One critical shortage in the supply chain right now has nothing to do with Apple iPhones, Nintendo Wiis or Zhu Zhu Pets being out of stock for the holidays: It's the people who manage companies' supply chains.

Best Practices: It's an often overused term that can apply to literally any decision-making process: parenting quandaries, personal finance questions, buying a house, getting a job, or selecting a puppy breed.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has extended its working relationship with General Electric (GE) through a $20 million agreement which will result in a number of new research and development (R&D) projects carried out in Australia during the next five years.

Intel and GE will combine health-IT assets to form a company that focuses on providing medical care technologies to the elderly and people with chronic illnesses, the companies announced on Monday.

As hospitals and physician practices wrestle with the technically daunting and expensive task of rolling out electronic medical records systems quickly enough to gain government reimbursement monies, the financing arms of IT giants such as IBM and GE Healthcare hope to profit by loaning money to jump start such projects.