SAP AG has introduced a series of mobile applications for business users and consumers. The new tools provide real-time access to human resources, finance, sales and mobile commerce functions.

As a leading contract manufacturer of electronics, Celestica works with a diverse supply base comprised of thousands of vendors. Six years ago, the company began a major initiative to gain better visibility and control of supplier performance, an effort that led to creation of a proprietary supplier collaboration tool known as Live Share.

LeanLogistics, a provider of transportation-management system (TMS) software, has adapted its On-Demand TMS SuiteApp for the NetSuite SuiteCloud computing platform.

Terra Technology has added to its Demand Sensing product suite with the introduction of a Long-Term Demand Sensing (LDS) application.

People, processes and technology are the three key areas where companies are experiencing "pain points" in their forecasting efforts, says Eric Ball, solutions manager with Avercast LLC. The people side is especially vital, given the trend within many companies of "trying to do more with less." Too often businesses rely on a new piece of technology to improve their forecasting, ignoring the need for humans to run the system. "Coupled with budget cutbacks left and right, developing personnel is a tremendous issue," he says.

The electronic industry has always been characterized by high variability in supply and demand. With recent natural disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and flooding in the parts of the U.S., the problem has only become more acute. Tackling it requires state-of-the-art systems, strong management commitment, good customer service, well-run business processes, integration among functions and effective inventory-control procedures, says Dave Lentz, director of innovation and solutions marketing with Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas.

Epicor Software Corp. has introduced a new version of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) application. The update contains more than 300 new features and enhancements across every suite, including the Epicor ICE Business Architecture.

There are three things certain in life. We all know the two cited by Benjamin Franklin, but there's a third certainty that we all face regularly and have to cope with constantly - that we'll make mistakes. Everyone makes them; if it hasn't happened to your business, you haven't been in business long.

"Sometimes buzz begets buzz." That's Patrick Bower's explanation for why sales and operations planning (S&OP), hardly a new concept, has become so important to companies today. According to the senior director of corporate planning with Combe Inc., globalization has had a big influence on companies looking for ways to plan demand within increasingly complex supply chains.

Companies wonder how often they should meet in order to achieve maximum information-sharing within the organization, as part of an effective sales and operations planning (S&OP) process. "As often as they need," advises Sanjiv Sharma, head of sales and operations planning with Rolls-Royce Energy Systems. "As little as they can get away with."