Digital mapping company Esri has announced a partnership with crowdsourcing traffic app maker Waze to help city governments and drivers communicate more efficiently about traffic conditions, including construction delays and accidents. By using Esri ArcGIS (geographic information system) software to connect to a new Waze connected citizens program, cities can share data about the conditions of their roads with drivers, while drivers can anonymously report accidents, potholes and other road condition information.

The vision of the so-called internet of things - giving all sorts of physical things a digital makeover - has been years ahead of reality. But that gap is closing fast, according to Gartner, a research firm. Today, the range of things being computerized and connected to networks is stunning, from watches, appliances and clothing to cars, jet engines and factory equipment. Even roadways and farm fields are being upgraded with digital sensors. In the last two years, the number of internet-of-things devices in the world has surged nearly 70 percent to 6.4 billion, Gartner says. By 2020, the firm forecasts, the internet-of-things population will reach 20.8 billion.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been widely celebrated as a game-changing technology for field service and maintenance applications because it allows one device to "talk" to another, communicating when a machine or system could potentially degrade or fail. But what if the "breakdown" is occurring not within a facility or a production process, but within the human body?

The future of the U.S. healthcare system could be influenced to a large extent by a company that makes weapons of war.

Many retailers struggle with balancing their brick-and-mortar business with e-commerce, but warehouse automation and Big Data are there to help.

The recent hack of the Democratic National Committee is the latest in a string of high-profile data breaches that have exposed the private information of millions of Americans. Retail companies, in particular, have been hard hit, resulting in millions of dollars being spent to secure computer systems and compensate consumers.

In today's world of web-based ordering, consumers expect the right products to be available all the time, delivered quickly, and for status updates to be provided at every stage of the process until the product is received. This places very high expectations on wholesalers, suppliers, distributors and retailers alike to ensure they are able to meet this demand, and they have little margin for errors and delays. The manual processes businesses have historically relied on make them vulnerable to the factors that contribute to these shortcomings and can negatively affect production, margins, reputation, scorecard performance and, ultimately, the bottom line. Because of this, supply chain executives are embracing real-time visibility and system collaboration.