Project No.: 5003-045377 01.03.96 - 31.12.99

Project leader: Dr. Elgar Fleisch, Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik, University of St. Gallen
e-mail: elgar.fleisch@iwi.unisg.ch

Name of project: Business network redesign. Reorganization of distributed processes in medium-sized and large companies

Partners: Dr. Ernst Martin, ETA SA, Grenchen

Funding: Sfr 449,582.-

Summary:
The shift from an industrial to an information society results in increasing importance being placed on the networking of individual economic units in a country’s economy. More and more large firms are demanding of their suppliers complete integration in the value-added chain. The aim is to achieve simpler, faster and more economical flows of goods, information and finance.

Classic projects in business process redesign are concerned mainly with internal company processes. However, the reorganization of trans-company processes within a business network has even more far-reaching effects. Information technologies are the enabling factor in redesigning distributed processes. In project phase one, the University of St. Gallen in association with its partner developed a method for

• the identification of potentials in distributed processes;
• the reorganization of distributed processes; and
• their implementation.

Cooperation:
Industrial partner ETA SA will push ahead with the distributed marketing and product development processes identified in phase 1 and flesh out the developed pilot on the basis of Internet technology.