Likewise, as emarketplaces begin to gain a critical mass, they will own the transaction. It is at this point that the revolution begins. At a high level, supply chain collaboration is about two or more companies planning, managing, executing and measuring their activities together. Historically, it has combined the disciplines of forecasting, production scheduling, inventory managing and distribution planning. The focus has been to increase efficiency, decrease cost and improve customer service by decreasing errors and stock-outs.
Any savings squeezed from the supply chain goes straight to the bottom-line.
In B2B ecommerce, buyers and suppliers are executing transactions in an emarketplace that offers a scalable architecture. For the first time, emarketplace participants have access to the data necessary to better manage the total supply chain, from manufacturer to supplier to customer. The Internet affords an inexpensive, common forum on which this data can be shared. With this scalable architecture and newfound access to data, the common view of the supply chain begins to change from a cost center to a competitive advantage. Through collaboration with partners, or Collaborative Commerce, supply chain participants' work collectively on decreasing inventory levels throughout the supply chain on all products.