Achieving an intelligent, composable supply chain is all about embracing heterogeneity in technology and data sources, says Rohit Tripathi, principal chief technology officer at Grid Dynamics.

Tripathi urges companies to keep up with the differing pace of innovation in layers of the supply chain by expanding their scope. In the same way that people are embracing the idea of expanding their manufacturing locations or supplier base, Tripathi believes companies need to take a broad view when it comes to their use of technology. “This is about moving away from that single, monolith approach — the one-stop shop type thing — to embracing somewhat different solutions, because your different layers of supply chain will have different levels of innovation and different needs.”

To get started, companies must perform an as-is assessment of where they are now, and to pay attention to the different layers. “Ask, where are you with your cloud modernization, where are you with your data meshes, where are you in your systems of differentiation, like inventory planning, demand planning, transportation and logistics,” Tripathi says. “And then, where are you in your systems of innovation, like AI and machine learning-driven capabilities. It all has to start with cloud modernization and getting your data stack right. Everything builds on top of that.”

Tripathi says not to get too complicated too fast, though. “Excel is a great tool. In fact, if you’re a startup you’d better being doing it on Excel and not investing all your money in big, complex software. But, as you evolve, you need to get away from that tool. It’s almost like you have to un-learn that skill.”

CEOs and chief logistics executives need to lead a tech-aware culture by beginning every meeting by looking into their technology tools, rather than staring at a PowerPoint or Excel spreadsheet. It’s all very well engaging cloud-based services, “but you have to make sure you’re using that platform to your advantage,” Tripathi says.