Visibility is a hot supply chain topic. Our writers have cranked out articles on the subject, Buzz posts links to visibility articles every week, and I bet you’ve heard from sales guys and marketers pushing their solutions. But what’s it mean when you really get down to it?

Back in the old days when I led a large EDI/eBusiness team, visibility to us meant the ability to locate and see a transaction from beginning to end. For example, for an outbound document we’d want to see it tracked from the ERP module, through our interface, into our translator, in its interchange on the way to the VAN, at the VAN, and receipt verified from the partner. Read more...

When Dickens wrote ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’, he wasn’t prognosticating about today’s world. Or was he? If you embrace dazzling technology and mind-blowing innovation, times are good. If you abhor change and get uptight reading about how different the world will be in just a few years, your stomach may be in perpetual knots. The velocity of change is quickening, and there’s no reason to think it’ll slow down.

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It must be that time of year. Ever since Amazon began its foray into B2B products, business writers feel obligated to explain every so often how Amazon Supply (AS) will steamroll its new competitors. The latest article, by Clare O’Connor on the Forbes site (see it HERE), doesn’t break much new ground.

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