Give It Away—And Watch Use Grow

Significantly, Sainsbury's is making the EQOS system available to suppliers free of charge, reiterating the company's commitment to improving customer service and to the VCI. Rowe says, "Our supply chain is increasingly being organized in a virtual way. This brings huge benefits but relies on information support systems that are integrated across company boundaries. We see Microsoft's vision of VCI as the motorway, a road on which we need to drive to get information moving around between companies."
Sainsbury's has given its top 25 suppliers licenses to EQOS Collaborator and will soon have its top 1,000 suppliers online. These suppliers are so happy with the system that many are recommending that their other customers use it as well.
And EQOS Collaborator is useful for far more than promotions. EQOS Systems has tailored versions of the solution for managing product introductions, product returns, delivery slot bookings, product lifecycles, and forecasting. Virtually any function that deals with coordination across a supply chain is fair game. Non-retail applications EQOS Systems is targeting include public administration, transportation, even finance.
Concludes Quinn, "Sainsbury's has taken an important lead in shaping collaborative information systems. There's no limit to what can be done with co-managed and cross-functional collaboration. Microsoft's underlying e-commerce technologies are moving this whole industry ahead very quickly."