SciQuest Inc., a provider of cloud-based applications for automating spend management, has released version 15.1 of its spend-automation suite.

Lee Young, director of supplier quality at Thermo Fisher Scientific, explains the company's approach risk management, and how it copes with issues such as sole sourcing and supplier qualification.

Why is sole-supplier sourcing a potential problem for supply chains, and what should companies do to mitigate the risk? Jillian Alexander, managing director of Conduit Consulting LLC, provides some answers.

How should companies approach the challenge of end-to-end transformation? What exactly does the process encompass? And what are the benefits of a successful initiative? Michael Albritton, director of AlixPartners, supplies the answers.

Jade Rodysill, principal in the supply-chain practice of EY, details the challenges that supply-chain managers will face in the coming years. He also talks about the requirements of a great leader, and answers the question "Is there a 'best' supply chain?"

Epicor Software Corp has released version 24.1 of the Epicor Eagle N series for retail business management.

Amber Road, a vendor of global trade management software, has acquired ecVision, a provider of cloud-based global sourcing and collaborative supply-chain applications.

Automotive suppliers are under mounting pressure to satisfy two conflicting customer demands: to cut costs and to open more factories in fast-growing emerging markets so that they can be closer to their customers' production plants. Striking the right balance between cost and proximity in global manufacturing networks will be one of the industry's greatest challenges, according to a report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), conducted in partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. The report is titled The Proximity Paradox: Balancing Auto Suppliers' Manufacturing Networks.

Enrique Castillo, president and chief operating officer of Fast Logistics Group, relates how the lead logistics provider adopted a sales and operations planning (S&OP) process to improve the reliability of delivery for major consumer-goods brands. A finalist in the SupplyChainBrain/CSCMP Supply Chain Innovation Award for 2014.