Global companies are wasting more than $30bn (£20bn) a year because they do not share information about suppliers, according to business information provider Achilles.

The sign in the elevator banks at Coca-Cola Refreshments reads: "There is a person at the end of our supply chain." Well, that's a start.

What will the typical factory look like five years from now?

For most business leaders, it's difficult to make any decision without letting bottom line bias come into play. Globalization, in addition to evolving social, economic and regulatory trends, has elevated corporate competition to a new playing field altogether. For procurement departments in particular, cutting costs, doing more with less, and running agile operations are the new standards for success.

Analyst Insight: Automation and efficiency in corporate accounts payable is opening up new opportunities that simply are not possible in a paper-based environment. Chief among these is the opportunity to design payment programs that accelerate funds to suppliers – and provide significant working capital benefits to buyers as well. – Scott Pezza, Principal Analyst at Blue Hill Research

Analyst Insight: The market's understanding of cloud solutions is maturing. We are steadily - and correctly - moving away from what the cloud is to focus on what it can mean for our businesses. For many, what it means now is an opportunity to reduce capital expenditures and free up IT resources. This will change as we look less at whether cloud solutions can do the same things as on-premises and focus on what they can do differently. - Scott Pezza, Principal Analyst at Blue Hill Research

Retail demand planning is, to a great extent, a game of numbers. But the store that relies entirely on hard statistics is likely to be in for an unpleasant surprise.