chain. Our efforts have garnered industry recognition for nine years.

John Blyzinskyj: A Dynamic Leader

John Blyzinskyj is CEO and Board Member of Elemica. Upon joining Elemica, John’s exceptional leadership drove significant and immediate positive impact to the company’s financial results, employee motivation, and shareholder value.  Quote: Darrell Zavitz retired Chairman of Elemica.

“Elemica is best positioned to be the Digital Supply Network market leader across the process industries. We enjoy helping our clients achieve their Digital Transformation goals.”