Extended enterprises

Because the enterprise has become the extended enterprise, involving internal and external participants, it has become vital to extend the work group to the world. Many companies have built extranets to facilitate a more secure route for the exchange of confidential information. Firewalls, 128 bit encryption, public key interface (PKI), biometric signatures, and identity management are all components of the advancing state... 

Taylor, D. (1999), Extending Enterprise Applications, Gartner Group, Stamford, CT. 

Kempf KG, Keskinocak P, Uzsoy R (2011) Planning production and inventories in the extended enterprise a state of the art handbook, vol. 1. Springer, New York... 

Tillquist, J. (2002). Strategie eoimeetivity in extended enterprise netwoiks. Journal ofElectronic Commerce Research, 3(2), 77-85. 

Spekman, R.E., Davis, E.W. (2004). Risky business Expanding the discussion on risk and the extended enterprise. InternationalJournal of Physical Distribution Logistics Management, 34(5), 414. 

Elizabeth Chang is professor in the School of Information Systems and director of the Center for Extended Enterprises and Business Intelligence at the Curtin University of Technology (Western Australia). Her research interests include information hiding, cryptography, multi-site software engineering, and ontologies. 

These thoughts call certain questions to mind with respect to the supply chain. Are not the eight areas applicable as much to a supply chain as they are to the manufacturing function at a link company Will not a structural decision on vertical integration depend on the availability of viable trading partners Does not the supply chain have to mesh with the business unit strategy — even if we must redefine the business unit as a chain or extended enterprise rather than a stand-alone company ... 

No less impressive was the parallel development of the Extended Enterprise to complement the platform teams. Extended Enterprise is a trademarked term applied by Chrysler to describe its partnership with suppliers. The initiative provides lessons for partnerships between trading partners. As of 2003, the company defined its Extended Enterprise System as a Chrysler coordinated, goal-driven process that unifies and extends the business relationships of suppliers and supplier tiers in order to reduce cycle time, minimize systems cost, and achieve perfect quality. ... 

The underlying philosophy behind the Extended Enterprise fundamentally changes the relationship between Chrysler and those outside the organization essential to its success. It is an example of the type of relationships that we discussed regarding multicompany partnerships. Many features of the Extended Enterprise are finding their way into partnerships in other industries. 

The Extended Enterprise has also drawn the attention of the business press in an article authored by Jeffrey Dyer. It is offered as a case study of transferring the respected Japanese supplier relationship model, referred to as keiretsu, to the United States. Dyer describes the motivations and the impact of the Extended Enterprise partnership philosophy on product cost and development cycle time. 

Avoiding these costs and preserving customer loyalty are the purpose of the Extended Enterprise. The sections that follow describe some features of the Extended Enterprise we expect to become commonplace in many industries. 

The reason for this explanation is not to promote SAMIS for supply chain accounting. The purpose is to show that the issues faced in supply chain accounting are not new, and creative approaches have been developed. What is needed is irmovation in addressing the issues. Any supply chain partnership should consider SAMIS-type solutions in the design or operation of their own extended enterprises. 

Good luck. But always remember that you will have to live with the new software and the supplier you have selected for a while. Always work hard to make the supplier an important member of your extended enterprise. 

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