To many of us, "collaboration" seems like the marketing buzzword that just won't die. But there is a reason that it persists within the vocabulary of supply chain improvement discourses (as well as in almost every supply chain software vendor's marketing spiel). That is because the evolution of business models and supply chain structure has, in general, been towards ever-increasing specialization. This has resulted in the fragmentation of the supply chain and the "virtual enterprise" into ever more tiers, involving ever increasing numbers of players. What was once done by a single firm is now executed by many dozens or even hundreds of firms coordinating their activities together.
This radical change in business structure has been made possible by advances in technology, infrastructure, standards, and trade policies.
This change in the structure of business and supply chains has made collaboration and tight integration with trading partners an imperative, required for enterprises to remain competitive. In a word, collaboration is a must.
