To achieve operational excellence in their global supply chain management, one of the important steps companies need to take is gaining more granular visibility into supply chain processes and beginning to use supply chain visibility data and supply chain intelligence to drive increased responsiveness in their global supply chains.

The global credit crunch is jeopardizing the financial health of our supply chains. In 2009, companies should reassess suppliers' financial stability and implement processes to spot operational red flags that are early warning signals of financial stress.

Multi-enterprise supply chain management solutions are successful when companies are able to achieve large-scale, global adoption with their trading partners, overcoming both technical and business change management challenges. Software as a service solutions play an important role in enabling multi-enterprise business networks.

RFID is finally becoming the solution that will make integrated supply chain management possible. 2009 promises to be a banner year for the technology, with the introduction of new and more ambitious applications.

Because of margin and market growth pressures, life sciences supply chains are more dynamic than ever before. In 2009, best practice companies will continue to put in place data analysis processes and "human knowledge" collection procedures to spot red flags and safety risks in their end-to-end supply chains.

High-tech organizations have evolved their supply chains that specialized in flow of materials into supply-demand networks where information flow is more critical to manage. This has resulted in high-tech supply chains to be asset lite and information heavy. There is a need to cash this information into tangible business value through the creation of a flexible and responsive supply chain.

The way companies manage global trade and supply chain networks is changing. Aberdeen's research shows that leading performers are moving towards an integrated view of global trade management, focusing on simultaneously optimizing physical, financial and information flows and networks in order to achieve competitive advantage.

"Proactive" visibility is what matters most in effectively managing supply chain disruptions, i.e., when companies get the right information when it matters, from all critical internal stakeholders, as well as external supply chain partners. Companies need to have event management capabilities to aid in this process.

Aberdeen's research shows point-of-sale transaction data from retail locations is still a hurdle for 66 percent of manufacturers. The low levels of transaction data sharing cause increased complexities in tracking promotion effectiveness at the store or field level.

The lengthening of supply chains at both the supplier's and the customer's side of the equation has resulted in an increased need for collaboration of all kinds.