Analyst Insight: Lehigh University developed the first MBA SCRM class in 2010. The concept has now grown to a global level: The SCRM Consortium includes 17 companies; SCRM continues to be a popular course at Lehigh and ERM is currently taught at Villanova University; 20-plus workshops and 10 conferences per year are held around the globe. A recently published book and the Consortium itself continue to support companies to Identify, Assess, Mitigate and Manage supply chain risks. - Gregory Schlegel, founder, The Supply Chain Risk Management Consortium

Analyst Insight: According to marketing firm eMarketer, double-digit growth is anticipated for e-commerce through 2020 from a projected $1.915tr in sales in 2016 to $4tr by 2020. Brick-and-mortar stores are investing heavily to compete with e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Alibaba, but will it be enough? Supply chains continue to play a major role as brick and mortar stores invest and transform their businesses to meet today's retail challenges. - Kim McQuilken, COO, Spend Management

The ability to monitor the behavior and condition of one's suppliers depends on having access to hard numbers. But a surprisingly large percentage of companies lack this critical data.

Analyst Insight: Robotic process automation has the potential to transform organizations by helping to optimize back-office and repetitive functions. It can increase productivity and quality while reducing costs, and in many cases it requires minimal investment. In fact, organizations are finding that it can pay for itself in less than a year. - Sean Harapko, principal, Ernst & Young LLP

Analyst Insight: There are a few risk-mitigation methods that can improve the bottom line, and they have been around for some time. They are Product Portfolio Management (PPM), Customer Value Management (CVM), Total-Cost-to-Serve (TCS) and Gross Margin Return on Inventory Investment (GMROII). - Gregory Schlegel, executive-in-residence, Center for Supply Chain Research, Lehigh University

Analyst Insight: The need to enable omnichannel capabilities has driven significant capital investments and will continue to do so. We are seeing the first wave of omnichannel investments reach maturity and paying dividends. Those companies whose investments were too little or came too late are struggling. But as e-commerce growth continues, steadily carving out more of the retail sales pie, companies will need to re-evaluate their networks and make additional investments to drive competitive advantage. - Jason Denmon, retail industry leader, Fortna Inc.