Technavio analysts are forecasting positive growth for many segments of the global IT spending market by industry over the next four years as several related markets, including IT spending in railways, spending in airports and healthcare supply chain management, will likely witness an increase in revenues.
Analyst Insight: The power has shifted from seller to buyer as consumers continue to bring B2C online shopping expectations and behaviors with them to the B2B markets they work in. Amazon continues to expand both its same-day delivery capabilities and its product offerings to encroach on some traditionally B2B markets like automotive aftermarket parts distribution. Like it or not, your business is being disrupted by, and in competition with, the Earth's largest retailer and marketing-savvy media company. - John Giangrande, Automotive Aftermarket Industry Leader, Fortna Inc.
Challenge: This service parts organization needed to handle over 500 orders per day and 170,000 items in their inventory. They needed to move from a paper-base to automate through system-directed processes, gain real-time visibility and tracking of parts and orders throughout their supply chain.
E-tailing behemoths like Amazon Business are infringing on electrical distributors' turf. Large distributors continue to hone and refine their e-commerce offerings. And finally, mobile e-commerce (or, m-commerce) - driven by the consumer who has grown more comfortable making purchases on smartphones and other mobile devices - is on track to hit $700bn by 2017, according to research firm Digi-Capital.
Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) is the maintenance, repair and overhaul arm of Air France KLM, one of the top five airlines in the world. The MRO unit supports 1,500 airplanes operated by 150 airline customers, and its 300 facilities worldwide remove parts from those planes, repair or refurbish them, or provide scheduled maintenance. Tracking all of these parts posed a logistical challenge, but the company has deployed a radio frequency identification system to automate the process and cut costs.