Discussion

The digital firm must connect each functional area and each management level to one another. Data input to the system in manufacturing must be made available to sales, accounting, and shipping. Managers in the human resources department must have access to appropriate information regardless of its origin. Information integration is the key to the digital firm.

The way a business organizes its workflows, the method it uses to accomplish tasks, and the way it coordinates its activities among employees, customers, and suppliers determines its business processes. Organizations, from the smallest one- or two-person group to the largest you can imagine, must have orderly processes that all divisions can understand. No part of the organization can work in isolation from any other part.

Discussion Questions

1. Explain similarities and differences between the following concepts: business unit value chain, industry value chain, supply chain, logistics.

2. Discuss the characteristics that impact the way business processes and their workflows are structured and the extent to which they can be automated.

3. Companies will develop interorganizational relationships.

a. Discuss three levels of interorganizational relationships.
b. Explain why these levels are important.
c. Discuss differences in exchange of information for the three levels.
d. In addition, the time dimension (planning horizon) differs per level. Explain.

4. Why are systems for collaboration and social business so important and what technologies do they use?