Globalization and evolving social, economic and regulatory trends have elevated corporate competition to a new level altogether. For procurement departments in particular, cutting costs, doing more with less, and running agile operations are the new standards for success.

With their operating budget expected to grow by just 2.7 percent this year, procurement leaders are focusing their transformation efforts on cultivating procurement's role as a trusted advisor, investing in next-generation training and development, and harnessing big data.

It's been about a year since the Securities and Exchange Commission began imposing its rule on the disclosure of conflict materials from the Democratic Republic of Congo in manufactured products. Are companies up to speed?

Don't get left behind by more companies with more innovative and agile supply chains. Supply chain digitization is happening now. New networked technology platforms are co-evolving with new networked business models, together enabling companies to rapidly find, assess and integrate with trading partners in order to swiftly create and deliver unique and valuable products and services.

You can't tackle the problem of product recalls without data.