We couldn't possibly do that without having access to the data and the ability to fine tune it. Few companies are being as aggressive as Home Depot in sharing information with suppliers to drive sales and cut costs. Home Depot shares that information only when company officials are sure it will pay off. Home Depot is working with suppliers to bring consumers into an electronic network, thereby completing the loop among supplier, retailer, and customer. For instance, the company is linking its E-commerce engine to marketing sites operated by manufacturers.
Many companies remain wary of opening up too much.
Yet companies that embrace collaboration find that the more they do it, the better it gets. Eighty percent of companies that share data with more than one partner give the strategy a thumbs up, but only about half of the companies that share data with just one partner feel that way. Collaboration calls for decentralized decision-making structures that let knowledge workers act on the information that IT tools place before them.