Initiatives by such retail giants as Tesco and Walmart and recent research by bodies including the University of Minnesota Institute highlight the impact suppliers within a supply chain have on a company's energy footprint, but research by renewable energy company Urban Wind suggests that policies targeting vendors' energy use are piling pressure on UK suppliers.

A good sales and operations planning process is vital to the fortunes of many companies today. But success in implementing it has been elusive. Seema Phull, principal with NorthFind Partners, explains why.

Generally speaking, there is no argument that Africa needs industrialization to provide jobs, reduce poverty and improve economies. Also, that it needs overseas investment for this to happen, and that China is in a good position to provide it.

Douglas Kent, global vice president with Avnet Velocity, talks about why there has been renewed interest in supply-chain risk management at the highest level of company operations.

To address supply chain threats, 28 percent of respondents in a recent survey said they have shifted from overseas to domestic suppliers in the past 12 months, according to BBK, an international business advisory firm with roots in the automotive manufacturing industry. Nearly 70 percent of these respondents cited transportation, shipping and logistics costs as the most significant factors in decisions to re-shore.

Accellos, a provider of supply-chain execution software, has formed a partnership with UXC Eclipse, reportedly the large Microsoft Dynamics partner in the Asia-Pacific region.

Agiloft Inc., a provider of contract lifecycle applications, has entered into an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) partnership with ESM Solutions, a vendor of spend-management software.

enVista has joined with Avercast to provide demand-planning and sales and operations planning (S&OP) applications to users of Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Wavelink has released Wavelink Terminal Emulation (TE) for iOS, the Apple operating system.