Academic literature on the topic 'B2B integration'

The objective of this work, is to analyze the meaning of electronic commerce in our days taking into account the information technologies; it also will analyze their adjustments, their trends and applications of the same, in the Business to Consumer Relations (B2C), Business to Employee (B2E) and Business to Administration (B2A), Consumer to Consumer (C2C), Citizen to Government (C2G), Business to Government (B2G) and, Business to Business (B2B), as well as how information systems have been very useful to reduce costs, getting technology to change from being an operating support tool to become a strategy one, to increase the sales volume and the profits of the business as a result of this. The trend being taken by businesses and consumers has increased the participation of the companies which apply it in a comprehensive manner, since they reach international markets, while also face another kind of competition that takes place in a global market. We conclude that electronic commerce will remain a tool of great importance to efficiently manage the chains of supply between businesses and consumers through the Internet which allows an integration to reduce costs of ordering, distribution, administration and delivery of input materials.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline the usage of interactive marketing tools in the area of sales and operations planning (S&OP) to further collaboration among supply chain partners. Emergent challenges and research directions are proposed. Design/methodology/approach – Using extant literature from S&OP, supply chain management and interactive marketing, the authors integrate those to show the value of using interactive marketing tools to further integration across the supply chain of important S&OP processes. Findings – S&OP utilizes sophisticated software to integrate various business processes beyond B2C and into B2B relationships. Research limitations/implications – Uncertainty exists as to the measurement of the performance of a supply chain, or the network or system of companies, is not developed enough to deal with that issue. However, this is addressed in the research questions section. Practical implications – The practical implications for the use of integrative marketing tools to link B2C as well as B2B partners through S&OP are numerous and far reaching. Originality/value – This study uniquely examines the use of interactive marketing tools for B2B, as opposed to simply B2C.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to call for a scrutiny of the dualist approach to business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) marketing in industries driven by consumer-generated content. It posits that individual consumer-centric factors are influential for B2B marketing as well in sectors such as the travel industry and investigates the determinants of tourists’ intention to use social media websites for travel planning. Design/methodology/approach Integrating constructs from IS and marketing literature, the paper proposes information quality and perceived enjoyment as antecedents of perceived usefulness, attitude and intention to use. The research model is tested using data from social media users with experience in travel planning. Findings Results show that perceived usefulness and information quality are stronger predictors of attitude and behavioral intention than perceived enjoyment. Enjoyment was not found to be strongly influential. Relevancy and reliability of information and its usefulness concerning travel-planning needs were found more influential. Research limitations/implications Data were collected from social media users, raising possible issues of representativeness. Practical implications The paper offers clarity regarding antecedents of downstream user behavior which can be of significant value. Demarcations in B2B and B2C perspectives blur in the context of social media, enabling more effective integration. Originality/value The paper brings in and validates the roles of information quality and enjoyment as influencers of behavior. Identifying the travel industry as a sector having greater likelihood of B2BC convergence, the paper extends IS adoption research to user-interactive sites in the travel-planning context, which can benefit the consumer as well as the supply side.

PurposeThis paper aims to study the moderating effect of customer type (business customers versus private customers) on the link between two forms of openness (cross-industry networks and customer integration) and two front-end innovation outcomes (a creative idea and a product definition), in the context of radical innovations.Design/methodology/approachAn agreement was established with the Statistical Office of the Basque Government. This agreement enabled us to access a reliable list of innovative companies in the region that constituted our sample frame. Questionnaires were collected by phone. The response rate was 41.6%, which led to a sample size of 189 firms. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.FindingsThe study reveals that idea creativity is explained by different external drivers in business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) settings. In B2B settings, customer integration is found to have no effect on idea creativity. For product definition, however, both the external drivers, namely, cross-industry networks and customer integration, matter, although the latter is more salient.Practical implicationsIn the search for creative ideas, managers of firms that serve business customers should focus on cross-industry networks, while those that serve private customers should concentrate on customer integration.Originality/valueMost previous quantitative studies on the front end have focused on internal drivers, and some of them use a mix of B2B and B2C data, which could lead to misleading conclusions.

the dramatically increased flexibility afforded by the Internet in business-to-business transactions also presents steep challenges in merging information coming from so many sources. B2B marketplaces, which function as an intermediate communications layer, reduce the number of mappings needed .

The global business environment of today requires companies to be flexible, in order to quickly react and respond to the ever-changing market. Business-to-business application integration (B2BAI) can be seen as a tool which enables companies to stay competitive and it is often regarded by the theory as a must for survival in today’s fierce business environment. Eventhough the employment of a B2BAI strategy can generate a lot of advantages and opportunities for companies operating within today’s global business environment, there are still many challenges and problems to overcome in order to have a successful B2BAI solution.

Based on this we found it highly interesting to see whether the theories positive outlook on B2BAI could be supported by an empirical research. In this essay we have therefore studied and identified the underlying reasons and the contributing factors to why or why not companies choose to integrate externally, from the perspective of IT-consulting agencies. Besides this, a description and an explanation regarding the concepts covered by the field of B2BAI have been made in order to facilitate the understanding for the reader. As our intention primarily was to investigate the reasons behind and the contributing factors to why or why not companies choose to integrate, we chose to make qualitative interviews. This, as we were in need of information which described the course of events and expressed individual opinions, in order to achieve the purpose of the essay. Regarding the selection of research objects for the research, the population consists of all IT-consulting agencies in Sweden. The research has however been delimited to a selection of the population, where the sample consists of three IT-consulting agencies located in Jönköping, with experience of B2BAI.

One of the most interesting discoveries we have made in this research is that the empirical findings agree with the theory in regards of that globalization is a central factor contributing to why companies chose to invest in B2BAI. However, the respondents do not discuss all the advantages of B2BAI mentioned in the theory and emphasize slightly different underlying reasons for choosing to employ a B2BAI strategy. The most central reason for not choosing to employ a B2BAI strategy was according to the respondents due to the lack of knowledge regarding issues relating to the phenomenon and this have not been discussed in the theoretical framework. The challenges with B2BAI stated in the theory, were on the other hand not regarded as issues contributing to not choosing to implement B2BAI. We are under the impression that the advantages and the oppor-tunities with B2BAI carry more weight then the challenges, as the essays empirical findings indicate that the demand for B2BAI today is high and constantly growing.

Dagens globala affärsvärld kräver att företag ska vara flexibla för att snabbt kunna reagera och anpassa sig till den ständigt föränderliga marknaden. Business-to-business application integration (B2BAI) kan ses som ett verktyg som hjälper företag att vara konkurrenskraftiga och i teorier som behandlar ämnet beskrivs det ofta som ett måste för att överleva i dagens tuffa affärsklimat. Trots att tillämpandet av en B2BAI strategi kan generera ett flertal fördelar så finns det fortfarande många utmaningar och problem att bemästra för att kunna få en framgångsrik B2BAI lösning.

Baserat på detta fann vi det högst intressant att undersöka huruvida teorins positiva bild av B2BAI kunde stödjas av en empirisk studie. I denna uppsats har vi därför undersökt och identifierat de underliggande skälen och de bidragande faktorerna till varför företag väljer eller inte väljer att integrera externt, utifrån ett IT-konsultföretag perspektiv. Utöver detta ges en beskrivning av och förklaring till de begrepp som kunskapsområdet B2BAI innefattar för att underlätta förståelsen för läsaren. Eftersom vår avsikt huvudsakligen var att undersöka skälen bakom och de bidragande faktorerna till varför företag väljer eller inte väljer att integrera, valde vi att genomföra kvalitativa intervjuer. Detta då vi hade ett behov av information som beskrev händelser och uttryckte personliga åsikter för att kunna uppfylla syftet med denna uppsats. Vad gäller urvalet av undersökningsobjekt består populationen av alla IT-konsultföretag i Sverige. Undersökningen har dock avgränsats till tre IT-konsultföretag belägna i Jönköping med erfarenhet av B2BAI.

En av de mest intressanta upptäckterna vi har gjort i denna undersökning är att empirin överensstämmer med teorin beträffande att globaliseringen är en central bidragande faktor till varför företag väljer att investera i B2BAI. Respondenterna diskuterar dock inte alla fördelar med B2BAI som omnämns i teorin och framhåller delvis andra underliggande skäl till varför företag väljer att använda an B2BAI strategi. Det mest centrala skälet till varför företag inte väljer att implementera en B2BAI strategi var enligt respondenterna på grund av bristande kunskaper beträffande frågor relaterade till fenomenet och detta har inte diskuterats i det teoretiska ramverket. Utmaningarna med B2BAI omnämnda i teorin ansågs emellertid inte vara bidragande faktorer till att inte välja att implementera B2BAI. Vi har fått intrycket att de fördelar och möjligheter som B2BAI medför är av större vikt för företag än de utmaningar och problem som existerar, då uppsatsens empiriska studie pekar på att efterfrågan för B2BAI är stor idag och kon-stant växande.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are becoming increasingly engaged in B2B interactions. The ubiquitousness of the Internet and the quasi-reliance on electronic document exchanges with larger trading partners have fostered this move. The main technical challenge that this brings to SMEs is that of business document integration: they need to exchange business documents with heterogeneous document formats and also integrate these documents with internal information systems. Often they can not afford using expensive, customized and proprietary solutions for document exchange and storage. Rather they need cost-effective approaches designed based on open standards and backed with easy-to-use information systems. In this dissertation, we investigate the problem of business document integration for SMEs following a design science methodology. We propose a framework and conceptual architecture for a business document integration system (BDIS). By studying existing business document formats, we recommend using the GS1 XML standard format as the intermediate format for business documents in BDIS. The GS1 standards are widely used in supply chains and logistics globally. We present an architecture for BDIS consisting of two layers: one for the design of internal information system based on relational databases, capable of storing XML business documents, and the other enabling the exchange of heterogeneous business documents at runtime. For the design layer, we leverage existing XML schema conversion approaches, and extend them, to propose a customized and novel approach for converting GS1 XML document schemas into relational schemas. For the runtime layer, we propose wrappers as architectural components for the conversion of various electronic documents formats into the GS1 XML format. We demonstrate our approach through a case study involving a GS1 XML business document. We have implemented a prototype BDIS. We have evaluated and compared it with existing research and commercial tools for XML to relational schema conversion. The results show that it generates operational and simpler relational schemas for GS1 XML documents. In conclusion, the proposed framework enables SMEs to engage effectively in electronic business.

Purpose – Project business represents a large part of the business-to-business sector. The qualitative and quantitative scope of many project networks requires that several supplier firms participate in their development and delivery. Consequently, such project networks are characterized by a great heterogeneity with respect to the participating firms building a service ecosystem. This raises the question of how resource integration for value co-creation can be shaped successfully for all partners, not least because many projects are characterized by sometimes dramatic failures with respect to costs, duration, and scope. Specifically, the different organizational identities provide institutional frames of reference to the resource-integrating actors. As the organizational identities are typically not harmonious with each other, at least partial misalignments of the institutional arrangements that shape the resource integration processes may emerge, leading to imperfect value co-creation or even value co-destruction. The purpose of this thesis is to conceptualize and to empirically investigate the impact of organizational identity as an institutional context on resource integration in B2B service ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach – The thesis makes use of interpretive phenomenology in conjunction with a qualitative case study approach to access the lived experience of actors of different professional service firms who have experienced changes in resource integration into a single B2B service ecosystem. Findings – A conceptualization of organizational identity as institutional context for resource integration is developed and empirically investigated. The findings show a strong impact on the firms’ organizational identities and the actors’ resource integration experience and evaluation. Moreover, it is also very likely that if unmanaged, an at least partial misalignment of the institutional arrangements of multi-organizational B2B service ecosystems would represent a normal and also stable condition.

Date June 12, 2008

Program IT Management

Authors Jessica Jarrell, 820506.

Västerås

Rais Iqbal, 791229.

Västerås

Supervisor Ole Liljefors

Title Business-to-Business IT Integration

Introduction

As business world has moved into digital era, new trends in business models have been emerged to do business. Digital infrastructure provided by internet enables enterprises to extend their boundaries for new customer and trading partners. Extending the enterprise without a solid IT infrastructure is incomplete, this is the reasons that enterprises are investing more and more in IT to build an IT integrated infrastructure where all its trading partners are linked together. On the other hand, technological world provides solutions and services to build IT integration for such extended enterprises. A wide variety of IT integration solutions and patterns available for enterprise to meet their integration goals, but this often brings unclear situation where companies have to think a lot before implementing IT integration patterns. A slight mistake in this scenario could shake the equilibrium between IT and business, to keep the equilibrium steady companies need to thoroughly examine their short-term and long-term goals and then different integration patterns can be employed to meet these goals.

Research Question

What approaches can be helpful for companies to accomplish successful business-to-business IT integration pattern for their short-term and long-term goals?

Purpose

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the concept of extended enterprises and, identify and describe the existing B2B IT integration approaches employed by extended enterprises.

Method

The research is of qualitative type and secondary data is used to conduct this research. Books and research papers has been used to construct theoretical framework. Electronic databases available at library of Mälardalen University such as Google scholar, Emerald and interlibrary network of Sweden (Libris) are used to search for secondary data.

Analysis Findings from the detailed literature study are analyzed to answer the research question. Integration patterns are analyzed described by the different authors of integrations patterns in three different ways. Firstly, integration patterns were analyzed in term of their advantages and disadvantages with technology and business, secondly, maturity of these integration patterns are analyzed and finally these integration patterns are analyzed for company’s short-term and long-term goals.

Conclusion Business process oriented and method-oriented approaches are good for long-term goals due to handling of business process management in both approaches and reusability aspects of method oriented approach. For short-term goals portal-oriented approach dominating in the integration community, application interface oriented approach is also good to meet the short-term goals. However, combinations of different approaches are found feasible.

This study’s aim is to examine how companies integrate their multiple CRM channels to enhance the relationships with the customers. A qualitative method was used and the collection of data was conducted from eleven interviews. The interviews were semi-structured with open-ended questions. The theory is written in three main themes; customer relationship management, channels of communication and multichannel integration. Empirical findings and the analysis also follows these themes. The study is ending with conclusions. What is affecting companies channel selection depends on what message companies want to send, but also whether if it is existing or new potential customers’ that are targeted. The geographical factor also influences the channel selection. Channel decision further depends on the size of the companies, if it is business to business or business to consumer and what kind of product the company is selling. More complex products require more personal interactions. How to successfully implement a multichannel integration strongly depends on the quality of data, an organizational common interpretation of customer relationship management, integration of information from all departments and that the company has an easy, yet powerful system for the accessible data. This study helps to give an understanding of how the multichannel integration is done in a business to business company with complex products. The study can be applied on other companies using a multichannel integration. It can help managers to understand the importance of the multichannel integration, how to succeed and other important factors for a successful multichannel integration. It also contributes to an understanding of the critical factors of the multichannel integration.  A framework with an alternative model of multichannel integration is presented. The study also presented that the process of multichannel integration is of great importance and emphasized by a leading company in the field of customer relationship management. This study therefore has succeeded in giving an easy, more powerful and greater picture of the multichannel integration, which is an important determined factor for building customer relationships. A figure (figure 10) is provided for other companies to use that are business to business with complex products. This study is a case study with a qualitative research approach, the studied company is a business to business company with complex products. The study is made from the company’s perspective. Future research can be conducted by studying multichannel integration from the customers’ perspective instead of the company’s perspective. The study could have been conducted on more than one company to compare the results, or on a business to consumer company instead of a business to business company. Studies on multichannel integration can also be interesting regarding companies that are selling less complicated products. Finally, studies can be conducted regarding the “information overflow” from social media.

In communication and marketing there have been a shift from a transaction focus with emphasis on persuasion to a relationship focus referred to as a two-way communication with increased interactivity. Traditional companies are challenged to understand how their business can take advantage and adapt to the digital changes and opportunities when it comes to communication and building relationships and gain the ability to anticipate and deliver what customers expect them to. B2B companies have a slower adaption to digital media and digital changes compared to B2C companies and when it comes to digital channels there is many opportunities to discover. B2B companies still feel dependent on traditional communication when it comes to building relationships but the digital trend pressure companies to get involved and keep up digitally. The constantly expanding digital landscape force B2B companies to find a way to utilize digital platforms and channels in order to create strong digital relationships with retailer and audience The purpose of this study is to investigate and gain an understanding how B2B wholesalers communicate and build digital relationships with retailers. A qualitative method is used featuring a single-case study with Company X a B2B firm operating in the wholesale trade business as a producer and a wholesaler. Data used in the study is collected from semi-structured interviews with employees from the sales and marketing department. Digital marketing is one of the most emerging tools within communication, that B2B businesses not yet use to its full potential but are eager to discover the opportunities and advantages B2C companies adapted for a long time. B2B businesses use digital tools to support and strengthen the communication and relationship with retailers however findings reveal traditional tools is still the prefered communication method in B2B. Our findings suggest how there are still qualities lacking in digital communication that can only be achieved through traditional communication with psychical meetings. Empirical suggestion on how a B2B company can adopt techniques from B2C and apply it in a B2B context.

This study investigates the impact of environmental factors on the decision to electronically integrate operations with international customers and/or suppliers. The following research question motivates the study: How does the environmental context affect the level of electronic integration of an organization with its international partners? This study elaborates on the concept of electronic integration. Studies on integration in general and electronic integration in particular adopt a loose definition of integration: they all agree in that integration is the opposite of markets, but they define this opposite in different terms: relationship contracting, long-term contracting, coordination, etc. Finally, the study also responds to Wathne and Heide’s (2004) call for a more comprehensive study of governance mechanisms in B2B, with emphasis on monitoring mechanisms.

With widespread use of the Internet, data is often shared between organizations in B2B health care networks. Integrating data across all sources in a health care network would be useful to public health surveillance and provide a complete view of how the overall network is performing. Because of the lack of standardization for a common data model across organizations, matching identities between different locations in order to link and aggregate records is difficult. Moreover, privacy legislation controls the use of personal information, and health care data is very sensitive in nature so the protection of data privacy and prevention of personal health information leaks is more important than ever. Throughout the process of integrating data sets from different organizations, consent (explicitly or implicitly) and/or permission to use must be in place, data sets must be de-identified, and identity must be protected. Furthermore, one must ensure that combining data sets from different data sources into a single consolidated data set does not create data that may be potentially re-identified even when only summary data records are created. In this thesis, we propose new privacy preserving data integration protocols for public health surveillance, identify a set of privacy preserving data integration patterns, and propose a supporting framework that combines a methodology and architecture with which to implement these protocols in practice. Our work is validated with two real world case studies that were developed in partnership with two different public health surveillance organizations.

Elektronisk handel (e-handel) mellan företag ofta kallad B2B är ingen ny företeelse. Olika företag har genom åren investerat mycket i att automatisera sina interna processer, som har lett till stora effektivitetsbesparingar. Med hjälp av teknikens framfart fick man också möjligheter att utbyta information automatiskt mellan olika företag. Systemintegration kan ses ur ett tekniskt perspektiv och ur ett affärsprocessperspektiv . Det tekniska perspektivet inriktar sig på databaser och tekniker medan affärsprocessperspektivet fokuserar på de processer som utförs i en verksamhet. Informationssystem kombinerar ihop dessa två perspektiv genom att agera medlare och genom att underlätta användning av informationen. Med utveckling av informationsteknologin i dagens samhälle där uttryck som bland annat "ökad affärsnytta" och "effektivitet" allt oftare används anser vi att integrering av informationssystem både inom och utanför organisationer kommer utvecklas mer och mer. Syftet med denna undersökning är att ta reda på vad det är som driver leverantörer att använda integrerade lösningar samt vad som stimulerar dem att vara ansluta till inköpsorienterade elektroniska marknadsplatser överhuvudtaget. Meningen med att få svar på dessa frågor är att kunna se vilka anpassningsmöjligheter det finns för att systemintegration ska underlättas. För denna studie har en kvalitativ fallstudie på elektroniska marknadsplatsen Visma Proceedo genomförts med 5 stycken intervjuer. En intervju har genomförts med operatören och 4 med leverantörer som har integrerat sina system med Visma Proceedo. Vi har kommit fram till att det som stimulerar leverantörer att vara anslutna till en inköpsorienterad elektronisk marknadsplats är säkring av fortsatt handel med stora kunder samt det som driver dem att integrera interna informationssystem med en sådan marknadsplats är ökad verksamhetsnytta. Vi har upptäckt att dessa marknadsplatser kan anpassas genom att följa branschledande standarder och genom att automatisera funktionen för presentation av leverantörernas produkter.

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After the spilt of TELEBRAS that started the consolidation of the Telecommunications in the Brazilian market, which goes through the reduction in the operational costs of the operators of Personal Mobile Service (PMS). The integration of the business processes with the outsourcing companies shall be considered as part of the Work Force Management (WFM) process that was transferred outside the operator s border. The outsourcing of work force should be used as main condition in reduction of these costs. This document presents a new model for implementation of the WFM associated with a Service level Agreement (SLA) with performance indicators and targets pre-established in a signed contract between the parties, and focused on the macro process for guarantee of quality in the enhanced Telecommunications Operation Map (eTOM). This model allows the process to manage outside the operator s borders by using resources B2B, WAP and SMS in external environment defined by the eTOM model, as for proper human resources and as well for outsourcing companies in a more collaborative form.
Ap?s a cis?o da TELEBR?S, deu-se in?cio ? consolida??o do mercado brasileiro de telecomunica??es que passa pela redu??o dos custos operacionais das operadoras de Servi?o M?vel Pessoal (SMP). A integra??o dos processos de neg?cio com as empresas terceirizadas deve considerar que parte do processo de Ger?ncia da For?a de Trabalho (GFT) foi deslocado para fora das fronteiras da operadora. A terceiriza??o da for?a de trabalho vem sendo utilizada como principal forma de redu??o destes custos. Este trabalho, apresenta um novo modelo para a implementa??o da GFT associada a um Acordo de N?vel de Servi?o (Service Level Agreement - SLA) com indicadores de desempenho e metas pr?-estabelecidos num contrato firmado entre as partes e focado no macro processo de garantia de qualidade do enhanced Telecommunications Operation Map (eTOM). Esse modelo, permite gerenciar o processo al?m das fronteiras da operadora utilizando recursos B2B, WAP e SMS no ambiente externo definido pelo modelo eTOM, tanto para recursos humanos pr?prios quanto para empresas terceirizadas de forma mais colaborativa.