A sad story: The case of constrained infrastructures caused by IT

Customs is one domain which has faced the need for information systems in a globalizing world. In customs there is a need for close collaboration between business and government in order to build robust technological infrastructures supporting processes related to export and import of goods. This has led to a move towards eCustoms. This case study reports from a longitudinal study of a Danish exporter which has faced the challenges of implementing eCustoms in its daily operations. The introduction of eCustoms to replace the existing customs infrastructure based on the Single Administrative Document (SAD) has led to new challenges for the Danish exporter such as destandardized procedures and increased reporting. The particular contribution of the study is the observed longing to the “good old paper-based days” where things were more standardized than after the digitalization of the processes. The study is interpreted through the lens of “double infrastructures”. The underlying assumption guiding the study is that eCustoms represents one infrastructure on top of another well established infrastructure of global trade

Challenges of Global Trade and the Transfer to e-Enabled Business Models in the Swiss Socks Market

Recent research has acknowledged the need to shift from the traditional one to one e-enabled business model to a many-to-many one. With the introduction of the Internet in the 1990’s companies such as Blacksocks SA and Jacob Rohner AG suddenly found a mean and the environment to think about e-enabling their business models or even start a company purely based on that existence. Building on a wide range of analysis of the terms business models and e-business models, e-business models to our understanding depict a company’s capability to apply, use or even exist throughout the presence of an e-enabled environment. The internet itself is being seen as a family of tools, methodologies and concepts to represent the e-enabled environment. Currie and others are drawing the attention to value creation from e-business models and Joyce and Winch discuss the evolvement of a business model to become e-enabled (Currie, 2004). In contrast to their key findings, the EU research project ITAIDE and the underlying business cases in this paper go beyond. The argumentation and the conclusion we will infer in the paper show that e-enabled business models are much more than applying tools, methodologies through the simple existence of the Internet. Further than the reach of companies, collaborative and decent research environments such as ITAIDE allow companies and ecosystems to adopt from the research findings and transfer those into applicable and scalable e-business models

eCustoms Innovation and Transformation: A Research Approach

A major challenge for European governments is solving the dilemma of increasing security and control of international trade, while at the same time reducing the administrative overhead carried by commercial and public administration organisations. Electronic Customs, the transformation of paper-based trade documents to electronic ones, and the corresponding redesign of customs procedures, seems to be very promising approach to deal with this dilemma. However, while ICT is widely perceived as a key component of a solution, we argue in this paper that the complexity of the redesign of these electronic documents and procedures for international trade is far more problematic than traditional business process and network innovations. We identify key challenges facing the development and introduction of innovative eCustoms solutions and we outline conceptual and methodological approaches to address these challenges. In such a way, we outline a research approach for eCustoms innovation and transformation

The essential dynamics of information infrastructures

This paper inquires into the complexities of contemporary IT solutions based on a case study of the EU’s eCustoms initiatives using Manuel DeLanda’s Assemblage Theory. Technological innovations have enabled information infrastructures with dramatically increased number and heterogeneity of included components, and their dynamic and unexpected interactions. Unfortunately, lack of understanding of how the increasing complexity influences development initiatives is hampering effective information infrastructure development. Assemblage Theory can be seen as holistic synthesis of previous research streams seeking to explain how information infrastructures evolve in social contexts. Accordingly, in this paper it helps us getting a holistic grasp of the complexity of contemporary IT solutions and the “essence” of their dynamics. Through Assemblage Theory we explain how the European eCustoms information infrastructure has through a dialectic between stabilizing and destabilizing processes assumed its current shape - a result of decisions taken decades ago, path dependency, complexity, and accumulated emergence

From Cross-Organizational Business Process to Public Services

Service-oriented architectures promise flexible process integration in heterogeneous environments, particularly in cross organizational contexts. Therefore, a systematic approach for deriving service definitions from cross-organizational business processes is required. The paper at hand presents a structured, model driven approach that allows for cross-organizational integration with service-oriented concepts and technologies based on a cross-organizational business process. The resulting method is specified by means of a metamodel and a procedure model. Taking into account existing approaches in the research field, the paper focuses on the activities for the service design specification and the subsequent implementation of the public services. Feasibility of the method is shown by applying it in a Business-to-Government (B2G) real-world scenario, namely the collaboration between a consigning company and customs authorities according to the new European harmonized customs procedures

Design of composable services

Service composition methods range from industry standard approaches based on Web Services and BPEL to Semantic Web approaches that rely on AI techniques to automate service discovery and composition. Service composition research mostly focuses on the dynamic (workflow) aspects of compositions. In this paper we consider the static component of service composition and discuss the importance of compatibility of service interfaces in ensuring the composability of services. Using a flight booking scenario example we show that reducing the granularity of services by decomposition into service operations with normalized interfaces produces compatible interfaces that facilitate service assembly. We then show how relational algebra can be used to represent service operations and provide a framework for service assembly. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Influence of new customs procedures and logistic security standards on companies competiveness – a Croatian company case study

In today’s global market, companies are constantly confronted with the competition on the local, national and international level. Companies therefore use a variety of strategies and tools to become and/or remain competitive. Potential areas for cost reduction in companies are supply chain management and logistic and customs procedures. Implementation of various logistic standards in supply chain management can provide significant cost savings for the company’s daily operations and thus reduce overall costs and improve the competitiveness. Using different customs procedures and logistic standards to reduce their costs and become more competitive in the market is necessary for Croatian companies. The method of using these tools is not a one-time process and requires constant efforts. Companies therefore have to be ready to improve daily to be and remain competitive. Using a variety of modern customs procedures can save their money and time, not only through these procedures, but also through better use of their employee’s time, their own vehicles and other equipment. The paper analyzes various customs procedures and logistic standards that can help companies save time and money and improve their competitiveness. In the example of Croatian company, which uses various available procedures and standards the benefits of their use are shown. Apart from bringing savings in operations, all these procedures and standards allow the company to be better, cheaper and more attractive to buyers

The First 25 Years of the Bled eConference: Themes and Impacts

The Bled eConference is the longest-running themed conference associated with the Information Systems discipline. The focus throughout its first quarter-century has been the application of electronic tools, migrating progressively from Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) via Inter-Organisational Systems (IOS) and eCommerce to encompass all aspects of the use of networking facilities in industry and government, and more recently by individuals, groups and society as a whole. This paper reports on an examination of the conference titles and of the titles and abstracts of the 773 refereed papers published in the Proceedings since 1995. This identified a long and strong focus on categories of electronic business and corporate perspectives, which has broadened in recent years to encompass the democratic, the social and the personal. The conference\u27s extend well beyond the papers and their thousands of citations and tens of thousands of downloads. Other impacts have included innovative forms of support for the development of large numbers of graduate students, and the many international research collaborations that have been conceived and developed in a beautiful lake-side setting in Slovenia

Inter-organizational Information Systems: From Strategic Systems to Information Infrastructures

This paper reports on a series of panels and workshops held at the Bled eConference since 2004. It aims at reconstructing the developing understanding of Inter-organizational Information Systems (IOIS) over the years as evidenced by these workshops, which have been designed to provide a forum to discuss emerging topics, fields, and strategies for IOIS research on a network and industry level. This paper provides an overview of the workshops and a detailed coverage of the last one in order to give a thorough and vivid account of its contributions. The paper not only takes a historical lens in documenting the workshops but also in discussing the transformation from strategic systems to information infrastructures. It reflects the enabling role of the Bled eConference for workshops series and the workshops’ contribution to the Bled conference