Analyst Insight: The life sciences industry is realizing significant supply chain and operational benefits by driving even modest increases in demand forecast accuracy. Companies included in a recent AMR Research study pointed to improved demand management processes as the number one reason for this increased supply chain visibility. And the benefits don't stop there!

Analyst Insight: The regulatory environment for food and beverage manufacturers is changing. President Obama has reinvigorated the FDA's Food Safety Working Group and change is on the way. It is more important than ever for food and beverage manufacturers to get ahead of the curve and ensure food safety and traceability across their entire supply chains, from the field to the fork.

Analyst Insight: Although companies were able to reduce absolute inventory levels by 10 percent from Q3/2008 to Q3/2009, a closer look reveals that Days Inventory On-hand deteriorated by 7.5 percent, resulting in excess working capital requirements of $50bn for the largest 1,000 U.S.-headquartered public companies. If not regained, this lost efficiency will become a more significant cash drain than expected in 2010.

Analyst Insight: Advisors are often asked what's the best system to develop a product. Time and again our data indicates that simple spreadsheets just don't cut it - commercial packages and internally developed systems provide the real-time visibility into the data that organizations need to succeed.

Analyst Insight: Inventory optimization technology has increasingly become an important tool to aide manufacturers in either managing their overall supply chain inventories more efficiently, or having the capability to support decision-making processes with what-if quantification of the impact of certain business decisions on overall inventory investment.