It is no longer a question of if but when autonomous vehicles (AVs) will hit the road. In the auto industry's most significant inflection in 100 years, vehicles with varying levels of self-driving capability - ranging from single-lane highway driving to autonomous valet parking to traffic jam autopilot - will start to become available to consumers as soon as mid-2015 or early 2016. Development of autonomous-driving technology is gaining momentum across a broad front that encompasses OEMs, suppliers, technology providers, academic institutions, municipal governments, and regulatory bodies.

A rationale often used in support of a more centralized corporate purchasing function is the need for a company to project "One Face to the Supplier".

Applying leverage in negotiations results in a zero-sum outcome where one side wins and the other side loses. This typically means that the winner ends up with somewhat more than 50 percent of their hoped-for result and the loser gets somewhat less than 50 percent since, just as in sports competitions where the potential results are win-lose, lose-win and tie, the use of leverage doesn't allow for combined outcomes above 100 percent. Zero-sum outcomes not only create a relational imbalance, they create hard feelings. People who lose in one negotiation often do their best to turn the tables the next time such that they win - and you lose.

Nearly 80 percent of international businesses are unable to take advantage of early payment discounts from their suppliers, mostly due to internal payment process bottlenecks, according to global research report by Basware and MasterCard.

Ray Barger, research director with Gartner, describes the firm's five-stage "maturity model" for supply-chain management and procurement. He also grades companies' progress toward ultimate maturity.

ARC Advisory Group has introduced a new service to support supplier relationship management (SRM).

More than half of chief procurement officers have agreed that their company pursues short-term savings from suppliers that undermine long-term value, according to a survey by the Consero Group.