In recent years, the market for supply chain software has matured. The overall market for supply chain execution (SCE) systems, for example, is growing at just less than 5% a year, according to Modern's annual look at the top 20 SCE suppliers (see Modern Materials Handling, July 2006, Top 20 SCE suppliers).

Yet, supply chain software has become more important than ever to the jobs of logistics and operations personnel. That was just one of the findings of a recent survey of Modern readers.

The survey revealed several important trends:

• Supply chain software is pervasive: 60% of respondents use an enterprise resource planning system (ERP) while 56% use a warehouse management system (WMS).
• Users are investing for the future: In the next year, Modern readers expect to spend an average of $187,000 on supply chain software including license, integration and training.
• Software use is expanding: 40% of respondents say the number of software packages they use has increased during the past two years, and 35% say their company uses more software vendors than it did two years ago.

This proliferation of software packages and vendors is likely to continue. Survey respondents appear to have accepted the concept of a supply chain execution suite—a concept software vendors have been trying to sell for several years.

For example, 35% of respondents use a labor management solution and 32% plan to purchase or upgrade a labor system in the coming year. In addition, 31% use a transportation management system (TMS), and 35% are planning a TMS purchase or upgrade.

Something similar is happening in the factory, where 17% of respondents say they use a manufacturing execution system and 22% plan to purchase or upgrade in the coming year.

As the pace of business increases, supply chain planning (SCP) applications that sit between an ERP and WMS system are once again gaining traction: While only 23% reported using a SCP solution today, 43% plan to purchase or upgrade in the next year.