January - 2013 - issue > View Point

Where is the Supply Chain Technology Market headed?

Naresh Hingorani

Vice President, Global Strategic Market Enablement-Bristlecone

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Forward

Today, supply chains are becoming increasingly global, multi-tiered and complex. Agility, responsiveness, compliance and risk management are the driving factors of differentiation for both manufacturers and retailers. Customers are leveraging software platforms and service firms to drive process-oriented and organizational changes focused on achieving corporate goals. The big software firms in the supply-chain space – SAP, Oracle, Ariba, JDA Software, Manhattan Associates, Infor and others have defined new trends that can be classified as:

Holistic Solution Landscape:

Supply chain is one of the next frontiers in the application space after ERP. Big software firms, relying on ERP, are expanding their functionality into supply chain and procurement with a renewed focus. This is narrowing the gap in functionality and creating a single-stop approach around the 'end-to-end' process. This goal is achieved through both organic (higher product R&D budgets) and inorganic means (example: acquisition of Ariba).

Cloud and Mobility: