In a digital age where a delay of seconds or one human error can be the cause of lost revenue, wasted resources or unhappy customers, good technology becomes critical to run a business. Twelve years after the ocean shipping industry adopted e-commerce tools that resulted in an average savings of $100,000 per year and hundreds of thousands of labor hours per week, the final steps in the shipping process - invoicing and payment - are still catching up.

United States freight carload traffic gained ground during the week ending March 16, 2013, up 0.5 percent measured against the comparable week in 2012, said the Association of American Railroads.

Crowley Maritime Corp. has added a second weekly southbound sailing from Port Everglades, Fla., to Nassau, Bahamas, as part of its Caribbean ocean-freight service.

U.S. manufacturers are targeting an aggressive 1.5-percent reduction in cost of goods sold for 2013 in an effort to drive margin growth, according to a new study from The Hackett Group. With GDP growth stabilizing in major regions of the world, manufacturers are expecting reduced sales forecast uncertainty, enabling them to plan supply requirements and manufacturing capacity with far greater confidence, the study found.

Analyst Insight: Lately, activity in horizontal collaboration has increased. Although this is still not a scalable practice, the number of studies and pilot projects are growing. While many variations of collaboration exist, all significantly impact transportation management. - Bill Loftis, Senior Principal, Tompkins International

Analyst Insight: In recent years, due to the changing and challenging global economy, there has been much talk about the need to balance natural competitive pressures with collaborative engagement across the supply base. The trick, of course, is how to do both things - competition and collaboration - effectively. I believe it starts with trust. - Kate Vitasek, faculty, University of Tennessee's Center for Executive Education, and Founder, Supply Chain Visions