In this digital age, Supply Chain as a Service (SCaaS) is emerging as a progressive option that could aid fashion businesses in capturing and analyzing data better than ever before. SCaaS challenges the status quo for supply chain managers operating in a modern digital economy by potentially increasing the operational effectiveness of the fashion industry’s supply chains. This new approach means that companies that adopt SCaaS have the potential to become more flexible, faster, efficient, and accurate.
Enabled by cloud software, SCaaS not only fills a gap, it introduces a more sustainable and effective way for companies to manage their supply and demand networks. SCaaS does this by making it possible for companies to execute procurement, production control, manufacturing, quality, warehousing, and logistics projects. According to the McKinsey report, Next-generation supply chain: Supply chain 2020, SCaaS allows supply chain impact to move from just focusing on the traditional cost of logistics, warehousing, and administration to include the effect of lost sales, inventory holding, and obsolescence costs.
SCaaS, Creatively Rewriting The Business Rules of Engagement
Unique to every company, SCaaS offers instant scalability that provides a competitive advantage in the short and long term. Simon Ellis, Vice President of IDC Manufacturing Insights, predicts: “Enabled by the digital technologies of the future, the Supply Chain within a company is more than likely going to be a smaller organization of highly skilled, holistically focused individuals who will make broader, more strategic decisions regarding the Supply Chain.”
Maintaining a relatively positive growth in the past four years, SCaaS is expected to continue to emerge as the business model to adopt by the end of the decade, according to Harvard Business Review and analysts from McKinsey&Company. This growth is due to SCaaS challenging traditional supply chain management (SCM), by creatively rewriting the business rules of engagement. Encouraging a shift towards becoming more digitally enabled, SCaaS brings new capabilities and a digitally enabled thinking supply chain to the forefront, which can only be a good thing.
Why Make The Digital Pivot
From strategy to product delivery, there can be numerous advantages to tapping into SCaaS. Recognized by SAE World Congress back 2016, as one of the most disruptive technology innovations in the automotive industry, SCaaS offers proven technology and systems that can support end-to-end supply chain operations by bridging the gaps in business processes.
With global markets shifting quickly, one of the key benefits experienced by early adopters executing the digital pivot is the access to supply chain people and services. SCaaS gives fashion businesses access to instant scalability, which allows them to tap into external supply chain expertise. The solution does this by providing companies previously unattainable blends of professional skillsets and experience levels. Instead of recruiting and onboarding one specialized staff member, you will be able to access more experts with experience in solving specific problems through SCaaS to support periodic spikes in your supply chain.
Lastly, concentrating on tactical functions within the supply chain, SCaaS seamlessly facilitates efficient and effective flows of physical goods and information while capturing and analyzing data. It is a process that makes it easier for big companies and small and medium enterprises to execute supply chain management and business decisions while streamlining their supply chain networks.
SCaaS, Thriving Amid Disruption
Projected to reach $7,854.40 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2018 to 2025, SCaaS’ growth is reported to be driven by the proliferation of mobile devices and internet penetration in emerging economies. Also, the rise in consumer expectations is expected to fuel the growth of the market as well.
Digging a little deeper, HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited’s Global Supply Chain As A Service Market Report 2020 presented a 360-degree overview of the SCaaS landscape. The report identifies trends, developments of the market, and future openings that could open up vital opportunities in the global SCaaS market to help fashion businesses achieve a strong market position.
Offering reliable market forecasts, including those for the overall size of the global Supply Chain as a Service Software market in terms of revenue, the business intelligence report identifies SCaaS key players worth taking note of. The identified prominent players include Accenture, CEVA Logistics, DHL International GmbH, FedEx Corporation, GEODIS, Kuehne+Nagel, TATA Consultancy Services Limited, United Parcel Service, XPO Logistics, Inc., and Zensar Technologies Ltd.
Although the outbreak of COVID-19 has affected the SCaaS market in 2020, it has not taken away from the fact that it is only a matter of time before SCaaS becomes a critical function for fashion companies looking to advance their supply chain capabilities. This opportunity is why key players are pushing SCaaS forward, and experts are predicting that when it comes to the adoption of the solution, it is not a question of if, but rather when.
