There's an app for that. That's long been the joke amongst smartphone toting consumers. More and more, the same can be said for supply chain management and logistics tasks.

Smith and Associates surveyed 200 respondents spanning across the electronics industry and found that 68 percent identified mobile applications as the most influential technology in the supply chain. Although some organizations are still using traditional tools in the supply chain process, more companies are now turning to smartphones, handheld computers and other mobile devices to reap the benefits of improved mobility and flexibility.

The worldwide supply chain management software market totaled $7.7bn in 2011, a 12.3-percent increase from 2010, according to Gartner Inc. It was the second year of double-digit growth for the SCM software market as supply chain investments kept their priority status and moved forward, despite caution from IT budget decision makers.