The demand for cloud-based supply chain management (SCM) applications has recently seen a drastic increase. In fact, Dwight Klappich, research vice president at Gartner, estimates that cloud-based adoption in the SCM sector grew 40% this year! According to Klappich, “applications that help shippers plan, source, make, and deliver their goods are leading the pack right now in the cloud.”
Cloud-based SCM applications provide many benefits including faster implementation times, offsite software maintenance and updates, fewer internal IT resources, and 24/7 access from anywhere. These offerings are especially appealing to mid-market companies because of their low initial investment costs and scalability. In addition, shippers have been able to increase visibility through the cloud, and in turn use that data to establish benchmarks and make better shipping decisions.
While there are many benefits, the cloud comes with its own set of challenges. Top concerns include losing control over data previously housed on internal servers or hard drives, data safety, and potential service outages.
Despite these challenges, it is clear that cloud based offerings are quickly becoming a preference for many companies. In order to make the successful jump into the cloud, logistics professionals need to determine what type of data access they need, how they will gain that access, who else will have access to the data (business and trading partners), and what level of access those partners will have.
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For more information, please read this article by SupplyChain24/7.
