The majority of healthcare payment processes remain paper-intensive, despite electronic payments being the most efficient and cost-effective B2B payment method.Inefficient processes cost the industry millions of dollars annually. In fact, data shows it costs as much as $31 to manually process each i

Last year, supply-chain disruptions hit a record high, with North America at the top of the list as the most affected region. In fact, 1,069 events took place within just the first six months of the year – the highest since 2010.As new markets open up or change, even more significant risks may

Business theorists have been talking up the concept of supply chain as a “competitive weapon” for so many years that if it were really happening, they’d have a well-stocked armory by now.Unfortunately, aspiration doesn’t make for a strategy that can be taken to battle. Too ma

Deciding to go paperless can seem overwhelming. However, refusing to do it will eventually cause your business to fall behind.Converting to a paperless office offers a number of benefits that bolster the bottom line. From cloud storage to digital signatures, there are a number of solutions to pursue

Supply chain finance is a large and growing industry. In 2015, a McKinsey report suggested that SCF had a potential global revenue pool of $20bn, while in 2017 China’s supply chain finance sector was tipped to reach US$2.27trn by 2020. Additionally, a 2017 ICC survey of banks in 98 countries i

A year after tariffs on more than 1,300 Chinese goods first sent importers reeling, the news supply chain managers everywhere have been dreading is finally here.Last week's tariff increase from 10 percent to 25 percent, which went into effect May 10, gave organizations less than a week to plan f

Suppliers are scrambling to meet Walmart’s tighter standards for delivery performance — and they can expect the giant retailer to keep raising the bar.Walmart has imposed an on-time, in-full (OTIF) metric on its suppliers since 2017. Last year, it upped the requirement for timely de

In an increasingly competitive industry, retailers can no longer rely on providing the right product at the right price, with customer service taking center ground in the battle for consumers’ hard-earned cash.Retailers that have performed well in recent years have done so by providing a consi

Emerging technologies like predictive analytics, augmented reality and blockchain have the potential to transform supply-chain operations. Leading the charge for businesses in the digital age: edge computing.At its simplest, edge computing is the processing and analyzing of data along a network

Relationships with third-party logistics providers and freight forwarders have the potential to deliver value beyond the primary scope of work through data-driven optimization insights. But many enterprises have little to no formal mechanism or governance process in place to engage their freight and

Few industries stand to benefit from blockchain technology more than the wine and spirits business.The promise of blockchain is that of an immutable record of business transactions, distributed among multiple computers so as to prevent tampering with the data. The system looks to be of particular va

When it comes to eliminating bribery and corruption from your supply chain, who is this “foreign public official” that you have to worry about?The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, enacted in 1977, bars companies from making payments to foreign officials “to assist in retaining or obt

The “IMO Scramble” isn’t the name of a new breakfast dish at a fast-food restaurant. It describes the plight of ocean carriers, who find themselves woefully unprepared for a new mandate on switching to cleaner-burning fuel.On January 1, 2020, The International Maritime Organization

Leading companies in most every Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) industry code have used supply chain and sales and operations planning (S&OP) to create competitive advantage as measured by bottom-line finance metrics. Meanwhile, the remaining 95 percent of industry participants have cum

It’s been a rocky start for high-tech wearable devices for the consumer. But the supply chain offers a more fertile ground for growth.As a fashion accessory for tech-happy buyers, Google Glass hasn’t exactly set the world on fire. The Apple Watch was slower getting out of the gate than i

Over the past decade, the retail industry has undergone a drastic makeover.  To remain relevant and adapt to the complexities of the modern industry, retailers must shift their strategies to be better aligned with fluctuating consumer preferences, demographics, tastes and attitudes. Busine

As supply-chain design and management struggles to live up to modern-day business imperatives, enterprise decision makers have turned their gaze toward the inefficiencies plaguing it.Across the globe, the supply-chain discipline is realizing that any compromises in the flow of information can be a g

Chris Yeh, the tech entrepreneur, startup mentor and author, invites you to imagine yourself at the head of a company that’s on the brink of dizzying growth — a 50-fold increase in employees, and 300 times revenues — within the next three years. And he asks: “Would

When it comes to car transportation services, considerations of price and quality are key. No one wants a car with scratches, paint chips and dents when it arrives. So here is a checklist of questions to consider before hiring a logistics company to move your car.What kind of car-shipping company yo

A 2014 Deloitte survey found that 69 percent of chief procurement officers saw cost reduction as their main priority over the following 12 months. In 2018, the same survey showed that the number had jumped to 78 percent – a 9-percent increase in just four years.The ability to understand spendi