Demand sensing and planning applications, currently representing 8.5 percent of overall supply chain management spending, and are expected to climb to 8.7 percent by 2015 largely due to demand volatility.

We live in a time of incredible technological progress. Self-driving cars and self-flying drones have already arrived, and more intelligent machines are surely just over the horizon. For many in the supply chain management community, the next big technology is the "control tower". Millions of dollars have been spent marketing the idea that a control tower is the "intelligent" system of the future and the solution to your problems. What is a control tower and should you invest in one?