GHX has announced Case Xpert and Order Intelligence, reportedly the healthcare industry's first end-to-end supply chain solutions for managing and tracking implantable medical devices, including the physician preference items (PPI) used in operating rooms.

U.S. distributors and freight haulers have held down diesel consumption even as their business recovers from recession by making thousands of small changes to their operations. Improved driver training, restrictions on idling and careful route planning to reduce deadheads are all reducing consumption of expensive diesel while helping companies promote their green credentials.

South African companies, particularly bigger enterprises, are making significant progress in optimizing their supply chains; however, opportunities for further enhancement do exist even for the most advanced practitioners.

After a few years of early adopter successes, 2013 will be the year of larger scale adoption of big data technologies, market watchers predict.

New York-based BizSlate is launching its cloud-based resource planning tool to give small business a hand with their supply chain challenges. Unlike legacy vendors in that sector, including SAP and Netsuite, the technology is specifically designed for department stores, retail chains, small boutiques and the like. Chief executive Marc Kalman says BizSlate is ideal for companies that have "outgrown QuickBooks" but don't have ample resources at their disposal for IT.

The Middle Eastern and Northern African public cloud services market will see strong growth in 2013, experts predict. The increase in spending will represent a 24.5-percent increase from 2012, with revenue forecast to reach $462.3m in 2013, according to Gartner. The Middle Eastern and Northern African public cloud services market is forecast by the research group to grow 13.4 percent in 2012 to total $371.2m, compared to $110bn worldwide.