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Most supply chain failures come down to one thing: the people closest to the problem are working with outdated information.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.
Tulsi Narayan, Executive Vice President, Commercial and New Payment Flows, Europe at Mastercard
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 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.
Nishith Rastogi, CEO and co-Founder, Locus
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.
Shabbir Dahod, President and CEO, TraceLink
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.
Richard Stewart, EVP of Product and Industry Strategy, Infios
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.
This article was produced by the editorial team at North America Outlook and published as part of the Outlook Publishing global network of B2B industry magazines.
Outlook Publishing delivers industry insights, company stories, and sector coverage across manufacturing, mining, construction, healthcare, supply chains, food production, and sustainability.
North America Outlook provides ongoing coverage of organisations and developments shaping industries across North America.
