INTTRA Technology Outlook Survey Released

The INTTRA Technology Outlook Survey was released this week, identifying the top technology priorities and difficulties, as expressed by international logistics and shipping industry professionals from top carriers, shippers, and freight forwarders worldwide.

Top technology priority

This year’s survey identified “improving supply chain visibility capabilities to integrate higher quality data” as the top technological priority, highlighting the importance of having easy access to quality shipping information that is accurate, complete and timely. In fact, this priority out-ranked the need to pursue strategies in big data, mobile devices and cloud networking, which were the next most important priorities.

Other challenges

The survey also revealed challenges faced in terms of optimizing supply chains. According to survey participants, the primary challenge in this category is the “lack of standardization, hindering automation. ”The second priority was addressing “technology barriers to visibility, which slows down access to real-time data.”

Says Sandra Moran, Chief Marketing Officer at INTTRA, "With these survey results, we're seeing that the pursuit of quality data is top of mind for today’s logistics and shipping industry professionals, as they embark on delivering improved supply chain visibility. By recognizing this and other priorities identified in the survey, the shipping industry’s evolution can be accelerated through a focus on the top challenges and the adoption of new technologies.”

The other findings of the survey include:

Speed – 77 percent of respondents expressed that the ocean shipping industry was falling behind, playing catch-up, or making little to no progress on technology adoption.

Urgency – Nearly half (47%) of respondents said that the need was “very urgent” for companies to invest in new technologies to be competitive in 2015. Moran expressed that this shows the industry’s recognition of the urgency to increase technology investments and accelerate technology adoption in the coming year.

Mobility – 71 percent of the respondents expressed that they are not comfortable initiating and handling shipments from a mobile device. Those where were uncomfortable cited “security concerns” and “lack of functionality” as the reasons for their hesitance.

If you would like to read the full survey results, you can find them here.