Epicor survey finds supply chain digital acceleration is critical to fruitful post-pandemic economy

News summary:

• Cloud prioritisation among midsize essential businesses accelerated from 25% consideration in 2020 to 94% adopting cloud this year.
• Seventy-five percent expect their business to be fully recovered from the impact of COVID-19 by 2022, 61% expect to expand in size and scale over the coming three years and 55% expect to create new jobs.

, a global provider of

, today presented the findings from its annual Insights Report. The key takeaway is that leaders of midsize businesses across the supply chain are bullish about growth fuelled on investment in cloud-ready technologies.

The study exclusively surveys leaders from midsize[1] businesses across the manufacturing, distribution and retail industries on the drivers of business growth over the coming year. The survey finds the nation’s most essential business leaders are not simply gearing up for a ‘bounce back’ year, but rather, they are leaning into the accelerating forces of COVID-19 to ‘leap forward’. The most significant indicator of progress is the radical swing in cloud adoption. In 2020, 25% of respondents declared cloud a strategic priority. In this year’s study, 99% of those surveyed confirmed they plan to move to the cloud, and 94% of them intend to do so this year.

“A key takeaway from this year’s study is the sea change in attitude towards cloud as a critical business accelerant. Leaders have moved from consideration to adoption. While the companies who make, move and sell what is most essential to economic growth may be all aboard the cloud train, the data suggests their implementation needs vary vastly,” stated Steve Murphy, CEO, Epicor Software Corporation, during his keynote address at the annual customer Insights conference. He added: “This is no longer a ‘why move’ conversation but rather a ‘how to move’ to gain advantage – which is exactly why Epicor will continue to prioritise partnership, and we are proud to share that our dedicated migration teams currently support over 75% of implementations, a number we expect to grow.”

Recognising we have a vital role to play in supporting these essential businesses, Epicor prioritises initiatives to address the needs and concerns of its customer base, including cyber security, implementation as a service, total cost of ownership and connectivity equity (read the blog post here).

The survey focuses on bringing to the forefront the voices of the essential businesses that keep the world turning and provides opinion from across the supply chain landscape. While the overwhelming message of digital acceleration is encouraging for the nation’s economic recovery and future growth, the data does provide signposts for the IT industry around the support these midsize essential businesses need to thrive. The full report can be accessed at epicor.com/industry, along with the summary fact sheet.

Survey methodology

PSB conducted an online survey among 1 250 IT decision-makers in the US and the UK; 1 000 were based in the US. The interviews were conducted in English from 22 February to 11 March 2021.

The margin of error for the total sample is +/-2.77ppts and larger for sub-groups.

[1] Decision-makers from midsize companies are representative of the manufacturing, distribution and retail sectors with revenues between $20 million and $250 million were interviewed in March 2021.