In today's global marketplace, a company's success is increasingly dependent on the efficiency of its extended supply chain. An organization's competitiveness is directly related to how well it can synchronize and accelerate the flow of information and material.

Companies that can do this quickly and efficiently gain a significant competitive advantage. Those that don't stand to lose business and market share to faster, more nimble competitors.

No company can overcome this challenge independently—it must have the support of partners that play key roles in the extended supply chain. This support begins with a mutual understanding that the overriding objective is to satisfy the demands of the end customer more efficiently than competing supply chains. With this as a foundation, a company can begin to work with its partners to improve the flow of information and material.

The flow of material through a supply chain crosses many functional areas, from supplier to distributor to end user. Traditional management and reporting structures have optimized each stop in the chain at the expense of system-wide optimization. Lack of information and trust and internal competition between partners in a supply chain create barriers that impede the flow of material and information. Breaking down these barriers represents a major opportunity for most organizations to improve their competitiveness and reduce their investments in time and inventory.

• Longevity: Some applications will be permanent; others are shorter–term. The solution should support the ability to quickly establish, modify and conclude any collaboration.

• Partitioning of responsibility and shared responsibility: The system must be able to support the partitioning of access privileges and responsibilities within and between the various companies involved.

• Awareness/Alerts: There must be a way to alert people in all the organizations involved when problems occur.

• Aggregations/Views of data: Different users will want the information presented in various formats to facilitate their particular planning processes.

• Software is only one component of the solution. Find a provider with a background in your particular supply chain, and a track record of improving global supply chain performance. The company should be able to help you identify the constraining points in your supply chain, and help you to focus on those critical applications that will drive competitive advantage.