In this Cloud Wars special report, Acceleration Economy analyst Joanna Martinez shares her thinking behind the five products she featured in her recent Supply Chain Products to Watch in 2024 analysis, and why some of the biggest software companies warranted inclusion when readers may have expected a focus solely on upstarts and innovators.
Interested in more AI Insights? Take our AI Ecosystem course available on demand. Discover how AI has created a new ecosystem of partnerships with a fresh spirit of customer-centric cocreation and renewed focus on reimagining what is possible.
Highlights
00:19 — Three of the products highlighted in the supply chain products to watch analysis came from industry giants AWS, IBM, and Microsoft. I had the opportunity to educate myself on their products over the past year: each company “walks the talk.”
01:09 — There are a lot of great tech companies out there, many solving concrete problems, but in some cases they’ve never dirctly encountered the problems they solve. A company that creates software to track storage temperature throughout the supply chain probably isn’t dealing with that particular challenge themselves. Software companies aren’t producing food or temperature-sensitive items themselves day to day.
Ask Cloud Wars AI Agent about this analysis
02:03 — By contrast, every day AWS, IBM, and Microsoft are dealing with the very problems their products aim to solve. AWS Supply Chain recommends ways to balance inventories based on how Amazon does that itself. IBM created a cognitive supply chain and proved it on its own turf, reducing costs by $160 million.
02:37 — When you’re seeking solutions to business problems, don’t automatically discount the big players. Maybe for this year, what’s old is new again.
