Is the industry finally getting "collaboration"?!

In the past 3 months, I've seen more concerted effort amongst the vendor community to work together than I have in my 15 years in this industry. Here's a prediction. Before the end of Q2, 2009, we are going to see a series of announcements and real progress toward global vendor collaboration in the business entity space.

We need to move faster in this industry if we want to remain relevant. That applies to all members of the food chain - data vendors, technology providers, consulting firms, regulators, utilities AND users. Business conditions are ripe for change that may initially be percieved as risky but which is already proving to deliver significantly higher value than that which has been achievable in the past.

I'm looking forward to some discussion on this topic.