The State of Supply Chain Tech: Why Only 7% of Brands Are "Very Satisfied" With Their Stack
In a recent survey – The Supply Chain Tech Stack Report, conducted by Parabola and StartOps in early 2025 on 90 supply chain leaders at leading brands – a stark reality was revealed: only 7% of brands report being "very satisfied" with their current technology solutions. This dissatisfaction stems from a fundamental tension between the need to innovate and significant resource constraints.
Key Pain Points Plaguing Supply Chain Tech
Survey results revealed that integration remains the biggest challenge for supply chain leaders, with 60% of respondents citing lack of integration between tools as their primary pain point. Additionally, 50% struggle with limited visibility or reporting capabilities.
When breaking down satisfaction by company size:
- Larger companies ($250M+) tend to be more satisfied overall
- Smaller companies (<$50M) show more varied satisfaction levels
- Mid-sized companies ($50M-$250M) seem to struggle the most with their tech stacks
Budget Constraints Drive Conservative Tech Adoption
Cost pressures are creating a challenging environment for technology investment, as found in th survey results:
- 45% cite budget constraints as the primary barrier to adoption
- Team bandwidth emerged as a critical limiting factor
- Mid-sized companies ($50M-$250M) struggle most with tech satisfaction
"There's so much cost pressure on brands right now. Tariffs, the cost of 3PL services, cost of goods going up — there's so many things strapping budgets," explains Kyle Bertin, CEO and co-founder of Two Boxes.
Integration Challenges Persist
"You have certain supply chain platforms that are slam dunks, that fully automate things and take you out of Google sheets or manual tracking," explains Paige Zachs, VP of Supply Chain, Ops and Customer at Coterie. "But then you have other tools that are overly complex where even basic integrations become a huge challenge."
Finding ROI in a Resource-Constrained Environment
Keith Frymark, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Quality at Seed Health, suggests that ops teams are well-positioned to justify tech investments: "I think supply chain and ops teams have the most leverage in the business — $20,000 doesn't scare me, I can save that tomorrow."
He recommends teams struggling to secure tech investment focus on highlighting savings they create in other areas that can fund new tools. "Renegotiate a contract, shave off 10 cents on packaging, look at your tariff codes, reclassify something…we have so much ability to save money."
The Path Forward
Success in 2025 and beyond will come to organizations that can make strategic technology investments while building the internal expertise to leverage them effectively. The challenge isn't just selecting the right tools — it's creating an integrated technology ecosystem that can scale efficiently while delivering clear ROI.
Three key principles will define successful tech stack strategies:
- Embrace AI or fall behind
- Prioritize integration and visibility
- Build for scale, not just for today
Based on a comprehensive survey of 90 supply chain and operations leaders conducted in early 2025 by Parabola and StartOps.
