Mobility is a hot topic these days. Regardless of industry or profession, a mobile application or ecosystem is in development to serve it. The supply chain is no different. In fact, given its very manual and distributed nature, the supply chain is better suited to mobile application deployment than most business processes. For distribution and fulfillment services, where most of the activities take place away from the desktop, the extension of business processes to mobile applications just makes sense. Most CEOs today are looking to the supply chain for competitive advantage (think Amazon's drones), so the time is right for supply chain managers to begin the process of introducing mobile into their processes.

While the buzz around mobile transactions is currently high, it shouldn't be considered as a check-box exercise when evaluating solutions. Mobility for the sake of mobility doesn't make financial or operational sense. To really deliver value, mobile transactions should be a tangible, measurable part of an overall improvement strategy for your supply chain operations.