Building a supply chain technology stack is something like building a house. The first step is to evaluate your goals - both long and short-term - to ensure that what you build today can adapt to your goals two and five years in the future. Even if, right now, you can’t afford your dream home, you can make decisions that will make growth easier and more financially feasible when the time comes.
Similarly, when choosing the right technology for a business, leaders need to think beyond today’s needs to ensure their investment will fit the organization’s goals down the line.
A recent report from Gartner found that 82% of CEOs in supply-chain-intensive industries plan to increase investment in digital capabilities to support new business, improve supply-chain process efficiency and productivity and more. As supply chain, and its adjacent industries, recover from disruptions and business leaders start looking toward the future, they must learn to adjust to their new growth trajectory.
The Right Technology Partner Empowers Future-Proofing
When it comes to an organization’s technology stack, it’s important to broaden the search beyond a software’s capabilities to also look for a software provider that can grow with you. Knowing how expensive and time-consuming the implementation process can be, organizations that don’t plan for growth risk outgrowing their technology provider, resulting in a costly and time-consuming rebuild of their tech stack.
Implementing technology can take anywhere from months to years and is not a task you want to take on alone. Beyond the installation of new software and hardware, organizations need to consider the testing, training, and troubleshooting required for employees to proficiently operate the technology in their day-to-day work. Without ongoing support from your solutions provider, the implementation process can hinder operations and increase oversights, leading to major challenges.
A strong partner can also provide guidance and expertise for business leaders who struggle to know which capabilities and technology best fit the organization’s long-term plans. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution, so technology providers that are equipped to scale alongside organizations will work with organizations and their leaders to create plans and guide them through periods of growth.
Scalability: Aligning Your Needs with Your Goals
Visibility is an important aspect of supply chain management and one that is made infinitely more difficult without an ongoing solutions partner. According to IDC’s 2022 Supply Chain Survey, organizations that enable visibility, adopt advanced analytics and employ new technologies across their supply chain saw a 50% decrease in recovery time and a 30% decrease in new product lead times.
Operating across several technology solutions can create siloes that result in inconsistent data. From inventory management to order fulfillment and scheduling, there is a lot of room for error when employees must update data across several separate platforms. Solutions that integrate and talk to each other can create one single source of truth that optimizes visibility, improves quality and increases profit margins.
Agility is also a key benefit to utilizing a single solution partner for your tech stack. During a significant disruption, organizations must be agile and make quick, easily actionable decisions to cause the least damage to revenue and reputation. Recent insights from Deloitte put it best, “Agility can make the difference between operations that thrive and those that merely survive.” Other analysts and professionals in the industry agree, with Gartner reporting nearly 90% of supply chain leaders are planning to invest in making their supply chain more agile within the next few years.
With end-to-end visibility within a scalable solution, there’s increased access to data and insights that allow organizations to make quick decisions and take timely action about products, processes and performance.
A solution that can grow with an organization is an invaluable tool to have. With a scalable solution, organizations have the advantage of growing without limits, the convenience of visibility and the benefit of agility.
