Interorganization systems and supply chain management: An information processing perspective

Supply chain management has become a successful strategy to effectively link all trading partners and ensure cost-effective and timely movement of materials from the raw material supplier to the final consumer of the finished product. Interorganizational systems or extranets provide the technology infrastructure to facilitate the flow of information along the chain and thereby ensure the smooth flow of goods. These two technologies have developed independently with no realization of the synergies in integrating the research from the two fields. This article attempts to provide an integrated perspective of supply chain management and interorganizational systems that highlight the potential benefits, and management issues and provides guidelines for implementation.