I’m sure others who (perhaps secretly) read this blog have run into the Manuscript Central site. Several of the IEEE Transactions do their paper submissions via this site, which is a bit barebones for the money they are probably shelling out. However, there is no sharing of user data across different Transactions, so one has to make up a whole new profile and a whole new account for each different journal. That takes the Central right out of Manuscript Central.
I assume what brings this about is that the IEEE does not negotiate the contracts with MC, and instead each society is left to their own devices. Might it be possible to pool resources and develop a peer-review system that could be freely used by IEEE societies and integrated better into the IEEE site? It would probably save money in the medium-to-long run, especially if a lot of different societies signed on.
An Ergodic Walk 
Came across this post and was intrigued. IEEE does in fact negotiate en mass. The issue is not technical, as this was the original vision of the software (single sign on), and still is a vision of some of its “creators”. It’s the publishers (IEEE, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, etc) that do not want a “single sign in”. They covet their author data, and are worried that by exposing this to other publishers, they may lose (author and reviewer) resources.
Please note that I cannot speak “officially” for any party involved 🙂
Manuscript Central does offer the ability to have a single login/profile/account across multiple sites. Some publishers choose not to implement though. I suggest checking with your publisher to discuss specific reasoning.
Thanks.
Manuscript Central Product Management