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APJ CEO priorities mapped to delivery capability

A number of surveys IDC conducted for the past 3 to 5 months informed their presentation during an Infor Virtual Summit, about trends in supply chain ecosystems.

IDC Research director, Stephanie Krishnan shared that IDC had also interviewed 80 CEOs in the APJ region about their priorities. As of January and February this year, CEO priorities included building a digital IT infrastructure that supports resilient operations and pervasive experiences.

This is followed by addressing new customer requirements around personalised and trusted services and experiences, developing new capabilities around digital innovation and defining new roles to play in a changing industry ecosystem.

These findings about what is important for CEOs are changing and will likely look very different at least 3 years down the road. But, it is interesting to be able to map them to what is important for the supply chain industry.

Looking at data from manufacturing and logistics companies collected during an Industry 4.0 survey completed few weeks ago, Stephanie called out emphasis upon operational effectiveness, risk management and the supply chain.

Of note also is product innovation for manufacturers. “We are seeing a number of manufacturers taking the opportunity to work with their suppliers, to work with their networks and in some cases work with competitors to come up with new product offerings to address the current market circumstances,” Stephanie said.

Sustainability and customers relationships are other two areas of priority for the logistics sector.

DX is a given, but how will it look like?

Overall, companies know they do have to address digital transformation.

But how will these companies use technologies to adjust to the new conditions in the market? What are potential new competitions that will arise from new business models and rapid adoption of technologies? Won’t supply chains influence their decisions about this?

In APAC region, data and business operations resiliency and customer experience, are leading areas of investment for businesses.

“Organisations are seeking to drive insights into what is happening, they want to decrease time to react to those insights, and take advantage of decisions to drive business operations resiliency and improve customer experience,” Stephanie said.

When companies were asked about the greatest area of concern if not addressed, one of these areas was the lack of collaboration with suppliers and with customers.

The supply chain has to beef up capabilities… with data

There is a need to share data and build on capabilities of the supply chain as a whole.

Stephanie said, this can help organisations improve their ability to compete as well as pivot to address requirements of customers based on data they are receiving, as well as react to whatever disruption that comes.

The Research Director had concluded information sharing, cloud and connectivity is essential in making sure the supply chain is able to adapt these solutions and work out issues in as close as possible to real time.