E-Business

The adoption of the internet to support electronic business processes is currently done by a transformation of traditional processes. However, the direct transfer does not make use of the network capabilities and of the resulting possibility of direct communication between the business partners. Furthermore, actual systems do not support the dynamics and flexibility required by emerging business models. The article analyses actual interaction patterns and presents a technical concept based on Peer-to-Peer network architecture to support these new types of decentralized economic interactions.

The article describes an integrated approach for the introduction and continuous management of e-business scenarios and applications in SME. This model enriches existing and publicly available consulting approaches with phases for optimizing business processes, the implementation and introduction of e-business applications and a continous process improvement.

The majority of manufacturing enterprises is currently trying to become more competitive in the preparation of customer-centric and innovative products. The focus of manufacturing paradigm is changing from a mainly sales-driven business towards a provider of utility or benefit to the customer. Consequently, the traditional product definition must be extended. Based on the description of the concept of extended products, this paper discusses approaches to extend the classical product definition and the resulting requirements. Additionally, the role of collaboration in enterprise networks will be discussed. Some practical examples are mentioned.