Analyst Insight: With fierce global competition and changing regulations in the food and beverage industry, the speed at which enterprises can react and adapt is imperative to their success. Digital solutions that provide supply-chain visibility from field to factory, distributor and customer have disruptive potential. These solutions generate a tremendous amount of data that can be harvested and used to optimize processes, identify risks, and improve quality in real time.

Analyst Insight: The wildly successful social media campaign for Popeyes’ new chicken sandwich — which quickly led to critical supply shortages for the company — is a cautionary tale about the havoc that social media can wreak on supply chains. To avoid squandering opportunities afforded by unprecedented demand, supply chains need to run like well-oiled machines, with collaborative sales and operations planning (S&OP), a finger on the pulse of social media sentiment, best-practice scenario planning, and rock-solid supplier relationships.