In the wake of the Great Recession and the still lethargic economic recovery, the importance of sound governance practices across the supply chain is more crucial than ever in building and maintaining effective, collaborative 3PL-shipper relationships. Positive news in the authoritative 18th Annual 2014 Third-Party Logistics Study: collaboration between shippers & 3PLs is up. The majority surveyed say their relationships have grown more collaborative over the past three years, "with shippers even more likely than 3PLs to say they are much more collaborative." - Kate Vitasek, faculty, University of Tennessee's Center for Executive Education and Founder, Supply Chain Visions

Many companies unintentionally have created departmental silos within their organizations. Information and products go back and forth between the different functional areas, but the customer is often missing from the process. When lean supply chain strategies, which focus on eliminating waste, are implemented, once again the customer is often times left out. Instead of focusing on the client, the company focuses internally to improve processes. Research shows that undertaking a lean supply chain journey that extends outside the four walls of the organization significantly improves the customer experience, company productivity and the bottom line. - Eric Lail, VP, Continuous Improvement and Client Services, Transportation Insight

The shipping industry is poised to emerge from its longest downturn in three decades, buoyed by an end to years of overcapacity that have depressed freight rates since the end of a shipping boom in 2008.

Analyst Insight: Final delivery - it's the last phase of the delivery process that places goods into the consumer's hands. What will final delivery look like in the future? There are multiple competing business models to fulfill the final delivery need, ranging from the engagement of independent contractors, to wholly owned internal operations and systems based on crowdsourcing. In the end, the maximum value provided to the end customer will determine who is most successful - not just who delivers the product. -- Lisa Kennedy, Project Manager, Tompkins International

With warehousing and logistics operations in numerous countries, Greg McKinley of InComm shares his experience and advice on how to select a reliable in-country vendor.

Moving a box from A to B is much the same in any country, but paperwork, processes, terminology and regulations vary greatly, presenting a barrier to global TMS rollouts. Elie Hiller of Transwide discusses ways to meet this challenge.

D&B announced the launch of its monthly U.S Economic Health Tracker, which provides a multidimensional perspective on the U.S. economy, with insights across key sectors of the U.S. economy, including small business health, total job growth, and overall U.S. business health.