Patent ID: 8515804

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of managing partner organizations, comprising: defining, for each partner organization, the partner organizations that consume what it produces and the partner organizations that produce what it consumes, wherein the partner organizations form a consumer/producer hierarchy of three or more layers, including a first, second and third layer, wherein the partner organizations include a consumer/producer at the third layer, a first and a second consumer/producer at the second layer, and a first and a second consumer/producer at the first layer, wherein the first and second consumer/producers at the second layer are consumers of the consumer/producer at the third layer and wherein the first and second consumer/producers at the first layer are consumers of each of the consumer/producers at the second layer; defining, in a computer, partner capability objectives associated with the partner organizations at each of the first, second and third layers; generating, in a computer, partner capability questions corresponding to one or more of the defined partner capability objectives and automatically collecting partner capability facts from the partner organizations; identifying, in a computer, gaps in partner capabilities as a function of the collected partner capability facts; selecting one or more partner capabilities; automatically improving the selected partner capabilities, wherein automatically improving includes informing partner organizations at the second and third layers of gaps in their capabilities, automatically collecting partner capability facts relevant to the gaps, measuring improvement in the selected partner capabilities, and promulgating information regarding the measured improvements up through the consumer/producer hierarchy to each of the partner organizations that depend on that consumer/producer, wherein promulgating includes sending capability information received from the consumer/producer at the third layer through each of the consumer/producers at the second layer to each of the consumer/producers at the first layer; monitoring partner capabilities, in a computer, to ensure that improvements remain in place, wherein monitoring includes defining a monitoring plan and implementing the monitoring plan, wherein monitoring produces current partner capability information; and reporting to each partner organization the current partner capability information associated with partner organizations for which they are a consumer, wherein reporting includes reporting current partner capability information from partner organizations on the third layer up through partner organizations on the second layer to partner organizations on the first layer.