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An ageing population will include increasing numbers of people who have mobility problems, and many who will be unable to perform personal care tasks such as toileting. Support for these groups is likely to be provided by a combination of human carers and electromechanical telecare devices. Many of the technologies that will be needed are already available, and the challenge may be to make them aesthetically appealing to the users. This paper describes some of the current approaches and the likely emergence of robotic devices or personal electronic appliances that will offer people an alternative means of support when they feel that they are unable to perform tasks for themselves. The devices may provide telecare monitoring so that people are only able to accept the electromechanical support when it is actually needed.

Telecare services have evolved from community alarm systems into sophisticated methods of supporting the health and well‐being of many vulnerable groups. Their potential for extending this role may be supported by the integration of services involving all telecare alarm services, primary care services and community equipment stores. The key to integration may be the expanded role of the 24‐hour monitoring centres to provide case review facilities that allow prevention services to be offered following an emergency, as well as the issuing of standalone telecare devices. The potential for successful integration may be governed by the level of training provided for call handling staff, and by the creation of specialist centres using virtualisation technologies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how contractor firms manage their relationships with extended supply chain tiers and investigate the range of ICT technologies used to facilitate such practices.

An on-line questionnaire survey was conducted to gather information about supply chain management operations, supplier relationship management and the ICT technologies used by contractor firms to manage their extended supply chain tiers.

The extended supply chain relationships of contractor firms are primarily composed of contractual, technical and financial entities, but findings suggest that the vision to consider extended supply chain firms when selecting suppliers are still myopic. Majority of ICT technologies are used between Tier 1 supply chain firms and there is an inconsistency in the number of technologies adopted with the extended supply chain tiers. Despite having a high involvement relationship with Tier 2 downstream firms, findings indicate a lack of use of ICT technologies to manage the organisational, personal and technological interactions with these firms.

On the basis of different relationship types this study develops an initial framework for management of supply chains that are facilitated by relevant ICT technologies.

This paper provides insights into the management of extended supply chain firms by contractor firms from a relationship-centric perspective and develops an initial framework for relationship-centric supply chain management.