Changing long-term processes is never an easy thing to do but it’s especially challenging when you’re talking about how item labeling is done in Asia. Right now, for example, when the internet is down, workers take a “sneaker net” approach to getting purchase orders out: Someone plugs a USB drive into a computer, copies the information then walks down the hall and plugs it into another computer to remove the file and then brings it back to the packer, explains Chris Beukenkamp, managing director, Asia, for SPS Commerce. “We have the internet everywhere but you’re lucky if a factory has a single internet connection -- and that’s usually on a manager’s desk. It definitely won’t be on the factory floor where they’re doing packing and shipping.”

The recent superstorm, Sandy, and the Nor’easter that followed one week later, are continual reminders that businesses need to build redundancies and create business continuity plans for services and infrastructure. Not only do outages have immediate impact to operations, they also significantly impact supply chains. In fact, a recent study led by global multi-line insurance provider Zurich Insurance Group and conducted by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) found that the leading cause of supply chain disruption is unplanned IT or telecom outages.