Patent ID: 7664688

Claim:
A system for electronic supply chain management and collaborative planning, including: a plurality of local hubs, remotely coupled to each other; a set of supply chain information stored in a database coupled to each of said local hubs, wherein said set of supply chain information comprises a common set of data distributed among each of the local hubs, said set of supply chain information comprising a plurality of data portions respectively owned by one or more business entity relatively proximate to each said local hub; a set of regional authorities controlling access to said supply chain information, wherein each given regional authority of said set of regional authorities has authority over said at least one of said local hubs, said given regional authority controlling which of said at least one of said local hubs may write to one or more of said data portion controlled by said given regional authority; a first server coupled to at least one of said local hubs, wherein said first server is dedicated to process a first message type that requires access to and processing of said supply chain information stored in said database; a second server coupled to said at least one of said local hubs, wherein said second server is dedicated to process a second message type that does not require access to and processing of said supply chain information stored in said database; and a computer program coupled to said at least one of said local hubs to receive a message generated from a client device identifying a transaction, to determine whether said message requires access to and processing of said supply chain information stored in said database based on said transaction, to send said message to said first server when said message is determined to be said first message type, and to send said message to said second server when said message is determined to be said second message type.