My job requires a fair bit of air travel so I literally spend a good deal of my time with my head in the clouds. At 6’5″ most airline seats are less than comfortable and provide very little leg, arm and shoulder room, so I often find the most practical activity during a flight is critical thinking. Yes, I might look like I am taking a nap but really I am deeply contemplating things like the current state of deploying Supply Chain Planning Technology in the cloud.

With the explosive growth in supply chain complexity and data volumes, a growing number of manufacturers, retailers and distributors of all sizes are all looking for more agile, easily implemented paths to better supply chain performance. Some have found it possible to enact powerful supply chain optimizations almost immediately, while saving substantial amounts of working capital and ensuring timely support for growth and collaboration over the long term.

They have chosen to deploy supply chain planning solutions in the Cloud.

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.

Today, the range of implementation options for supply chain planning solutions stretches far beyond traditional on-premises hardware and software. Some competitive-minded organizations question the advisability of lengthy and complex infrastructure projects. These supply chain teams harness the full potential of the internet by taking advantage of deployment models with names like Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and managed services.

Cloud-based deployment alternatives remove IT obstacles and accelerate the launching of supply chain initiatives. However, are the advantages of cloud deployments for supply chain solutions real and worthwhile? I think so, and I have provided a few of the biggest benefit areas for having your supply chain planning software in the cloud.

Benefit #1: Affordability and Savings