Carl Zeiss Vision South Africa has been making use of strategic partnerships in order to improve visibility across the supply chain and underline its commitment to excellent customer service.

acQuire Technology Solutions has ambitious plans for diversification and growth. CEO Warren Cook talks to Gay Sutton about product innovation and building a management structure that can be replicated across new marketplaces.

John Pymer, managing director of Certification International, explains the business benefits of achieving an internationally recognised environmental quality standard.

With supply chain processes and product flows optimised ‘to the max’ during the recession, an increasing number of organisations are switching on to substantial further productivity improvements which can be achieved through the introduction of supply chain workforce management systems, as Chris Buckley, services director of RedPrairie, explains.

Ben Dhesi, head of energy management at Pulse Commercial Utilities, a leading commercial energy brokers for UK businesses, looks at recent developments in the energy sector and discusses what this could mean for UK energy prices in the future.

Unnecessary complexity is costing the world’s businesses billions, say the authors of a recent global study on the topic—but fortunately, there are a number of ways in which you can reduce complexity and re-acquaint yourself with the benefits of simplicity.

Tel Aviv is not only Israel’s second city by population and its business capital, it is also globally recognized as one of the world’s most innovative startup hubs. In addition, according to one 2018 report, more than 300 large multinational firms have set up research and development centers in Israel – mostly in Tel Aviv – to take advantage of its young, tech-savvy population.

The US Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act is to be introduced today in the House of Representatives.

The bill would ban federal grants or guaranteed loans to American companies that move call center jobs from the US overseas, and require the list of companies that offshore call center work to be made available to the public.

It also requires call center employees to disclose their location to US consumers, and requires that call centers transfer consumers to a call center in the US upon request.

French water utility Veolia Environnement has announced plans to divest several of its UK assets as part of its restructuring programme.

The €5 billion of assets it will sell include three UK-regulated water companies and its 50 per cent stake in public transport company Transdev.

The three companies are Veolia Water Central, Southeast and East—known until 2009 as Three Valleys Water, Tendring Hundred and Folkestone & Dover. Together, the companies have a combined turnover of £269 million and serve more than three million customers.