91% of Digital Infrastructure Stakeholders Report Disruption
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The signal
A comprehensive survey by Economist Enterprise and FM Research reveals that 91% of digital infrastructure stakeholders are experiencing disruptions to their operations. This finding underscores a critical vulnerability in the technological backbone that modern supply chains depend on, from order management systems and visibility platforms to transportation networks and warehouse automation. For supply chain professionals, this statistic signals a systemic challenge: digital infrastructure is no longer a supporting function but a core operational component.
When nine out of ten stakeholders report disruptions, it indicates that outages, latency issues, cybersecurity incidents, or capacity constraints are becoming normalized rather than exceptional. The breadth of this report suggests that disruptions span multiple layers—cloud services, on-premises systems, connectivity, and edge infrastructure—affecting companies of all sizes across industries. The implications are significant.
Supply chain leaders must reassess their dependency on digital platforms, invest in redundancy and failover capabilities, and develop contingency protocols for operations when systems degrade. Organizations that treat digital resilience as a strategic priority rather than an IT-only concern will be better positioned to maintain competitive advantage as infrastructure challenges persist.
Frequently Asked Questions
What This Means for Your Supply Chain
What if critical visibility systems experience 24-48 hour outages quarterly?
Simulate the impact of recurring digital infrastructure outages lasting 24-48 hours occurring 4 times per year across key supply chain visibility and TMS platforms. Model the resulting increase in safety stock requirements, delayed shipment decisions, and customer service level degradation.
Run this scenarioWhat if backup manual processes must support 15-20% operational volume during outages?
Model the labor, cost, and accuracy implications of implementing manual backup processes that must handle 15-20% of normal operational volume when digital systems are unavailable. Assess whether current staffing, paper processes, and exception handling procedures are adequate.
Run this scenarioWhat if cloud service provider diversification increases IT costs by 18-25%?
Simulate the cost and operational complexity of transitioning to a multi-cloud redundancy strategy to reduce dependency on single digital infrastructure providers. Model the trade-offs between increased technology spending and improved resilience.
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