Analyst Insight: The retail industry might be the most impacted by digital disruptions, on top of the obvious turmoil retailers' face due to the rapid growth of e-commerce. Retailers also face all of the disruptions in the transportation industry, as retail has always been about moving merchandise from its point of origin into the hands of consumers. - Jim Tompkins, CEO, Tompkins International

Analyst Insight: Best-in-class organizations are tapping into the power of analytics to improve supply-chain performance and identify improvement opportunities. Organizations use analytics for scoring models for vendor performance, detailed demand forecasting, and safety stock recommendations, optimizing fulfillment logistics, creating predictive models of different failure conditions, inventory budget optimization, and many other supply-chain activities. Today’s complex supply chains require that leaders create a data-driven culture, both internally and externally with supply-chain partners. – Andrea Stroud, statistician, APQC

Analyst Insight: We have come a long way from the days where gut feel and years of industry knowledge ruled the day and drove critical decision-making. "Water Cooler Talk" seems a thing of the past, but to effectively work together, businesses must replace it with a new process. Face to face cross-functional team discussions are critical in helping teams learn to work together and communicate effectively. Welcome to sales and operations planning (S&OP). – M. Scott Moon, principal, Tompkins International

Analyst Insight: Concern over a potential economic slowdown in 2017 is showing up in both government policy and business strategy in ways that positively impact the logistics sector. Government policies are showing concern for profitability of businesses. Many of the new incentives are centered around logistics. Meanwhile, businesses are taking a harder look at where to make profit in sectors which have thus far shown little margin, such as e-commerce logistics. – Jim Serstad, managing director, Asia, Tompkins International

Analyst Insight: When people talk about the Internet of Things, they can mean many different things, even within one industry. For a manufacturer, there are four major areas where IoT may have an impact: the manufacturing plant, the supply chain, service and the product. – Bill McBeath, chief research officer, ChainLink Research