Organisations across Australia and New Zealand are rapidly shifting their supply chain strategies away from lean, cost-focused models and toward systems with greater resilience and agility, according to a new IDC InfoBrief sponsored by Blue Yonder.
The study, Integrated Execution: From Sight to Orchestration, highlights how supply chains across the Asia-Pacific region are evolving from simple visibility tools toward intelligent orchestration powered by artificial intelligence and multi-enterprise collaboration.
For Australian and New Zealand organisations, the study reveals a clear turning point in supply chain priorities.
According to the IDC research, 43 percent of organisations in Australia and New Zealand say cost efficiency has historically outweighed resilience, leaving supply chains vulnerable to disruption. At the same time, 48 percent now see improving agility as the most important strategy for mitigating supply chain risk, while 45 percent prioritise improved integration between systems and partners to enable faster response to disruption.
Rising supplier costs, transport pressures and geopolitical uncertainty are also driving change across the region. The IDC study found that 51 percent of ANZ organisations are facing rising supplier and transportation costs, while 43 percent are concerned about the impact of protectionism and tariffs on supply chain stability.
Stephanie Krishnan, Associate Vice President at IDC Asia/Pacific and author of the study, said the next phase of supply chain transformation will depend on the ability to act on insights, not just see them.
"Supply chains across Asia-Pacific have largely solved the visibility problem, but many organisations still struggle to translate that visibility into action," she said. "The competitive advantage now lies in orchestrating decisions across multiple partners and systems in real time."
Asia-Pacific President for Blue Yonder, Antonio Boccalandro, agrees: "To truly evolve, especially in turbulent times such as we are currently experiencing, organisations need to find ways to become more agile and resilient. As such, supply chains are entering a new phase where visibility alone is no longer enough. Organisations need the ability to actually translate insights into coordinated action across suppliers, logistics partners and internal operations. Platforms that combine AI, real-time data and multi-enterprise collaboration are becoming essential to help businesses respond faster to disruption while unlocking new opportunities for growth."
The research suggests that organisations are increasingly turning to AI to accelerate that transition. Across Asia-Pacific, 32 percent of supply chain leaders say AI and machine learning represent the most critical capability gap they must address to improve resilience.
Agentic AI systems capable of coordinating decisions and triggering actions across supply chain networks are expected to become a central capability in the coming years.
IDC predicts that the importance of agentic AI in supply chain operations will grow by nearly 60 percent across Asia-Pacific over the next three years.
The study concludes that organisations will need to focus on building a unified operational backbone that integrates data, partners, and execution systems to respond faster to disruption and volatility.
"Modern supply chains must evolve from monitoring events to orchestrating responses," Krishnan said. "The organisations that succeed will be those that can translate insights into coordinated action across their entire supply ecosystem."
The complete IDC InfoBrief is available for
