COLLABORATION & INTEGRATION
Supply Chain and Marketing
Executives Can Leverage
Information, Expertise
Demand management, not
forecasting alone, should be
the mantra for the supply
chain. New opportunities
exist to glean customer
demand and early market
insights from marketing
automation and mobile apps.
Supply chain professionals
need to reach across the aisle
to marketing and vice versa to
leverage knowledge and real-time data to transform corporate performance.
—Ann Grackin, chief executive officer
of ChainLink Research
n 2010, we did extensive research in several demand management
categories that often are thought of separately but actually form the
foundation of a new holistic model:
• Selling channels—Our model includes partner channels, distribu-
tors and retailers and their behaviors and information.
• Shopping channels—In addition, we looked at multichannel shopping,
often called multichannel retail—web, catalog, store, wholesaler, as well as the
delivery and information models that support these shopping options.
• Information platform channels—web/cloud, social networks, direct and
mobile. Mobile has apps, bar-coding/QR, RFID, Near Field Communication,
etc., all coming across a unified platform in a big way. Users are opting in and
providing multi-dimensional views into consumer tastes, trends and tribes.
So far, even the leaders have not fully figured out how to create a holistic vision out
of all of this. However, they have implemented components and are beginning to utilize and leverage them. Glimpses of the vision are appearing in the mist, though.
2011 will see an explosion of spending in a variety of these categories:
• More sales for market automation solutions. This market is too complex and
getting more so with so many mini apps. We see some more M&As here. We also
see mid- to large-sized enterprises buying from the technology market leaders.
Small firms will try and use freeware or inexpensive solutions. Their challenge will
be in leveraging the bits of these pieces.
• Mobile explosion—Near Field Phones from Nokia and others, QR codes
and location-based services are all growing, to mention just a few. These will
add a new dimension to information for marketing and the supply chain.
• Social networks are exploding. Companies will harness these more intelligently in 2011 by understanding these channels’ unique culture.
All of these components present new opportunities—and challenges—to
enterprises. How can we mine right from the minds of the market to create better products, design better delivery channels and improve overall performance?
I
The Outlook
In 2011, the conference world will explode in sessions, supersessions and some
case studies on the use of these technologies. Sales will grow in all these categories. Cloud/SaaS applications, in general are growing 3 times the rest of the market. Mobile apps are exploding with over 200-percent growth rates. 2011 will be a
big pilot year, leading to further growth in these categories over the decade.
