It’s hardly an unknown problem. Ever since computers were put to use in business the difficulty has not been in generating information, but in isolating the critical pieces of information that make the difference between success and failure.
And, as supply chains have got longer and more complex, the volume of information being generated had increased dramatically, making effective analysis ever more problematic.
So it is not surprising that Gartner’s 2012 survey of chief information officers has put supply chain analytics for process management and improvement at the top of the list of priorities.
Analytics and business intelligence came out ahead of mobile technologies, cloud computing, and collaboration technologies, the study, entitled “Amplifying the Enterprise: The 2012 CIO Agenda” revealed.
The survey covered some 2,335 CIOs in 45 countries, representing more than £200 billion in IT budgets.
While analytics and business intelligence was the top-ranked technology, the survey found that CIOs are combining analytics with other technologies to create new capabilities.
And Gartner’s Mark McDonald highlights the shift in approach. “CIOs concentrating on IT as a force of operational automation, integration and control are losing ground to executives who see technology as a business amplifier and source of innovation. Effective leaders use technology, which includes IT, to strengthen the customer experience and eliminate costly internal distortions. They are using technology to ‘amplify’ the enterprise.”
Using IT to gain visibility of the supply chain and take effective control of it has been the priority for many organisations. But is it now time to look at technology as a source of innovation?
