Smart Business Networks

A number of scientists - from management and strategy, information systems, engineering and telecommunications - gathered at the Vanenburg castle in the Netherlands to discuss a novel concept: Smart Business Networks. They see the future as a developing web of people, organisations and IT/networking infrastructures, bound together in dynamic, unpredictable ways, creating smart outcomes from quickly (re-)configuring links between actors. They posed the question: What should be done to make the outcomes of such a network 'smart' that is just a little better than that of your competitor? More agile, with less pain, with more return to all the members of the network, now and over time? The answer was that we observe the emergence of "business operating systems" that run business processes on different organisational platforms while sharing elements of their infrastructures. Business processes become portable: The end-to-end management of different processes running across different organisations in many different forms becomes possible, while leaving to each actor the ultimate power of choosing its partners in different constellations. This book presents the outcomes of an energizing discussion of this emerging new direction in management science.

"Scientists from management and strategy, information systems, engineering and telecommunications have discussed a novel concept: Smart Business Networks. They see the future as a developing web of people and organizations, bound together in a dynamic and unpredictable way, creating smart outcomes from quickly (re-)configuring links between actors. The question is: What should be done to make the outcomes of such a network 'smart', that is, just a little better than that of your competitor? More agile, with less pain, with more return to all the members of the network, now and over time? The technical answer is to create a 'business operating system' that should run business processes on different organisational platforms. Business processes would become portable: The end-to-end management of processes running across many different organizations in many different forms would become possible. This book presents you the outcomes of an energizing and new direction in management science."

Welcome to Smart Business Networks.- The Actors.- The Emergence of Smart Business Networks.- Challenges of Smart Business Networks - Five Perspectives.- The Cordys Panel - Science Meets Business.- Outcomes of Smart Business Networks.- Spontaneous Collaborative Networks.- Where Are the Smarts Located in a Smart Business Network?.- Information Flow Structure in Large-Scale Product Development Organizational Networks.- Smart Business Networks Enable Strategic Opportunities Not Found in Traditional Business Networking.- Unlocking Smart Business Networks.- Smart and Sustainable Supply Chains.- Execution of Smart Business Networks.- Marketing Translation Services Internationally: Exploiting IT to Achieve a Smart Network.- Node to Network: Partnerships in the Second-Hand Book Trade.- Towards Smarter Supply and Demand Chain Collaboration Practices Enabled by RFID Technology.- Building Networks In-Sync.- "Off the Shelf" Smart Business Networks.- Designing Intelligent Service Supply Networks.- Governance of Smart Business Networks.- Embedded Coordination in a Business Network.- Supply and Demand Driven Coordination in Smart Business Networks.- The Viable Systems Model Applied to a Smart Network: The Case of the UK Electricity Market.- Governing Smart Business Networks by Means of Distributed Innovation Management.- Design of Smart Business Networks.- Sharing Process Knowledge in Business Networks.- How Much Business Modularity?.- The Potential of Webservices to Enable Smart Business Networks.- Embedding Business Logic Inside Communication Networks: Network-based Business Process Management.- What Is SMART about Credit Card Payments?.- Smart ICT Support for Business Networks.- Web Information Extraction and Mediation as a Basis for Smart Business Networking.- Public Administration Networked with Business: Towards Architectures for Interoperable and Retrievable Law.