Stage Stores' vision is to have no compliance violations on orders from suppliers and zero chargebacks, says Ken Lettre, vice president of compliance and supplier relations. Barring that, it wants any violation to occur only once. Lettre explains how Stage Stores is working to achieve those goals.

Jay Douglass, sales director with Eyefreight, details the role of cloud software in the U.S. transportation environment, and talks about how a transportation-management system can strengthen a shipper's market position.

Advanced Purchasing Dynamics (APD) has introduced a cloud-based software addition to the APD Cloud for supporting sourcing.

Investments into sourcing operations are paying off substantially for retailers, grocers and restaurants, according to an industry survey of procurement executives and practitioners, conducted by Intesource. Sixty-two percent of the procurement and sourcing professionals surveyed report their sourcing strategy has a direct and positive impact on company margins, profitability, working capital and cash flow.

As customers waited for their much anticipated Apple Watches, it was reported that delays could be traced to a feared supply chain nightmare: a faulty part. Apple's supply chain strategy, though, likely mitigated the risk.