Stephen Holt founded YakPak - a company that makes messenger bags, backpacks, and totes - in 1988, but despite a growing client base of hip urbanites, his firm was not living up to its potential. Holt's clients, many of them boutique clothing stores, tended to order small quantities of each item, and Holt struggled with the inefficiency of transmitting orders - via phone and e-mail - between vendors in China and Taiwan and his factory in El Salvador. The setup routinely left him with too much or too little fabric to fill his orders.

Three years ago, Holt added new enterprise software to help streamline the process. Now orders are logged directly into the company's computer system and instantly tallied, taking the guesswork out of ordering inventory from Asian vendors.

Recently YakPak opened a new warehouse in Houston. Their supply chain - from customer orders to raw material orders to factory production to shipping finished goods to retailers - is now a smooth and transparent process. And now, YakPak's large roster of boutique customers dependably receive their small-lot orders. "Our global operation used to be more seat of the pants," says Holt, 39. "Now we're chasing the Dell model. We make only what is ordered." -Justin Martin