"elements of Omni-channel retailing – are greatly enhanced and there is never an absenteeismissue. ReadingThe following reading provides you with an interesting outlook of technology-enabled supplychain innovations.(30 minutes)4 Information Technology and Supply Chain Management4.3 Social media and Supply Chain Management[This page should take about 1 hour 30 minutes to complete]Tablet social media flickr photo by ijclark shared under a Creative Commons (BY) licenseSocial media is about building relationships, and it can be used in a supply chain to build andgrow relationships among trading partners. Information and knowledge gathered from the useof social media by supply chain partners can provide insight into various issues of the supplychain, industry, and competition. It can also be used to build relationships and determine keyperformance indicators, such as on-time performance of a carrier or slow payments from a shipper. Some companies use social media to solicit information from their customers as aplatform for making recommendations for improvement. Therefore, key supply chain benefitareas for social media adoption can summarised as follows:? People engagement? Product/extended supply chain management? Risk identification, early warning and monitoring? Functional integration5 Information flow practicesFacebook Connections flickr photo by mikecogh shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA)license[This page should take about 35 minutes to complete]Information sharing is an often-cited attribute of partnership relationships. It is understoodthat when organisations share demand, order and inventory information, they improve theirability to harmonise supply chain service and activities (Simatupang&Sridharan, 2002).Effective relational governance depends, among other things, on the mutual exchange ofrelevant, accurate and timely information among trading partners (Norrman, 2008). In this process, the self-interest of organisations sometimes stops them sharing information becausethey become anxious about the opportunistic behaviour of their partners (Simatupang &Sridharan, 2002). Information sharing across organisational decision hierarchies (operational,tactical and strategic) can contribute to a better understanding of the extended supply chainand can mitigate uncertainty within and between organisations (Simatupang & Sridharan,2002).It is important to recognise that information sharing relies on the willingness of cooperatingparties to share critical information, in addition to their connectivity (Fawcett, Osterhaus,Magnan, Brau& McCarter, 2007). Therefore, technology that can facilitate informationsharing among organisations is important in any collaborative initiatives. The majority ofcollaboration-based initiatives such as quick response (QR) (Hammond, 1990); efficientconsumer response (ECR) (Kurt Salmon, 1993); sharing point-of-sale (POS) data (Stalk etal., 1992; Aviv, 2002); vendor managed Inventory (VMI) (Waller et al., 1999; Cheung andLee, 2002); and Collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) (Aviv, 2001)are based on the premise that an integrated technology for information sharing can improveperformance. As noted by Barratt and Oke (2007), information sharing can eventually lead tobetter supply chain performance because it enables visibility across the supply chain.5 Information flow practices5.1 Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR)[This page should take about 2.5 hours to complete] "