The installed base of Bluetooth-enabled devices alone reached 3.5 billion in 2012 and is forecast to grow to almost 10 billion by 2018"”with not even taking into account many other technologies, such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee and cellular, according to ABI Research.

Jump Technologies Inc., a vendor of cloud-based software for supply-chain management, has extended its inventory-management tool to the healthcare industry.

Tecsys Inc. has developed the OR Inventory Manager, to aid in the management of supply chains supporting hospital operating rooms.

Small to medium-sized shippers have a low adoption rate for transportation management systems because traditional systems cost too much and are not geared to the specific needs of smaller businesses, says J.P. Wiggins, vice president of logistics at 3Gtms.

SciQuest has released a new version of its spend-management suite.

Vanderlande Industries has launched an automated storage and retrieval system, dubbed Quickstore Microshuttle.

Long waiting lines of incoming trucks at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach create an unacceptable drag on productivity, says Mike Stark, president and CEO of Pacer Distribution Services and an active member of the Harbor Trucking Association. Stark explains how adaptive appointment software could help remedy this situation.

Big data can be a powerful enabler of better business decisions, but getting the right data to the right person in an actionable form presents huge challenges. Richard Sharpe, CEO of Competitive Insights, helps demystify the subject and explains why mastering big data is worth the effort.