Integration Scenarios for Business Collaboration

This paper examines the theme of ERP systems and collaborative business. Various approaches for the electronic support of collaborative processes are used in practice. This paper shows in which way the chosen solutions are characterized in practice. Fourteen integration solutions were documented for this purpose in a research project following a specially developed, uniform framework. This was followed by a comparative analysis of the case studies. Through this process, five scenarios were identified: (1) parallel use of different information systems, manual external system access, (2) parallel use of different information systems, EDI with direct partner integration, (3) parallel use of different information systems, EDI provided by an intermediary, (4) joint use of a self-operated, central ERP system, (5) joint use of a central system operated by an intermediary

Mobile communities: How viable are their business models? An exemplary investigation of the leisure industry

Communities (especially Virtual Communities) of Interest have been the focus of substantial discussion in academic literature. This paper addresses Communities of Interest within the leisure industry and discusses possible business models for the parties operating the platform. The described community platform is an innovative value added service concept for a mobile coordination support for individuals—A Mobile Community Support System. In this paper we extend the discussion about mobile communities to hybrid communities. The communities are hybrid in two ways: they use two different access channels, the Web and mobile devices, and they are built on real-world leisure communities that constitute themselves in the form of buddy lists in the virtual world of an ICT supported platform. We briefly depict the state of the art of IT in the leisure industry and describe the empirical aspects of the project objectives of the MCOR (Mobile Community Online Reservation) system. We conclude with some final remarks about design considerations and a blueprint for future researc

Connecting Industry: Building and Sustaining a Practice-based Research Community

In this paper, we give a narrative account of the building and sustaining of a multi-organization practice-based research community (IndustryConnect). We begin with an examination of the motivations and theoretical foundations for the initiative, which brings together researchers and practitioners to investigate the design of the digital workplace and the use of enterprise collaboration systems. We discuss the arrangements, structures and research methods used and the challenges and rewards of practice-based research. These include: aligning stakeholder interests, serving both theoretical and practical outcomes and the role of research training and mentoring in the process of community building

An Empirical Study of the Current State of B2B Integration in Practice

With the ongoing process of building business networks in today’s economy, business-to-business integration (B2B Integration) has become a strategic tool for utilizing and optimizing information exchange between business partners. Industry and academia have made remarkable progress in implementing and conceptualizing different kinds of electronic intercompany relationships in the last years. Nevertheless, academic findings generally focus exclusively on certain aspects of the research object, e.g. document standards, process integration or other descriptive criteria. Without a common framework these results stay unrelated and their mutual impact on each other remains largely unexplained. In this paper we explore the current state of B2B in practice. In a research project using a uniform taxonomy (eXperience methodology) we classified real-world B2B integration projects from a pool of over 400 case studies using a pre-developed framework for integration scenarios. The result of our explorative research revealed typical patterns in companies\u27 position in the supply chain and industry sector and the use of the integration scenarios

Social Collaboration Analytics for Enterprise Collaboration Systems: Providing Business Intelligence on Collaboration Activities

The success of public Social Media has led to the emergence of Enterprise Social Software (ESS), a new type of collaboration software for organizations that incorporates “social features”. Surveys show that many companies are trying to implement ESS but that adoption is slower than expected. We believe that in order to understand the issues with its implementation we need to first examine and understand the “social” interactions that are taking place in this new kind of collaboration software. We propose Social Collaboration Analytics (SCA), a specialized form of examination of log files and content data, to gain a better understanding of the actual usage of ESS. Our research was guided by the CRISP-DM approach. We first analyzed the data available in a leading ESS. Together with leading user companies of this ESS, we then developed a framework for Social Collaboration Analysis, which we present in this paper

The Motives for B2B Integration: An Empirical Study

With the ongoing process of building business networks in today’s economy, business-to-business integration (B2B Integration) has become a strategic tool for utilizing and optimizing information exchange between business partners. Industry and academia have made remarkable progress in implementing and conceptualizing different kinds of electronic inter-company relationships in the last years. Nevertheless, academic findings generally focus exclusively on certain aspects of the research object, e.g. document standards, process integration or other descriptive criteria. Without a common framework these results stay unrelated and their mutual impact on each other remains largely unexplained. In this paper we explore motivational factors of B2B integration in practice. In a research project using a uniform taxonomy (eXperience methodology) we classified real-world B2B integration projects from a pool of over 400 case studies using a pre-developed framework for integration scenarios. The result of our partly exploratory research shows the influence of the role of a company in the supply chain and its motive to invest in a B2B solution

A Blueprint for Joint Research between Academia and Industry

This paper suggests a blueprint for research initiatives between academia and industry. It is meant to stimulate the discussion of the benefits arising from such collaborative work between researchers in universities and practitioners in the field. We show how both rigour and relevance can be ensured in such a collaborative setting. The paper presents a generic model (the CBR Model), developed over eight years and successfully implemented in an existing longitudinal collaboration. The model consists of four different key areas (funding, topic, cooperation, interpretation) as well as three layers relating to time intervals ((yearly, medium term (3 years), long term). The model is designed to provide researchers with a guideline for setting up similar collaborative arrangements between researchers and industry partners