BlueStar, a global distributor of automatic data capture, mobility, point-of-sale and radio frequency technology products, has entered into a new distribution agreement with Psion for Mexico.

Carrier Transicold has developed new transport refrigeration units and generator sets, to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards for diesel emissions, which take effect in 2013.

Blue Ridge Inventory Group, LLC, a provider of optimization and analytics applications in the cloud, has introduced an integrated analytics tool, designed to help supply chains capitalize on data trapped in their software.

JustEnough Software, a vendor of demand-management applications for retailers, distributors and brand owners, has formed an alliance with the supply chain consultancy enVista.

You can learn a lot by monitoring consumer conversations in social media. It can predict political elections, the Oscars and even the next reality show winner. If you are a CPG marketer, social media can also be a real-time predictor of your new product's success.

Brian W. Hagen, managing director of the Decision Empowerment Institute, explains why supply-chain risk management has failed as a decision-making tool for many companies.

When prices are updated at the E.Leclerc supermarket in Saint-Jean-du-Falga, France, as many as 30,000 labels can change automatically, bringing an end to a time-consuming process by which staff previously had to manually print and swap out printed labels on store shelves.

Costly coding requirements have limited adoption of voice technology, but that is changing, says Steve Gerrard, vice president, marketing and strategy, Voxware. The technology is truly adaptive now, which is a key buying criterion.

Dr. Chaman L. Jain, professor of economics in the Tobin College of Business at St. John's University, talks about how the demand-planning function has changed in his decades of observing global supply chains.

Too many companies are still plagued by a "siloed" mentality which keeps various functions from collaborating fully on demand planning. But Arnold Mark Wells, principal of End-to-End Analytics, sees reason for hope.