Regardless of the goods that are being shipped - from electronics to pharmaceuticals to fruit - once released into the supply chain, they are immediately at risk. And the longer they are in transit, the more vulnerable those goods become - facing threats of terrorism, of theft, or even of a natural disaster. Until the cargo arrives safely at its final destination, there are an inordinate number of things that could jeopardize the supply chain from running smoothly.

Supply chain managers fight a tough battle in trying to meet management demands to decrease costs while creating efficiencies and implementing sustainability measures. Economic growth has improved but lacks the stability to provide companies comfort to budget for implementation of many of the innovations in their long- or short-term plan. However, companies can stagnate without taking the time to identify opportunities to innovate. With pressure to sustain its competitive edge, leading organizations are beginning to consider their reverse supply chain to find hidden value.

Scarmor, a logistics subsidiary of the French hypermarket chain E.Leclerc, has installed a network of RFID readers that works without middleware at 35 dock doors within two warehouses. The company continues to roll out the technology that will be used to track pallets being moved from distribution centers to roughly 58 E.Leclerc retail sites throughout the French province of Brittany.

Analyst Insight: Every year there are several surveys asking supply chain executives to rank the challenges they face. And, for as long as I can remember, supply chain visibility ranks at or near the top. This year's reincarnation of the control tower metaphor is being applied to supply chain visibility. Can you see me now? If it's so critical, why haven't we implemented it? - Rich Sherman, Supply Chain Discipline Expert at Trissential

Analyst Insight: Lately, activity in horizontal collaboration has increased. Although this is still not a scalable practice, the number of studies and pilot projects are growing. While many variations of collaboration exist, all significantly impact transportation management. - Bill Loftis, Senior Principal, Tompkins International

Analyst Insight: Spend under management and compliance rates are considered key metrics to measure the success of almost any spend management program. Companies that try to achieve those by fiat alone will invariably fall short of their goals. Purchasing organizations are much more likely to succeed if they provide tools and systems that actually make the lives of their business users (the ones who make the purchase decisions) easier, rather than simply piling on more administrative work for the end user. - Bill McBeath, Chief Research Officer, ChainLink Research

Analyst Insight: The top reason field service agents are not able to resolve a customer issue the first time when on site is due to not having the right part to solve the problem. Thus in order to ensure that customers are happy, and beyond, top-performing service organizations in Aberdeen's recent Convergence of People and Parts research have focused on strategies to integrate field service with parts management to meet the needs of the customer and ensure profitability. - Aly Pinder, Senior Research Associate, Aberdeen Group

Analyst Insight: The software market for services has changed and is rapidly evolving. Overlap of features and functions often confuse organizations and consequently, they end up selecting the wrong type of software that they require. Organizations must be aware that the market for professional services is differentiated by professional services automation and project management and is further separated by full ERP suites or point solutions. -- Dylan Persaud, Managing Director, Eval-Source

Walmart, Macy's, JCPenny, Marks & Spencer, Façonnable, American Apparel, and others are implementing item-level RFID in a big way. Last year, well over one billion apparel items were tagged. That number is expected to rise substantially this year.