For the seventh consecutive year, SCDigest has partnered with the researchers at Gartner to take a deep look at supply chain practice and technology, surveying SCDigest readers to form the basis for what has become one of the industry's most important and influential research projects.

SCDigest Says:

Complexity, a lack of supply chain visibility, and issues with synchronizing processes continue to be notable barriers to success," Klappich noted. "But demand variability continues to be at the top of this barrier list which in turn is highly influenced by the other barriers. What Do You Say? Click Here to Send Us Your Comments Click Here to See Reader Feedback

"Gartner's 2012/2013 study found a bit of retrenching in terms of supply chain priorities, where reducing costs resurfaced as a top 3 focus area, we believe largely do to the slow global recovery," said Gartner vice president Dwight Klappich, who is leading the research effort along with Chad Eschinger. "But now several years after the worst of the recession, we still expect a high score for using the supply chain to drive top line growth and also supporting innovation."

Last year, growing the top line through supply chain came in as the top priority, followed by improving customer service/satisfaction, and then reducing supply chain costs. What will the results be for 2013? Add your thoughts to the data set by participtaing in this year's survey.

As usual, study participants will receive complimentary Gartner research for spending 10 minutes or so to complete the survey. They will have the option for a free download of one of the following reports, each with a value of several hundred dollars.

	The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2013
	Cool Vendors in Supply Chain Management Applications, 2013

Please Respond to Study

We look forward to your help again in 2013.

Looking to Better Understand Supply Chain Maturity Levels in 2013

"For many years a hidden value in the study was the ability to look beyond the raw data and stratify responses by things like what we call "supply chain personality", technology adoption profile, performance levels and various other attributes - this is really useful insight for both ourselves and supply chain professionals," Klappich added. "One thing we are digging into at a deeper level this year is supply chain maturity levels, looking across five dimensions of maturity in different process and technology areas as well as how maturity levels might influence other supply chain practices."

What about plans for investment in supply chain technologies?

"While we have seen optimism in the past few studies about investing in supply chain technologies, this year we're also looking a bit deeper into some of the specifics around this subject," Klappich told SCDigest. "A great example is that we want to better understand what appears to be the growing demand for cloud-based solutions to find out in what areas this is coming from and what is really driving the demand."

(Supply Chain Trends and Issues Article - Continued Below)