Like many CIOs before him, Bacallan believes change management and theunwillingness to share information are the two most difficult threadsin massive supply chain projects. "It took us more than a year to getour operations and logistics people to think in terms ofcustomer-driven supply chains, and of their contribution to corporatebusiness growth, rather than stick with their compartmentalised viewsof their work. Change has to be championed by management. And everyonehas to be drawn into the process of change, including HR to executebehavioural programmes, training and team building programmes, andoperations to convince people it was the way to go."

The other difficulty was internal and external unwillingness to shareinformation. Bacallan had to deal with people who did not want toshare numbers with those below them for fear of losingconfidentiality. "They had to be convinced that they had to look atthe big picture, and that the appreciation of the numbers would leadto better work," he says.

Another issue was convincing suppliers to share information. "In acollaborative supply chain, there has to be that common understandingof the minimum level of information that partners need from eachother. In the case of the mayonnaise maker, they were open in terms oftheir own inventory requirements and their stock situation, and to alesser extent, sales information. But when they did provide us withsales information, it became add-on data that enabled us to appreciatethe growth of their own business, the better to calibrate our owngrowth to service them. On our end, we gave them information aboutproduct quality and anticipated facility shutdowns."

Although eSCM is part of GMC's plans for collaboration with bigsupermarkets, the latter are still "snooty" when it comes to sharinginformation. "To me, it is better to be collaborative on this: if theyare able to share with us their movement of stock, sales and turnover,we can better plan our production schedule. At this point in time, Idon't see that relationship happening. But it's evolving as there arenew players in the retail industry that are moreprogressive."

Bacallan believes the CIO has a role to play in SCM. "I am not therejust for technology's sake, but for the overall strategy of thebusiness to look into collapsing the supply chain. The solution maynot necessarily be technological but procedural. IT people should movefrom being glorified technicians to being technical specialists thatinfluence business processes in sales, inventory management andmanufacturing. I've evolved my department's role from people that getcalled whenever PCs conk out, to being part of the strategy-makingteam."