The times they are a changin' for the players across pharmaceutical supply chains, from API suppliers to CMOs, to manufacturers, packagers, distributors, dispensers/pharmacies ... just about everyone across the chain.

Transportation management software providers have been in a race in the last few years to build out their software and capture more business. ERP players have also been building or buying TM. A profusion of new modules, emerging players, new niches and acquisitions are reaching a fevered pitch. And we are certainly not at the heights yet.

With the current state of IoT security, we might call it the Internet-of-Vulnerable-Things. It's all the more alarming because of the types of physical machines/systems that are increasingly network-connected - traffic lights, airplanes, nuclear power plants, and other critical or potentially lethal systems.

With omnichannel, consumers and their mobile phones are doing pricing, web shopping and so forth. But what about manufacturers? They have omnichannels of their own, and suppliers to those retailers are an intrinsic part of retailers' strategies, yet the media is paying this scant attention.

Don't get left behind by more companies with more innovative and agile supply chains. Supply chain digitization is happening now. New networked technology platforms are co-evolving with new networked business models, together enabling companies to rapidly find, assess and integrate with trading partners in order to swiftly create and deliver unique and valuable products and services.

IoT generates a tremendous amount of data - much more than people generate manually with their keyboards and cameras. And the volume of IoT data being generated will continue to increase at an exponential pace. How can companies extract the maximum value from that data? How should they think about it?

Innovation is the top goal for the business community, according to ChainLink Research's annual survey of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and solutions and logistics services providers.