Traditionally, supply chain processes have been characterized by great inefficiencies.In a typical firm, once demand has been recognized and until the actual placement of an order, a number of steps need to be performed involving staff from up to three
functional areas (Turban et al., 1999). Moreover, a supplier’s order entry clerk often replicates its customer’s requisition paper work, making cross-company supply chain processes inefficient (Hammer, 2001). Those inefficiencies may be alleviated by using one of two basic information technologies designed to manage complex
information flows within or between firms. A firm may implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to automate inventory management as well as sales and order generation, including the associated approval processes. Alternatively, it may choose to use electronic business-to-business marketplaces (EMPs) to streamline the purchasing and sales process by connecting to its supply chain partners and automating the generation and transmission of order and sales information (Kalakota,2000; Kalakota and Robinson, 2000).