Sundar Swaminathan, Senior Director of Industry Strategy at Oracle recently wrote an excellent article titled The Effects of Big Data on the Logistics Industry that lays out the argument that logistics companies who figure out how to help their clients manage all the data throughout their supply chain in an innovate way will have a key competitive advantage in the market.
With the recession and the challenging economy the last few years many logistics providers have been cautious (rightfully so) about heavily investing in supply chain technology. But as we continue our rapid move towards a data driven economy the companies who don’t figure out how to make client information visible and flexible will lose to stronger, nibbler competitors.
At the same time 3PL providers, manufacturers and distributors need to be smart about their investments in the logistics software market. The community is littered with companies who bought high priced enterprise software that ate too deeply into their margins and ended up wasting time and capital on software that wasn’t a good fit for the organization.
Lean companies cannot afford to make poor technology decisions. Swaminathan says:
“Companies that put in place the infrastructure and processes to acquire, organize, and analyze this data will get enhanced visibility to assets and personnel, the ability to adjust in real-time to demand and capacity fluctuations, and insights into customer buying patterns that enable smarter pricing and better products.”
We Agree.