Sage North America say the results of a snapshot survey of small to medium-sized business manufacturers indicate the general health of their businesses is pretty good, and use of their enterprise resource planning systems has benefited them.

Accellos, a vendor of supply-chain execution software, has released a carrier qualification and monitoring module for its Prophesy Dispatch transportation-management system (TMS).

DB Schenker Logistics has developed a new tool for monitoring air and ocean freight consignments.

Deloitte is forecasting holiday sales will increase between 3.5 percent and 4 percent as the economy's health and the presidential election take center stage among consumers this fall.

Supply chain overlays the sales and marketing organizations and the procurement function - which have defined their roles too narrowly. Too few are focused on the role of the organization in driving value networks to improve value-based outcomes. Most lack the understanding, and they are just not incented to build value networks. The focus has to be market to market. The supply chain team can make a difference, but it requires reschooling. It is about much more than trucks and sheds. Or pumps and valves. Or contracts and negotiations. It is the end-to-end process: from the customer's customer to the supplier's supplier.

Staples announced a strategic growth plan that will accelerate the growth of its online businesses, restructure its internal organization and reduce its retail square footage in North America by 15 percent by the end of fiscal 2015. The retailer projects these changes will produce approximately $250m in pre-tax cost savings during this period.

Just before its break, the U.S. Senate quickly and quietly passed the "European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act of 2011," the latest attempt to exempt American airlines from paying fees imposed by the European Union to cover the greenhouse gases their planes emit while flying to and from European airports.

CFOs make all kinds of investments, but how about investing in more down time for employees? That may sound like a recipe for creating a bunch of slackers, but in fact the idea of optimal slack in a system is as fundamental to talent optimization as it is to engineering. Planned and mindful slacking off may help optimize talent performance.

Your customer service representative answers a call from an irate customer. "This darn thing I bought just doesn't work!" he exclaims. "I've tried and tried to get help from your service folks, but they're always late and they can't fix it either. I've had it with you guys. I want my money back!" Big Data can help you retain that customer.