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.

Roper Industries said Monday it plans to buy on-demand SCM (supply chain management) software vendor iTradeNetwork from private equity firm Accel-KKR for US$525 million. The transaction is expected to close later this week.

Melbourne-based oil and margarine manufacturing company Peerless Foods has snubbed the multi-national ERP vendors and developed its own software to manage everything from invoices to product distribution.

Let's call it the Wall Street Effect: Many companies now face tremendous pressure to ensure that all corporate data is "up to the second," just like those traders on The Street who bask in sub-second financial data and those consumer "day traders" who now demand equal speed.