I recently came across an interesting infographic by my friends at SAPinsider and insiderPROFILES that showcased a survey around the State of Supply Chain 2014. The survey, conducted in late 2013, asked supply chain management (SCM) professionals about their priorities for the coming year.
From the findings, it was interesting to see that supply chain is going to be of greater focus for executives in 2014, with 71% of the respondents agreeing that it would be a higher priority in 2014 than in the recent past. This was supported by the fact that 47% are planning to increase spending on supply chain related IT and 48% saying that they will continue to spend at the current rate.
When asked about their top organizational challenges, it was interesting to see that 53% of supply chain executives put optimizing their supply chain processes on top. Not surprisingly, 13% said finding the right supply chain technology was key. This goes to show that it is critical to have the correct processes in place before having the technology to implement the processes.
When asked to identify which technology will have the greatest impact on supply chain in the long term, it was good to see 3 of SAP’s major focuses at the top of the charts with mobile (50%), in-memory computing (27%), and cloud (23%) leading the way.
Thanks to the insiderPROFILES team and the respondents for sharing their thoughts and plans.
Next week I will blog on SAP’s strategy and vision for Supply Chain in 2014 and beyond.
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