A method of monitoring supply chain activity throughout a plurality of supply chain sites includes extracting, at each supply chain site, supply-related data to be monitored. The data is maintained in plural formats at the supply chain sites, and translated the data to a common format. The extracted data is then uploaded to and collected, from each supply chain site, to a data collection center or site. Upon a user request, a portion of the collected data is formatted, at the data collection site, into one of a plurality of views, responsive to criteria selected by the user, for presentation to the user, the portion of formatted data being dependent on access rights granted to the user's supply chain site. Finally, the formatted data view is published to the user's supply chain site. The data collection center comprises a data collector in which the uploaded data is stored, and a publisher for publishing data from the data collector upon request. Each supply chain site has a data storage device for maintaining its own supply-chain data, a data transfer engine (DTE), for transferring the supply-chain data to the data collection center, input means for allowing a user to query the data collector, and a display for displaying data published by the publisher in response to a query. The inbound data received from the multiple supply chain sites is monitored at the data collection site. If a problem condition is detected, such as a forecasted or present shortage or surplus, an alert is asserted, for example, by highlighting an Alert indicator, such as an Alert tab, on a user screen. Upon selection of the highlighted Alert indicator by a user, details of the detected problem condition are displayed.