Jabil Circuit, an electronics manufacturer for companies like Apple, Cisco Systems and General Electric, will enter the supply chain software business next year, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Jabil already relies on an internally developed cloud-based platform to monitor its own suppliers and customers' suppliers, enabling the St. Petersberg, Fla.-based company to quickly react when supply chain disruptions occur, according to the report.
Don Hnatyshin, chief supply chain and procurement officer of Jabil, said the supply chain management software will hit the market in the first quarter of 2017. He estimates the software could generate annual sales of $100 million for Jabil, which posted $17.9 billion in net revenue last year, according to the report.
Jabil's announcement comes amid a growing need for technology to manage large-scale supply chains. The supply chain management software market jumped 11 percent in 2015 to $11.1 billion and is estimated to hit $17.6 billion by 2020, according to the research firm Gartner.
"This really goes in line with a trend we're seeing with [electronics manufacturing services] companies in general, which is to move more into services, design, engineering and value-add," said Matthew Sheerin, an analyst for Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
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