Supply Chain Infrastructure Priorities

In the recently published research report, Aberdeen Group surveyed 800 supply chain executives, 80% of whom identified their companies as being involved in domestic and/or international supply chain transformation initiatives. Aberdeen report the following supply chain infrastructure priorities that companies believe are most important to their supply chain management technology roadmaps (Source: Aberdeen Group, March 2008):

1. Business process management or workflow: 48%
2. Supply chain event management and alerting platform: 43%
3. Master data management (internal): 40%
4. Data warehouse or business intelligence platform: 28%
5. Enterprise application integration: 23%
6. Service-oriented architecture and composite application support: 20%

The following were the key partners for enabling supply chain management technology roadmap (Source: Aberdeen Group, December 2007):

1. Internal IT teams/ custom development: 47%
2. ERP vendor: 22%
3. Consulting company: 16%
4. Best-of-breed SCM vendor: 14%

When viewed from individual infrastructure areas the following results were observed (Source: Aberdeen Group, December 2007):

1. Business process management or workflow
    a) Internal IT: 48%
    b) ERP Vendors: 49%
    c) Best-of-breed Vendors: 46%

2. Supply chain event management and alerting platform
    a) Internal IT: 40%
    b) ERP Vendors: 48%
    c) Best-of-breed Vendors: 51%

3. Master data management (internal)
    a) Internal IT: 38%
    b) ERP Vendors: 44%
    c) Best-of-breed Vendors: 38%

4. Data warehouse or business intelligence platform
    a) Internal IT: 27%
    b) ERP Vendors: 30%
    c) Best-of-breed Vendors: 19%

5. Service-oriented architecture and composite application support
    a) Internal IT: 21%
    b) ERP Vendors: 16%
    c) Best-of-breed Vendors: 24%

6. Enterprise application integration
    a) Internal IT: 21%
    b) ERP Vendors: 28%
    c) Best-of-breed Vendors: 20%

Source: Aberdeen Group, The Supply Chain Executive's Strategic Agenda 2008: Managing Global Supply Chain Transformation