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1990s/2000s: Technological interface management (TIM)

According to Hamill and Gregory (1997), the challenge facing suppliers, intermediar‑

ies and customers in the supply chain will shift from a focus on physically distributing 

goods to a process of collection, collation, interpretation and dissemination of vast 

amounts of information. Enterprise resource planning systems are continuously being 

updated to support direct data interfaces with suppliers and customers, for example 

to support EDI. A more recent development is interfacing of ERP systems with B2B 

intermediary sites or exchanges such as Elemica, referred to in Case study 6.1. (See 

the ‘Focus on B2B marketplaces’ in Chapter 7 for further discussion of these.) SAP 

has also created the mySAP facility to help customers manage and personalise their 

interactions with these exchanges. XML (Chapter 3) is increasingly used as the tech‑

nical means by which technological interface management is achieved. (The critical 

resource possessed by these new intermediaries will be information rather than inven‑

tory. Hagel and Rayport (1997) take this a stage further by suggesting that customer 

information capture will serve customers rather than vendors in future. Currently cus‑

tomers leave a trail of information behind them as they visit sites and make transac‑

tions. This data can be captured and then used by suppliers and agents to improve 

targeting of offers. However, as customers become more aware of the value of infor‑

mation and as technology on the Internet enables them to protect private information 

relating to site visits and transactions, then the opportunity grows for intermediaries to 

act as customer agents and not supplier agents.)

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