The Supply Chain in 2009

Supply Chain Management Review recently ran a good feature highlighting some of the trends we can expect for 2009. The article, which you can find here, suggests that among other areas, the experts interviewed for the article focused their predictions on "China, sustainability, the future of supply chain talent and education, and how important the CIO is becoming in supply chain management -- the key trend they saw emerging in the year ahead." All useful -- and I'd encourage you to read the whole piece so I won't summarize it here -- but to this list I'd also add the importance of supplier information management (including supply risk and performance management) in the 2009 climate. This appears to be a topic that's heating up with a number of executives I've spoken with recently. And I suspect that Aravo, CVM Solutions, D&B and AECSoft, among others, will all be the beneficiaries of this investment focus.

- Jason Busch