A great deal of controversy exists about the impact of information technology on firm performance. While some authors have reported positive impacts, others have found negative or no impacts. This study focuses on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technology. Many of the problems in this line of research are overcome in this study by conducting a careful analysis of the performance data of the past decade gathered from the assembly centers of Chrysler Corporation. This study estimates the dollar benefits of improved information exchanges between Chrysler and its suppliers that result from using EDI. After controlling for variations in operational complexity arising from mix, volume, parts complexity, model, and engineering changes, the savings per vehicle that result from improved information exchanges are estimated to be about $60. Including the additional savings from electronic document preparation and transmission, the total benefits of EDI per vehicle amount to over $100. System wide, this translates to annual savings of $220 million for the company.

Telecommunications addresses the tyranny of distance for international and domestic trade communities by providing information linkages both internally and externally to an organisation. These global networks give firms the opportunity to gain strategic advantages such as the strengthening of trading partner relationships and the redesigning of internal procedures to improve overall efficiency and cost effectiveness. Many organisations - more noteably small and medium-sized enterprises - however, have been slow to adopt telecommunications and its enabled technologies (EDI in particular) due to a general lack of understanding of the benefits available from their effective utilisation. This paper describes the various benefits attributed to telecommunications and, more specifically, to EDI. The paper summarises many of the major factors which might be contributing to the slow rate of acceptance of this technology, despite the benefits which the business community stands to gain from its...

Many application domains, including enterprise systems integration, health informatics and construction IT, require complex data to be transformed from one format to another. We have developed several tools to support specification and generation of such data mappings using domain-specific visual languages. We describe motivation for this work, challenges in developing visual mapping metaphors for different target users and problem domains, and illustrate using examples from several of our developed systems. We compare cognitive dimensions-based evaluations of the different approaches and summarise the lessons we have learned. 1.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), an example of an Inter-Organisational System (IOS), has the potential to provide companies with tangible benefits, such as improvements to overall efficiency and cost effectiveness, and strategic advantages, including the strengthening of trading partner relationships and the redesigning of internal procedures. Many organisations - more notably small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - however, have been slow to adopt EDI due to factors including the costs associated with implementing EDI and the need for education/training concerning its use[1; see also 2]. This paper briefly summarises the major factors contributing to the slow diffusion of this technology by SMEs to emphasise the potential of effective education/training in addressing this problem. The paper then justifies the need for participatory-based approaches to EDI education/training and briefly outlines a course called TREAT (Teaching Realistic EDI and Telecommunications) which requires...

Increasingly, large retail companies are finding that the traditional vision of Electronic Data Interchange using a Value Added Network with expensive message translation software and private wide area networks, is unable to deliver its promise of paperless trading with their suppliers. While many have achieved a high level of EDI compliance from large suppliers, many unsophisticated, usually small, suppliers remain outside their electronic commerce network creating a barrier to achieving the most important business re-engineering benefits which require 100 % compliance. Many large retailers are turning to the diverse range of Internet-based document distribution and presentation systems which have recently appeared to provide new ways of including unsophisticated traders in their replenishment systems. In this paper we argue that the traditional EDI vision emerged through the interaction of a number of aspects of the replenishment problem context, namely available technology, transaction cost structure, the power of message transmission intermediaries, notions about how to achieve supply chain cooperation, and the shared understandings of correct electronic commerce practice within the industry. The traditional EDI vision achieved only partial supply chain compliance because it failed to take

Abstract The benefits of integrating and coordinating supply chain partners have been well recognized in many industries. In the construction industry, supply chain integration is technically challenging due to the high fragmentation of the industry. Information, applications, and services are loosely distributed among participants with a wide range of hardware and software capabilities. In addition, participants are often unwilling to share information because the temporary nature of construction projects often impedes the establishment of trust. A secure, modular, and flexible system that can aggregate scattered information and share that information across applications is, therefore, highly desirable. We have prototyped a service oriented, web-based system that can provide both these capabilities. Called the SC Collaborator, this system facilitates the flexible coordination of construction supply chains by leveraging Web services, web portal, and open source technologies. These technologies enable the SC Collaborator system to provide an economical and customizable tool for integrating supply chain partners with a wide range of computing capabilities. This paper describes the overall architecture and the features of the system. Two example scenarios are included to demonstrate the potential of SC Collaborator in integrating and managing information from project partners. The first scenario is an e-Procurement example whereas the second is a rescheduling scenario based on the data from a completed project in Sweden.

Efficient consumer response (ECR) is a U.S. supply chain management strategy which attempts to address the inefficiencies which have led to excessive inventory and unnecessary costs at all levels within the grocery industry supply chain. This paper discusses the traditional grocery store format, the supermarket, and the ways in which inefficient business practices developed in the U.S. grocery supply chain; and discusses the major business activities needed for successful implementation of ECR. The paper then presents a brief summary of the results of a survey of ECR knowledge and usage within the Australian grocery industry, which is the initial phase of a long term research project whose main purpose is to evaluate ECR as it applies to that industry. Keywords Food industry, efficient consumer response, supply chain management, exploratory research, strategic IS, strategic alliances, business process re-engineering. INTRODUCTION Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) originated in the ...

Abstract. Current EDI standards include a lot of complexity and their integration into existing applications is extremely expensive. This is due to the fact that current EDI standard messages are based on data schemes intended to capture all data that may appear in any business scenario of the corresponding business transaction. The standards do not capture the business requirements and scenarios that lead to the hierarchical EDI message design. Considering the requirements of modelling inter-organizational business transactions we present concepts based on Unified Process and UML to support modelling EDI scenarios. Resulting UML diagrams can support the design of current EDI messages as well as the design of future EDI standards based on object technology. 1

This Thesis is concerned with Technology Transfer -- in particular, with the industrialisation of formal specification techniques within the Information Systems domain in conjunction with: a socio-organisational philosopy an Object-Oriented modelling paradigm a potentially multi-organisational context a long-term perspective. In this Thesis, I: initially synthesise and develop and then provisionally validate a theory of information systems acquisition which draws on established theory within the domains of: -- Information Systems

Within the domain of Electronic Commerce, Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) is a grocery industry management strategy designed to make the industry more efficient and responsive to consumers ' needs. Although ECR originated in the US, the concept has been adopted in Europe, Australia and, slowly, in other regions. This paper discusses the concept of ECR and its development, and then examines the status of ECR implementation in the US and Europe. A cross-regional comparison of the two is presented, based on the ECR tracking surveys conducted by Kurt Salmon Associates in the US and Europe. The paper concludes with some suggestions regarding possible extensions to this preliminary comparative work. 1. ELECTRONIC COMMERCE WITHIN THE GROCERY SUPPLY CHAIN- ECR Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) came into existence in the US as a direct response by the grocery industry to threats from alternative store formats/types – such as discount stores, convenience stores (for example, 7-Eleven, which started the trend of opening early and closing late at night), deep discount drug stores (retail pharmacies which also sell low-price consumer items), hypermarkets / supercentres, and the rather quaintlynamed “category killers ” which offer specialised, limited-line discount goods (such as toys or sports goods).