Electronic Supply Chain Management: Some Latest Issues and Practices

Supply chain management (S CM), a management method to optimize internal costs and productivities, has evolved as an application of e-business technologies. SCM is a powerful strategic function capable of radically improving customer value propositions by the reengineering of intranet and internet-enabled collaborative channel partnerships. Latest developments in information technology have propelled the e-Supply Chain Management (e-SCM) concept to newer dimensions. In the past, neither markets nor products changed much over time, enterprises that gained initial superiority could leverage on, considerable resources and process knowledge, mature distribution channels, advertising and marketing clout, and the newest technologies, to maintain that lead. Today, it is evident that there is no such thing as sustainable competitive advantage and also that all advantages are temporary. The cause for the rapid acceleration in the erosion of competitive advantage in almost all the businesses can be traced back to the rapidly developing newer technologies. Still more deadly is the sudden growth of newer business models that have been quick in challenging the present leaders by leveraging on special competencies which permit them to invade the market and conquer the targeted customer segments better. This paper conducts an extensive literature review to identify the latest trends in e-SCM. It also attempts to study some of the issues associated with e-SCM along with their solutions and practices.