In the quest to increase productivity in material handling and manufacturing environments and be more responsive to the changing interests and expectations of the consumer, companies are increasingly embracing new technology.

The growth of e-commerce around peak shopping season is no longer a new story, and this year was no exception. But 2017’s peak season did raise some eyebrows for getting off to an unusually early start, with sales from Nov. 1 to Nov. 22 up 17.9 percent, year-over-year, according to Internet Retailer’s report on the peak shopping season.

As the size of the PC market has declined, Intel has adopted what it calls the virtuous cycle of growth. In this strategy, sales of things and devices such as PCs, autonomous vehicles, industrial robots, and self-flying drones drive additional compute loads on the cloud and data center.

To keep up with rapid change and to stay competitive in the digital age, telecommunications giant Vodafone realized it had to transform and streamline its supply chain operation to become world-class in efficiency and agility.

Logistics companies went on a hiring spree in November to handle the holiday surge in online shopping, adding thousands of jobs picking items off shelves in warehouses and delivering packages to customers’ homes.