Relate, empower and free [collaborative product commerce]

The need to increase communication between internal departments, as well as with suppliers and customers, across a global setting has been the driving force behind a new class of information technology solutions known as collaborative product commerce (CPC). These solutions are contributing to the disintegration of the vertical organisation of companies, and usher in the emergence of value webs, made up of design, supply and service chains. It is indicated that the exponential growth in the available technologies has arisen from the reductionism-the describe-predict-and-control paradigm-that is a foundation of Western culture