Come Together: Business Collaboration Meets Technology Integration

by Stephen J. Andriole

Business collaboration and technology integration are the strategic priorities for the early 21st century. The elements of collaboration include supply chain management, personalization, customization, and optimization. Of special importance is how transactions have morphed from being discrete to being continuous and how they have permitted us to think in terms of whole customer/supplier/employee/partner management. Real-time analytics, automation, and trust are equally important to achieving collaborative success. Supporting the collaborative business models is technology integration, which includes back-office/front-office/virtual-office data and application integration, the development of cross-platform security architectures, and integrated communications infrastructures.