Global logistics organizations are being forced to adapt to new business models to compete in an increasingly complex and volatile world. The study, “Predicts 2017: Global Logistics Are Embracing New Business Models to Remain Competitively Relevant,” produced by Gartner, Inc., Stamford, Conn., outlines what supply chain leaders need to know in order to innovate and invest in new processes and technologies to remain competitive in their markets.

Key findings:

■ Global logistics operations have become increasingly complex, which is being exacerbated by the introduction of new business models like digital business and multi-channel commerce.

■ Global logistics organizations are generally competent at managing operations within the enterprise, but the increasing virtualization of business operations and processes is challenging their skills.

■ Global logistics organizations are inundated with hype around emerging technologies like autonomous vehicles, which forces them to validate maturity.

Recommendations

Supply chain leaders focused on technology and solutions for supply chain and operations:

■ Recognize the immaturity and potential governance barriers to the availability of fully autonomous over-the-road vehicles. A very small number of realistic use cases will emerge over the next several years, but more likely near-term potential is in driver-assisted technologies.

■ Educate yourselves on multi-channel concepts, technologies and common processes with the eye toward adopting these new business models in B2B organizations.

■ Ensure that the need and value of traceability across stakeholder and partner networks is well known. Start to incorporate supply chain traceability into strategic planning decision making, identifying natural synergies in areas such as supply chain visibility and opportunities with other business processes and systems.

■ Consider the capabilities of Amazon as a third-party logistics services provider. Its differentiated approach to logistics execution may well open up a new range of services.

■ Identify the individual or team responsible for trade compliance issues as related to your digital business initiative, and evaluate the current skill set to see if it can support the transformation to a digital business.