SCDigest Editorial Staff

The News: ARC Advisory Group has just published a short report that identifies the top priorities of supply chain and logistics executives, based on a survey of these executives in primarily large, North American companies. The survey found for the first time in awhile that executives were more interested in technology issues than people or process-related ones, and that better understanding supply chain software trends ranked at the top of the technology list.

Banker Says:

Supply Chain Planning was seen as an overhyped technology. Now, interest has returned.” What do you say? Send us your comments here

The Impact: At one level, we are not surprised by the results. Supply Chain Digest is also seeing a renewed interest in using technology to gain competitive supply chain advantage, after a few years of overhang from the dot com bubble burst earlier in the decade. Things are always cyclical, and after a sensible focus on people and process over the past few years, technology innovation may be back in vogue.

The Story: The report’s author, analyst Steve Banker, has been conducting this same survey for several years, and writes that “Historically, [supply chain] process issues tested the highest, followed by people and then technology. Last year, technology issues started to test higher. This year, technology issues in general were of greater interest than process or people issues.”

Almost everything is cyclical, and after several years in which companies believed they needed to focus less on technology and more on process and especially people issues, it could be the pendulum is starting to swing back again a bit towards technology.

Consistent with that theme, of the technology issues presented, the one with the highest level of interest from the Supply Chain Executives was “Emerging Trends in Supply Chain Software.”  This indicates to Supply Chain Digest that these execs may be more aggressively considering how software can help their performance than they may have been in the past few years.

The list of the top 10 technology priorities from the report is provided below (average of respondents on a scale from 1-4, with 4 being the highest):

Source: ARC Advisory Group

Banker also notes, interestingly, that RFID was near the bottom of a list of technologies provided from which respondents could select.

Banker also notes the strong interest in Supply Chain Optimization: “One of the somewhat surprising findings was how interested supply chain executives were in Supply Chain Optimization. Supply Chain Planning (SCP) and Optimization was very hot five years ago. But that interest waned - there were some problem implementations that became well known publicly, and all of a sudden SCP was seen as an over hyped technology. Now, interest has returned.”

Interestingly, Banker also notes that supply chain executives are especially interested in more support for their budgeting processes. “Suppliers that can provide solutions that extend Planning and Execution solutions to include capabilities that will help executives make better budgeting decisions would be a welcome addition to the marketplace,” he writes.

How do the ARC survey results match up with your priorities? Do you think we may be seeing some swing back of the pendulum from people and process again back to technology? Why or why not? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.