LOGISTICS & DISTRIBUTION
THE DRONE EXPLOSION seems to have been on the cusp for a while now , and although the adoption of the technology has increased slightly over the past few years , it hasn ’ t quite happened in the exponential fashion that many industry insiders were expecting . One such individual is Shivani Govil , VP , AI and Cognitive Products at SAP Ariba , who has two decades ’ worth of experience in the enterprise software sector , including working extensively with drones as well as mobile applications .
Speaking to Supply Chain Digital from her base in San Francisco ’ s Bay Area in the US , Govil expresses genuine surprise that the adoption of drones by procurement organisations hasn ’ t happened more widely up until this point , but says it ’ s still something that ’ s “ coming down the pipeline ”.
“ When I was working very , very actively on this topic a couple of years ago , I actually thought that we would see drones proliferating all over the place ,” she says . “ I have to admit it hasn ’ t taken off as quickly as I expected it to . I think there is a lot of interest in what drones can do , if you think about
The potential for drones to play an increasingly important role in many industries has yet to be exploited
how they are affecting the industry ; there are a lot of projects going on and there are some companies which are adopting them on a much bigger scale , but I would say that in the mainstream it ’ s probably not as prolific .
“ If I talk to the CPOs today they don ’ t come to me saying ‘ drones is a really important space , what do you think is going to happen there ?’ I think there are forward-thinking CPOs that are starting to look at how drones impact
42 April 2018