Microsoft and AWS Battle for Your Supply Chain, But Microsoft Seems More Fully Baked

As if pre-planned both Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft introduced new Supply Chain Platforms. What's my take?

Microsoft seems better planned and suited for Enterprise, if you are on Teams or Azure or PowerBI, it's a natural fit. Microsoft's deeper retail expertise also shows through in the feature set.

AWS is taking early steps into a new world. Feels more like an BI-focused tool and more destined for the mid-market customer who has built their infrastruture on AWS.

Both provide:

* Data integrations to connect to systems of record and other data sources (ERP/EDI/WMS/OMS)

* ML-powered insights into inventory, demand planning, supplier lead times, stock-outs, etc.

AWS:

* AWS adds its own collaboration tool, but if you aren't on Teams, aren't you already on Slack? Feels like a miss.

* "Pay as you go" pricing which acts like S3 -- mostly GB storage or SKU and location-based pricing. No Enterprise license fees.

* The core of this offering is a "supply chain data lake" but it would take significant evaluation to compare it to Microsoft's offering.

Microsoft:

* Seems better structured. Integrated with Dynamics, other ERPs, Power (low-code) Azure, PowerBI, Teams (for team and external supplier collaboration).

* Adds an Order Management module to connect between sources of real-time inventory and orchestrate fulfillment. There are big players in this space (Manhattan, IBM Sterling) but I'm guessing Microsoft wants to be "good enough" for some customers here.

* Extensible partner modules for interface, data and capability extensions

* Pre-announced launch partners like CH Robinson, Walmart GoLocal, FedEx and FourKites. Not lost on me that Walmart is in this list!

* Suspecting there is a large Enterprise license waiting here. ;). But good news is you may already have many of these sub-components in Teams, Azure, PowerBI, Power, etc.

Wrap-up

- Much of this is still in early innings, but Microsoft seems further along than AWS. Both have preview elements, but Microsoft's offering feels more complete and thoughtful.

- My biggest concern is with supply chain, collaboration is a key feature. Microsoft Teams gives a decisive edge for Microsoft here.

- Secondarily, a lot of Microsoft tools end up being not as useful "out of the box" and require building custom apps to really optimize them for your Enterprise. This creates big opportunities but also a few challenges for IT teams, VARs, and other partners.

- Anyone selling into Microsoft Azure or Dynamics 365 ecosystems would be wise to pay attention to this, as it seems like the future of their retail efforts.

- While AWS has a significant retail presence, but its tools are less built out than Microsoft. Still, the focus on data is so critical that if you source or transform data, you will also need to build connectors here to play well.