Behind the scenes the electronics industry is leaping into brave new worlds of printed electronics, electronic inks, and laser Nano and other innovations. Quite frankly we don’t think any of these innovations will mightily impact the current trajectory of RFID as we know it today. But in our life time there will be radical changes.

Analyst Insight: Buckle your seat belts. Supply chain planning, a mature and stagnant technology market, is changing. This change will not be gradual; instead, it is the redefinition of planning platforms. The value proposition is large; but not as large as the change management hurdles. To prepare, we have to learn, unlearn and prepare to relearn a new language and way of thinking. - Lora Cecere, CEO and Founder, Supply Chain Insights

Analyst Insight: The sales and operations planning process has fairly deep roots in most companies. Research by SCM World shows that many have been able to extend the process across most internal functions. However, few companies have extended the process externally to trading partners. The incentive structure of buyers and sellers tends to set these groups at cross-purposes. Flexibility pricing can shift the incentives in a direction that forces companies to negotiate the value of flexibility. - Barry Blake, Vice President, Research, SCM World

Analyst Insight: The industry finds itself in the eye of a perfect storm. Profits are falling from the patent cliff, pressuring companies to adopt new supply chain value propositions. Regulatory compliance and the Affordable Healthcare Act create process and cost pressure. The cold chain manages the Cs: challenges from complexity, connectivity, compliance and continuum of care. And, above all is the shift from fee-based services to outcome-based care and payment. - Rich Sherman, Principal Essentialist, Trissential

Analyst Insight: A number of factors are drawing increased attention to the order-to-cash (OTC) process. Achieving a perfect order, one that is filled to completion and arrives at the customer undamaged and properly documented, is under stress from doing new ways of business and increasing customer expectations. - Alex Bajorinas and Jim Morton, both Senior Managers, Ernst & Young LLP

Analyst Insight: Getting a grip on global trade management means mastering the three T's: taxes, tariffs and terms. These elements, which can easily amount to 20 percent of the final product cost in extreme cases, are more than capable of swamping everything we do with leaner inventories, optimised transportation and lower component costs. Despite this fact, many companies still approach this problem as a bit of an afterthought. - Kevin O'Marah, Chief Content Officer and Head of Research, SCM World

Analyst Insight: More companies are using some type of "big data" software and analysis to drive their entire supply chains. Almost all supply chain organizations recognize this to be a competitive necessity. Big data is being used along all supply chain levers, from buy, make, move and sell. Successful applications require coordinated decisions across organizations and along the entire supply chain. - Nada R. Sanders, Professor of Supply Chain Management & Iacocca Chair, Lehigh University

The last year has seen much change in the enterprise business process management software market. The U.S. BPM market for 2013 amounted to $65bn and is expected to grow to more than $77bn by 2017. Certain verticals are poised to surpass the expected CAGR of 4.3 percent of market growth. Organizations focusing on BPM will see the largest impacts, as many inefficiencies can be fixed, if done correctly. - Dylan Persaud, Managing Director, Eval-Source

Analyst Insight: Continuous industry, business and customer demands force companies to maintain business processes in permanent evolution. Highly productive organizations strive to achieve a technological edge, business efficiency, and regulatory compliance, which must be assimilated within the organization's operations, to increase and optimize business performance. - Jorge Garcia, Senior Analyst, Technology Evaluation Centers