ZS named a Major Player in IDC MarketScape for life sciences intelligent supply chain

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IDC MarketScape has named ZS a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Life Sciences Intelligent Supply Chain Services 2025 Vendor Assessment (doc #US51047023, August 2025). The report evaluates providers of business and IT services that support intelligent supply chain transformation for pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device organizations.

“The evolving life sciences landscape demands new levels of supply chain agility and resilience while ensuring regulatory compliance and enhancing customer and patient experiences,” said Nino Giguashvili, research manager at IDC. “To future-proof themselves, life sciences organizations must achieve intelligent, resilient and patient-centric supply chain operations across increasingly complex global supply chain networks. Selecting suitable service partners can help them bridge critical gaps in technology, skills and capabilities on this transformation journey toward future-ready intelligent supply chains.”

IDC’s 2025 Supply Chain Survey found that nearly half of life sciences respondents see visibility and agility as their biggest challenge. More than a third reported a lack of digital skills and analytics expertise needed to keep pace.

According to the IDC MarketScape, “ZS partners with a broad range of vendor ecosystems in the SCM space, including SAP, Oracle, Kinaxis, Microsoft, and Anaplan. ZS supports life sciences companies across all major SCM functions, most extensively with supply chain planning, procurement, transportation management, and supply chain orchestration. For example, ZS helped a major global pharma company leverage AI and advanced analytics to improve forecast accuracy by more than 20% for medicinal product stockouts and mitigate stock-out risks across its global supply chain network.”

The report continued: “ZS emphasizes an integrated approach to business transformation across the enterprise. It leverages deep life sciences expertise, flexible customer engagement models, and diverse cross-functional teams (e.g., supply chain, commercial, and regulatory teams) to support life sciences organizations from strategy to execution across multiple functional areas. The company has demonstrated success in providing supply chain services to life sciences customers in highly specialized areas, including cold chain management, clinical supply chain control tower orchestration, drug serialization, and vaccine and CGT supply chains logistics. For example, ZS supported a company specializing in cell and gene therapies in developing a control tower for logistics and distribution management.”

4 strengths: ZS supports life sciences intelligent supply chains

The IDC MarketScape outlined four strengths ZS brings to specialized supply chain services for the life sciences industry.

• Strong mix of capabilities to address life sciences supply chain complexities: “Deep industry expertise and extensive regulatory experience allow ZS to offer specialized services tailored to the complexities of life sciences supply chains, supporting companies in effectively navigating highly regulated, patient-centric environments. The company supports a broad range of complex supply chain scenarios across clinical and commercial supply chains, including logistics orchestration for CGTs, vaccines, and other biologics.”
• Strong data science and AI capabilities: “ZS is recognized for its strong data science and AI/ML capabilities. This enables customers to leverage data from internal and external sources and apply advanced analytics and predictive modeling to embed intelligence across supply chain operations. Customers value the improvements ZS has delivered in areas such as forecast accuracy, inventory optimization, and risk mitigation, enabled by its AI-driven approach.”
• AI-enabled assets for intelligent supply chain transformation: “ZS offers a suite of proprietary assets (e.g., Canary Decision Studio, Manufacturing Decision Studio and Max.AI™) to support the rapid deployment of AI/ML, generative AI, and AI agents for specific business needs. ZS leverages these solutions to support its customers in various SCM areas (e.g., demand forecasting, stockout prediction, supply chain orchestration, document automation, and decision-making), helping them accelerate the transition toward a more intelligent and automated supply chain.”
• Customer-centricity and value-oriented approach: “ZS is valued by its life sciences customers for its modular service delivery model and value-driven approach that focuses on cost reduction, operational efficiency, and measurable outcomes. This customer-centric mindset is also reflected in ZS’s flexible engagement models, which include a range of value-based and risk-sharing arrangements that contribute to customer success and long-term retention.”

IDC MarketScape: When to consider ZS for life sciences intelligent supply chain services

The report concluded: “Life sciences organizations should consider ZS Associates when seeking a competitively priced partner with deep domain expertise and flexible engagement models to support their intelligent transformation initiatives across clinical and commercial supply chains. ZS’s innovative technology capabilities, strong experience in regulated environments, and ability to deliver measurable outcomes make it a compelling choice, particularly for large life sciences manufacturers and distributors who seek to leverage innovative technologies such as AI and digital twins to support supply chain management for complex product portfolios (including biologics and personalized medicines).”