In the context of networked organizations, demand must be broken down into tiers of suppliers and individual companies. One way of doing so is implementing supply chain management (SCM) suites. However, these kinds of systems require a rigorous investment strategy many small and medium sized businesses cannot afford. Web services seem to be a way out of this dilemma. They allow for a relatively inexpensive connection to other participants of the supply net and also offer enough flexibility to change partners whenever needed. Once demand has been allocated to the respective nodes of the chain, fulfillment processes will have to be monitored. So far, SCM managers spend approximately 40-60 % of their daily working time handling disruptions in the network, communicating with stakeholders and making decisions accordingly. Hence, information technology must try to support their activities by automating as many tasks as possible.
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