Case Study 1

This chapter describes a case study that is carried out in an organization that provides physical security services in Australia. The case study has been carried out with the aim of applying the CBPE model to some parts of this medium-sized organization that is called upon by event organizers such as those managing large public meetings, conventions and exhibitions, and so on. The primary focus of this chapter is to present how the CBPE framework helps in introducing newly-engineered processes for the organization. These new processes, mainly internal in this case, are able to make practical utilization of the concept of collaboration in order to reduce their time and cost.

Change Management in Collaboration

This chapter discusses the importance, relevance and the activities related to managing change in a business as it undergoes transformation to a collaborative business. One of the most significant changes that needs to take place when collaborative business is undertaken is the redefinition of traditional organizational boundaries. Senior management of the organization must understand the upcoming change process and totally support the change that follows the effort to collaborate through electronic channels. Collaborative business, especially through the use of a collaborative webbased system, will find that other participating businesses are able to come ‘inside’ the organization in order to offer as well as consume services. While this initially happens in the electronic domain, large, service-based organizations that depend on their far-flung collaborative partners will also discover that the management of change is not just at a technological level but also at a socio-cultural level.

Advanced Technologies and Architecture for Collaborative Business

This chapter discusses the role of information system architectures in Collaborate Business Process Engineering (CBPE). Thus, in this chapter, there is an extension of the discussion on Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) from chapters 2 and 4, and its importance and relevance to CBPE. The SOA based architecture is extended and applied in a collaborative business environment. The technical platform of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides an ideal mechanism to start building collaborative business processes, as it facilitates technical collaboration of different environments - as discussed in this chapter.

Emerging Technologies for Business Collaboration

This chapter describes the fundamentals of technologies such as Web Services (WS) and mobile technologies that provide the basis for modem-day business collaboration. These technologies, introduced here, are further discussed and evaluated later in Chapter 5 from the point of view of demonstrating their application to the CBPE environment.

Organizational Structure and Technology Adaptation

This chapter discusses the effect of the technologies of Web Services (WS) and Mobile Technologies (MT) on the organizational structure of an enterprise. Subsequently, this chapter also discusses the various technology acceptance models in the context of collaborative business. The survey described in this chapter highlights the importance of the various emerging technologies (as outlined earlier in Chapter 2 and discussed in greater detail in Chapter 5) in terms of their adoptability and their impact on the collaborative business.

Collaborative Business Process Engineering (CBPE) Model

This chapter describes the Collaborative Business Process Engineering (CBPE) model. This model is the core model for business collaboration and is the main contribution of this book to the literature on collaborative business. The descriptions of the technologies that facilitate CBPE were presented in earlier Chapter II.

Fundamentals of Collaborative Business

The modern business age is about astute collaboration. This is so because the nature of competition amongst businesses has changed significantly. The core change has resulted from the advances of electronic communications. The ability of businesses to execute their business processes independent of geographical or technological boundaries has brought about an utterly different type of business eco-system. The new business model mandates the business to look around, observe its associated businesses, establish alliances with them and provide unified solutions to its customers in a way that encapsulated the underlying ‘mix’ of complexities and combinations of services and products desired by the customer. Thus, in a way, competition has transcended itself and businesses have started associating with each other at a different level, with changed scope and global standards. The discussion on collaboration in this book is to understand the way in which it is affecting businesses and what is required of the businesses in order to handle collaboration without giving up competition completely.

Socio-Cultural Factors and Collaboration

This chapter discusses the importance of the socio-cultural factors of collaboration. This social influence is experienced not only in the society where the customers exist, but also within the internal organization, employees, business partners and senior management. The transition to a collaborative business will affect all these involved parties and it is important to understand that effect and prepare the parties for the transition. This chapter starts by providing some definitions of the social aspects in information technology. The correlations between the IT changes and corresponding changes to the society are demonstrated. The discussion, in this chapter, is aimed to handle some of the risks associated with transitioning to collaborative business that are non-technical in nature.

Collaborative Web Based System (CWBS)

This chapter describes the modeling of the Collaborative Web Based System (CWBS). This CWBS is the means by which the CBPE model, discussed earlier in this book, is practically implemented. The focus of this chapter, however, is on the models of collaborative business processes that can be implemented in CWBS. The software architecture aspect of the CWBS is based on the detailed discussions of technologies in previous chapters 2, 4 and 5. The models in this chapter are based on the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and the use cases are based on the specifications of the Unified Modeling Language (UML). These notations and the ensuing process models are important when organizations try to collaborate with each other. These process models show, visually, how the interactions amongst multiple organizations will take place from a business viewpoint.

Appendices

The following is the survey that was used, in detail, to elicit data related to collaborative business, business processes and mobile technologies.