Covisint was established in early 2000 by Detroit’s big-three automakers. Later on, Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Peugeot joined the marketplace. Interestingly, not all automakers have signed on. For example, focusing on its own suppliers and processes, Volkswagen established its own private e-market, VWgroupsupply.com. Volkswagen’s e-market not only provides similar capabilities to that of Covisint’s, but also provides suppliers with real-time information on production plans so that suppliers can better utilize their production capacities and other resources. In both cases, the e-marketplaces do not focus on reducing purchase costs but rather on improving supply chain processes and thus supply chain efficiencies, For instance, both are integrating design activities within the marketplace so that if an automaker’s engineer changes the design of a component, the relevant suppliers are involved in the process and can respond quickly, cutting cycle time and, effectively, reducing cost, to the design change. Of course, one important challenge faced by Covisint is whether competing automakers will be willing to risk their most sensitive procurement standards and processes by using the consortia. Similarly, it is not clear that tier 1 suppliers in the automotive industry will accept a system owned by the OEM for their own purchasing needs, since information about price they pay to their own suppliers may be revealed. By the end of 2003, Covisint sold its auction business to FreeMarket. Today, Covisint specializes in two areas, automotive and health care, and in both case the focus is on enabling collaboration and improving decision making processes