[8] 2002 e-business-strategies-for-virtual-organizations

Figure 4.5
Interconnected ecologies
of firms
IS planning strategies for emerging business models
“Our suppliers/
business partners”
“Our organization”
“Outsourced activities”
“Our customers”
ownership of particular databases may need to be reconsidered,
as must the concept of corporate data as an important resource.
So too must concepts of business processes change. If organizational
boundaries become more ‘rubbery’ and porous than
previously was the case, concepts of internal and external
processes, and hence ownership of and responsibility for
business processes change. If simultaneously both loose and
tight linkages are sought to suppliers and business partners, to
satellite entities to whom former activities have been outsourced,
and to customers, and if there is heavy reliance on IT to
communicate, coordinate and control activities in this organic
structure, then it seems totally inappropriate to continue to
regard SISP as something done within a single organization for
reasons of efficiency, effectiveness and competitive advantage,
even if this is accomplished through peeping outwards into the
external environment.
4.5.2 A sample case
Let us take three enterprises with strong motivation to collaborate.
They have recognized the mutual benefits of working
together, acknowledging the contribution that each can make,
and have formally entered into some sort of deal or contractual
arrangement. They are now in the process of making the
collaboration work and of realizing the benefits of that partnership.
A real life example of this type of scenario can be provided
by considering the relationship that developed between three
government departments, with complementary interests in
issues surrounding family welfare.
The three agencies can be called Police (A), Justice (B) and
Family Welfare (C). The benefits from collaborating exist at a
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