Community Intelligence: Today's supply chain technology providers are "oriented to create a virtual community that's constantly transacting and collaborating and exchanging information," says Minahan.

Community Intelligence includes inter-company information about supplier capabilities and performance, benchmarking data, and best practices that are accessible to the "Community" of users of a supply chain system.

Some speculate that supply chain systems will someday feature Community-wide access to peer-input supplier ratings, not unlike a corporate purchasing version of eBay's seller feedback functionality.

Buyer-Supplier Collaboration: A casualty  of the dot-com bust was the buzzword "C-Commerce" for Collaborative Commerce - a vision of the future that buyers and suppliers would collaborate seamlessly online.
With collaborative tools like wikis now populating other portions of today's cyberspace, the buyer-supplier collaboration envisioned earlier is likely ready for prime time. Minahan cites three particular examples of technology-facilitated collaboration:
1. Both buyers and sellers will be able to expose and share their excess inventory across the Community.
2. Community members will engage in collaborative supply chain planning and logistics route sharing.
3. Buyers will grant suppliers access to buy from their contracts where pricing or availability is more favorable, thereby reducing total supply chain costs.