With sales of roughly half a billion dollars, Dorman Products is one of the world's leading manufacturers of automotive parts for the aftermarket, selling more than 100,000 distinct products. The company has experienced sharp growth over the past four years, says director of corporate forecasting Donald H. Mitchell. Recently, it saw the need to transform its demand-planning process, in order to create "a more transparent environment."

One Network Enterprises, a U.S.-based provider of technology to enable supply-chain collaboration, has expanded its market presence into Africa.

Carrier Transicold, a supplier of systems for maintaining temperature controls during shipping, has developed "next-generation" trailer refrigeration technology.

JDA Software Group Inc. has opened its first office in the Russian Federation.

Vistaar Technologies Inc., a provider of price-management software, has made available version 1.5 of its Distribution Price Management application for alcoholic-beverage companies.

International Asset Systems has released a new set of business-intelligence modules that were designed to improve the ability of users to view and analyze the "big data" generated by everyday equipment repair and dispatch operations.

A mere 19 percent of users are "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their current solution for sales force automation (SFA) analytics and more than four-fifths must augment the built-in analytic capabilities with additional tools to address their analytic needs, according to a survey conducted for Birst Inc., provider of business analytics.

Gas and electric utilities may have a number of unique operating characteristics, but they share with other industries the need to emphasize customer service, operate safely, create a reliable supply chain and reward shareholders. PG&E's pursuit of those goals led it to integrate formal sales and operations planning (S&OP) into the organization.

ALK Technologies Inc. is offering a new version of CoPilot Truck, its vehicle-specific GPS navigation aid for professional drivers.