The transformation of wholesale and supply chain ecosystems through intelligent cloud technologies

In recent years, wholesale operations and supply chains have experienced a metamorphosis resulting from the advent of Intelligent Cloud Technologies. Among those technologies, technology clouds have emerged as powerful enablers, driving efficiency-improving transformations across wholesale operations and supply chain ecosystems. Intelligent Cloud Technologies are a category of cloud services consisting of cloud computing infrastructures, functional cloud solutions, and service cloud solutions conceived to enhance B2B operations and marketplaces. The transformation of wholesale operations and supply chain ecosystems through Intelligent Cloud Technologies is examined in a three-part model that includes those entry-cloud technology offerings, supply chain functionality transformations, and their techno-business effects on the wholesale ecosystem.

Cloud computing has written a new chapter in the story of Information Technology (IT) development. The Simply Connected Cloud was initially offered by the IT service provider. It enabled automatic information storage and processing through Internet-service access without the need to purchase IT hardware or software. Its uniqueness lay in its simple operation mode and lack of any direct user interaction. The remarkable progress in broadband Internet proved to be the ideal background for this model stock-keeping and supply management. Generally speaking, the emergence of product clouds is considered the second wave of the cloud revolution. They represent specialized technology clouds based on IT and/or Internet-based operational functionalities outside the scope of ordinary platforms or clouds adopted by vendors. Their advent has provided a wealth of new options from which companies could select in aligning their purchasing and operational practices and monitoring information creation cloud technologies.

Cloud services are already proliferating in factories and supply chains to realize networked supply and value chains with large numbers of suppliers and producers that without cloud technologies are not practically manageable. Traditional IT and networking solutions would be unfit due to the staggering amounts of sensor-generated information and their processing. In this new chapter of this story, the benefits of cloud services in factories and supply chains are considered, summarizing key enablers reflecting their transformational roles. Nonetheless, the adoption and profitable exploitation of cloud technologies raise important managerial issues. An investigation was conducted to uncover the key transformational roles of cloud technologies in factories and supply chains and their managerial implications. Formulation of entry cloud technologies offering clouds and emerging transformational cloud solutions in factories and supply chains is considered.