Extended Enterprise, The: Gaining Competitive Advantage through Collaborative Supply Chains

Chapter 6. Information Systems and Technology Issues in the Extended Enterprise^[*]

A key requirement of the extended enterprise is to achieve virtually seamless integration across organizational boundaries. As pointed out in Chapter 3, achieving this level of integration extends well beyond the challenge of information systems (IS) integration. The handful of companies that have achieved the vision of seamless integration have done so by meeting the broad challenges of process reengineering, change management, and supply chain collaboration. That said, the demands of today’s global, customer-driven competitive environments have dramatically elevated the importance of IS—to the point that effective use of information technology (IT), IS, and the ...