The greatest tool for creating and maintaining competitive edge is effective communication and all previous communication technologies have been eclipsed by the power of the Internet. Companies should monitor as many external data points as possible, but they must be prepared to react quickly and automatically to the information they collect. Although the benefits of the Web are obvious to most organisations, there are significant benefits to be gained from integrating legacy systems to give a web based single point of information – in other words, a Control Tower for your supply chain.

Unlike EDI, or other closed systems, anyone can talk to anyone via the Internet; in the past specific computers were allowed to communicate only with other designated machines. The key difference is that EDI is application-to-application technology while the Internet offers person-to-person and person-to-application interactivity.