ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how the new world order involves technological equality, as business entities around the globe can join with other organizations in cooperative efforts. This is a crucial element in convergence within supply chains, which have seen many uses of Information Technology (IT) to improve management of goods/services over complex supply chains. The link to strategic innovation within supply chains is reviewed. The chapter reviews some convergences of function with technology in the information system area. These include enterprise information systems (EIS), which provided value to organizations on a massive scale, making vendors like Systems, Applications, Products (SAP) and Oracle members of the world's largest volume businesses in terms of sales. E-business has brought an entirely new organizational climate, with the ability to electronically generate retail data. The convergence of IT with supply chain operations in retail led to opportunities for Wal-Mart to gain a competitive advantage, which enabled them to transform the retail environment throughout the US.
