The morning after the high-tech boom, a lot of expensive software is sitting around unused. But companies are starting to wake up to its potential.

The first generation of SCEM vendors did not offer enough value to earn a permanent place in the marketplace, but a new wave of vendors with expanded capabilities promises to do a lot better.

Transportation and distribution providers could benefit from the use of customer relationship management tools, experts say. But some don't seem to want to hear about the technology.

Supply-chain plans tend to collapse when demand spikes, supplier failures and other problems at the execution level radically change the underlying assumptions. But better planning techniques, event management tools and a new generation of web-based collaborative solutions can keep these plans on track.