Conversation with Accenture on Reinstating IT as a Strategic Advantage for Supply Chain Excellence
50% of business stakeholders view IT as software rather than strategic partners.
In many organizations, IT is still perceived as a support function rather than a driver of business value. As a result, IT leaders often struggle to be seen as true strategic advisors, even as their role becomes more critical than ever in navigating today's complex aerospace supply chain landscape.
To challenge that perception, Pelico recently hosted an exclusive webinar: "The IT Advantage: A Strategic Enabler for Aerospace Supply Chain Excellence."
This blog post captures the key insights from the session held on March 27th, 2025. Just like the live discussion, this digest dives into four core topics aimed at helping IT leaders unlock their strategic potential:
- Positioning IT as a Key Partner in Your Aerospace Supply Chain Strategy — How can IT teams anticipate needs before business teams even articulate them—transforming IT from a service provider into a competitive advantage?
- Driving Continuous IT Improvements While Enhancing Data Quality & Ensuring Operational Continuity —What are leading aerospace manufacturers doing to phase out shadow IT, improve data reliability, and evolve their systems—without disrupting day-to-day operations or overstretching resources?
- Bridging the Gap Between Top Floor and Shop Floor — How can IT leaders enable real-time, contextualized data to align decision-makers across functions and turn operational insights into actionable S&OP decisions?
- Maximizing the ROI of IT-Led Initiatives — Which frameworks help ensure digital initiatives deliver fast time-to-value—and stay tightly aligned with aerospace supply chain priorities?
Please note that if you're interested in watching the complete replay is also available.
Meet the Webinar Team
This webinar was hosted by:
- Craig Gottlieb, Managing Director Aerospace and Defense at Accenture
- Julien Mauhourat, VP of Operations and Customer Success at Pelico
- Jeff Wheless, Principal Director of Research for Industrials and Industry X at Research at Accenture
Principal Director of Research for Industrials and Industry X Research
Accenture
Managing Director Aerospace
and Defense
Accenture
VP of Operations and Customer Success
Pelico
Terminology
This webinar digest views the supply chain not as a standalone function, but as a fully integrated system—spanning demand planning, inventory management, sourcing, procurement, and shop floor execution. While often approached as a series of isolated tasks, this discussion emphasizes a holistic view, highlighting the interdependence of these elements and the need for synchronized decision-making.
When we refer to IT leaders, we mean not only CIOs, CTOs, and CDOs, but also their extended teams responsible for driving digital transformation and operational efficiency across the organization. While formal IT departments play a critical role in enabling supply chain systems, digital initiatives now span across every business function. The real challenge lies in connecting these efforts to ensure alignment with shared strategic goals.
Aerospace MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) is a key part of this landscape. It presents unique IT challenges due to its cyclical nature, planned events, and complex back-and-forth flows—making it a high-impact area for digital transformation.
How Can IT Reposition Itself a Strategic Business Enabler in The Aerospace Supply Chain?
It takes about 93 days today to recover from a supply chain disruption.
Craig Gottlieb,
Managing Director Aerospace and Defense
Accenture
It currently takes an average of 93 days to recover from a supply chain disruption, shares Craig Gottlieb, underscoring a core challenge in modern manufacturing: how to build resilience in an increasingly unpredictable environment. Fresh from a factory visit—"safety glasses in hand," he jokes—Gottlieb offers a grounded, real-world view. In an era of tight timelines and rising expectations, long, capital-intensive IT projects no longer cut it.
"Build more capacity through years-long initiatives? That's not going to work anymore." Instead, he describes a shift: IT is moving from a support role to a strategic enabler—embedded in operations, aligned with leadership, and delivering real-time value. The mindset is evolving from "build and wait" to "move fast, prove value, earn trust." IT leaders are focusing on high-impact, incremental initiatives that drive visibility, speed up decisions, and improve cross-functional alignment. In doing so, they earn the right to lead broader transformation.
How Can IT and Automation Elevate IT's Role and Help Shift That Perception From an IT Fixer to a Strategic Enabler?
When asked how IT and automation can help shift perceptions—from system fixers to strategic enablers—Julien Mauhourat turns to a familiar analogy: car navigation. He walks attendees through a journey that begins with paper maps and ends with self-driving cars—a transformation that mirrors how companies are rethinking supply chain management.
"In the beginning, we relied on paper maps," he explains, likening them to the spreadsheets and homegrown tools many teams still use. "Then came GPS, then turn-by-turn navigation. Eventually, we move toward full autonomy." That journey reflects Pelico's vision for supply chain operations, unfolding across four key stages:
- Processes, spreadsheets and homegrown tools – Most organizations start here, relying on siloed systems and static files.
- Data Alignment & System Integration – IT delivers continuity across ERPs, enabling teams to operate from a single source of truth.
- Guided navigation – Complex data becomes actionable, allowing planners and buyers to anticipate bottlenecks and mitigate risks.
- The Co-Pilot – AI simulates scenarios, flags risks, and surfaces KPIs in real time, allowing teams to focus on meaningful exceptions—not firefighting.
As organizations progress along this maturity curve, IT's role evolves. No longer confined to managing infrastructure or deploying tools, IT becomes embedded in day-to-day operations—fueling agility, insight, and speed. "When you go through this journey," Mauhourat says, "IT becomes a real business partner—helping teams deliver measurable impact, not just technology."
The payoff? Significant. Pelico's platform, he notes, helps IT teams free up to 80% of the time typically spent on data extraction and manual analysis. That time is reinvested in value-adding activities—driving productivity, speeding up decisions, and improving responsiveness across the supply chain.
Ultimately, Pelico's long-term vision is to put the supply chain on autopilot: a world where intelligent systems surface what matters, teams act only where needed, and IT plays a continuous, strategic role in achieving business outcomes.
Poll · What Does IT Need to Do to Be Perceived as a Key Partner by Business Teams?
- 42% | Balance business objectives with technical objectives
- 33% | Demonstrate shared success along the way
- 17% | Engage early and strategically with the business
- 8% | Learn the language of the business
Reflecting on the poll results, Mauhourat highlights a growing shift across organizations: IT is moving from reactive support to proactive partnership. "The business needs solutions now," he explains. "When IT engages early and brings ideas to the table, that's when it becomes a true partner." At the heart of this evolution lies a key question: Are we actually achieving the outcomes we set out to deliver?
Craig Gottlieb reinforces the point—IT's value isn't defined by the number of tools deployed, but by the real business impact they create. "Is inventory availability improving or not?" he asks. "If it is—great, do more of it. If not, figure out what to change."
To deliver meaningful results, Gottlieb emphasizes two essentials:
- Define clear value targets upfront
- Ensure continuous alignment between business and IT
"That integration—and the ability to track outcomes everyone understands—is critical," he adds. In a high-pressure supply chain environment, this kind of shared accountability is what allows teams to stay agile, adapt quickly, and build lasting resilience.
How to Drive Continuous IT Improvements While Enhancing Data Quality & Ensuring Operational Continuity
According to Accenture's latest research, industrial companies with a strong digital core see 30% higher profitability than their peers.
Jeff Wheless
Principal Director of Research for Industrials and Industry X Research
Accenture
According to Accenture's latest research, industrial companies with a strong digital core achieve 30% higher profitability than their peers. For Craig Gottlieb, unlocking new capacity doesn't always require more machines or floor space. The real lever? Data—something companies already have, but rarely use to its full potential.
The challenge, he explains, isn't data availability—it's turning data into actionable insight.
Craig Gottlieb
Managing Director Aerospace and Defense
Accenture
"Many companies are sitting on mountains of data, but they lack the ability to access and apply it in real time." He cites a site visit where planning was off-track due to a blind spot: materials sent to suppliers were still showing as available, leading to inaccurate inventory data, poor planning, and missed opportunities.
To get there, organizations need more than ERP systems—they need cloud infrastructure for two key reasons:
- Real-time analytics that make insights actionable
- Flexibility to deploy new tools as needs evolve
Cloud also improves security and ensures smoother data flow across systems. But for Gottlieb, the real transformation is cultural. "It's not just about technology—it's about how you think about data," he says. "You need to know which data truly drives value, and build systems of insight and interaction that help you act fast."
He sums it up with a simple analogy:
"This isn't like going to the gym in January because it's a resolution. It's a lifestyle change—thinking strategically about data every day and building agile, cloud-enabled processes that let you continuously improve without disrupting operations."
How Can Supply Chain Transparency be Enhanced Through IT Improvements
Supply Chain Transparency Over Supply Chain Visibility
When it comes to improving supply chain performance, Julien, draws a critical distinction: visibility isn't enough—what organizations need is transparency. "Disruptions are happening more often—and they're not going away," he explains.
You can't expect to react to something that happens every 16 minutes using a report that's a week old.
Julien Mauhourat
VP of Operations and Customer Success
Pelico
To move from visibility to transparency, real-time data and a single source of truth are essential. Without it, teams waste time debating conflicting reports instead of taking action. "I've seen too many meetings derailed by report disputes," he adds. "Real-time transparency eliminates the noise and gets everyone focused on solving problems."
Data Quality Isn't a Prerequisite
Mauhourat challenges the common belief that high data quality must come first. "Data quality isn't a prerequisite—it's an outcome of well-designed transformation," he says. When users and algorithms begin working with ERP data—especially transactional data like PO or work order dates—they create a feedback loop that gradually improves data hygiene, including master data like lead times.
He shares a real-world example: one aerospace customer reduced overdue communicated due dates from 30% to just 5% in a single quarter. The change wasn't driven by a new system, but by better use of existing ERP data combined with the right intelligence layer." That kind of improvement comes from working with what you already have—and letting the tools do their job," Mauhourat explains.
The payoff is clear: clean, real-time data enables faster decisions, reduces errors, and turns operational insights into immediate business impact.
How to Bridge the Gap between Top Floor and Shop Floor to Transform Operational Insights into Actionable SIOP Decisions
As organizations strive for agility, one persistent challenge stands out: the disconnect between strategy and execution—between the top floor and the shop floor. SIOP is where the two should converge, yet too often, they don't.
Jeff Wheless, Principal Director of Research at Accenture, emphasizes that bridging this divide is essential not just for leadership visibility, but for enabling real-time action on the ground.
What's planned at the strategic level often doesn't match what's happening in the plant—or across the supply network.
Jeff Wheless
Principal Director of Research
Accenture
Accenture Research backs it up:
- Less than half of companies have digitally mapped their extended supply chain.
- 55% still rely on manual processes to engage with suppliers.
Wheless calls out legacy tools—PowerPoint, spreadsheets, quarterly reviews—as symptoms of the problem: planning disconnected from reality.
Until we close that loop, fast and informed decision-making will always lag behind.
Jeff Wheless
Principal Director of Research
Accenture
Best Practices for Linking IT Systems to Supply Chain Execution
From Static Plans to Dynamic Execution
Gottlieb builds on the point: "People don't want slides—they want to understand performance and take action." The real challenge, he says, is moving from static planning to dynamic, data-informed execution. And that starts with asking: "Are we truly running an integrated SIOP process—or just calling it one?" Many companies have invested in long-range planning tools. But those break down when reality hits: late deliveries, quality issues, labor shortages—all of which disrupt the plan at the execution level.
What's needed is real-time feedback—the kind delivered through tools like a digital twin. But not as a buzzword. "A digital twin isn't just a map—it's a way to understand cause and effect," Gottlieb explains. "It shows how disruptions impact what matters: delivery, quality, margin." Turning Planning into Dialogue. The shift is happening. Companies are starting to link MRP simulations, shop floor data, and long-range planning—making planning real and actionable.
When a plant manager says, 'Yes, that's exactly what's happening,' you know you've built alignment. That's where better, faster decisions come from.
Craig Gottlieb
Managing Director Aerospace and Defense
Accenture
He adds that this isn't just about tech—it's about driving understanding, ownership, and real-time collaboration. "When people see actionable insights, they want to get involved. That's when transformation becomes self-reinforcing."
How Do Real-Time Insights Enable Proactive Decision-Making on the Shop Floor and in Planning?
According to Julien Mauhourat, VP of Operations and Customer Success at Pelico, the disconnect between planning and execution often emerges when SIOP shifts from long-term strategy to short-term reality.
"SIOP works well for long-term planning," he explains, "but it struggles when real-time issues hit—like material delays, quality problems, or capacity constraints."
He shares a telling example: one customer avoided 50 potential line stoppages by leveraging real-time insights that would've been missed using traditional processes.
The value isn't just faster reactions—it's about feeding those insights back into the SIOP loop, driving continuous improvement.
Julien also highlights the pressure on supply chain managers—caught between supplier execution and leadership expectations. Tools like simulations and AI co-pilots help them prioritize actions based on business impact.
"SIOP needs to connect everyone to the business goal," he says. "And for that, you need more than a slide deck—you need an execution engine."
Poll · What Do you See As The Biggest Gap in IT and Supply Chain Alignment At Your Organization?
48% | Poor communication/collaboration between IT and operations teams
26% | Lack of functional understanding
26% | Time horizons between business and IT are not compatible
When attendees were asked to name the biggest gap between IT and supply chain, the top response was clear: poor communication and collaboration—cited by 48% of participants.
"These results remind me of that line from The Princess Bride —'That word… I do not think it means what you think it means.', reacts Mr. Gottlieb with a smile.
The issue? IT and supply chain teams often use the same language but speak from entirely different priorities and perspectives.
Yet, as digital initiatives accelerate and agile deployments become the norm, bridging this communication gap is more important than ever. "That disconnect makes alignment difficult—and costly." "You've got to get that understanding right—across functions, business processes, and technology—if you want real impact," he emphasizes.
Gottlieb also points to another common misalignment revealed in the poll: conflicting time horizons. Long-term projects like ERP rollouts or factory builds often clash with short-term needs like deploying analytics or improving workflows.
"We need to match solutions to the right timelines," he says. "Not everything requires a five-year plan."
For Mauhourat, the communication challenge between IT and supply chain teams persists: "It's a language barrier, in the end." Bridging that gap, he says, requires intentional effort. "Start by aligning on the same business outcomes. Then, help IT understand operational realities—and help operations grasp the digital side." He advocates for more cross-functional exposure—from IT professionals spending time on the shop floor, to supply chain leaders engaging with digital tools. But the key, he adds, is staying focused on day-to-day objectives.
On the issue of timing, he offers a word of caution: "You can't wait for the perfect ERP implementation to start acting. You need to move now."
How to Maximize the ROI of IT-Led Initiatives That Better Serve Business Teams
When it comes to ROI, Jeff Wheless, Principal Director of Research at Accenture, highlights a key disconnect: IT and business often measure success in different ways. "For IT, success might mean system uptime or user adoption," he says. "But the business is focused on reducing inventory turns, improving delivery performance, or boosting OEE—metrics tied directly to revenue."
It results in many technical projects look successful on paper but fall short of driving tangible business outcomes. "They define ROI in technical terms, not business terms—and that gap is more common than you'd think," Wheless explains. "It sounds simple, but we see it all the time."
The takeaway: Aligning success metrics from day one is essential to ensure IT-led initiatives deliver real value where it counts.
How Do IT Leaders Best Align Their Initiatives With Business Needs and Metrics From The Outset
To drive meaningful ROI, Pelico's VP of Operations and Customer Success emphasizes a simple principle:
"Start with business KPIs—and stick with them. You might begin with goals like reducing inventory by 10% or improving on-time delivery by 50%," he says. "But those KPIs shouldn't just guide the kickoff—they should be your North Star throughout the project."
Clear business objectives help teams prioritize use cases, guide data integration, and shape feature development. But tracking success can't stop at go-live. "You need joint ownership between IT and the business—for both adoption and results," Julien notes. "Is the tool being used? Have routines changed? Are KPIs improving?" These questions, he says, should be revisited at 3, 6, and 12 months to maintain momentum and build trust for future initiatives.
At Pelico, this approach is put into practice through value engineering, tailored to different roles:
- Executives want to know what revenue is at risk—and how Pelico's recommendations can recover it. They zoom in on delivery performance, capital forecasts, and inventory levels across plants or networks.
- General managers focus on quick wins. "They're asking: Do I have customer orders in backlog that are already covered?"
For one of Pelico's customers, value engineering has led to identify that 34% of open backlog could be shipped immediately, simply by connecting the right data. Another example of how data can help supply chain leaders to have a better visibility of the bigger picture—from supplier to customer. In short: Pelico's value engineering capability leverages AI to help connect PO deviations to plant activity, BOMs, and delivery commitments, creating a real-time map of risk and opportunity.
When everyone—IT, business PMs, and key users—is aligned around the same North Star... That's when you unlock real, lasting ROI.
Julien Mauhourat
VP of Operations and Customer Success
Pelico
Craig Gottlieb builds on Julien Mauhourat's insights with a broader reflection. AI is beginning to fundamentally reshape how supply chain work is done: Pelico's vision already takes shape—with AI copilots becoming operational reality. Traditionally, supply chain teams are organized around functional silos—inventory analysts, supply analysts, demand planners—each working from separate data sets.
But he sees AI enabling a more integrated model, where a single analyst can work across domains with greater speed and contextual understanding. "If access to information becomes seamless, the role itself evolves," he explains. "You're not just analyzing—you're directing action. And that lets us rethink the flow of the entire supply chain."
But the biggest shift, he argues, isn't just about tools—it's about mindset. "What's most exciting is that better data leads to better questions," he says. "And that changes how people work, how teams are structured, and how organizations adapt. It changes the work, the roles, and how we think about talent. And that's what makes this moment so exciting."
Strategies for Long-Term Impact and ROI on IT Investments in Supply Chain
For Gottlieb, companies that get the most from their IT investments do one thing consistently:"They define value from day one—and measure it continuously." Instead of launching projects and hoping for the best, top performers set clear targets and regularly ask: Are we seeing results? Should we pivot or scale? This isn't a one-time check—it's a structured, executive-led process focused on outcomes, not assumptions.
Why it matters: waiting years for ROI no longer works. In today's volatile supply chain environment, value must be delivered fast—and evolve with the business. "ROI isn't a milestone—it's a mindset," Gottlieb says.
Key Takeways
As the webinar wraps, the message from panelists is clear: real impact doesn't require a full reset—just a smarter use of what you already have.
Data is Not The Challenge
Most organizations already have the data they need. The real gap lies in turning that data into actionable insight and aligning it with day-to-day operations. "Just because a past implementation didn't go as planned doesn't mean it was a waste," says Craig Gottlieb. "You likely have a foundation you can build on."
Start Now, Start Small
Big results start with small, targeted actions. Urgent issues like ramp-ups or inventory pressure can't wait for a multi-year transformation. Often, the biggest unlocks come from breaking internal silos. "Don't wait for the perfect overhaul," adds Julien Mauhourat. "Start by fixing what's within reach—that's already a major move toward alignment."
Q&A
What would you say to a CFO who's skeptical about investing in new supply chain IT after a previous project didn't deliver results?
Craig Gottlieb: That's a fair concern—and it really comes back to how we define ROI. Just because a past project didn't meet expectations doesn't mean it was a total loss. Often, there's valuable data and infrastructure already in place that can be leveraged moving forward.
The conversation with a CFO should be: "Here's how we're going to clearly demonstrate business value this time—and by the way, we're building on the investments you've already made." It's about showing a clear, measurable outcome, backed by a plan to track progress—and doing it in a way that makes full use of existing assets and spend. That goes a long way in strengthening the business case.
How do you start implementing AI in a supply chain that currently relies mostly on Excel and legacy systems?
Julien Mauhourat: First, you start with the operational team. And you understand their routine—the how, the why they have created this Excel or this report—to make sure it works. And then you start replicating their processes in a tool that then is linked to the digital core—to use your exchange of terms. Ultimately, doing that, you will accelerate the big overhaul. You will accelerate it because you will get better data quality. You will get less customization because you understand why people are doing things a certain way—and you can enable it with more standard products.
And in the end, you will have a better understanding of business processes. And that will help build trust with your teams. So I really think—you can start even if you have a realm of Excel. And that's even more reason to change. Because this will bring you data quality.
This might interest you
