As companies look for a competitive advantage over their competitors in 2012, the use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software will play an important part in helping win business. Many small and medium businesses do not currently use a CRM, but perhaps this should be the year when it is on their list of "must haves".

Although SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforce.com are the leaders in the CRM field, small and medium businesses could look to open source CRM solutions to minimize the cost while achieving maximum benefits. Some of the leaders in the open source CRM market include SugarCRM, Compiere, Daffodil, and vTtiger.

For many companies the low cost of open source CRM solutions may be the primary draw, but open source also allows businesses to customize the product to their unique processes. The ability to download and try the product without having to negotiate price and support can be very attractive, and SugarCRM report that their product is downloaded over 500 times each day.

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It's a dangerous time on the ocean this January. As well as the highly publicized Costa Concordia cruise ship running aground off the coast of Italy, a number of cargo ships have been involved in incidents around the world.

Just off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, a Sierra Leone-flagged freighter carrying empty containers, tilted on its right side after colliding with two anchored vessels during severe weather. Last week a Philippine-registered freighter ran aground off the coast near Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands, after it broke loose in an overnight storm.

More seriously, two cargo ships in the Philippines sank in separate incidents this past weekend. Firstly a Panamanian-registered cargo sank in the central Philippines on Sunday. The ship was carrying 9,970 metric tons of iron ore sand bound for China and sank in the waters near the island of Catanduanes. Reports say that the sand got wet and shifted which caused the ship to sink. Secondly, a Philippines registered cargo ship carrying 35,000 bags of cement sank off the Antique coast when it hit rocks and took on water. In both incidents there was no loss of life.

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Philippine government agencies are making attempts to make the public supply chain much greener. The Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as well as some other government agencies have signed a memorandum of understanding with private companies to implement a Green Public Procurement project. It is hoped that the project will increase the use of green policies along the public supply chain.

The project will help government agencies to develop green purchasing policies and incorporate those with existing government procurement processes. Government agencies products will be expected to consider environmentally sound products or items that have been produced from environment-friendly, energy-efficient facilities. The project has been launched with co-operation from the International Green Purchasing Network (IGPN) based in Tokyo.

Read more about the green supply chain here.

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Almost one hundred years after the opening of the Panama Canal, the expansion project to allow larger vessels to pass has ground to a halt. Thousands of workers on the expansion of the canal have downed tools to strike for an increase in wages, as well as overtime and holiday pay which is owed to them. The hourly wages of the average worker on the project is $2.90, while skilled workers have been receiving $3.52. Workers are looking to get an increase to $4.90 for regular workers and $7.10 for skilled.

In addition to demands for hourly increases, workers are looking to their employers to increase safety for workers on the project. The $5.25 billion expansion project involves constructing a third set of locks to accommodate the passage of the world's largest ships between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. When the new larger canal opens in 2014, it may affect traffic into West Coast ports in the US.

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