Study: Customers not at center of digital supply chain investments

Fewer than four in 10 organizations who implement digital supply chain technology say customer-centricity is a key driver.

According to “The Digital Supply Chain’s Missing Link: Focus,” a new study from Capgemini, one in two organizations say supply chain digitization is a top-three priority at an organizational level. A leading 77% of organizations that have made digital supply chain investments cite saving costs as a key driver. 

The second-most-popular digital supply chain driver, increasing revenues (56%), also had a financial focus. These top two drivers were followed by supporting new business models (53%) and being customer-centric (38%). 

However, Capgemini data indicates that the average organization has close to 30 projects at pre-deployment stage. This includes an average of 10 at ideation stage, 11 at proof-of-concept stage, and eight at pilot stage. Only 14% of organizations can successfully scale initiatives from pilot or proof-of-concept stage.

Due to this widespread difficulty in scaling projects, Capgemini recommends retailers focus their digital technology rollouts on certain supply chain use cases, based on benefits and ease of implementation. These include digital sales and operations planning platforms, automation of assembly via machine-to-machine technologies, smart sensors in containers to monitor product conditions, and robotic process automation of administrative tasks.

Capgemini combined analysis from a variety of supply chain studies it has conducted.