The Supply Chain Management concept focuses upon maximising the returns from trading partner relationships.

Historically businesses have relied upon the traditional forms of communication.  A mixture of mediums have been used to exchange information and documents, but each of these possessed inherent weaknesses in the time transfer of information and hence were a limiting factor upon Supply Chain Relations.  However, with the advent of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technology and more recently cost effective Internet based communications, every company, regardless of size can transmit documents in a much faster and more cost effective manner.   Decreasing the time needed for data transfer offers many benefits:

	Cost savings can be achieved on simple expenditures such as postage through to a reduction in warehousing costs because a JIT system can be adopted;
	Improved cash flow because of a faster transmission of invoices;
	Improved trading possibilities with major corporate partners who use these technological systems already;
	The ability to provide better customer service as lead times between receipt and fulfilment of orders can be significantly reduced;
	Digital communications reduces security violations and errors in keying.

The Supply Chain Relations concept will maximise the returns from trading partner relationships, improve efficiency where weaknesses are found and reduce the time transfer of information to a minimum.   This will then lead to cost savings and an enhanced service, at both ends of the supply chain. 

Having established where weaknesses are present in the supply chain management process, an appropriate technology format to rectify it implemented.  The traditional Electronic Data Interchange system (EDI) through a Value Added Network (VAN) has long been the preferred choice of major corporations.  The basic principle of the VAN system is that a 3^rd party (the VAN) transmits the information between trading partners and deals with systems integration and problems that arise.  These VAN systems can however prove extremely costly, and are thus not always suitable for a smaller company who will find it hard to realise a return from the initial investment.  

An alternative supply chain management tool has evolved over the last 10 years in the form of Internet based EDI systems.  These systems use the World Wide Web to transmit data, secured through the use of a firewall.  Where the VAN systems are controlled through a 3^rd party, the Internet systems connect the trading partners directly to each other.  Because of this direct connection, the Internet based systems are far more cost effective and arguably where the future lies.

However, using technology as described here in order to enhance a companies supply chain management is only one part of the implementation plan.  The most important aspect to the implementation of any enhancements is to integrate any information transferral system such as an EDI into the back office systems, principally the stock control and accounting packages.  Without integration into back office systems data entry would still be required in order to process the information.