Jacques Vandenbulcke

An Empirical Study on Business/ICT Alignment in European Organisations

The information and communication technology (ICT) literature has demonstrated that alignment between business and ICT has a positive effect on business performance and effectiveness. This study builds on these results, complemented with some theoretical foundations of the firm, to argue that Business/ICT alignment can be the basis of a sustainable competitive advantage for organisations. To do so, we first evaluate how well-aligned European organisation really are. We report on the results of a survey1 carried out in Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Italy and Spain. More than 640 valid responses were analysed. The goal of the study is twofold: to analyse context dependency of business/ICT alignment and to deduce some practical guidelines for managers in the field. Two important results are discussed: First, we demonstrate the influence of different ICT strategies on alignment performance. Next, we describe how organisations which establish specific ICT management routines obtain, on average, better alignment performance scores.

Management and enterprise architecture click: The FAD(E)E framework

Enterprises are living things. They constantly need to be (re-)architected in order to achieve the necessary agility, alignment and integration. This paper gives a high-level overview of how companies can go about doing ‘enterprise architecture’ in the context of both the classic (isolated) enterprise and the Extended Enterprise. By discussing the goals that are pursued in an enterprise architecture effort we reveal some basic requirements that can be put on the process of architecting the enterprise. The relationship between managing and architecting the enterprise is discussed and clarified in the FAD(E)E, the Framework for the Architectural Development of the (Extended) Enterprise.

An Overview of Enterprise Architecture Framework Deliverables

A number of enterprise architecture frameworks do exist. In this paper, we differentiate between two classes of frameworks: classic enterprise architecture frameworks, and federated enterprise architecture frameworks. From each class, a number of reputable frameworks are presented. Conclusions are made concerning what these frameworks learn us for setting up an Extended Enterprise architecture framework.

Two basic types of business-to business integration

In this paper we argue that there exist two basic forms of business-to-business integration (B2Bi), namely, extended enterprise integration and market B2Bi. The paper at hand clarifies the meaning of both concepts, shows that the difference between both is fundamental, and discusses the consequences of the difference in the realm of Web services development. The importance of coordination and the role of standards are studied for both types of e-business. The authors hope this paper clearly shows the foundations of B2Bi, and that the paper as such brings clarity into B2Bi practices. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Developing the extended enterprise with the FADEE

In realizing Business-to-Business integration, much communication among persons with different backgrounds is needed. We affirm that Enterprise Architecture Descriptions are an important part of the necessary communication in information systems development and maintenance. This article is about categorizing the models that describe Business-to-Business integration (B2Bi) practices, and identifying the numerous ways B2Bi issues could and should be described. The framework we propose is based on lessons learnt from proven architecture description frameworks. The Zachman framework forms the basis of the Framework for the Architectural Description of the Extended Enterprise (the FADEE) presented in this paper. It changes the communication between CIO and CEO, what results in more involvement of the CIO in the strategy making process.

Event Based Web Service Description and Coordination

This paper proposes the concept of business events as the cornerstone to web service description and coordination. First, a web service architecture is introduced as the result of an event based analysis & design phase. Then, it is advocated how the event concept can be used for semantically rich web service description. A distinction is made between two web service interfaces: a non-transactional query interface and a transactional event notification interface. Furthermore, a web service composition model is proposed, based on event broadcasting and event preconditions, instead of traditional one-to-one method invocations. The composition model is presented in a static variant and in a version with dynamic subscription. Throughout the paper, it is shown how the event based approach fits entirely within the current standard SOAP/WSDL/UDDI web services stack.

The data building blocks of the enterprise architect

When setting up an Enterprise Architecture a number of decisions have to be made with respect to data storage and data transmissions. In this paper we bring a structured overview of those data aspects on which decisions need to be made, and we show that different nodes in a data exchange are dependent upon decisions made by another node with respect to these data aspects. Communicating the decisions on data aspects can happen via architectural descriptions.

Considering (de)centralization in a Web Services World

Web services standards are interesting to realize business-to-business integration (B2Bi). However, in the Web services domain too little attention has been paid to the importance of centralizing and decentralizing some data and process issues. This paper shows that these issues should get additional attention if Web services standards are to become more powerful and useful for real-life integration.

Dependencies between data decisions

In this paper we show that storing and transmitting data is a complex practice, especially in an inter-organizational setting. We found 18 data aspects on which heavy consideration and coordination is important during a software process. We present these data aspects and point out that these data aspects are dealt with at different levels within Extended Enterprises. A good software process embraces the idea that choices have to be made on these 18 data aspects, and it recognizes the dependencies between the aspects, and the dependencies between decisions made at different levels in the enterprise.

Structuring the Development of Inter-organizational Systems

In this paper we argue that there are two basic types of Business-to-Business integration (B2Bi), each of which requires a different information systems development approach. A framework is set up to structure the development of intra and inter- organizational systems. The framework has three dimensions, the first one showing business and ICT (Information and Communication Technology), the second one showing strategic, tactical and operational management levels, and the third one showing different levels of systems integration: Enterprise Application Integration, Extended Enterprise Integration, and Market B2Bi. The meaning of the so-created cells and their relationships are investigated.