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Business Strategy Alignment: Page 495

Does a Seven-Year Itch Make Us Switch ERP Providers?

In the '90s, ERP officially became a technology market segment challenging MRP, accounting and financial-only package sales. At the time, companies worried that they would confront major replacement challenges when their business changed, grew or (most often) new and better technologies came along, making a compelling argument and value opportunity to replace and migrate upward.

Of Zippers, Matzos and Closed Supply Chains

We like the term "supply chain" because it suggests a tightly interlinked series of steps that results in the uninterrupted flow of product from the raw-materials stage all the way to the consumer. But the word "chain" also evokes a burden, and that's how many companies have come to view their operations in recent years. Hence the mania for outsourcing everything from design and manufacturing to logistics.

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Companies Face Talent Management Challenges in Emerging Markets, Survey Finds

Emerging market multinationals are struggling to build effective international management teams as they grapple with cultural differences, conflicting internal perceptions of talent management, difficulties in balancing global and local talent, and a lack of a reliable leadership pipeline.

Where's the Rush to Bolt from China and Reshore in the U.S.?

This spring, President Obama said he had "good news" to report: Lost American jobs are returning to the U.S. "For a lot of businesses, it's now starting to make sense to bring jobs back home." In trumpeting this "reshoring" of jobs from abroad, the administration points to employers, including General Electric and Caterpillar, that have shifted some manufacturing to the U.S. The president also cited an April online survey by Boston Consulting Group showing that 37 percent of manufacturers with sales of more than $1bn and almost half of those with more than $10bn "plan to or are actively considering bringing back production from China to the U.S." Yet there's little data to back up claims of a reshoring rush.

Social Media Are Both Boon and Bane for Businesses

Business uses for YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are fast catching up to the leisure uses that have been their primary raison d'etre so far, and usage of LinkedIn, which was created as a business tool, keeps soaring.

R+D Sprouts Innovative Packaging Material Made from Mushroom Roots

Sealed Air Corporation and Ecovative Design LLC say they are accelerating production, sales and distribution of Ecovative's EcoCradle Mushroom Packaging, a technology for environmentally responsible packaging materials made from agricultural byproducts and mycelium, or "mushroom roots."

CSDP Teams With Sorvive Technologies on Cloud-Based Middleware Tool

A new partnership between Customer Service Delivery Platform (CSDP) and Sorvive Technologies is offering cloud-based middleware to help companies unite internal and external data, business processes and technology.

Failure to Integrate Companies Properly and Timely Sinks Many Mergers

Acquisitions are a vital component of growth for many businesses. Yet a high proportion of deals fail to deliver value. Why? A common reason is that, because of time pressures and complexity, many companies struggle to integrate fully after the deal. Synergy targets that were so enticing in the run-up to the deal melt away under the realities of meshing two often very different organizations in a short time.

IHS Launches Update of Standards-Management Platform

IHS Inc., a provider of business information and analytics systems, has launched version 5.0 of IHS Standards Expert. The tool simplifies and expedites the process of finding and managing standards.

Economic Forecast by CFOs, Accountants Shows Pessimistic Outlook for Global Growth

The world's CEOs, CFOs and senior management accountants have an increasingly negative outlook for the global economy over the next 12 months, according to the CGMA Global Economic Forecast released today by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). The quarterly forecast polled 600 management accountants from more than 60 countries on global and domestic economic conditions and the outlook for their organizations.

Mimicking Apple, Best Buy Re-Tools Its Retail Strategy

Good artists copy, but does the saying apply to retailers too? Best Buy hopes so, as it's converting 60 of its locations into Apple Store lookalikes, according to a new report.

How Procurement Innovation Can Drive Productivity Gains

Innovation is required if the U.S. is to regain the level of productivity that it enjoyed toward the end of the 19th Century through the mid-20th Century. However, innovation by itself is not enough. Just as our parents and grandparents adopted electricity, the automobile, credit cards and airplanes in the period from 1870-1950, businesses and organizations of the 21st Century must embrace change.

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How a Leading U.S. Floral Distribution Company Reduced Warehouse Labor Costs by 45% with RFID

Recycled Tagging Fasteners: Small Changes Make a Big Impact

Mobile geolocation service for track delivery, cargo shipment and freight transportation. Logistic Import Export business (Elements of this image furnished by NASA)

Enhancing High-Value Electronics Shipment Security with Tive's Real-Time Tracking

Franchise business e-commerce online e-marketplace or digital marketing branch expansion for growth or use technology to analyze product consumer data website management plan for sale service concept.

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