Elbert Hicks New concepts of what constitutes customer value, requirements for more agile, flexible product designs

and manufacturing processes, the growth of virtual companies and collaborative processes, and the continuous fragmenting of marketplaces demanding customized products and services to satisfy a marketplace of one have rendered obsolete past organizational models and partnerships with trading partners. Also, the ubiquitous presence of the computer, the ultimate enabler promising the real-time synchronization of information with anyone, anytime, anywhere, has reshaped the very nature of business and altered fundamental thinking about the way companies market, sell, buy, and communicate with their customers and suppliers. The best enterprises understand that to thrive in todays marketplace, it is imperative that they continuously activate the synergies that occur when they bypass the limitations of traditional internally focused business models, leverage capital and human capabilities wherever they can be found in the supply chain, and merge channel trading partner centers of expertise to establish virtual, scalable organizations capable of responding decisively to any marketplace challenge. Supply chain manage provides todays enterprise with the strategic vision, as well as the operational principles, necessary to integrate once isolated companies into unified supply chain value-generating networks. The merger of supply chain management with the enabling power of the internet has propelled supply chain management to a new level by linking the concept with powerful networking tools, enabling the real-time integration and synchronization of channel wide processes and databases and the tight linking of trading partners. E-SCM enables the real-time connectivity of all trading partners and provides for the instantaneous visibility of events and decision-making across the global supply chain. Enabling the full potential of e-SCM requires that companies, first of all, understand the function of internet driven information in the supply chain. Secondly, e-SCM provides companies with the ability to leverage digital technology to structure close, collaborative partnerships with their supply chain partners. Finally, it enables whole supply chains to synchronize information arising from all network nodes to achieve a seamless supply response to the customer. Previously, enterprises had focused their energies on organizing and optimizing the functions to be found within the organization. Supply chain management provided enterprises with a management method to work with their supply chain partners who existed outside of the business. Supply chain management enables whole supply networks to respond by providing the management strategies necessary to transform individual companies from isolated, internally focused producers of goods and services to active participants in value chains, capable of providing uniquely configured solutions through agile, scalable productive functions capable of evolving as the needs of the marketplace change. The capabilities of supply chain management were radically transformed, when combined with internet technology. It has enabled companies to engineer agile organizations that are capable of utilizing the competencies and resources of supply partners everywhere, at any time, through the establishment of web-based systems that provide for the real-time connectivity and instantaneous visibility of events and decision making across the global network.