I missed this article when it was originally posted.  I would have loved to have been involved in this conversation as it is near and dear to my heart.  The Social Supply Chain has arrived.  It differs slightly from your article so I’ll try to explain what it is and why it allows the transformative shifts everyone expects.

First, it is made of three components: Legacy Enterprise Software (any ERP, Best of Breed or Homegrown software – regardless of age or sophistication), Next Generation Enterprise Software and Social/Collaboration Platforms. 

Legacy applications are at the heart of every company.  They are large, complex, rigid and they aren’t going anywhere.  Nor should they go anywhere. As Klenahan said 7 months ago, “Despite years of investing significant time and effort in ERP and eProcurement solutions, many Global 2000 organizations continue to face a fundamental challenge – they cannot collaborate effectively with their business partners.” I will extend that to say these same companies cannot make changes to the transactions that drive their Supply Chain.  These systems were not made to change; they were made to consolidate.  Yet in business, change is constant, pervasive and permanent. 

Companies have been trying to steer their business with these systems and have found that to modify, integrate or replace them is a nightmare.  The average age of these systems is 11.5 years old (Constellation Research) and yet companies spend $250B/year (Gartner) on these applications. 

So the First Step in a Social Supply Chain Strategy is to leave them alone.  Don’t modify, integrate or replace them.  Perform a version freeze on what they are today so that their current value or ability to consolidate isn’t lost.  Regardless of the version or those of your Vendors or Customers they all use “standard” elements to interact with workers.  These can be printed documents (Purchase Orders, Manufacturing/Work Orders, etc.), green-screen computer screens or perhaps formatted files such as xml or spreadsheets. 

These worker interaction elements become the point at which the Next Generation of Enterprise Software connects with the legacy systems.  Because this new software, provided by companies such as BabbleWare (http://babblewareinc.com), is legacy system agnostic it becomes an instant surrogate for the transaction the ‘old-school’ system requires.  It can enhance the transaction by de-coupling the data, process and technology of the legacy app so that the worker is more productive and accurate and the result of their work is more visible.  New data and an updated process can be delivered by the worker through the new technology and the legacy application is blissfully unaware that anything is different.  In some instances, the transaction that used to be performed by a worker can now be enhanced and handled directly by the new software.

The Second Step in a Social Supply Chain Strategy is to enhance the transactions of the legacy systems within your company and at your Vendors and Customers.  This facilitates frictionless collaboration between departments and Supply Chain partners so that the rising tide of productivity, accuracy and visibility raises all boats.  The individual transactions that comprise the supply chain can now be improved together AND the results/impact measured and monitored in real time.

This brings us to the Social/Collaboration Platforms.  Business requires security so tools such as Google+, Chatter and Yammer each provide the required framework.  The Next Generation of Enterprise Software, with the details of critical transactions being executed within it, can now share data in real time to these Social networks.  As an example, a Major Account team could coalesce around the transactions that impact their customer.  They can identify the ‘filters’ they want the Next Generation software to apply to the underlying transactions so that they can be informed of variances or success.

This brings us to the Third Step in a Social Supply Chain Strategy.  Since the new enterprise technology is able to bridge the legacy applications without disruption between Employees, Vendors and Customers these teams can begin to Collaborate.  Not only in monitoring and reacting to events messaged to the social network but also in on-going improvements.  The knowledge of employees is often never captured and understood/leveraged by the company.  As the Collaboration team works together they will identify optimal responses and strategies that are more effective that others.  This knowledge is now institutionalized and available to be shared with other teams.  New opportunities to improve existing transactions or create entirely new ones can also be developed in these teams.  Concept to prototype to results in a matter of hours is a powerful tool to have for any team.

These three steps: 1) Freeze Legacy  2) Enhance Transactions & 3) Unleash Internal Expertise; provide the agility, ease of use and innovation that consumer technology has taught us so well.  The Social Supply Chain is not about eavesdropping on consumers.  Instead, it connects the many moving pieces of the SuppyChain so that it acts like a single entity regardless of the ‘player’.  Reacting to unexpected events that require a fire drill will diminish and the knowledge workers/subject matter experts can continue to focus, refine and improve the performance.