< Back to Blogs
Share:

How a Supply Chain Management Data Gateway Benefits Almost Every Industry

Special Guest Blog Post written by Mark Holmes with InterSystems 

 

A data gateway provides unified access to supply chain data from various sources, including enterprise systems, supply chain applications, data feeds, data warehouses, data lakes, data marts, and business entities. It helps companies meet their supply chain challenges head on and be ready for supply chain disruptions. 

Quick and easy access to live and historical data is critical for supply chain managers and practitioners, data analysts, stewards, engineers, and supply chain professionals in any industry. Here are just a few examples of industries that can benefit from a supply chain data gateway:

 

Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Consumer Packaged Goods 

In FMCG and CPG, the ability to make rapid, data-driven decisions is crucial for staying competitive in a fast-paced market. Companies can optimize their supply chain operations by using a data gateway that provides a unified and harmonized view of data. For instance, a logistics manager can monitor real-time data on inventory levels, customer orders, and transportation schedules to make better informed decisions and reduce lead times and costs while improving customer satisfaction.


Healthcare

In healthcare, a data gateway can improve visibility and inventory optimization by providing a connective tissue between your data sources. This provides a foundation with unified and harmonized data, along with real-time advanced analytics, to optimize medical and supply fulfillment and limit procedure cancellations.


Third-Party Logistics

In the 3PL sector, a data gateway can significantly enhance decision-making by providing a unified and harmonized view of data. By integrating data from different sources, logistics managers can make more informed decisions about when and how to fulfill orders. Additionally, the real-time data access and analytics capabilities of a data gateway can help in identifying and addressing issues as they arise, such as delays in transportation or shortages in inventory.


Application and Solution Providers

For application and solution providers, a data gateway can reduce customer implementation times and lower operational costs. By providing a low-code, self-service data gateway front-end, software providers accelerate time to revenue and improve customer satisfaction.


Wholesale Distribution

In wholesale distribution, a data gateway can help optimize inventory levels and improve supply chain visibility. By providing a unified and harmonized view of data, distributors can gain a comprehensive understanding of their operations, from supplier relationships to customer demand. This can help in identifying inefficiencies and implementing changes to improve operations and customer satisfaction.


Automotive

Automotive manufacturers face a myriad of challenges, but having access to anticipated supplier disruptions to ensure parts availability is one of the most notable challenges. With a data gateway, you gain visibility across your suppliers, enabling you to provide accurate data for actionable insights through a prescriptive control tower to drive a resilient, agile, and intelligent supply chain.


Manufacturing

A smart factory relies on IT-OT integration. With a data gateway, you can easily combine data from OT systems and real-time signals from the shop floor with enterprise IT and analytics systems to enable manufacturers to improve quality and efficiency, respond faster to events, and predict and avoid problems before they occur.


Public Sector

Government agencies are engaged with supply chains from multiple perspectives. They monitor food, drug, and public safety, transportation, materials and other sectors for real-time visibility and decision support. They provide supply chain logistics for agencies as they deal with thousands of suppliers and need real-time insights to drive efficiency. And they support maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) for agencies that need to track and maintain assets and infrastructure across multiple sectors of the economy. Access to real-time, unified data makes all of these processes more efficient and compliant.


Final Thought

A data gateway makes it faster and simpler to integrate, harmonize, and normalize disparate data and deliver it to the right consuming users and applications at the right time and in the proper format to accelerate time to value. Read the full blog about the value of a data gateway here.

 

InterSystems Can Help

For over 45 years, InterSystems has helped businesses unlock value from data – quickly, safely, and at scale. Our AI-enabled supply chain decision intelligence platform predicts disruptions before they occur, and optimally handles them when they do, so you will be ready to manage the unexpected with confidence. It includes a real-time data gateway that unifies disparate data sources, and a set of next-generation supply chain solutions that complement your existing technology infrastructure to accelerate decision-making and time to value, driving efficiencies throughout your entire supply chain. Learn more at InterSystems.com/SupplyChain.

 

Mark Holmes is the Head of Global Supply Chain Market Strategy at InterSystems. Mark brings more than 25 years of experience in consulting, manufacturing operations, and software development from such organizations as Dow Chemical, GS1 (Brussels), Aspen Technology, and GSI. He specializes in working with manufacturers and retailers/CPG to solve their most difficult supply chain issues through digital transformation with a modern data fabric architecture. Breaking down data silos and leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive actionable insights throughout an organization’s global supply chain, Mark has delivered value to companies like Tyson Foods, Ferrero Roche, TJX Companies, Hard Rock Café, and Albertsons. Mark joined InterSystems in 2021 to broaden InterSystems global market in supply chain. Holmes has been a board member for the Association for Supply Chain Management and is APICS certificated in Transportation, Logistics and Distribution (CTLD) from the same organization. He earned a BS degree in business administration from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and an MBA from Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

More Blogs

agentic AI
Blogs
January 19, 2026

Kinaxis’ Fred Baumann on Continuous Disruption, Adaptive Planning, and Turning Turbulence into Opportunity

At the 2025 Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with Fred Baumann, Senior Industry Principal at Kinaxis, one of the world’s most recognized leaders in supply chain planning and orchestration. Kinaxis has spent over four decades shaping the planning landscape and has been named to the Gartner Leaders Quadrant an extraordinary 11 consecutive times—a testament to its execution strength and long-term vision. Baumann’s role at Kinaxis centers on helping chief supply chain officers and senior leaders shape their strategic transformation roadmaps, quantify value, and build the business cases necessary to achieve breakthrough outcomes.   From Episodic Disruptions to Continuous Turbulence When asked about old and new challenges facing supply chain planning teams, Baumann observed a major shift: disruption is no longer episodic—it’s continuous. Historically, companies faced major disruptions every few years. Today, volatility and constraint-related challenges—whether driven by tariffs, sourcing changes, geopolitical shifts, or supply shortages—are unfolding weekly or even daily. This environment demands a new way of working. The speed of global business is accelerating, and uncertainty is at historic highs. As Baumann noted, organizations must now adjust their supply chains “much faster than they had to even last year.” The shift isn’t only…
book club
Blogs
February 27, 2026

Risk, Reinvention & Readiness: Between the Lines for February 2026

Last month, we launched Between the Lines, our Supply Chain Now book club, with a simple idea: the best leaders don’t just consume headlines, they read deeply, think critically, and stay curious. The response to our first edition reminded us how powerful shared learning can be! This month, we’re building on that momentum with fresh selections designed to challenge perspectives, spark new ideas, and strengthen the way we think, innovate, and navigate an ever-evolving global landscape.   Check out a few of the selections the Supply Chain Now team recommends from February 2026:   Scott Luton: The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis from Citrini Research Imagine a short-term future where the very technology we hail as humanity’s next great productivity engine becomes essentially the source of a global economic crisis. “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis” from Citrini Research is a thought experiment that projects just such a scenario: by 2028, rapid and widespread AI adoption has supercharged productivity yet hollowed out the consumer economy, driving unemployment above 10% and triggering a deep market downturn as traditional spending collapses despite booming output. In this speculative, but unsettling, framework, AI doesn’t fail, it succeeds so overwhelmingly that the economy it was meant to…