Analyst Insight: Organizations say that supply chain visibility is an issue but are not connecting the dots to address these concerns. While they acknowledge that they need to spend more on technology to facilitate this they are still confused on how to create a holistic supply chain visibility strategy to orchestrate multiple systems, harmonize integrations and streamline operations. - Dylan Persaud, Managing Director, Eval-Source

Analyst Insight: The state of enterprise software market has changed to the point where organizations may be conflicted as to the type of systems to select. ERP, point solutions, third-party integrations and BPM tools have introduced doubt to organizations trying to match their business requirements to IT strategies. Too much choice may increase the quantity of IT failures due to companies implementing the wrong type of software. - Keean Persaud, Managing Director, Eval-Source

Supply Chain operations increasingly are impacted by corporations' quality assurance and quality control programs, says Laurel Nelson-Rowe, managing director of the American Society for Quality. She discusses the importance of these programs in protecting brand reputations and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Analyst Insight: Sales and operations planning (S&OP) has been evolving for over three decades; its most recent iteration is Integrated Business Planning (IBP). While many companies struggle to derive full value from S&OP/IBP, those that excel at it have gone beyond simply balancing supply and demand. Their IBP processes support better, faster and more profit-focused decisions and liberate untapped profit potential at key points in the supply chain. – Jim Snyder, Managing Director, and Brad Householder, Partner, PwC Advisory Practice

Analyst Insight: Now that ERP for cloud has crossed the chasm, organizations have a multitude of choices to select the correct software to run their business. New vendors are rapidly emerging in the ERP cloud market. This is especially so within the the SMB market. Vertical specific solutions will disorient organizations by providing too much choice and unnecessarily increase selection time-lines. – Dylan Persaud, Managing Director, Eval-Source

Analyst Insight: Though logistics in China has historically been resistant to change, improvements in express delivery will have a noticeable impact in 2015 due to the rapid growth of e-commerce, food safety concerns, and government measures. The limited supply of land for logistics purposes will affect warehousing costs, and the extra cost will drive the need for storage efficiency. Manufacturing will see modest expansion and gradual migration out of China to lower cost countries. – Jim Serstad, Managing Director, Tompkins Asia

Analyst Insight: Business process management has changed immensely within the last few years. Last year, many new vendors emerged in all industries and verticals due to SaaS business models. The BPM market is rapidly evolving to include a combination of products services and software bundled into one deliverable in a turnkey solution. As the race to zero continues, vendors will have to discover what customers are willing to pay for. – Dylan Persaud, Managing Director, Eval-Source

Success in the global economy requires a shift in strategic vision of the Asia-Pacific region's role in supply chains. While it is no secret that an end to low-cost production in Asia is in sight, smart companies are studying the complexity of APAC region and gaining insight into the roles each country plays in the quickly evolving economic horizon. But visibility into where APAC is today isn't enough; forecasting where it will be next year, five years from now, and further into the future are key to positioning supply chains now for ongoing optimization.

Companies are desperate for new talent to help them achieve supply-chain excellence, as they grapple with ever-larger volumes of data and increasing unpredictability in consumer markets. A SupplyChainBrain Roundtable discussion with Benji Green, director of global supply chain operations with Avaya; Trevor Miles, executive vice president of thought leadership with Kinaxis, and Roddy Martin, managing director of Accenture Supply Chain Strategies.