Automotive manufacturers Renault and Nissan recently announced that they have teamed up with German car maker Daimler on a joint purchasing initiative. By exchanging equity stakes in each organisation, these three automotive leaders have pledged to work together in developing technologies for small and electric cars, light commercial vehicles and next generation models.

In addition to product development plans, this unity of Renault, Nissan and Daimler provides the opportunity to benefit from common purchasing opportunities, share technology costs and gain scale. This collaboration perhaps indicates the need to share (albeit with competitors) in order to strengthen and reposition those organisations that have been the hardest hit during the recession and the automotive industry has undeniably been one of the industry sectors most severely affected.

Other collaborations such as this being common practice in public sector can increasingly be found in the private sector, and observing whether this trend continues once the recession subsides will be interesting - will we continue to see ground-breaking purchasing initiatives that generate joint business advantages or will competitive enmities resume?

In either case we are trying to lay foundations for suppliers and buyers to work more effectively together by investing in technology to support the collaboration between buying groups and supplying groups.