Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and in particular the Internet, have played a fundamental role in helping companies reach the goals of “supply chain integration”. The Internet can change the role and type of relationships between the various players, creating new value networks and developing new business models.
This work studies the impact of the Internet on company business, in particular on procurement and fulfilment processes. The analysis is carried out by considering and comparing four case studies regarding four large Italian companies. An evolutionary model for e-business strategy is proposed. This model shows how ICT can evolve from being merely a means of communication to being an instrument which coordinates company processes through five stages: traditional communication tools, internal integration, Web-based communication tools, XML Web-based platform, and integrated enterprise.
Even if the companies studied are geared towards different markets, the strategies they have used are quite similar. In particular, they have adopted the XML Web-based platforms model.
In recent years, a combination of economic, technological and market forces have forced companies to take a look at and redefine their supply chain strategies. Among these forces are the globalization of business, the proliferation of product variety, the growing complexity of supply chains and the reduction in product life cycle. In order to remain competitive, some companies have tried to improve the coordination and collaboration of all the partners involved in the same supply chain. This approach has been called “supply chain integration” (Hewitt, 1994; Cooper, Lambert, & Pagh, 1997; Bechtel & Jayaram, 1997; Christopher, 1998; Knoblock & Minton., 1999).
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and in particular the Internet, have played a fundamental role in helping companies reach the goals of “supply chain integration”. In fact, the Internet can redefine the way in which some back-end operations, such as product development, procurement, production, warehouse management, fulfilment, post-sales support and even marketing, are managed. In each process, the Internet can change the role and type of relationships between the various players, creating new value networks and developing new business models.
The word “e-business” can be used to describe the use of the Internet to reach the goals of supply chain integration (Kalakota & Robinson, 1999).
This work studies the impact of the Internet on company business, in particular on procurement and fulfilment processes. The analysis is carried out by considering and comparing four case studies regarding four large Italian companies. Even though, these companies’ core business is completely different, their e-business strategies prove to be quite similar. Following the case studies, an evolutionary model for e-business strategy is proposed. This model shows how ICT can evolve from being merely a means of communication to being an instrument which coordinates company processes.
Even if the companies studied are geared towards different markets, the strategies they have used are quite similar. In particular, they have adopted the XML Web-based platforms model.
As far as e-procurement is concerned, the players involved are suppliers that the companies already have a stable and trusting relationship with. Furthermore, they are suppliers the companies deal with quite frequently. As far as the technological aspect is concerned, the companies created platforms at the beginning of the supply chain which allow suppliers to take part in a private environment where they can access the companies’ production plans. This way each supplier can manage its own virtual warehouse and plan its own production from a distance without having to invest in software systems to carry out in-house management.
Further studies will have to carried out to better understand the evolution process involved in implementing e-procurement and e-fulfillment projects in companies. In particular, it is important to understand if there is an evolutionary path which aims at integrating the procurement and distribution stages into one single virtual environment.
It would be interesting to study which stages of the procurement and distribution processes are made digital, if this takes place in the same way for the two processes and if this can be applied to different industrial sectors. Furthermore, it is necessary to evaluate if the evolutionary path changes according to the product which is being commercialized and what effects this may have on the entire process. The “supply network” will be the field of research of further studies. In this studies, it will be analyzed for the importance of standard in the supply chain cooperation.
