It wasn't so long ago that opening up information systems to suppliers or customers seemed a bit daring. But the pressure to cut costs and time in this down economy offers less forgiveness to those who don't keep up. As University of Michigan business professor C.K. Prahalad puts it: "Best practices are the table stakes. Next practices are where it is." So is your company in the game when it comes to delivering the necessary information to the right people when they need it? Here's a lightning tour across the economy, from financiers to factory workers, to provide a measuring stick of how other companies are sharing information more effectively to cut costs, save time, and change how they do business.

AT MANY COMPANIES, CUTTING COSTS IS THE TOP PRIORITY. Every day in and around the London headquarters of insurer Lloyd's of London, hundreds of brokers from dozens of carriers lug huge claims files as they roam the streets and corridors, seeking out the half-dozen or so underwriters who've backed a specific risk or policy. If it sounds like a scene out of Monty Python's Flying Circus, you'll get no argument from John Benjamin, managing director of Xchanging Ins-sure Services. "One can almost picture John Cleese," he says.

Xchanging is nearly a third of the way to its goal of electronically linking the London insurance market on a system that could cut the cost of processing some claims by half, says Benjamin (at right, with White).

Xchanging is undertaking a collaborative effort that's striking in its ambition -- to electronically manage the claims processed by the entire London insurance market, the area around Lloyd's in which more than 40,000 insurance professionals work. Half-owned by Lloyd's and its surrounding insurers (the other half is owned by Xchanging plc, a business-process outsourcer), Xchanging Ins-sure Services is building onto a claims-processing system developed five years ago by a small cluster of insurers to monitor claims transactions. Linking that system to a new document repository from content-management vendor iManage Inc. is expected to cut the cost of processing complex industrial claims -- which can require that thousands of people access documentation -- by as much as half, Benjamin says.

About 30% of the London insurance industry is on the system now, with millions of claims stored in the processing system; related documentation on some 80,000 of them resides in the repository. The documentation can include anything from the original policy and disclosures to medical information and pictures related to a damage claim. The repository not only lets brokers, underwriters, and adjusters digitally access the information they need to consider a claim, it also provides tools such as online chat, instant messaging, and video-over-IP for real-time collaboration.

When a claim is filed, it's logged in the payment-and-transaction system, which automatically sends an E-mail notification to the main broker, who creates a related-documents file. As other documents are created -- an adjuster's report, photos of the claim site -- they're added to the repository file. Anyone associated with the claim can access the repository to review documents, make comments, or send E-mail or instant messages to other participants. A built-in workflow engine routes documents that need approval or other action to the appropriate people. The system is expected to cut back-office costs by 10%, while the paper processes (copying, scanning, printing, mailing) will drop by more than 30%, predicts David White, Xchanging Ins-sure's IT director.

The promise of savings like those has companies in other industry sectors pursuing cost-saving through collaboration. It inspired RPM Inc. CIO Paul Hoogenboom to make the company's purchasing process more effective. The company's materials costs -- it makes specialty coatings for industrial customers, as well as a line of consumer products such as Rust-Oleum -- were skyrocketing. "We've had a history of managing $300 million or so in materials on the back of a napkin," Hoogenboom says.

While a procurement application from Ariba Inc. or Commerce One Inc. could automate some of the transactions, Hoogenboom wanted to put RPM's purchasing history to more strategic use. So he chose Optiva, a collaborative product life-cycle management suite from Formation Systems Inc. Optiva is helping RPM make purchasing a more-automated process and help it get better pricing -- an important consideration for a company that spends $900 million a year, or 45% of its revenue, on materials.