Cloud-native platform architectures offer a solution to the multiple and overlapping systems of record, lack of common data models and process inconsistencies that portfolio solutions have burdened the industry with for so long. 

In a recent report, Gartner found that maturing supply chain organizations are moving away from a heterogenous collection of applications with differing architectures, data models and user interfaces. However, they often struggle to differentiate between a vendor of loosely coupled solutions behind a single brand and a vendor with a truly seamless common platform because of the similar and sometimes confusing language used, so they identified areas of differentiation to consider:

Platform 

• Cloud-native with composable micro-service APIs 
• Extensible and autonomously adaptive 
• Process orchestration/optimization 
• Continuous updates with no downtime 
• Eliminate redundancies, functional overlaps, syntax issues and integration 
• Better for mature supply chain organizations

Portfolio 

• Loosely coupled portfolio of solutions 
• Mishmash of applications with different technology due to years of acquisitions 
• Siloed experiences with multiple UIs 
• Lack of strategic organic product development 
• Pricing is complex and costs can be higher