There was a bit of good economic news last week, with the announcement that U.S. retail sales rose 0.8 percent in July. That was the biggest gain since February, and well above the 0.3 percent that economists had predicted. So is the economy finally recovering?

APICS helps its members and their organizations successfully compete and build a stronger global economy.

The company's sales of high-value chemicals, laboratory supplies and equipment were constrained by an inefficient order-entry and processing system. It needed a new sourcing solution for its upstream supply chain.

Recently dubbed the world's second-largest maker of personal computers, Lenovo has adopted a new B2B sourcing solution from IBM for streamlining communications with logistics-management providers and contract manufacturers.