Using technology developed by enterprise system vendor QAD, Webasto's 150 direct material suppliers download all the information they need to know to ship the parts and materials for Webasto's sunroofs and convertible tops.

"Because all they need is a Web-browser, it's less intrusive than EDI, and less expensive - especially for the supplier, who doesn't have to pay anything," says Thibideau.

Armed with knowledge about future requirements, he explains, it's much easier for Webasto's suppliers to fill those requirements just after parts are used and not before, hence the inventory savings. For example, suppliers of items as diverse as glass and electronic control modules can now log on to see how Webasto's production schedule affects demand for the parts they produce. Suppliers can then compare the inventory Webasto is holding to the minimum and maximum levels the company preset, and decide for themselves when to ship a particular part and how much of it to ship.

2 The Full Banquet: E-Everything.
At the other end of the spectrum are businesses, such as Reliant Pharmaceutical, that have gone whole hog, seeking savings from items where compressibility and substitutability make that possible, and settling for internal efficiencies where it isn't.

Reliant decided in 2002 to buy everything electronically - from janitorial supplies to the products that it sells. It's true that the relatively straightforward nature of its business made this easier; the drugs it sells are manufactured by pharmaceutical giants such as Novartis and Lilly, thereby eliminating direct materials as such. Even so, says Reliant CIO Ron Calderone, "100 percent of our purchases now go though Ariba: lodging, travel, office supplies, sales literature, the products we sell, you name it."