Consumer Goods Technology - October 2018 - 8

1 5 T H

A N N U A L

TECH

TRENDS
REPORT 2018

F I G U R E 6:

shelf so that, if they don't have an item in-store, they have the capacity to deliver it or have it available for [pickup]," says Denny
Belcastro, the CPG's vice president of industry and customer collaboration. "That has added another level of complexity [in order
to have] the right product at the right place at the right time."

Obstacles to Progress
Despite the acknowledged need for change, there still are a significant number of barriers slowing the adoption of new tools
and technologies. While 11% of survey respondents say they've
eliminated all significant obstacles (Figure 7), an array of issues
challenge many others - led not unexpectedly by lack of budget
and other resources (26%) and the existence of entrenched legacy
infrastructure and systems (20%).
More surprising are the number of respondents who say their
companies are still hampered by the lack of a strategic plan (17%)
or a lack of urgency among senior management (14%).
Executives interviewed by CGT concur that changing the
culture overall represents another significant hurdle.
"Many people will assume that, once we have the technology,
all of our problems are solved," says Joel Warady, chief sales &
marketing officer at Mondeléz International's Enjoy Life Foods.
"Technology is a tool, and unless you change your processes to
maximize the efficiency of the technology, it can't do any good."
"You are talking about significantly disrupting well-established business models," agrees SAP's Kenney. "In this environment, it may be talent and culture that emerge as some of
the biggest challenges that companies must address."

Modernizing the Enterprise
There are a number of common steps that companies are taking to meet these new market demands (Figure 8). They're
modernizing legacy systems and adopting new technologies
in equal measure (both 51%), steadily moving toward cloudbased platforms (34%) and integrating third-party apps and
services (29%).
For many companies, these efforts are aimed at making the
organization more agile and responsive to change. According
to A.T. Kearney, retailers and consumer companies leave more
than $345 billion dollars a year on the table due to their lack
of agility.
Edgewell has spent the last few years consolidating multiple
enterprise resource planning systems amassed through acquisitions. The company now has embarked on "Project Fuel," an
IT enablement phase that takes a close look at meta-processes
that drive the business.
"We are simplifying and streamlining to allow us to effectively leverage technology," Bender explains. "We're using more
partnerships [and] leveraging cloud-based solutions. We're

CGT | OCTOBER 2018 | CONSUMERGOODS.COM

Expectations for DTC

Complete the sentence: Direct to consumer sales are...
a critical component of our
future go-to-market strategy.

33%

not critical to our business, now
or in the future.

27%

a critical component of our
current go-to-market strategy.

18%

the core of our future business.

15%

the core of our business today.

F I G U R E 7:

Obstacles to IT Adoption
26%

Lack of budget/resources

20%

Entrenched legacy infrastructure/systems

17%

No strategic plan in place

14%

Lack of urgency among senior management

11%

We have eliminated all significant obstacles
Lack of alignment between business and IT

Time constraints

Security concerns

Other

F I G U R E 8:

Steps Toward Transformation

Which steps is your company taking to drive change?
Modernizing legacy systems

51%

Adopting new technologies

51%
34%

Moving to the cloud
Integrating third-party apps/services

29%

Developing web-based applications

29%
23%

Deploying AI/machine learning
Implementing mobile technologies

20%

Implementing IoT technologies

20%

Implementing advanced robotics

Adopting blockchain technologies

Other

Consumer Goods Technology - October 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Consumer Goods Technology - October 2018