A good sales and operations planning process is vital to the fortunes of many companies today. But success in implementing it has been elusive. Seema Phull, principal with NorthFind Partners, explains why.

Douglas Kent, global vice president with Avnet Velocity, talks about why there has been renewed interest in supply-chain risk management at the highest level of company operations.

Agiloft Inc., a provider of contract lifecycle applications, has entered into an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) partnership with ESM Solutions, a vendor of spend-management software.

enVista has joined with Avercast to provide demand-planning and sales and operations planning (S&OP) applications to users of Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Newgistics Inc. has developed new electronic-commerce software based on hybris, an SAP company and commerce platform provider.

New-product forecasting is occupying an increasingly large portion of the planner's job. Patrick Bower, senior director of corporate planning and customer service with Combe Inc., relates the trends that have caused renewed interest in the discipline.

Not enough attention has been paid to the human side of supply-chain and business management. Michael Birch, vice president of operations with Ping Golf, is out to correct that oversight.