Businesses of all types are still roiling from three years of supply chain disruption brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But despite ambitions to make digital transformation a top strategic priority, not all companies are making the substantial investment in recent technologies needed to better digitize their supply chain or use B2B ecommerce tools to sell more effectively to digital-first customers, according to new research from Syspro, a developer of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and related business systems applications.

Supply chain disruption

Since the pandemic began, 70% of businesses have experienced material handling and supply chain disruptions and 60% were (or still are) unable to have ongoing engagement with customers and suppliers, according to the Syspro survey of 167 organizations from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Middle East, and Africa” (EMEA), and Asia-Pacific (APAC).

But only 45% of organizations have deployed or invested in new digital technologies such as cloud ERP and B2B ecommerce applications to address supply chain disruptions, and only 44% of companies have allowed manufacturers to collaborate with external suppliers and customers effectively.

“The reality is that without real-time collaboration with suppliers and customers, long-term revenue growth has been compromised,” the Syspro survey says. “While the improvement of internal operational efficiencies is vital for any business, the question is whether the knock-on effect of supply chain disruptions will inhibit long term growth.”

The survey also finds that in certain industries such as automotive parts, investment is low in critical technologies that enable digital transformation, such as ecommerce systems and the Internet of things (IoT). For example, only 42% of organizations have invested in more ecommerce and only 41% and 25% of companies, respectively, have invested in IoT or advanced analytics and big data.

“Manufacturers and distributors are now asking: ‘How can I future-proof my operations against the disruptions of today, to bounce-back and thrive tomorrow,’” the survey says.

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