Retailers must put procedures in place to protect the long-term health of their businesses and ensure security concerns are a central part of their omnichannel strategies, according to a new industry report.

Transnational infrastructure programs, such as cross-border railway networks and electricity distribution systems, can increase regional trade, prosperity, stability and integration. That is part of the rationale of the Priority Action Plan of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA PAP), encompassing 51 programs and with an investment need of $68bn up to the year 2020. Such programs face formidable challenges, however.

A recent White House report on big data wonders aloud about the capability of sensors and smart meters to turn homes into fish tanks, completely transparent to marketers, police – and criminals.

A new digital presence has recently been created by AWESOME (Achieving Women’s Excellence in Supply Chain Operations, Management, and Education), the industry-wide supply chain leadership initiative started in early 2013. The launch of www.awesomeleaders.org is timed to coincide with the second Annual AWESOME Symposium on May 15, 2014, in Chicago.

As U.S. and Canadian businesses plan to expand their business overseas this year, supply chain failures, data breaches and political instability are weighing heavily on the minds of their executives, according to a survey by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.

GS1 Healthcare US, an industry group formed to promote GS1 standards in the U.S. healthcare industry, has published an implementation guideline for addressing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new regulation for Unique Device Identification (UDI).