GT Nexus has announced the availability of a new report conducted by Supply Chain Insights indicating that despite the explosion of global outsourcing and increased efforts to automate the extended supply chain, the focus of most companies remains on automation within the enterprise, leaving interactions between business partners to spreadsheets and EDI. Misalignment between IT and supply chain leaders directly hinders global initiatives centered on supply chain visibility and agility.
“Supply chain processes are more dependent on trading partners and interactions across the extended supply chain, but IT capabilities are largely based on electronic data interchange and spreadsheets, which is inadequate,” said Lora Cecere, CEO of Supply Chain Insights. “For over 50% of companies IT spending is primarily focused on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) which automates processes within the single company, not the end to end network. This is a conundrum for the supply chain leader.”
Key findings of the report were:
- 97% of companies agree on the need for supply chain agility but only 37% of companies are meeting their stated goals. This 60 point difference constitutes a 62% gap.
- The average Importance Rating for supply chain visibility across external partners is 82%. But confidence in ERP to deliver visibility across the extended supply chain beyond the enterprise is low. 60% of those surveyed have confidence in ERP to deliver visibility within the enterprise. But only 34% have confidence in ERP to provide visibility with suppliers.
