Food Service Industries Spotlight 2011

By Sonya Sobato; Rueya Ceylon, Research Analysts

The food service industry is one of the largest industries in the United States.

Statistics by the U.S Bureau of Labor state that food preparation and serving related sectors combined to be the third largest employer by occupational groups in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.

It is indicated that 2011 could be an excellent year for the restaurant industry.  Sales are expected to climb up to a four year high, according to industry analysts.  A recently released report by research firm Technomic predicts that the total U.S food service sales will overshadow 2010 by an increase of 1.7% in sales on a nominal basis and dipping just 0.3% on a real basis, which takes inflation into menu price consideration.  And if this forecast is realized, it would be some of the highest growth since 2008.

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Process Automation Systems in the US

The automation systems market for process industries encompass all control processes ranging from chemical, oil refineries, papers and pulp only.  Automation systems have recently become a necessity for many industries, particularly pharmaceuticals, food, beverages, and fast-moving consumer goods as ‘digitization of manufacturing processes’  have become a more efficient alternative employed by major companies to ensure efficiency and hasten production in their respective sites. 

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Harnessing Perceptions in B2B Markets

By Ruth Stanat, SIS International

Business-to-Business markets often neglect the importance of opinion and perception among B2B stakeholders.  But, understanding perception is crucial as it impacts the decision to invest in certain areas, the willingness of supply chain links to work together and countless daily activities dependent on having appropriate perceptions.  In today's B2B markets, perceptions are enhanced, developed and sustained through the following vehicles.

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SMB Communications Pain Study White Paper: Uncovering the hidden cost of communications barriers and latency

The following white paper outlines the findings of a study sponsored by Siemens Communications and prepared by SIS International Research. It discusses and quantifies the hidden cost of communications barriers and latency that small and medium sized business in 8 different countries, across 8 different verticals, and up to 400 employees experience in their daily business activities.

This white paper will demonstrate the inherent need for Siemens Enterprise Communications SMB unified communications solutions.

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Developing a sustainable competitive advantage

A sustainable competitive advantage is an advantage in providing value to customers without it being able to be imitated.

Numerous cases abound where the first mover in a market develops a competitive advantage, but soon loses it. AOL had a competitive advantage as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the 1990s, as one of the preferred providers to consumers new to the internet. It offered more features in one easy-to-use platform. Some customers used "AOL Keywords" to search just as much as they used Yahoo and Altavista to search. Yet, as customers became more sophisticated and as competing ISPs developed cheaper substitutes (e.g. Netzero, Earthlink). Clearly, it is difficult to sustain a sustainable competitive advantage because ones a product or services is made other competitors can reverse engineer and benchmark.

Managers can build sustainable advantages out of the following:

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