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By Andrew K. Reese and Sarah Murray

Adaptable. Agile. Customer-focused. Global. Scalable. A modern supply chain must have all these characteristics (and more) as the "push" economy of yesterday gives way to the 21st century's demand-driven "pull" economy. To compete successfully in this new reality, enterprises of all sizes are turning to technology and service cproviders to help them enable their "21st century supply chains."

For this reason, this year's "Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100" feature focuses on how supply chain solution and service providers are helping their customers meet the challenges of today's marketplace. We sought to identify the leading providers of supply chain services and technologies who are at the forefront of enabling the supply chain. But more than that, we sought to uncover the best practices and processes that leading companies are putting in place around these services and technologies to bring new competitive advantage to their supply chains.

The result is a comprehensive list of "tips and tools" that small, midsize and large enterprises and organizations across a variety of vertical sectors are employing to transform their supply chain operations. Certainly not all the "best practices" included in this article will apply to your organization, but you can be certain that your competitors and partners are using many of these new practices and processes to improve their operations.

The results are grouped by functional segment of the supply chain (Order/Demand Management, Sourcing/Procurement, Fulfillment/Logistics, etc.), and then broken down by the different solution providers (in alphabetical order). We suggest scanning through the article section focusing on the functional segment most directly applicable to the challenges you are facing in your supply chain. Then home in on those "best practices" that stand out for their potential to help in your supply chain transformation, and use the supplied information on the service and solution providers to learn more about how the enablers are assisting their customers in making the supply chain enablement journey. Our goal is to provide a vital first step for your own transformation journey.