1. News Bite: Near-Shoring Happening ‘Faster Than Expected’
If you’ve been following me for the past couple of months, first of all thank you.
Second of all, you probably noticed there are a few topics that fascinate me. Number one is off-the-rails IT mega-projects (seriously, someone please identify a 9 figure software project that wasn’t a total disaster – I’ll wait).
But a close second is the near-shoring trend and whether it’s really going to stick. I’ve written about it a few times over the past several months, because I’ve heard a lot of this buzz before, back in 2007-8.
15 years ago, a massive economic downturn derailed the trend. Today, according to new research from Gartner, the trend is accelerating, at least among SMBs.
What’s different this time around? Why hasn’t the recent economic slowdown derailed it just like the Great Recession did?
The answer is pretty basic: this time the trend is rooted in a desire to solve operational problems and increase supply chain resilience. Long supply chains are inherently more fragile than shorter ones.
In contrast, in 2007-8 the trend was basically about fuel costs: when shipping rates spiked it was suddenly a lot more expensive to import materials from China, and when they fell it was cheap again. So businesses went right back to the old way of operating.
I feel comfortable saying that, yes, this time near-shoring really has legs.
2. Cool Tool: IFTTT
IFTTT (short for “If This Then That”) is the OG of no-code automation and app integration. But it’s still around because it’s great! And it has a forever free plan.
What can you do with IFTTT? Almost anything you put your mind to! Here’s an idea to get you started: automatically turn your phone ringer off at the start of a meeting, and turn it on again at the end.
3. Words of Wisdom
“Supply chains are becoming less of a back-of-the-house ‘secret recipe’ and more like a joint collective where everyone benefits.” – Olivia Montgomery, Associate Principal Supply Chain Analyst at Capterra
4. Upcoming Event
Supply chain performance is more critical than ever. Acting quickly in response to data is more critical than ever. Yet the industry standard for supplier performance review is a quarterly evaluation!
Vendorful is changing that, with a new solution for providing supplier performance KPIs at the speed of modern business. Join us on January 10th at 11:00am Eastern Time to learn how you can leverage your existing ERP and other enterprise IT systems to get real-time intelligence on performance across your entire supplier base.