The objectives of the first phase are to define the collaboration strategy by company, and to align the value of collaboration with the corporate goals and objectives of the retailers and consumer electronics manufacturers.

During the second phase, the trading partners prepare for collaboration, and develop a detailed deployment plan.

With the deployment plan in hand, the trading partners are ready to implement the collaborative solution and measure the results.

During the launch phase, file transmissions are typically unidirectional from demand planning, merchandising, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Warehouse Management (WMS) systems to the collaborative application platform. This reduces project complexity and allows the project team to focus on correcting the immediate business misalignments. Files are received from both the buyer and the seller to enable inter-enterprise comparison of past and future business expectations. Typical file formats used for collaboration includes flat files, EDI, and XML.

Finally, the trading partners move the collaboration initiative into a fully integrated, enterprise-wide solution supporting a broader set of products, business processes, distribution centers, and retail outlets. At this stage, bidirectional data integration between the existing operational systems and the collaborative platform is recommended to enable the broad rollout implementation.

1. • Sustained inventory reduction by as much as 10 percent to 60 percent for both the buyer and seller
2. • Improved forecast accuracy by as much as 10 percent to 30 percent
3. • Enhanced store shelf stock rates by as much as 2 percent to 8 percent
4. • Increased sales by as much as 5 percent to 20 percent
5. • Reduction of logistics costs by as much as 3 percent to 4 percent