Technology and infrastructure investments will account for 50 percent of Pier 1 Imports' $70m to $75m in planned capital expenditures this year, but the retailer will have a lot of IT-enabled activity to show for its money. Two of the biggest elements are the July 28 launch of Pier 1's new e-commerce site and the planned rollout of its new POS system beginning this fall.

Idealcombi has reduced the time required to produce a custom window or door down to about one minute, using EPC Gen 2 passive UHF tags to automatically adjust the settings on its manufacturing equipment.

Kohl's Department Stores is to install solar panels at roughly 30 additional locations, expanding its existing solar program by nearly 25 percent.

You can learn a lot by monitoring consumer conversations in social media. It can predict political elections, the Oscars and even the next reality show winner. If you are a CPG marketer, social media can also be a real-time predictor of your new product's success.

The Indonesian economy has surged forward to its highest level in years. While growth is expected to be 6.1 percent in 2012, on June 7 the Jakarta Globe reported the government reckons it to be 7.2 percent next year. (World Bank estimates previously had suggested 6.4% growth in GDP in 2013.)

The Consumer Goods Forum has created what it calls the first professional online network of the retail and consumer goods industry. The purpose is enable the group's mission to facilitate industry-wide collaboration and to enable members to work together by serving shoppers, consumers and communities better, faster, with greater value and more responsibly.

Medical technology companies looking to grow globally are finding that one approach does not fit all markets, and they are developing customized growth strategies to penetrate emerging markets, with products tailored to unique local market needs. The challenge is that companies are also finding that limited visibility into globalized manufacturing and distribution chains is leading to increased risk, according to a study co-sponsored by PwC US and published by Axendia, a life sciences and healthcare advisory firm.

Just when you thought cloud computing couldn't get any more complicated and fraught with hidden gotchas, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue has jumped in to sprinkle taxation magic on your cloud business cases. What the Keystone State did - and other states are likely to follow - doesn't make cloud any less profitable, but the specifics of the cloud deployment could now impact tax costs.