A computer-implemented method of managing supply chains across a plurality of separate organizations, wherein the plurality of separate organizations include a first organization and a second organization, the method comprising:
- defining a supply chain hierarchy for the supply chains, the supply chain hierarchy defining, for each organization, the organizations in the supply chain hierarchy that supply items to the respective organization and the organizations in the supply chain hierarchy that receive items supplied by the respective organization, wherein each item includes one or more of a product or a service;
- creating a supply chain database on a database management system, the database management system connected to a network, wherein the supply chain database includes a plurality of item records which reflect the hierarchy of one or more of the supply chains, wherein each item record is associated with one of the items, wherein each item record is also associated with the organization that supplies the item and wherein each item record includes supply chain risk management information for each of the associated respective items, wherein the database management system includes a database schema used to define how the item records are stored in the supply chain database;
- associating one or more users with each organization, wherein associating includes authenticating the user and creating permissions that provide the user with remote access over the network to the item records of the user's organization in the supply chain database while preventing access to the item records stored in the supply chain database associated with one or more of the other organizations in the supply chain hierarchy;
- receiving, from the network and at the database management system, from one of the users, information associated with one of the item records, wherein the information received is in a non-standardized format, wherein receiving information includes authenticating the user submitting the information to ensure the user has permission to modify the respective item record;
- updating the respective item record based on the information received from the respective user, wherein updating includes converting the information received in the non-standardized format to a standardized format, validating the information and storing the validated information to the respective item record, wherein validating includes sending an error message to the user over the network based at least in part on information from the database management system if corrections are needed;
- receiving, from a user associated with the first organization, a request to update the supply chain risk management information of one of the item records associated with the second organization;
- conveying the request to one or more users associated with the second organization;
- receiving, from one of the one or more users associated with the second organization, updated supply chain risk management information;
- storing the updated supply chain risk management information in the appropriate item record;
- detecting a supply chain risk event impacting one of the items in the item record subject to the request, wherein detecting including receiving information regarding the supply chain risk event over the network from a collaborative source;
- generating, based at least in part on the updated supply chain risk management information and on the information received from the collaborative source regarding the supply chain risk event, a report for each organization impacted by the supply chain risk event, wherein the report indicates the items at risk because of the supply chain risk event;
- and
- sending the report in real time over the network via messaging software executing on the database management system to each organization impacted by the supply chain risk event.