Putting Together the Pieces: Supply Chain Analytics - 2 SEP 2017

RESEARCH OVERVIEW:
Report Details: This report is the result of six months of studying the emerging supply chain analytics technology market. This report is based on qualitative research completed in the period of January-July 2016. In this research effort, we interviewed thirty-five technology analytics providers to understand their solutions. This was followed by interviews with thirty innovative supply chain leaders. To support this research and take it one step further, we augment these qualitative insights with quantitative survey analysis collected in preparation for the Supply Chain Insights Global Summit. In this research, we share insights on the importance of supply chain analytics in Supply Chain 2030 strategies. Here we share these findings.
Objective: To understand the changing role of supply chain analytics in supply chain strategy.
Highlight: With the changing face of supply chain analytics companies have greater opportunities to drive insights and gain competitive advantage. This report is designed to help companies bridge traditional thinking on supply chain analytics while embracing emerging technologies.

Executive Summary
Supply chains are drowning in data, but are low on insights. While the cost of computing memory was once a barrier to executing an analytics strategy, this is no longer the case. The largest barrier is the understanding of new forms of analytics.
Historically, the term supply chain analytics was used to describe reporting. This is no longer the case. Today there are more options and capabilities for supply chain analytics. There is a proliferation of new technologies flooding the market.
Ironically, despite the explosion of options as shown in Figure 1, the supply chain operating team is more conservative. It is a skewed distribution. When it comes to decision support, the number of late adopters outnumber the early adopters three to one. The lack of early adopters, the rapid rate of change, and the conventional architectural definitions (primarily focused on Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP-based architectures) are barriers to the adoption of new forms of supply chain analytics.