Electronic business networking

Citation

Al-Mashari, M. (2002), "Electronic business networking", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 8 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj.2002.15708caa.001

Electronic business networking

Electronic business networking

A major feature of BPM can be seen in its growing capacity to fulfil the future requirements of innovative organizations. New management techniques tend to focus on integrating a diversity of basic management concepts from all business functions. They also emphasize the role of electronic technologies in enabling that integration. This is electronic business networking in action; a customer-oriented, process-based approach that relies heavily on electronic information technologies to facilitate the integration of various business functions through advanced socio-technical management techniques such as application service provider (ASP), customer relationship management (CRM), electronic commerce (EC), knowledge management (KM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM).

This special issue attempts to highlight the key concepts, techniques and tools which together enable the development and continuous improvement of electronically-based networked organizations. In their article, Barrar et al. adopt a procedure called data envelopment analysis to compare internal against external (outsource) efficiency in the delivery of finance function activities. The approach allows a direct comparison between the in-house efficiency of UK small, medium and large companies in managing their accounting activities both with UK outsource contractors and also against the rather larger and more numerous contractors observed in Italy. Their paper finds that, through comparative advantages, outsourcing presents a more efficient solution for the management of very small firm accounting than internal provision. It is also evident that substantial scale benefits continue to be available to outsource contractors, while inefficiency on internal provision is mainly technical. The paper concludes that outsourcing provision is likely to offer worthwhile savings to small firms, allowing them to shed competitive weaknesses and operate at efficient or best practice levels. At the same time, by converting an internal fixed cost, fixed capacity activity into a flexible, variable cost activity, SMEs have the potential to transform a previously unmanageable activity into an efficient or best practice activity that can grow or contract with the business.

Kotorov's article reviews e-CRM concepts, models and technologies. The author notes that corporate executives question the economic benefits of investing in a multimillion dollar e-CRM project, ponder about the right business and organizational models for e-CRM, and are uncertain which e-CRM models and technologies will prove both profitable and sustainable over time. With so many failed e-CRM initiatives, some executives wonder whether e-CRM is not simply a hype. Kotorov's article elaborates on what e-CRM is, on from where the economic benefits investing in e-CRM derive, and on the evolution of alternative e-CRM models. It also argues that successful e-CRM projects are not narrowly departmental, but instead organization-wide initiatives. The article presents a conceptual framework for e-CRM organizational architecture. The findings in the paper are based on e-CRM industry analysis, evaluation and work experience with over 50 e-CRM vendors, and on consulting experience with numerous corporations.

In their article, Papazafeiropoulou et al. argue that the rapid growth of electronic commerce technologies and practices has created a tremendous need for awareness creation for organisations such as small and medium-sized enterprises which seem to lack the necessary information about technology, business practices, investment cost and human capital. Often, the professional organisers of awareness activities are also uncertain about best practice in electronic commerce awareness creation. Thus, although a number of initiatives have taken place in Europe, they have failed to produce the expected results. Papazafeiropoulou et al.'s article describes how a project funded by the European Commission (WeCAN) defined and evaluated a number of awareness models in electronic commerce in order to support organisations involved in awareness creation, such as chambers of commerce, consulting companies and higher educational institutions.

Serve et al. argue that successful supply chain management (SCM) requires a change from managing individual functions to integrating activities into key supply chain process. They also assert that the advantages far outweigh the effort involved in accessing the final product; a seamless supply chain that operates fluidly and benefits the entire chain. In their article, the authors discuss the merit of supply chain and business-to-business (B2B) relationships, and identify the impacts on each other. They then use the concept of B2B marketplaces as the participating units in a supply chain process in order to enhance the business process. It is expected that this extended form of supply chain will be useful for virtual enterprises and serves as its building-blocks.

In his article, Beretta claims that, despite the large investments recently made in ERP systems, many companies are beginning to admit that the real impact of ERPs on management styles and practices is actually well below expectations, especially on the front of organizational integration. He argues that ERP systems possess integrating capabilities only at a potential stage: their simple physical implementation is not enough to activate their inner potentialities. ERP systems can enact substantial organizational integration, only if they rely on a sound business process architecture. When the process dimension is absent from the implementation, the integration potential of ERP systems is frozen. It is argued that this situation can be unfrozen by making processes visible: the introduction of a process-based performance measurement system can help to unleash the power of integration by making the processes visible to people.

Chan and Al-Hawamdeh maintain that, while e-commerce still constitutes a small part of many countries' economies, it is seen by many as an opportunity to reduce cost and improve productivity. This is true, as many economies are transferring themselves into knowledge-based economies, where information and innovation are the competitive instruments. Singapore as a small country with limited natural resources realized the importance of the new economy and the need to position itself as an information and knowledge hub in Asia. The government has taken an active role in the establishment of e-commerce infrastructure. The government's vision is to build a premier service hub in the region with global orientation, and focusing on new high growth hub services. Chan and Al-Hawamdeh's article reviews the development of e-commerce in Singapore and studies its impact on the development of the information society in Singapore.

Finally, Simatupang et al. point out that increasing competition due to market globalisation, product diversity and technological breakthroughs stimulates independent firms to collaborate in a supply chain that allows them to gain mutual benefits. This requires the collective know-how of the coordination mode, including the ability to synchronise interdependent processes, to integrate information systems and to cope with distributed learning. However, research into coordination has paid little attention to acknowledging different modes of coordination. Simatupang et al.'s study promotes the notion of mutuality and the focus of coordination in order to establish a comprehensive taxonomy of coordination modes. Four different modes of coordination have been identified: logistics synchronisation, information sharing, incentive alignment, and collective learning. The knowledge of coordination is then proposed as an explicit understanding about key drivers of coordination modes that have positive impacts on supply chain performance.

Majed Al-MashariKing Saud University