Brad Van De Sompele, president at Frontier Electric Supply in Bensenville, Ill., is one long-time member of the National Association of electrical Distributors who's not afraid of Amazon's advances into the electrical industry.

Challenge: DMLogic was challenged by a major pharmaceutical manufacturer to help change the delivery model of their seasonal flu vaccine from wholesale's distribution to direct shipments to physicians' offices and retail outlets. The impact was to radically change their shipping operations from 500 cases to 30,000 individual doses per week.

The CMA CGM Group has launched the Wazzan Service, linking Morocco with Northwest Africa and boosting its intra-Africa coverage.

Challenge: Even though growth was on the fast track for one of the largest domestic foodservice providers, they were still hampered by supply chain visibility and accuracy challenges. Without visibility, they had no way of knowing how truckload orders were impacting their entire supply chain, leading to increased costs. The company was also facing substantial increases in commodity prices, fuel and the minimum wage - critical elements in the food and restaurant industries. Complicating those challenges were ongoing limited-time promotions, which require immediate responses to spikes in demand.

Uber and its rivals have transformed the world of personal transportation. Now the concept is beginning to have an impact on the delivery of product ordered over the internet. Lior Sion, chief technology officer of Bringg, traces the progress of the trend.

Hydraulic fracturing has contaminated some drinking water sources, but the damage is not widespread, according to a landmark U.S. study of water pollution risks that has supporters of the drilling method declaring victory and foes saying it revealed reason for concern.