UK lags Europe in real-time supply chain integration

Its study – conducted among 300 IT managers in the UK, France and Germany – finds nine out of 10 manufacturers in Europe struggling to automate the order-to-fulfilment cycle, as a result of “major application integration challenges”. It also suggests that business process ‘gaps’ are preventing 72% of companies from adding new sales channels for growth opportunities. In fact, the results reveal that UK businesses have the lowest levels of application integration across Europe, with 20% not integrated at all. Indeed, Sterling Commerce says that one in five UK respondents “admitted to gaining no competitive advantage at all from their IT systems”. Beyond this, the survey found that, despite operating fewer supply chain management applications than their European counterparts, 57% of UK IT managers lack a consolidated view of data across their supply chains – compared with just 14% in France and 33% in Germany. Addditionally, although 50% of UK IT managers say they are confident they could track orders in real-time – a key requirement of efficient order-to-fulfilment – that compares to 64% of French and 63% of German respondents. Says David Hogg, retail CPG solutions manager, EMEA at Sterling Commerce: “As the pace of today’s business environment continues to intensify, businesses are coming under increased pressure to effectively meet customer requirements for greater access to order information across multiple channels and, more importantly, for orders to be fulfilled on promise, whether in the business or consumer domain.” And he adds: “These results strongly suggest that UK businesses are facing a dual challenge: not only is poor integration having an impact on internal efficiency, but it is actually adversely impacting their ability to respond quickly to changing market demands, such as profitably launching a new sales channel or on-boarding new trading partners. “60% of UK companies do not currently rely on the web to conduct business, and unless they address the underlying challenges associated with a lack of integration, they will continue to miss out on market opportunities. This will mean an inability to capitalise on current growth trends such as cross-channel shopping, and companies will ultimately fall short of providing the level of customer satisfaction required to retain competitive differentiation.”