Dell Computer saves over half a million dollars a month when customers access online technical support. The customers, in turn, get the answers they need with a minimum of on-hold time. You look for links inside and outside your company. You take advantage of resources inside and outside your company. Look outside for information on the countries where you're doing business or want to do business.
Every day there's more information online about just about every place in the world.
Look along your value chain for linking and automating possibilities. That can help you reduce inventory cost and improve responsiveness. Heineken did this and cut its order cycle time in half. Reebok did better, going from about six weeks down to 24 hours. The first of those is your core functions.