Just-in-time manufacturing and efficient consumer response in retailing have brought significant changes to SC practices. SCM attempts to achieve cycle time reduction and faster inventory turnover by establishing tight linkages with suppliers – and to move from a pure efficiency orientation to greater coordination and integration of business processes in functional areas, including product design and development, market research, production planning etc. A high level of trust and extensive information sharing are required for successful implementation of these initiatives. But a focus on individual transactions and price reductions achieved by using IS / IT may be inconsistent with the SC philosophies of trust and long-term relationships, so IS / IT may jeopardize an organization’s existing relationships with its long-term suppliers. Since the adoption of new IS / IT takes significant effort and time, organizations should check that there is alignment with current SCM strategies. A worst-case scenario is that the introduction of IS / IT is inconsistent and creates confusion among suppliers. Change management, both internal and external, is critical as there are many instances of good IS / IT not producing the desired results due to faulty implementation. For example, Nike had a major problem with production / distribution after introducing an advanced production planning system. They found later that their problem was not the software, but the quality of data input to the system.