In releasing its first mid-year global outlook, D+B suggests that the second half of the yer will be challenging, but there will be an overall climate of improving U.S. and global business health.

The number of pirate attacks fell sharply in the first half of 2012, led by a drop in Somali piracy, according to the International Maritime Bureau's global piracy report. At the same time, those positive numbers were offset by a worrying increase of attacks in the Gulf of Guinea.

Performance metrics for warehouses and distribution centers have steadily improved since 2003, when the Warehousing Education and Research Council first conducted its annual "DC Measures" study, says Joe Tillman, senior researcher at Supply Chain Visions and co-author of the study. Moreover, the gap has significantly narrowed between best-in-class companies and those lower on the performance scale, he says.

Quality is an everyday conversation on the manufacturing floor. Performance measures such as first-pass yield, reject rates, and scrap and rework are displayed on white boards at cells and assembly lines, ruthlessly analyzed and targeted for improvement. Quality tools abound.

Tom Heebink, western regional manager of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, explains the group's origin, and how it's helping fledgling biotech companies to attracting funding.

Mike Cleland, vice president of NorthHighland, discusses what biotech and pharma companies need to do to comply with new regulations for tracking products throughout the supply chain.

When rain doesn't fall in Iowa, it's not just Des Moines that starts fretting. Food buyers from Addis Ababa to Beijing all are touched by the fate of the corn crop in the U.S., the world's breadbasket in an era when crop shortages mean riots.

The risk of counterfeit parts and products is no stranger to the semiconductor and electronics industry. Recent news spanning industries has underscored the reach of the problem of substandard, non-conforming and counterfeit parts in the wider, global supply chain.

All companies great and small will eventually work with a SaaS provider. In most cases, the standard contract should suffice, but CIOs will never know what they can add (or subtract) if they don't ask.