In the paper and pre-Internet age information was power and organizations had people who just had a piece of information and did not share it with others mostly out of oversight and sometimes out of the intent of holding on the "power."
Today with Google,social media, wiki-leaks access to information is just too high and it's really not worthwhile for individuals or boundary functions of supply chain and marketing to be protective of information. Let me give you an example from the supply chain side of B2B.
Once a supplier registers on a company website there are still many hoops to cross primarily because the user-supply manager interface has a whole lot shuffling of information. The user is not always able to post her/his requirements onto the system and registered suppliers are not able to instantly understand where they might be able to supply. Just putting out the user's requirements to the interested supplier base becomes an exhausting exercise for all involved from the user,supply manager to yes the seller organization.
So what is the advantage of easy sharing of information between the user and the supplier through a web portal? Who needs the supply manager now? you might ask… Not so because by just freeing up the information flow through the supplier portal the supply management role becomes immediately upgraded. Folks are freed up from routine drudgery to focus on new projects for instance that enhance the organizations offerings.These folks include the internal users and suppliers apart from the supply manager.
Another more compelling example is in the world of teaching and learning. You really can find all sorts of book like information on the web- in any field. For example, if you are confused about a math/statistics concept you can watch a free 9 minute video at the Khan Academy. If a school student cleared up a concept via the web before the class then the school teacher's job would disappear-right? ….Not so because then the class would be about knowledge integration,application and extension. In other words preparing better for the knowledge economy. Contact StratoServe.