Adoption of cloud computing in supply chain management solutions: A SCOR-aligned assessment

Abstract

Efficient supply chains are a vital necessity for many companies. Supply chain management acts on operational processes, divergent and consolidated information flows and interaction processes with a variety of business partners. Efforts of recent years are usually facing this diversity by creating and organizing central information system solutions. Taking in account all the well-known problems of these central information systems, the question arises, whether cloud-based information systems represent a better alternative to establish an IT support for supply chain management. Aim of this paper is to investigate this question. This is done by considering fundamental aspects of cloud-based solutions under the perspectives of the SCOR model. We present the SCOR model shortly and provide a current market perspective on cloud computing and supply chain from the position of logistics and from the perspective of the software industry. Along the five key processes of the SCOR model we evaluate the potential of cloud-based information system architectures, and we discuss successful implemented examples from practice, but also challenges in future implementation. The paper concludes with recommendations for design and implementation to cloud-based information system support for supply chain management. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.