Thomas Fountain

Closing the IT Gap for Third-Party Logistics The modern supply chain manager faces a broad range of challenges that shift from day to day. They may be tasked with outsourcing or selling off part of the supply chain to reduce cost structure, or have to dig into regulatory requirements surrounding issues like conflict minerals. They may have to open up new channels of distribution in other countries, or face an unexpected challenge from non-traditional competitors. That triple challenge of globalization, margin pressure, and technology change can severely limit business performance for even the most well run companies. As supply chain managers respond to these challenges, they often choose to outsource elements based on lower operating cost, technical sophistication, and scale of the outsourced provider. While gaining those distinct advantages, the consequences inclu... (more)