Trust and a sharing of risk and reward are the hallmarks of an outsourcing agreement that took the two companies beyond the concept of "price per activity," to one that strives for mutual profitability and enhanced customer service.

Never mind those expert consultancies and handsomely compensated analysts who purport to tell us the future of supply-chain management. The real answers can be found in an event that's held once a year in the heart of Silicon Valley. With dinner thrown in as well.

Global supply chains are becoming increasingly complicated. But they also need to respond to demands by customers for simplicity. Padman Ramankutty, chief executive officer of Intrigo Systems Inc., explains the apparent paradox.

Infor has developed version 9.00 of Infor SyteLine, the company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) application for manufacturers.