Building solid supplier relationships and focusing on value creation can help supply managers discover strategic suppliers' unique capabilities.

Is ignorance bliss when it comes to sourcing? A recent poll of buyers in the retail, grocery and restaurant chain industries found that 75 percent of those not using e-sourcing methods are confident that they're getting the best value from their suppliers. But they're wrong, according to a report from Intesource. A suppliers' true rock-bottom price is almost always far lower than a buyer suspects. And it's even more likely another qualified source may be hungrier for new business. Buyers just need to know how to shift the tables.

Many large U.S. companies continue to try and "game the system" at year's end, artificially improving their balance sheets by manipulating receivables, payables and inventory, according to a study from REL, a division of The Hackett Group. Their efforts, which can range from deep discounting and extended payment terms on sales to simply "losing" supplier bills, do have a positive impact in Q4, the study found. But these companies pay a harsh price in Q1, when working capital performance bounces back to even worse levels than before.

Mazree has created what it claims is the first business-to-business social network for supply-chain and business collaboration.

FoodLink, a buying platform that connects fresh food retailers and wholesalers to a network of more than 2,000 supplier companies, will acquire TRUETRAC, a provider of mobile traceability solutions to growers, harvesters, packers and shippers of fresh-packed produce. The combined company will be the food industry's first integrated network for produce traceability that links crop planning, harvesting, packing, order management, shipping, receiving and individual item tracking from the field to the supermarket checkout line.

Chemlogix LLC, a provider of transportation, technology and supply-chain consulting services to the chemical industry, has launched a new freight-brokerage service.

Why is there a critical shortage of people who are qualified to manage global procurement? And how can the problem be remedied? We get some answers from Mickey North Rizza, formerly research director with Gartner Supply Chain and now vice president of advisory services at BravoSolution.

ARC Advisory Group has released a new tool to help companies select and manage their suppliers.

The CoPilot GPS truck-navigation system of ALK Technologies, Inc. has been integrated into the cloud-based mobile software product line of Airclic.