Archive: Dec 2007

Selecting a Global Trade Management Provider

Language barriers, distance and time differences, security issues, and customs rules make global sourcing difficult to manage. Selecting the right global trade management (GTM) solution can help. Here’s some advice from Graham Napier, CEO of TradeBeam Technologies. 1. Look for immediate value. Identify a GTM provider with solutions that deliver immediate impact in core areas. […]

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The Case for a Global Trading Partner Network

America’s appetite for imports continues to grow—in 2006, the United States imported a record $1.6 trillion of goods, according to U.S. Customs. But today’s global trade practices are highly fragmented. A typical overseas purchase, for example, requires the various parties in the logistics process to trade more than 60 different documents across partners, countries, languages, […]

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The Best Companies Hire the Best People

In today’s complex business environment, nothing is more important than justifying dollar impact. In sports, when a team wants to win a championship, the least expensive option is never considered. Managers want to ensure a win, regardless of cost. They are looking at Return on Investment (ROI). Likewise, all business functions ranging from sales and […]

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One Small Victory

What were the legislators in Michigan thinking? What started out three years ago as a grass roots voter initiative to simplify tax procedures ended up as a six-percent state tax on warehousing and logistics activities. Clearly an anti-labor, anti-business, and anti-economic development move by Michigan lawmakers who forgot they preside over the state with the […]

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Gauging Change

A soft economy, increasing global competition, the Mississippi River bridge collapse, and an influx of product recalls give global shippers plenty of reasons to slow down and check the rear-view mirror before accelerating into 2008.

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Thinking TMS

As the transportation management systems market broadens, and as software delivery options expand, businesses increasingly have TMS on the brain.

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Bethany Adamonis: Ready for the Real World

When Bethany Adamonis headed for her co-op job last January, she didn’t know a great deal about supply chain management, her college major. Up to that point, she’d taken only one course on the subject, an introductory class that was so theoretical she couldn’t see how the principles she learned would play out in the […]

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2008: Applying What We Learned

In this last column of 2007, I thought I’d look back at some practical issues addressed last year, and speculate on future trends in supply chain risk and liability. Insurers will broaden their scope. In October, we heard from a logistics operator whose business grew, through an acquisition, from handling and transporting air cargo to […]

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