Lee Allcorn

At Manifest 2026, Scott Luton shared a cup of coffee with Max Garland, Senior Reporter at Supply Chain Dive, an Informa TechTarget publication, for a boots-on-the-ground perspective from one of the industry’s most plugged-in observers. Garland covers freight, logistics, retail fulfillment, and parcel delivery: the parts of the supply chain where strategy meets reality. And after a bruising 2025, he sees an industry that’s not just reacting anymore. It’s recalibrating.   From Plan B to Plan D If 2025 had a theme, Garland says it was contingency planning. “Last year was when a lot of companies were putting together those Plan B’s, Plan C’s, and Plan D’s,” he explained, pointing to tariff upheaval and shifting trade policy that forced leaders into constant reaction mode. Companies prioritized flexibility: diversifying sourcing, adjusting procurement strategies, and preparing for fires wherever they might spark. In 2026, that flexibility remains. But the tone has shifted. Now companies are “firming up their plans, fine-tuning, making sure those back-up plans are cost-effective as well.” It’s no longer just about avoiding disruption; it’s about operating efficiently within it. In other words, supply chain leaders aren’t just jumping over candlesticks anymore (like Jack from the old nursery rhyme). They’re…

Special Guest Blog Post written by Mark Holmes with InterSystems   Top 10 Ways a Data Gateway Improves Time to Value Across End-to-End Supply Chains Supply chain practitioners seeking the best way to speed decision intelligence, unify supply chain data, increase operational efficiency, and improve supply chain resilience can benefit from a supply chain data gateway. 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. Here are the top 10 ways a supply chain data gateway can improve your supply chain performance. Enables You to Identify Inefficiencies and Make Better and Informed Decisions A unified view of your data accelerates informed decision making and provides you with a comprehensive understanding of your supply chain. For example, a supply planner gains accelerated access to customer orders, inventory levels, and transportation schedules, all in one place, to identify inefficiencies and make better informed decisions. Reduces Implementation Times Enterprises and supply chain software providers strive to reduce application implementation times. A data gateway can serve as a front-end for a range of supply chain software applications, speeding and simplifying data ingestion, integration,…