Analyst Insight: The number one strategy for high-impact business performance is organizational and supply chain strategic alignment, coupled with effective supply chain segmentation. The hyper competitive supply chain landscape is a new normal. To compete leading organizations need to restructure in order to breakdown functional silos, create enterprise unification around common goals, and use technology and "big data" to create a "big picture" understanding of organizational goals. - Nada R. Sanders, Professor of Supply Chain Management and Iacocca Chair, Lehigh University

Even though CRM solutions are very "trendy" and in demand these days, CRM solutions do not follow a "one size fits all" approach.

OCTG Tubular Finishing Services, which inspects and finishes steel pipes used at oil-drilling sites, is employing radio frequency identification technology to track personnel and tools at its facility near Houston. The company is also in the process of developing a service to provide information regarding the status and location of pipes located on site.

Integrating supply chain planning and execution is vital to today's businesses, but 80 percent of the data that most companies need to achieve this integration lies outside their four walls. Mark Cosway, vice president of industry sales at GT Nexus, explains a new approach to solving this problem.

A few years ago, DHL Express was in a downward spiral of data quality. The company had used a Microsoft costing tool deployed locally in the 200 countries in it operates. Graeme Aitkin, vice president of business controlling, said the tool used employee interviews to localize cost allocations, asking couriers how they spent their time every day. In the old days, he said, when the data wasn't available, it wasn't possible for a company to have a unified costing and pricing system across a global company.