One could say that transportation faces multiple hurdles in the coming year, in the guise of new regulations and legislation that promise to have a serious impact on all modes. Me? I prefer to think of it as a minefield.

Analyst Insight: As traditional retailers feel the sting of Amazon's long tail whip, e-commerce and retail are merging into omni-channel strategies. In the Connected Age everyone is always connected to everything, always on, and location based. Just as the power shifted from manufacturer to retailer, the power in the retail channel has now shifted to the consumer who can buy anything from anyone, anytime, from anywhere. You better know your customer and your market to succeed. - Rich Sherman, Supply Chain Discipline Expert at Trissential

Analyst Insight: Multichannel fulfillment can be defined as optimizing the supply chain's capabilities to simultaneously receive and process orders from multiple ordering channels and fulfill them from the source that provides the highest level of consumer satisfaction and lowest fulfillment cost to the retailer. This model for fulfillment is both customer - and cost-driven and, therefore, the new de facto standard for the retail supply chain. - Joe Vernon, Manager of North America Supply Chain Technologies, Capgemini

Total IT spending on hardware, software and IT services across 15 enterprise industries is forecasted to grow by 6 percent in 2013, to approximately $474bn, according to research by International Data Corporation (IDC).

The English language is full of potentially polarizing statements. But few are more likely to inspire mixed feelings among DC professionals than some facsimile of this: "Our facility is getting a labor management system."

Analyst Insight: Supply chain has often been an afterthought for pharmaceutical manufacturers. The patent cliff, increasing reliance on generics, and price pressure from payers all create considerable margin pressures on pharma companies as well. This forces them to pay closer attention to operational efficiencies, including the supply chain. However, less noticed is the impact that evidence-based medicine and outcome-driven payment strategies have, compelling pharmaceutical manufacturers to more closely manage their entire end-to-end chain, especially on the downstream side. - Bill McBeath, Chief Research Officer, ChainLink Research

Analyst Insight: The pharmaceutical and bio-tech industry, as well as the medical device and medical product industries, are at a crossroads. This crossroads consists of industry identity and business channel markets determination - each of which will drive every company's future in the domestic and international marketplace as a single sector leader or multimarket healthcare provider for the coming decade. - Brian Hudock, Partner, Tompkins International