The use of information technology in supply chains

Whilst mid in an era of rapid development in information technology (IT), companies face increasing need to coordinate their logistics activities with their upand downstream counterparts, that is, in their supply chains. New technological solutions have provided companies with completely new ways for information sharing in support of coordination and on the other hand, for handling of transactions with less friction. However, with existing literature we are left with less clear view how companies actually use IT in these two areas and also, are these areas linked in some ways. This study examines these issues through a small-scale survey and a set of focused interviews with selected progressive companies from Finland. Based on the study we find that the use of IT has become commonplace in industrial companies under the last five years, but relates currently in many instances to the handling of ordinary supply chain transactions. Progressive companies are willing to share logistics execution related data with their selected 1 tier partners, but on average, use less IT for this purpose. Advanced supply chain management practices are limited to selected base of supply chain parties, and flexible supply networks including a number of participants and the diverse use of modern IT solutions, especially in information sharing are rare. A set of hypotheses on the possible reasons for this are presented.