In this article:
- Why Gartner’s term for supply chain platforms is problematic.
- Supply chains are, by definition, multienterprise.
- A simple definition removes the barrier to entry and promotes adoption.
- The term works against Gartner’s image as a thought leader.
Supply chain management is a wildly complex undertaking. It’s so complex that practitioners are petrified of changing how they do things, in case they make a million-dollar mistake that ends their career.
This level of complexity has made it difficult for software developers to create tools that can be truly useful to supply chain teams. In the last few decades companies have been trying to manage supply chains using finance programs, which we all know doesn’t work and sends practitioners fleeing back to their spreadsheets and email threads.