The new global marketplace has brought many benefits for consumers, while also ushering in new levels of expectations for manufacturers, which can complicate the delivery of products.

Tipalti, an online provider of global payment services, has expanded its automated system to support global automated clearing house (ACH) payments to the 32 countries participating in the Single Euro Payments Area.

Hamish Brewer, chief executive officer of JDA Software, was giving a speech at the Economic Club of Phoenix last year, when the topic of global inventory levels came up. The question he posed: How much stuff is currently in transit or socked away in warehouses the world over? The answer: Nobody really knows.