GEP Named a Supply Chain Technology Market Leader
AI智能总结ALM Pacesetter Research: Supply Chain 2021-2022 introduces Market Leaders across various professional services sectors including law, insurance, management consulting, employee benefits, financial advisory, risk management, real estate, legal tech, insurtech, fintech, and digital & data services. The initiative aims to offer practical insights into the convergence of professional services markets and assist buyers in evaluating sourcing options with objective assessments of providers' services and capabilities.
Market Leaders are selected based on their performance in five core criteria:
- Business Model: How their offerings are structured.
- Value Proposition: The benefits offered to clients.
- Service Delivery: The quality and effectiveness of their services.
- Client Enablement: Support provided to clients in leveraging their services effectively.
- Brand Eminence: Their reputation and recognition in the market.
Market Leaders are evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The research covers four main market segments: management consulting, technology, legal services, and supply chain. A total of 19 Market Leaders were identified across these segments, with one provider specifically recognized as an ALM Pacesetter.
ALM Pacesetter Research profiles Market Leaders across four key areas:
- Practice Leadership: Expertise and innovation within their field.
- Analyst Relations: Engagement and transparency with industry analysts.
- Sales, Marketing & Public Relations: Promotion and visibility in the market.
- Investor Relations: Financial performance and investor relations management.
- Ecosystem Partnerships: Collaboration with other service providers.
The report highlights the challenges faced by procurement departments before 2020, focusing mainly on cost reduction without considering longer-term strategies. Automation and outsourcing were seen as solutions but under-delivered. The focus shifted towards agility, transparency, simplification where possible, collaboration, risk awareness, and managing supply chains as networks.
COVID-19 exposed vulnerabilities in supply chains, revealing that most procurement departments had only planned for a few weeks or months of disruption, rather than a global economic shutdown lasting over a year. However, the good news is that providers are converging on similar solutions aimed at making supply chains agile, transparent, simplified, collaborative, and risk-aware.
Management consulting firms, multiservice providers, and technology firms are competing with each other, offering solutions built around platforms and massive technology transformations, layered with change management and upskilling. The main thrust of their approach is advanced technology, recognizing the interconnectedness of supply chains requires a human component—trust.
The report examines the evolving market and implications of the COVID-19 era for clients and providers. It discusses how supply chains are being empowered to support organizational value creation activities and how solutions emphasize technology to drive human outcomes, such as building trust throughout networks and creating hybrid human-technology models.
Key stakeholders include the CEO, CFO, COO, GC/CLO/Legal Department, and CSCO. The CEO views supply chains as a priority strategic concern, while CFOs now see supply chains informing growth strategies beyond cost containment. COOs manage supply chains as front-line functions, GC/CLO/Legal Departments focus on compliance and contracts but increasingly provide input on risk and long-term strategy. CSCOs oversee supplier-to-customer management responsibilities, and CPoS are centralized supply chain management functions.
Overall, the report emphasizes the need for supply chains to be agile, transparent, simplified where possible, collaborative, risk-aware, and managed as networks. The focus should shift from technology adoption to developing truly integrated, cross-functional value chain strategies and systems spanning suppliers to customers across internal departmental S&OP planning through external partner networks.
