The Question - Supply Chain Outlook - Issue 10

TH E Q U E STION

Legacy Systems: What is the secret of transitioning from legacy systems to a modern supply chain solution?

Sponsored by

TH E Q U E STION

Legacy Systems: What is the secret of transitioning from legacy systems to a modern supply chain solution?

In each edition, we invite business leaders from across the supply chain sector to give their views on the same question

2 | Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

LEANNE TAYLOR CEO, Syspro Most supply chain failures come down to one thing: the people closest to the problem are working with outdated information. That’s the real cost of a legacy system. Not the software, but the lag between what’s happening and what you can act on.

The instinct is to replace everything, but a full enterprise resource planning (ERP) overhaul disrupts the operations you’re trying to improve. The better move is a phased transition that protects what you’ve built whilst moving towards a platform that can do more.

This is where artificial intelligence (AI) earns its place, and where the choice of ERP matters.

The best platforms build AI directly into the workflow so that it already understands your data, processes, and business context. Demand shifts surface as recommendations before a planning meeting is called.

Supplier risk triggers a response before a report flags it. The system stops recording what happened and starts telling you what to do next.

But technology only delivers if people can act on it. AI handles signal at scale. Your team handles context: the relationship that changes how you manage a shortfall, the supplier you know is struggling before the numbers show it. The right ERP brings both together. www.syspro.com

Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10 | 3

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

RICHARD JONES Vice President of Sales for Northern Europe, Confluent Richard Jones is Vice President of Sales for Northern Europe at Confluent, with more than two decades of experience leading technology sales organisations. Previously, Jones held senior leadership roles at Oracle and Astute Solutions, specialising in go-to-market strategy, sales growth, and customer engagement across international markets.

Many businesses think that transitioning away from legacy systems means ripping everything out and starting again.

That approach creates more disruption than it solves.

Supply chains must be able to respond to changing demand, supplier disruption, geopolitical pressure, and rising customer expectations. If teams are working from outdated information, they’re always going to be behind the problem.

Many assume AI will automatically solve supply chain challenges. But AI requires context, and context is data.

Modern supply chains increasingly depend on data in real

ALEX SARIC Smart Procurement Expert, Ivalua The secret is treating the shift as a true business transformation rather than a like-for-like technology replacement.

The risk is trying to recreate outdated processes in a new system, ending up with the same limitations wrapped in a modern interface.

The reason this matters so much more now is AI. What truly differentiates a modern solution is the ability to unify

time, whilst it’s relevant, rather than hours after the event.

Successful transitions will therefore prioritise visibility and access to data first. Once businesses can see, control, and trust the data moving through the organisation, they’re in a much stronger position to modernise gradually and make faster decisions.

Confluent research has found that 85 percent of decisionmakers believe they’d make better decisions if they were able to base them on real-time data. Many legacy systems still play an important role, but they were built for a slower pace of business, where data could be processed in batches.

That’s why the transition is less about replacing every system overnight, and more about creating a real-time view across operations.

Confluent Confluent, an IBM company, is the pioneer of data streaming and the commercial leader behind Apache Kafka. Its platform enables enterprises to connect and process realtime data across applications, analytics, and AI systems, helping organisations turn data-in-motion into business value. www.confluent.io

your data and embed AI across supply chain processes, and that’s exactly what legacy systems can’t do. Businesses should start by getting the data right. An AI agent working from fragmented supplier data won’t just give you a bad answer – it could approve the wrong purchase or miss a compliance risk entirely.

When moving to a modern solution, carefully reassess your processes, gathering detailed input across supply chain and other business users to determine how things should work, questioning past processes. Develop a robust plan for both user and supplier adoption as both are essential and often skimped in timelines and resourcing.

With AI so critical to the most transformational benefits of new technology, carefully assess both AI capabilities as well as the foundation of technology options to avoid unpleasant surprises that delay or limit return on investment (ROI). www.ivalua.com

Your AI is only as good as the data behind it.

4 | Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10

Smarter. Faster.

Built for Your Industry.

Syspro.com

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

MARTIN TOMBS Field CTO EMEA, Qlik It comes down to getting the data foundations right.

Businesses often rush to invest in new technology, but without connected, real-time data, even the most advanced tools struggle to deliver results.

As AI moves so fast, building a scalable, supportable platform is key. Many legacy systems operate in silos, making it difficult for organisations to respond quickly when disruption hits, whether that’s a tariff change, shipping delay, or supplier issue. The businesses adapting fastest are the ones with clear visibility across their operations and access to live data they can trust and act on confidently.

That’s where AI becomes far more valuable. With the right data in place, instead of solely reacting to disruption, businesses can use AI to identify warning signs early, test different scenarios, and understand the potential impact of changes before they happen.

The good news is that modernising a supply chain doesn’t have to mean replacing everything overnight.

In many cases, the most effective approach is to start small by identifying one weak spot in the supply chain and improving the quality, accessibility, and speed of the data in that area first. From there, businesses can build a more connected and resilient supply chain over time. www.qlik.com

ROB PETO Vice President Operations Northern Europe, FedEx Starting from scratch is a big mistake when moving away from legacy systems. The secret to a modern supply chain is evolution, not disruption.

Too often, transformation programmes are approached as large-scale system overhauls. The most effective approaches are incremental: evolving existing systems, improving visibility, and introducing new tools that add value. This reduces risk, maintains continuity, and delivers improvements faster.

At FedEx, we layer advanced capabilities onto our existing infrastructure. Today, we generate over a petabyte of data daily for predictive analytics to optimise operations. Implementing a common data platform has also improved visibility across our European network from assets to cost-to-serve.

FedEx Surround, introduced in Europe in 2024, illustrates this. Built on existing systems, this AI-powered platform analyses real-time risks like weather disruptions, enabling teams to proactively reroute shipments and keep customers informed. This results in faster, more transparent deliveries.

Ultimately, transformation means introducing the right tools at the right time. By anticipating rather than reacting to disruption, organisations build a competitive advantage.

System transformation is as much a leadership challenge as a technological one. Whilst automation drives speed and efficiency, human judgement remains critical.

Success comes from combining technology, data, and human insight to stay ahead. www.fedex.com

Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10 | 5

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

TULSI NARAYAN Executive Vice President, Commercial and New Payment Flows, Europe, Mastercard Tulsi Narayan is Executive Vice President, Commercial and New Payment Flows, Europe at Mastercard, responsible for helping businesses modernise the way money moves through more seamless, secure, and digital business-to-business (B2B) and cross-border payment solutions, enabling more efficient operations across complex supply chains and payment ecosystems.

Transitioning from legacy systems to a modern supply chain solution starts with recognising that payments are no longer just a back-office function, but a critical enabler of supply chain performance.

Many organisations still rely on fragmented, manual processes that create friction, limit visibility, and slow cash flow. As supply chains become more digital and

CONOR BODEN Solutions Manager, SNP Group Conor Boden joined the SNP UKI team as a Solution Manager. A Senior SAP Consultant specialising in tax administration and public sector administration in his previous role, Boden is excited to help organisations gain a better understanding of processes, tasks and decision making within SAP platforms.

The biggest misconception around legacy transformation is that modernising core systems still requires weeks or months of business disruption. That was maybe true a decade ago, but today many Fortune 1000 companies can complete large-scale transformations in 48 hours or less.

If they can do it with the volumes of data and complexity those systems run on, anyone can.

The real secret to success is preparation, practice, and leveraging innovative technology. When projects are driven by deep visibility into enterprise data, rigorous planning, and the ability to simulate and automate before ‘go-live’

interconnected, these inefficiencies become more apparent.

The most effective transformations focus on integration rather than replacement. By embedding digital payment capabilities into existing procurement platforms and workflows, organisations can automate invoice approvals, accelerate settlement, and eliminate many of the manual touchpoints that can slow down operations.

Organisations making this shift are already seeing results, with 73 percent of European businesses reporting improved cash flow visibility and 71 percent achieving cost savings through embedded finance.

Equally important is bringing teams on the journey early.

When they understand the benefits, from faster payments and reconciliation to enhanced security and data-driven insights, adoption becomes significantly easier.

Ultimately, with the right processes in place, modern, digital payment solutions become a lever for improving working capital, strengthening supplier relationships and helping organisations build better connected, more agile supply chains. www.mastercard.com

with a team that’s fully committed to the outcomes – you can’t lose. The reality is businesses no longer have to choose between innovation and operational continuity.

In supply chain environments especially, downtime goes beyond inconvenience; it creates compliance exposure, operational risk, revenue loss, and customer disruption.

Modern transformation strategies are designed to minimise any risk by reducing the amount of downtime to less than 24 hours in many cases.

Ultimately, the companies succeeding in transformation are the ones who frame it as a business continuity exercise.

With the right data strategy and execution, organisations can modernise legacy environments far faster and far more safely than most executives realise.

SNP Group SNP Group is a Heidelberg, Germany-based leader in software and consulting for digital transformation, specifically for SAP S/4HANA migrations, data management, mergers, acquisitions, and company cut-offs. www.snpgroup.com

Your AI is only as good as the data behind it.

6 | Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10

Smarter. Faster.

Built for Your Industry.

Syspro.com

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

JOSE ARTURO GARZAREYES Professor of Operations Management and Head of the Centre for Supply Chain Improvement, University of Derby Professor Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes is an academic and researcher who is actively involved in industrial projects, combining knowledge, expertise, and industrial experience in operations management to help organisations achieve excellence in their internal functions and supply chains.

Transitioning from legacy to modern supply chain solutions is not just a technological upgrade, but a strategic modernisation challenge.

Organisations need a clear transformation strategy aligned with business and supply chain objectives. Rather than replacing systems all at once, organisations should adopt a phased implementation approach to minimise disruption whilst testing and refining new processes.

Data integration and quality are also critical.

Legacy systems often contain inconsistent or siloed data, which can undermine decision-making and efficiency. Effective modernisation requires strong data governance, process standardisation, and integration across suppliers, warehouses, logistics providers, and customers. Technologies such as AI-driven analytics, ERP integration, cloud-based platforms, and advanced IT systems can enhance supply chain visibility, responsiveness, and decision-making.

Employees may resist new systems due to uncertainty, disruption, or lack of training, so effective change management is essential. Organisations must provide strong leadership support, invest in user training, actively engage stakeholders, and facilitate cross-functional collaboration.

Finally, companies must move away from only focusing on efficiency. To successfully transition, organisations should also prioritise agility, resilience, and scalability. Modern supply chains enable predictive analytics, real-time visibility, and faster responses to disruptions, helping companies remain competitive in increasingly volatile and digitally driven business environments.

University of Derby The University of Derby is an ambitious, industryconnected university based in the heart of England, recognised for excellent teaching, applied research, and strong outcomes for students. The institution was awarded Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023, highlighting high-quality student experience and outcomes.

CHRIS UPKES Principal Professional Services Consultant, Neo4j Chris Upkes is a Principal Professional Services Consultant at Neo4j, helping organisations leverage graph technology to solve complex business challenges across a range of industries.

There is no ‘secret sauce’ to supply chain modernisation, but it is imperative that organisations understand and mitigate the ripple effects of transformation on their operational data. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when stakeholders felt the full brunt of disruption, too many made the mistake of focusing on overhauling the tech without first understanding how this may lead to wider collateral damage. As they could only estimate the impact, this created unintended consequences across supplier, logistical, and operational networks.

This decision-making was not aided by legacy manufacturing systems either. They provide rich functionality within a specific operational domain, but they tend to provide deep insight rather than broad.

This means they rarely capture the cross-functional relationships required to understand how decisions, such as rerouting ships or changing suppliers, can create downstream effects elsewhere in the chain.

Modern systems provide a connected data view which allows businesses to identify critical dependencies or hidden vulnerabilities and make informed decisions without excessive or unnecessary disruption elsewhere in the chain. By unifying data and providing context around how assets, suppliers, and operations interact across the supply chain, organisations can move beyond reactive firefighting to predictive decision-making.

Clearly, the lesson is that businesses are not impeded by a lack of optimisation, but they lack a complete picture of the dependencies that connect suppliers, operations, and logistics networks. Supply chain resilience cannot be achieved through upgrading individual functions in isolation – they need to thread it all together to understand how decisions will influence the wider supply chain whilst mitigating future disruptions.

Neo4j Neo4j is a graph database and analytics leader uncovering hidden relationships and patterns across billions of data connections to solve the world’s most pressing problems. neo4j.com

www.derby.ac.uk

Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10 | 7

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

DENNIS SCHMITZ Managing Director UK, Arvato Dennis Schmitz is an international operations leader with expertise in supply chain services, transport management, financial services, and global account operations. As Managing Director UK for Arvato, he has led organisational development, cross-cultural teams, and omnichannel strategies, consistently improving operational performance and customer experience across markets.

Modernising legacy systems isn’t about simply getting rid of the old and replacing it with the new. The most successful transformations embed legacy process knowledge into more flexible, data-driven environments without losing stability along the way. Phased implementation, strong data governance, and close collaboration between technology and operations teams are all critical to making that happen.

The starting point is a clear view of the external realities the operation must respond to, including disruption, cost pressure, and rising client expectations. That means building with flexibility in mind using tools such as automation,

CHERIE BRINKERHOFF Senior Vice President, Retail, Tech, Health, Ryder Supply Chain Solutions Cherie Brinkerhoff is a global supply chain and 3PL leader with proven success in resolving complex operational challenges to drive efficiency, quality, and profitability. Brinkerhoff is skilled in balancing operational excellence with customer expectations, managing budgets, and building highperformance teams through clear strategic direction to exceed goals.

The secret to moving from legacy systems to a modern supply chain isn’t technology – it’s business transformation.

It starts with a clear vision tied to measurable outcomes like visibility, agility, and better customer experiences.

Modern supply chains deliver real-time insight across

robotics, data integration, and AI to create a solution that can adapt as conditions change. The strongest approach uses automation to improve resilience and maintain high quality when complexity rises. This doesn’t just mean adding more robots; the most effective solutions blend smart automation with human judgement.

Technology can take on repetitive, rules-based tasks, improve visibility, and help manage variability, whilst people stay focused on exceptions, decision-making, and continuous improvement. That combination creates operations that are more responsive, more resilient, and better prepared for what comes next.

Arvato Arvato is a global third-party logistics (3PL) provider specialising in supply chain management and e-commerce logistics. Serving industries including consumer products, tech, healthcare, automotive, and publishing, Arvato operates over 100 locations worldwide with 20,000+ employees, delivering technology-driven fulfilment and distribution solutions. Arvato is a subsidiary of Bertelsmann.

arvato.com

procurement, inventory, and fulfilment, enabling faster decisions, improving forecast accuracy, and reducing disruption and cost. But success comes from how you approach the change.

Leading organisations modernise in phases, prioritising high-impact capabilities whilst minimising operational risk.

Data integrity and standardised processes are foundational – they power automation, analytics, and end-to-end integration. Just as important is alignment: executive sponsorship and cross-functional collaboration are critical to driving adoption at scale.

Technologies like automation, warehouse management, real-time analytics, and AI matter – but only when deployed as part of a broader operating strategy. The organisations that get this right treat modernisation as a continuous journey, building a more connected, intelligent, and resilient supply chain ready to adapt as the market evolves. www.ryder.com

Your AI is only as good as the data behind it.

8 | Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10

Smarter. Faster.

Built for Your Industry.

Syspro.com

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

NISHITH RASTOGI CEO and co-Founder, Locus Nishith Rastogi is the CEO and co-Founder of Locus, where he leads global strategy, innovation, and product development. Before founding Locus, Rastogi worked at Amazon, developing algorithms to combat credit card fraud, and created RideSafe, a real-time route deviation app designed to improve women’s safety.

The transition from legacy systems to a modern supply chain is a shift towards agentic, governed execution.

Most enterprises continue to rely on core ERP and transport management systems because they contain years of operational logic and business processes.

Modern supply chains, however, require decisions to be made in environments that change by the minute.

Agentic orchestration provides a way to connect planning with execution. By continuously sensing conditions across the network and taking action in response, these systems allow routing, carrier allocation, and capacity decisions to

adapt in real time whilst existing systems remain in place.

Governance is equally important. Businesses need visibility into how decisions are made, clear operational guardrails, and defined points for human intervention. These controls create the trust required to deploy AI across critical supply chain processes.

Leading organisations are introducing agentic orchestration in areas where operational friction is highest, then expanding adoption as confidence grows. The result is a supply chain designed to respond continuously to changing conditions, rather than one that relies on periodic planning cycles.

Locus Locus’ mission is to simplify logistics decision-making with deep-tech solutions. It is a provider of choice for retail, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)/consumer packaged goods (CPG), and other industries to drive efficiency, consistency, and transparency in their logistics operations. locus.sh

Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10 | 9

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

CARLO NEBULONI General Manager UK, Fincons Group Carlo Nebuloni joined Fincons Group in 2025 as General Manager UK. Nebuloni is an experienced executive with over 25 years of international expertise in leading major transformation initiatives across the insurance and financial services sectors.

Supply chain management systems are amongst the most deeply embedded legacy environments in enterprise IT. Built over decades in obsolete frameworks, they sit at the intersection of warehousing, procurement, logistics, and finance. Touching them feels risky, but leaving them untouched is becoming more dangerous still.

The core challenge with legacy modernisation was execution, but generative AI now makes the transition

JOSELINA PERALTA Founder and CEO, STRACTIX Joselina Peralta is Founder and CEO of STRACTIX and a former CPO, CSCO, and COO. Peralta advises executive teams on decision governance, execution risk, and enterprise transformation, helping organisations prevent costly failures before they become visible in operational and financial performance.

The biggest mistake organizations make when transitioning from legacy systems is treating the initiative as a technology project.

Most failures occur long before go-live. They happen when organisations modernise the system but fail to modernise how decisions move through the business.

A new platform does not create alignment – it exposes whether alignment already exists.

If procurement, supply chain, operations, finance, and commercial teams resolve trade-offs differently today, the new system will simply make those conflicts visible faster.

The organisations that transition successfully focus less

genuinely viable. The key is to apply a rigorous, structured methodology rather than ad-hoc experimentation.

Before any transformation begins, the entire source codebase must be scanned, categorised, and cleansed.

Dead code thus gets eliminated before migration scope is even defined. Target architecture decisions must also be locked in at this stage. Be sure to engineer prompts with precision as effective transformation requires dozens of highly complex, carefully designed prompts.

It is wiser to begin operations with a representative code subset, measuring key performance indicator (KPI) outputs (correctness, maintainability, execution efficiency), refining prompts, then scaling. Each cycle improves accuracy.

Finally, it is critical to validate rigorously before go-live.

Technical, functional, user acceptance, performance, and penetration testing all belong in the final phase. www.finconsgroup.com

on replacing technology and more on clarifying decision ownership before implementation begins.

Who owns the trade-off? Where does a decision resolve?

What triggers escalation?

Those questions matter more than software functionality.

Technology can improve visibility, planning, and execution. It cannot resolve organisational ambiguity.

The secret is recognising that legacy systems are often not the real constraint.

Legacy decision-making is.

The strongest transformations use implementation as an opportunity to redesign decision governance across the enterprise. When that happens, the technology becomes an accelerator rather than another expensive layer of complexity.

STRACTIX STRACTIX is a practitioner-led advisory firm helping procurement, supply chain, and operations leaders prevent transformation failure. The company helps organisations resolve critical decisions before execution risk compounds into operational and financial underperformance. stractix.consulting

Your AI is only as good as the data behind it.

10 | Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10

Smarter. Faster.

Built for Your Industry.

Syspro.com

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

SHABBIR DAHOD

RICHARD STEWART

President and CEO, TraceLink

EVP of Product and Industry Strategy, Infios

Shabbir Dahod co-founded TraceLink in 2009 to help transform the global life sciences and healthcare supply chain through cloud-based, networked digitalisation. With more than 40 years of experience, he has helped drive the shift from fragmented systems to intelligent business networks.

The transition from legacy supply chain systems is no longer primarily about upgrading software. It is about building an agentic supply chain operating model where humans and AI agents can coordinate work across the end-to-end network in real time.

Most legacy environments are not limited by old technology alone. They are limited by fragmented data, disconnected processes, and the operational friction created when teams must stop work to reconcile information, investigate exceptions, confirm commitments, or manually coordinate with partners before execution can move forward.

Modernisation begins by integrating existing systems and trading partners into a shared digital and operational foundation. That foundation combines standardised business transactions, trusted real-time network data, metadata, and semantic reasoning capabilities that allow AI agents to operate with business context and governed decision-making.

In this model, AI agents can monitor conditions, validate transactions, identify risks, recommend actions, and advance approved next steps within defined operational and compliance boundaries whilst working alongside human teams.

The real secret is that modern supply chain execution does not come from adding more disconnected systems. It comes from removing the friction that prevents work from moving across partners, processes, and enterprises – and creating the foundation for intelligent, agentic orchestration at scale.

As EVP of Product and Industry Strategy, Richard Stewart helps Infios transform supply chain execution through intelligent, adaptable solutions. With 25 years’ industry experience, Stewart drives growth, innovation, and performance, using deep expertise and an entrepreneurial approach to deliver results for customers, partners, and teams.

Transitioning from legacy systems to a modern supply chain solution is less about replacing technology and more about transforming how decisions and execution happen across the business. The most successful organisations focus on connecting and orchestrating existing systems to create an intelligent execution environment that is more responsive, adaptive, and resilient.

Many supply chains still operate across disconnected order, warehouse, and transportation systems, creating visibility gaps, delays, and manual effort. Modernisation begins with establishing a trusted, real-time view of operations, enabling teams to see what is happening and act with greater speed and confidence.

AI and automation are accelerating this shift, but their value comes from being embedded within workflows.

Rather than adding AI on top of siloed systems, organisations should use intelligence to support a continuous sense-decide-act-learn cycle: identifying disruptions earlier, recommending next best actions, and coordinating responses as conditions evolve.

A modular, phased approach is often most effective.

By modernising incrementally, organisations can reduce risk, realise value faster, and scale capabilities in line with changing needs, without large-scale disruption.

Most importantly, modern supply chains keep people at the centre. AI should augment human expertise, enabling better decisions, greater precision, and resilience in constant change.

TraceLink TraceLink is the world’s largest agentic business network, enabling life sciences and healthcare companies to build and manage a scalable digital workforce of governed, no-code AI agents that execute and coordinate mission-critical supply chain operations alongside human teams.

Infios Infios is a global leader in intelligent supply chain execution, trusted by 5,000+ customers across 70 countries. Its order, warehouse, and transportation management solutions, powered by Infios AI, help businesses simplify operations, improve efficiency, and respond in real time. Infios is a joint venture between Körber and KKR.

www.tracelink.com

www.infios.com/en

Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10 | 11

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

MATT YEARLING CEO, YMX Logistics Matt Yearling is CEO of YMX Logistics and former CEO of PINC. With more than 20 years of logistics technology leadership, Yearling helps enterprise shippers improve yard safety, visibility, and efficiency through standardised operations and technology-enabled execution.

Most supply chain transformation initiatives fail because companies treat modernisation as a software replacement project rather than a true operational transformation.

Legacy systems were built to support static workflows, siloed departments, and limited operational visibility. Simply layering new technology onto fragmented processes often adds complexity, creates disconnected data, and results in underutilised platforms that never deliver their promised value.

Successful modernisation starts with the operational problem, not the technology. Organisations must first understand how work flows across transportation, warehousing, yard operations, labour, and equipment. Once those workflows are mapped, companies can standardise processes, establish real-time visibility, and build a data architecture that supports continuous optimisation and better decision-making across the network.

Another common challenge is “proof-of-concept purgatory”, where promising pilots demonstrate potential but fail to scale into enterprise-wide results. Automation, AI, and autonomy generate the greatest value when embedded in an operating model that tightly connects digital intelligence with day-to-day physical execution.

YMX Logistics YMX Logistics is trusted by the world’s largest shippers and specialises in integrated yard logistics operations, spotting and shuttling services, trailer rentals, and yard management technology solutions. Through its Yard Operating System (YOS), the company helps enterprise shippers improve visibility, execution, safety, sustainability, and operational performance. www.ymxlogistics.com

Your AI is only as good as the data behind it.

12 | Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10

Smarter. Faster.

Built for Your Industry.

Syspro.com

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

ALAIN BEJJANI

ADAM COVENTRY

Business Leader, Investor, and Author

Executive Director, SCALA

Alain Bejjani was named Gulf Business CEO of the Year in 2020 and ranked among Forbes Middle East’s Top 100 CEOs in 2022. Bejjani’s book, Next: Leading Through the New Realities, is out now.

Legacy systems are rarely the problem – legacy thinking is. You can install the most modern supply chain solution on the market and still run a legacy company: same incentives, same caution, same reflexes.

The shift that matters is one of paradigm, not product. A modern supply chain is no longer faster software bolted onto an old operating model; it is becoming intelligent, autonomous, and increasingly self-directing.

You are not upgrading – you are changing the nature of the work.

Legacy systems endure because they are good enough until a shock, or a competitor, proves they were not. So the answer is not, “which platform?” – it is simpler, and far harder: migrate the thinking before the data.

Redesign how the work should be done – around judgment, around resilience – then choose the system that forces that new way rather than one that quietly preserves the old. A modern platform running a legacy operating model is just a faster way to repeat the same outdated thing.

Let go first. The technology follows. That, not the software, is the transition. alainbejjani.com

The secret is to start with the desired business outcome, not the system. Before choosing a new platform or AI capability, organisations need to be clear on what they are trying to improve, whether that is service, cost, agility, or resilience.

From there, a phased transition is usually more effective than a full ‘rip and replace’. It reduces disruption, proves value earlier, and helps build confidence across the business.

Technology must also be matched with the right operating model. Legacy processes, poor governance, and siloed decision-making can be just as limiting as outdated systems, so these need to be addressed at the same time.

SCALA’s latest report found that over half (57 percent) of businesses could not continue sales order processing or purchasing if their main system failed, which shows why system modernisation needs to be approached with care and as a priority business continuity issue.

Finally, businesses should make better use of the data they already have and improve iteratively. Once the foundations are in place, new capabilities can be scaled, with human judgement and technology working together to support faster, smarter supply chain decisions over time. www.scalagroup.co.uk

MICHAEL DELGADO Co-Founder and CEO, Canals Michael Delgado is co-Founder and CEO of Canals, an AI platform automating key workflows for wholesale distributors. Previously, Delgado led Vested and held leadership roles at Willing before its acquisition by MetLife. A former Wall Street attorney, he holds degrees from Harvard and University of Miami.

The secret to a successful transition is not replacing all your legacy systems all at once. The companies that struggle are the ones that treat modernisation as a single, sweeping project. A more effective approach is to build around what you already have, layering in new capabilities incrementally rather than ripping out existing infrastructure and rebuilding from scratch.

The best entry point is a single, high-volume workflow.

Accounts payable works well because the pain is immediate, the process is manual, and the results are quantifiable and obvious to individual users. Once you can show measurable improvement for a single workflow, those results become a highly persuasive case for bringing the rest of the organisation along.

Identify employees who are genuinely excited to try new tools and get them involved early. As they experience the benefits of modernisation first-hand they will share their results with the rest of the business organically. Those early champions are key to establishing peer credibility.

Each success compounds. When the organisation sees what is possible at a small scale, resistance diminishes and an appetite for broader modernisation grows.

www.canals.ai

Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10 | 13

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

ANDREW GRAHAM Business Development Manager, PFU (EMEA) Limited Andrew Graham is a recognised industry voice on intelligent document processing and information governance, with longstanding involvement in industry bodies including AIIM and IRMS. He regularly advises organisations on AI-ready data, digital transformation and the operational challenges of managing information at scale.

When organisations talk about legacy system transformation in supply chains, the conversation often focuses too heavily on the software itself and not enough on the processes sitting underneath it.

In reality, many supply chain operations are still heavily reliant on manual workflows, paper documentation and disconnected systems. Whether it’s invoices, proof of delivery, customs paperwork or warehouse records, poor information capture at the start of a process creates problems that follow the business all the way through the supply chain.

One of the biggest mistakes organisations make is

MARK BECKER CEO and co-Founder, G10 Fulfillment Mark Becker is the CEO and coFounder of G10 Fulfillment (G10), a national 3PL provider. Under Becker’s leadership, G10 has developed proprietary warehouse management and integration technology and grown to serve hundreds of e-commerce and retail brands across Amazon, Shopify, Walmart Marketplace, and beyond.

It ultimately comes down to understanding your operational reality. Companies often struggle with these types of transitions because they buy a modern system and expect it to fix broken processes overnight. Rather than continuing to patch disconnected systems together, we chose to build our own middleware platform that connected our warehouse management system, our customers’ ERP systems, and their

assuming that simply replacing a legacy platform will solve the issue. If inefficient workflows and poor-quality data are carried into a new environment, the same operational problems remain - just on newer technology.

Successful modernisation starts with visibility and process improvement. Businesses need to understand how information moves through the organisation, where bottlenecks exist and how data can be captured more accurately and consistently from the outset.

The organisations seeing the greatest success are those treating transformation as an operational improvement project rather than simply an IT migration exercise. The goal should be a supply chain that is faster, more resilient, and built around reliable, accessible information.

PFU (EMEA) Limited PFU Limited was founded in Japan in 1960. Building on expertise developed through computer engineering, the company develops document imaging products and services, including image scanners, alongside IT infrastructure support services that help organisations improve operational efficiency, resilience, security, and long-term digital transformation capabilities. www.pfu-emea.ricoh.com

retail sales channels into a unified ecosystem.

Not every company has the means to make that type of investment. It’s the kind of decision that can be financially and operationally painful in the short term but transformational in the long term. Our success came from building technology around how our customers and operations actually function rather than forcing our business into a vendor’s assumptions of how it should operate.

I’d say that to facilitate a successful transition, companies should start by mapping their data flows. A modern system has to handle what goes wrong just as effectively as what goes right, and transitions typically break down during periods of operational stress when systems are processing huge volumes of new data. Companies should identify those moments first, then evaluate whether the new solution can truly support them before committing. g10fulfillment.com

Your AI is only as good as the data behind it.

14 | Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10

Smarter. Faster.

Built for Your Industry.

Syspro.com

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

NICOLA BOND CEO and Founder, Merchmix Nicola Bond began her career in the engine room of retail, shaping product ranges, negotiating with suppliers and leading buying-merchandising for some of the world’s most recognised brands, including Marks & Spencer and ASOS.

Merchmix Merchmix is building an operating system for retailers that reduces manual work, improves inventory precision, protects margin, responds faster to demand shifts, and creates a single source of truth across all teams and channels. merchmix.co

Modernising supply chain systems represents one of the most significant growth opportunities for retailers, yet many remain constrained by fragmented legacy infrastructures built for a vastly different retail landscape. Today’s environment is defined by omnichannel operations, fluctuating demand, and the need for rapid, data-driven decision-making. Managing this complexity through disconnected systems is no longer sustainable.

Successful retailers approach modernisation not as a simple technology upgrade, but as a broader operational transformation. The process begins with gaining full visibility across the supply chain.

Retailers must identify fragmentation across planning, inventory, replenishment, fulfilment, and supplier workflows before implementing new solutions.

Once in place, modern platforms unify these functions in real time, providing a single, accurate operational view. This enables faster, more coordinated decision-making across teams.

Equally important is how employees engage with these systems. For example, when a product outperforms expectations, modern tools allow buyers to respond immediately using realtime insights rather than waiting for manual reports or approvals. This shift requires organisations to rethink processes, decision-making frameworks, and day-to-day operations.

Ultimately, supply chain modernisation is about redesigning decision flow from planning through to fulfilment - empowering retailers to act with greater speed, precision, and confidence.

Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10 | 15

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

ARTURO TORRES ARPI ACERO Founder and CEO, Ventagium Arturo Torres Arpi Acero is the Founder and CEO of Ventagium, a supply chain analytics consultancy trusted by US manufacturers, logistics providers, and consumer brands navigating disruption and operational complexity.

Most legacy transition attempts fail because businesses make the mistake of trying to modernise their operations by treating it like just another software update. In reality, it requires significant operational redesigns with the intent of creating a unified connected ecosystem where data can flow freely amongst all areas of the company, such as procurement, logistics, inventory, finance, and operations.

Vendors will often jump into this transition process without first clearly mapping out what their processes are. This will ultimately lead to the creation of multiple disconnected ERPs, several parallel spreadsheets, and

JASON MURPHY Managing Director - Global Retail, IMS Evolve The secret to modernising legacy supply chain systems is recognising that transformation does not require replacement. The fastest, lowest-risk route to modernisation is enabling existing infrastructure with technology that can sit across assets of any age, manufacturer, or level of digital maturity.

For supply chain operators, a ‘rip-and-replace’ approach introduces prohibitive cost, disruption, and operational risk.

Retrofitting technology onto existing infrastructure allows organisations to accelerate time-to-value whilst maintaining continuity across critical operations.

By connecting and orchestrating data from disparate systems, businesses can move beyond passive, siloed monitoring towards holistic, intelligent decision-making and automated operational control. This enables organisations

reporting mechanisms that don’t agree on what is or isn’t correct.

The best way for companies to overcome poor performance related to progressive strategies such as automation, predictive analytics, or AI is to establish a unified data platform before initiating the transition process.

First, perform a master data audit. Second, establish a clear stock-keeping unit (SKU) hierarchy. Last, identify any gaps in all of your data. If the first three actions aren’t performed before creating confidence in your new system, people won’t trust that system and won’t trust the data contained within it either.

Incremental transitions will be successful. Technology can’t solve broken processes; it brings broken processes to light.

Ventagium Ventagium is a supply chain analytics consultancy trusted

by US manufacturers, logistics providers, and consumer brands navigating disruption and operational complexity. www.ventagium.com

to proactively optimise performance, reduce energy consumption, identify maintenance issues before failure occurs, and respond faster to operational risks.

In cold chain environments, for example, this means critical infrastructure, such as refrigeration and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), can be monitored, managed, and optimised in real time without replacing existing equipment.

Modernisation shouldn’t be about rebuilding from scratch. It’s about making existing operations smarter, more efficient, and more resilient through retrofit technology.

IMS Evolve IMS Evolve is an Internet of Things (IoT) company reducing waste, maintenance costs, and energy consumption for its customers, including some of the world’s largest and best-known food retailers. It delivers digital transformation without the need for costly capital investment by enhancing, not replacing, existing infrastructure. www.ims-evolve.com

Your AI is only as good as the data behind it.

16 | Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10

Smarter. Faster.

Built for Your Industry.

Syspro.com

THE QUESTION LEGACY SYSTEMS

CRAIG POWELL

NITHIN MUMMANENI

Managing Director, Balloon One

CEO, Infinity Loop

Many businesses still rely on supply chain systems designed for a very different world. In fact, our recent research found the average warehouse or inventory management system in use today was last upgraded nearly six years ago.

The key to a smooth transition from a legacy system to a modern supply chain is keeping people at the heart of the process. Modernisation should be about enhancing workers, not replacing them, giving warehouse teams better visibility, better data, and stronger decision-making tools.

This is especially important when it comes to AI. It has huge potential to transform warehouse efficiency, but it needs to be implemented intentionally and responsibly – that’s the secret to making sure it works.

The focus should always be on measurable outcomes, whether that’s keeping shelves stocked, reducing inefficiencies, or improving customer service.

What many organisations also underestimate is that the transition itself can unlock value beyond efficiency gains. Reinvesting savings from tackling operational inefficiency into sustainability initiatives or further innovation projects is a powerful way to bring stakeholders on the journey that takes the warehouse from a cost centre into a genuine strategic advantage for the business.

The secret to successfully transitioning from legacy systems to a modern supply chain solution is understanding that modernisation is not just a technology project - it’s a data and operational alignment project. Many companies fail because they try to replace everything at once instead of modernising in phases whilst preserving business continuity.

A strong starting point is creating a clean, connected data foundation. In many organisations, critical information is fragmented across ERP systems, procurement platforms, supplier databases, contracts, spreadsheets, and emails. Without visibility into that data, even the best new software will struggle to deliver meaningful value.

Modern supply chain solutions should prioritise interoperability and real-time visibility rather than simply adding another disconnected platform. AI can help organisations extract insights, obligations, and risks trapped inside legacy systems, but it only works effectively if the underlying data is accessible and reliable.

Equally important is organisational alignment.

Procurement, finance, legal, and supply chain teams need shared visibility and common objectives. The companies seeing the most success are the ones modernising incrementally, improving decision-making step by step, and reducing operational friction without disrupting the business.

balloonone.com

www.infinityloop.ai

CAROLYN PARK Vice President Group Product and Supply Chain Transformation, RS Group The secret to successfully transitioning from legacy systems to a modern supply chain solution is balancing transformation with business continuity.

Legacy systems are often deeply embedded in day-today operations, housing critical data, workflows, and institutional knowledge that cannot simply be switched off. Whilst modernisation is essential to improve agility, integration, and resilience, organisations must avoid introducing unnecessary disruption.

A phased approach is often the most effective route.

Rather than attempting a complete overhaul in a single step, businesses should identify priority areas where modern

solutions can deliver immediate value, whilst establishing a clear roadmap for broader transformation over time.

This allows for stronger change management and reduces implementation risk.

Data should be a central focus from the outset. New technology will not solve existing data challenges, and legacy systems frequently contain valuable operational intelligence. Robust data governance, quality controls, and migration planning are therefore critical to preserving accuracy, security, and continuity whilst unlocking the full value of a modern platform.

Ultimately, successful transformation depends as much on people as technology. Engaging stakeholders early, investing in change management, and equipping teams with the skills to embrace new ways of working are essential to maximising adoption and long-term ROI. www.rsgroup.com

Supply Chain Outlook Issue 10 | 17

TH E Q U E STION

PRODUCED BY SUPPLY CHAIN OUTLOOK MAGAZINE