Growth in sales was making it tougher for the popular maker of premium ice cream to keep tabs on its production line. New software to ensure manufacturing quality was needed.

Third-party logistics companies with experience in Mexico and strong partnerships with leading Mexican carriers and customs brokers can make cross-border shipping a truly seamless activity, says Dennis McCaffrey of XPO Logistics.

Li & Fung - the most important company that most American shoppers have never heard of - has long been on the cutting edge of globalization, chasing cheap labor to garment factories first in China, then elsewhere in Asia, including Bangladesh. Now, with sweatshop disasters there drawing international scrutiny, the business is looking for the next best place - perhaps South America or sub-Saharan Africa - where it can steer apparel buyers seeking workers to stitch clothing together for a few dollars a day.

A host of marketplace trends are driving logistics companies to offer more value-added services and to physically locate closer to customers in order to support continued growth, says John Ferguson, CEO of SCI Logistics, a major logistics provider in Canada.