Yet the potential benefits of collaboration are huge, be itintegrating supply chains, product development or even businessprocesses. Companies - and their supply chains - can cut out waste, speedtime to market and be more responsive to customers' needs by sharinginformation. During an otherwise grim year in 2001, for example,Applica cut $60 million out of its average inventory and trimmed thenumber of days product remained in inventory from 136 to 94, thanks tocollaboration projects already in place, Fisher says.

Sooner or later, companies in all industries must face the fact thatcompetition is increasingly between supply chains rather than betweencompanies. Hardly any big-name manufacturers actually make anythingthemselves anymore - they leave it to contract manufacturers so that theycan compete on the basis of superior information and efficiency. "Allcompanies will have to do collaboration as a core competency, or theywill not survive," asserts Denis Mathias, a partner in San Jose,Calif.-based IBMIBM Consulting Services. Supply chain partners "need tohave a different value proposition not based on exploitation butwin-win." Alles zu IBM auf CIO.de

Spalding Holding, a maker of sporting equipment in Chicopee, Mass.,finds its collaboration with Wal-Mart Stores to be a win-win, saysSpalding CIO Christine Rousseau. "Getting their forecast and[point-of-sale] data is beneficial to us because it allows us to keepour inventory levels down. It lets us serve [Wal-Mart's] needsbetter," she says. Wal-Mart, in turn, runs short of Spalding goodsless frequently than it did before the companies exchanged data andhas a better understanding of Spalding's capacity and costs.

In contrast, companies that screw their trading partners to theproverbial wall will find they cannot work as effectively, saysMathias, as those that collaborate seamlessly in an electronicenvironment designed to help all parties thrive. The age ofspecialization demands that companies lay down their age-oldadversarial relationships with trading partners.

Of course, company practices won't change overnight. And neither willhuman nature. Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) has always drivenpeople to hold information close to the vest, even among coworkers. Atthis early stage of collaboration, companies are struggling to findways to safely open up. Unless and until partners can see that it isin their own best interest to collaborate, getting them to trust eachother will be an uphill battle. Just ask Jack Lowry.