Daymon Worldwide, a provider of brand-building and sourcing services for retail, has formed a new unit dedicated to transportation management and logistics support for retailers and suppliers.

Rizwan Asim, head of procurement and supply chain with SSC Al-Suwaidi Holding Co., discusses how integrated demand planning is helping Middle Eastern retailers to cope with a market boom.

Callaway Golf Co. relies on integrated demand planning to service a market that ranges from large and small retailers to buyers who have clubs customized to meet their unique requirements. Derek Hillier, director of strategic sales initiatives for the Americas region, explains how it's all done.

IFS, a vendor of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) technology, has developed IFS Applications 8, the latest version of its offering for manufacturing industries.

Camstar Systems Inc. has released the NPI (New Product Introduction) Accelerator for manufacturers. The tool is intended to help users design, test and speed up the NPI process.

With all of the advances in forecasting technology and software, it's tempting to conclude that people don't need to play a direct role in the process anymore. But the opposite is true, says Jonathon Karelse, vice president of corporate development and strategic planning with Wholesale Tire Distributors.

Apriso Corp., a provider of software for managing manufacturing operations, has made available version 2.0 of FlexNet Manufacturing Process Intelligence (MPI).

Acuitive Solutions, provider of a global transportation-management system (TMS) portal for air and ocean freight, has introduced the Acuitive SpotManager.

There are two major challenges that companies face today in forecasting, says Bob Leonard, vice president of sales with Forecast Pro. One is the push to drive down to more detail, including smaller time buckets. The other is the need to treat forecasting as an analytical task, instead of just clerical work.