[8] 2002 e-business-strategies-for-virtual-organizations

e-Business Strategies for Virtual Organizations
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biotechnology industries have undertaken an even more ambitious
project: to build private portals that link buyers and
suppliers, providing a platform to exchange information about
products, inventory, capacity, shipment, and payment.
IBM Microelectronics, a division of IBM, began to reshape its
supply chain management system in 1995. The division wanted
to move from supplying semiconductors and packaged goods
exclusively to divisions of IBM, to supplying parts to outside
buyers such as Advanced Micro Devices, Cisco Systems, Dell
Computer, and Qualcomm.
The company replaced the system it had built itself with SAP’s
manufacturing resource planning software to gather and store
data, capture and store orders, and track current inventory. The
IBM division also began to transmit information to customers
over the Internet, including purchase orders, ship dates,
logistics, and payment information. The idea was to extend and
improve communications along the supply chain by making use
of the Internet as a means of communicating requirements and
sending status information back out. This created immediate
benefits in reduced transaction processing, enhanced reliability,
and improved customer responsiveness.
The demand trend for improvements such as this has generated
new software that can help companies defray the costs associated
with finding and buying products and services. Chemical
company DuPont & Co. is deploying web procurement software
to give its 95 000 employees a single interface and consistent
business rules to buy products such as office supplies, test tubes,
and service contracts. The use of a common system is intended
to simplify purchasing while leveraging buying power for better
deals.
Similarly, catalogue software from Commerce One Inc. helps
companies source the raw materials and finished products used
in the production of their goods more efficiently; the software
archives and searches large databases of product information
from multiple vendors, significantly reducing search times.
The Internet is promising to change how companies manage
their supply chains in other ways as well. Using their foundations
in web-based software from Ariba, Commerce One, i2, and
Manugistics, companies are beginning to explore using trading
hubs – online marketplaces such as Altra Energy Systems,
Chemdex, and e-Steel that let businesses buy commodity goods
such as bulk chemicals, metals, and power more efficiently.