Today’s global supply chain complexity creates many blind spots - whether you're managing environmental and political uncertainty, multi-enterprise business networks, the pressures of e-commerce, or multi-modal shipping. Proper visibility has become crucial to mitigating the impacts of disruption and optimally choosing between multiple sources, delivery points, and logistical processes to consistently ensure profitability and customer satisfaction - no matter the situation.

Enterprise systems and incremental upgrades don’t do enough to purge the blind spots. They tend to zoom in on pain points within separate sectors, focusing on manufacturing or warehousing or else investing in a logistics control tower for greater transport visibility. As a result, businesses often deploy multiple visibility solutions, none of which effectively communicate with each other or offer insight into the bigger picture.

Fortunately, more practitioners are realizing the crucial role supply chain visibility plays in cost control and boosting customer satisfaction. Indeed, so many issues, ranging from poor inventory management and ineffective communication to exorbitant errors and delays, either boil down to a lack of visibility or else cannot be resolved without first implementing a proper supply chain visibility solution. In other words, visibility is a necessary foundation to all other supply chain functions.