Delays encountered by both Airbus and Boeing have demonstrated the importance of cross-enterprise collaborations as eco-systems become increasingly global and complex.  As both companies continue battling for the number one position, they rely increasingly on their development partners and suppliers. Tom Williams, head of programs at Airbus pointed out to the WSJ at Le Bourget last week that parts of the supply chain is still tense.  The aerospace industry is a highly visible example of what happens in many other sectors.

How should companies collaborate across the ecosystem to ensure faster product development and synchronized supply chain activities? That's the 1B$ question. Today many tools are proposed, but we really lack an integrated approach providing natural means of interaction including data sharing, written conversation, audio and video. Initial attempts are made and the most visible one is probably Google Wave. However, as many Web 2.0 tools, it is mainly geared to individuals and small businesses.

I really believe we need an integrated environment addressing following capabilities:

• Sharing of information, consisting in data, documents, knowledge, thoughts, events etc. This is really a one way communication in which one member of the community makes something available to the others. The others can comment, but are not able to change the content of the initial information. In here I include the traditional "real-time" data and message transfer (typically structured content) and unstructured information, which can be addressed and reviewed "asynchronously". Many tools exist in this space, going from transaction standards and systems (e.g. EDI, RosettaNet), to document vaults (e.g. SharePoint, Google Docs), and social networking environments (e.g. wiki's, blogs, podcasts)
• Review information, providing capabilities to annotate, comment, and enhance the information provided. Obviously, version management, change control and logging is required. The interaction should be available using a variety of input approaches, such as writing notes, altering text, scribbling notes using a tablet PC, adding some audio comments or even video. Some of our popular tools, such as Microsoft Word do have a number of capabilities embedded, but again, these are not integrated with the remainder of the environment, so if one person enters notes and another one a video comment (using gabble for example), there is no way to keep track of both in a consistent manner.
• Coordinating business processes (e.g. a review process), calendars, action items etc., complements the above and ensures things are done in the right order. In particular, the coordination of business processes across the eco-system will become increasingly important as supply chains become leaner. Here again a number of tools exist (e.g. Windows Live), but are geared at consumers and SMB, rather than large companies.
• Interacting, ensuring people can sit around the "virtual table" and exchange information, argue, create, innovate and perform all these other tasks that require human interaction. Telepresence (e.g. Halo), desktop based collaboration (e.g. Skyroom), and web tools are available, but again they are not integrated with the rest of the environment.

Let's take a simple scenario where a team of engineers from 3 different companies develop a new product together. The OEM will define the specifications and share that one with the partners. Partners will have the opportunity to comment, identify areas where other alternatives are possible and highlight potential problem areas, high cost requirements etc. A process is used to ensure sign-off of the final specifications by all participants. Then the actual design starts, the work is divided amongst the partners and regular interactive sessions are used to ensure consistency of the design and progress. Action items are captured, owners and timeframes identified. A change management process is used to ensure all parties are up to date on the decisions taken. In parallel with this, the new product introduction is prepared, planning and coordinating activities.

PLM products integrate some of the functions described above, and are probably the best platforms at this point in time. However, they still lack key capabilities we would require to collaborate across an ecosystem with minimal travel requirements, hence reducing carbon emissions. Companies should take this vision and start integrating existing technologies to address the needs of enterprises and supply chains alike.