SAP AG has released a new application to extend advanced analytics capabilities to a broad spectrum of users.

To serve its demanding government and business customers, the company needed to find a way to resolve any potential service problems in the quickest and most cost-effective manner possible.

"Multinational" doesn't necessarily mean global. IBM saw the need to apply rigorous analytics to virtually every function that makes up its supply chain - and in the process, harmonize business processes across the organization.

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.