Marc L. Songini

A lack of standards has become a huge barrier to using e-business technology to automate corporate supply chains, according to attendees at a recent conference in New Orleans, and there currently is no real solution in sight.

North American-based companies looking to automate transnational supply chains frequently have to alter their internal systems in order to handle the technical and business variables that await them in other countries, according to attendees at a supply-chain conference held in Cancun, Mexico this week.

Latin American countries can offer U.S.-based firms an opportunity to expand their list of suppliers while cutting down on costs. However, a lack of reliable communications networks and differences in currency, transportation, infrastructure and laws are just some of the issues they face in return.

Footwear maker Nike Inc. disclosed Tuesday that installation problems involving a new set of supply-chain management applications are playing a big role in an expected profit shortfall in the company's fiscal third quarter, which ends tomorrow.

Although Oracle Corp. is pointing to an increasing number of installations of the E-Business Suite 11i applications it shipped last year, users and analysts said many companies are still waiting for the technology to become more mature before upgrading from earlier versions of the software.

Looking to reduce its expenses, customer relationship management (CRM) software vendor Pegasystems Inc. Tuesday announced plans to cut its workforce by 13 per cent and warned that fourth-quarter sales will likely come in below expectations.

Invensys PLC next year plans to beef up the customer relationship management (CRM) software it bought in an August acquisition of financially strapped Baan Co. NV by adding Web support and other new features

Looking to avoid last year's holiday-season mistakes, online toy retailers are busily beefing up their supply-chain capabilities in an effort to make this Christmas a merrier one from a business standpoint