The lure of low interest rates: how could it possibly be a bad thing for business?

Sanjiv Sidhu, founder and chairman of o9 Solutions (and co-founder of i2 Technologies), offers his view of how supply-chain I.T. has changed over the past 15 years, and what businesses need to do now in order to face the growing uncertainty that's attached to global supply-chain management.

The British Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are putting in motion plans that will change Britain's role in world manufacturing, for better or for worse. In its annual report, HSE proudly announced that they had removed 84 per cent of their regulations without compromising on safety. Depending on how you interpret the statistics, this has either made the UK a much stronger player in international trade or has taken the UK two steps backwards.

PhoenixNAP, a global information-technology services provider offering cloud, dedicated server, co-location and infrastructure-as-a-service technology, has developed a new series of backup and recovery services.

Companies that are ignorant of the opportunities for duty avoidance, made possible by free trade agreements and changing government regulations, are leaving millions of dollars on the table, says Bernie Hart, vice president of global trade management sales with Livingston International.

Every supply chain manager knows that moving freight globally is a high-risk business. In a world beset by severe weather events, worsening natural disasters and pervasive terrorist threats - on top of the usual traffic tie-ups, rail derailments and port slowdowns - disruptions are a fact of life.

A labor shortage in China? Who would have thought it possible?