Information Systems

290 ◾ Information Systems: What Every Business Student Needs to Know

In modern stores, point-of-sale systems at checkout update the store’s inventory. Its

inventory management system informs a buyer when something needs to be reordered.

e reorder is usually approved, unless the buyer knows that it shouldn’t be. (Perhaps the

product is obsolete. Perhaps demand is seasonal.)

Even that approach introduces delay into what can oen be automated. What if a

supplier could simply look at store inventory and schedule deliveries? Wal-Mart and

Procter & Gamble (P&G) were among the rst rms to collaborate in this way, moving

from electronic ordering ...