Gartner, the world’s leaders in information technology research, have partnered with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) to create their first supply chain survey in the UK.

The survey will delve deeper into supply chain best practice as Gartner look to expand their supply chain division across Europe. 

Chris Poole FCILT, Research Director, Gartner, said:  “We are trying to broaden Gartner’s sources of research, from being largely North America based and now reaching beyond that. The European and UK Supply Chain markets are growing and we want to work with clients to help develop their expertise across the entire industry.”

The new CILT and Gartner research will explore the many interesting and valuable trends and practices in our supply chains, and CILT is urging as many members as possible to participate in the survey. 

Chris said: “The survey is looking for a broad range of responses from senior and experienced professionals across all sectors of the logistics, supply chain and transport sectors. Our connection with CILT is extremely valuable and we want to work with their broad, strong and influential membership.”

The invaluable industry knowledge that CILT members can provide and the research Gartner will gather through the Supply Chain Management Research Study, will pave the way to provide an in depth analysis of the European supply chain market.

Chris said: “Gartner will analyse the raw data from the survey to discover the latest trends and insights. It will be interesting to compare the results with North America and allow us to understand the latest focus areas, processes and systems within an organisation. The insight and research from the data will be the foundation of Gartner’s presentations, conferences and publications.”

Gartner has run a similar survey in America over the last nine years and Chris believes that the partnership with CILT will allow the company to ‘break the mould’ and, in turn, develop the UK supply chain through research from the respondents. 

Over the years North American survey has highlighted many interesting results and Chris hopes that the UK feedback can provide an intriguing and enlightening outlook on the UK logistics sector. 

Speaking about the American surveys, Chris said: “From the results we’ve seen in America it is obvious that there is a large focus on cost reduction which is impacting customer service and having a knock-on effect on innovation. There is also a lack of end to end visibility within supply chains and despite an investment and commitment to make the supply chains less complex, they continue to be.”

With a membership of over 18,000, CILT will provide Gartner with access to many of the UK’s leading logistics and transport professionals and this is a partnership Chris is excited to see the benefits from. He said: “This is of benefit to both parties. The combination of both our expertise in our different fields can help influence the entire industry.

“We want to reach as broad church of respondents from as many different positions as possible. CILT is a strong and respected organisation that focuses on transport and logistics in the right way. The Institute’s strong and extensive membership can allow this survey to be a success and our conclusions will be richer for it.”

Respondents to the survey will have access to two Gartner’s research notes, the 2015 Top 25 Supply Chains rankings and the 2014 Supply Chain Management Vendor Guide. All those who participate in the survey will receive a summary of the results and it is hoped that this joint venture will see the launch of Webinars and joint presentations at next year’s Gartner conference. 

To take the survey visit: http://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix/0/p1845442160.aspx 

A summary of the survey results will be published in an issue of Focus next year.