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E-Business Applications

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-55792-7

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Advanced Information Processing

Series Editor
Lakhmi C. Jain

Advisory Board Members

Endre Boros
Clarence W. de Silva
Stephen Grossberg
Robert J. Howlett
Michael N. Huhns
Paul B. Kantor
Charles L. Karr
Nadia Magenat-Thalmann
Dinesh P. Mital
Toyoaki Nishida
Klaus Obermayer
Manfred Schmitt
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
Jorge GaSQS Klaus-Dieter Thoben

E-BusÎness
Applications
Technologies for Tomorrow's Solutions

With 96 Figures

Springer
]orge Gasos Klaus-Dieter Thoben
European Commision BIBA
DG INFSO, BU-29 University of Bremen
1049 Brussels Hochschulring 20
Belgium 28359 Bremen
]orge.Gasos@cec.eu.int Germany
tho@biba.uni-bremen.de

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ACM Subject Classification (1998): H.4, H.3.5, J.1

ISBN 978-3-642-62846-7 ISBN 978-3-642-55792-7 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-55792-7
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Foreword

We are living in the times of "Schumpetrian Economy", where radical innovation

is visible as a ceaseless process of "creative destruction". Not only do technolo-
gies emerge to be substituted within a month, but companies are also now being
founded and folded at a similar rapid pace, as we have seen with the dotcom
"bubble". The current situation has many similarities to the early days of the
automobile industry. There too, an eruption of attempts, trials and tests were car-
ried out on a wide range of inventions, most of them not very successfully. The
automobile industry only started to show relatively stable patterns after more than
two decades, when by this time reliable descriptions and theories had been devel-
oped. Weber and Taylor are two pioneers from the early 20th century who estab-
lished our current body of knowledge about business administration and industrial
management. From what we are experiencing now, Internet technology seems to
be having a similar impact on our economy to that which the automobile industry
had a century ago; we have an exciting new technology but we do not have the in-
formation to predict the future.
If the future is that uncertain, why should we read a book like this one? This
book presents a selection of concrete developments within the field of e-business
solutions. If current trends are indeed parallel to the automobile industry, it is safe
to say that future e-business will not come into existence with a big bang, but will
be carefully constructed from uncountable modular technologies and experiences
gained with concrete applications. Cars today are manufactured out of parts, many
of which carry the name of their founders, for example Mr. McPherson and Mr.
Panhard for suspensions, and Mr. Otto and Mr. Diesel for engines. Their individ-
ual car factories have long ago disappeared, yet their contributions to the industry
as a whole are still very valid. This book offers an opportunity to view a collection
of basic developments from Internet technology and the accompanying business
models. These might form some of the essential elements that will become the
building blocks for the new economy. Until the time when there is certitude about
a dominant design in the Internet industry, this book will contribute to enhancing
the reader's experience and his or her managerial and economic judgment of e-
business.
On the basis of our research at CeTIM, we support the stance of this book that
technology development, technology management and innovation management
are inseparably intertwined. We call the managers responsible for innovative high-
tech business "Business Architects" to express their task of carefully balancing the
shifting priorities of innovation and adaptation in multiple technical, economic,
organizational and social dimensions. At some points in time, new technology
shapes new products, new production processes or new organizational forms. At
other times, new technology has to be adapted to existing processes or institutional
VI Foreword

constraints to allow its adoption. Take the example of Edison and his innovation
of the electric light bulb. He made electricity a broad success by designing the
light bulb to fit into the gaslight installations commonly used at the end of the 19th
century. This saved investment costs for households and removed a barrier to
adopting his new technology. Gaslight installations are long gone, but their di-
mensions still survive in our light bulbs. As in most cases, old technology, new
technology and social constraints contributed to the emerging industries structures.
For us it goes without saying that successful innovation requires more than ad-
vances in technology alone; it requires creating what are now referred to as new
"business models": entrepreneurial innovation in multiple dimensions.
This book provides insights into a number of dimensions, illustrating where e-
business will bring about change in comparison with the old economy. The editors
have chosen a selection of applications that focus on e-commerce and emerging
new ways of performing market transactions using the Internet. This is in line with
a fundamental change in the traditional concept of a physical product that is now
moving towards service products and their e-markets. What used to be "produc-
tion" in the traditional factory is turning into supply chain management in the new
economy, not only for physical products but for services as well. Managerial at-
tention is shifting too, from the firm's internal organization to dynamically net-
worked partners in virtual organizations. Like traditional organizations, virtual or-
ganizations will need coordination tools. Emerging enterprise applications,
however, will not only support the coordination tasks of the industrial firm but
also address the emerging needs of these dynamic networks.
While each separate dimension of e-commerce is important, only their integra-
tion into one consistent "business model" will allow successful technical devel-
opment, fueled by sustainable business growth. I am confident the reader will find
concrete examples of business models in this book, and that this may form the in-
centive for his or her own involvement in shaping the "new economy".

Munich and Rotterdam, Dr. Bernhard R. Katzy

August 2002
Professor for Technology
and Innovation Management
Editorial

The rapid growth of e-business in the last few years has brought about important
changes in the way companies do business with each other and in the way they in-
teract with their customers. This transformation has been accelerated by the broad
acceptance of the Internet and related technologies, and developments have often
been driven by the short-term needs of organizations. E-business-related literature
has gone through a similar process. Accordingly, the available books mainly focus
on practical short-term implementations, i.e., success stories or related business
models. There is a clear gap in publications addressing the main technological
challenges of precompetitive applied research in this area, which will shape the e-
business scenarios in the coming years. This work is mainly reported and refer-
enced in conferences, workshops and journals/newsletters of specific research
communities. Results of precompetitive research are, therefore, difficult to access
as a coherent body of knowledge, and also these targeted publications tend to fo-
cus only on the research work without tackling the business and industrial implica-
tions.
This book addresses research and implementation issues related to three of the
main e-business application areas: e-commerce, supply chain management, and
enterprise applications. The baseline for most contributions is applied research de-
veloped in close cooperation with industrial partners. Hence, a wide range of in-
dustrial sectors are addressed throughout the book: telecommunications, textiles,
electronics, automotives, the food industry, the tile industry, aerospace, etc. In or-
der to provide a coherent view of research trends and business opportunities that is
more than the sum of the individual chapters, contributions have been selected
based on: the innovative character of their research, the future commercial rele-
vance of the target application, and how they relate to the other contributions.
The contributions in this book have been written by a selection of respected ex-
perts with academic and industrial backgrounds. Each contribution presents an in-
novative approach to e-business applications, discusses in detail the technological
and research challenges, and addresses the integration into existing e-business sys-
tems. Most of the contributions also present prototypes that respond to specific in-
dustrial needs and that have been implemented and tested in close cooperation
with industrial end-users.
This book is targeted at readers with basic knowledge of e-business technolo-
gies and developments. However, it is written specifically to not only benefit
technologists and researchers in this area, but also managers and business profes-
sionals who seek insights into and better understanding of the potential of promis-
ing e-business applications. Furthermore, it can be of high value for students as
teaching reference material in university courses.
VIII Editorial

The book is organized into four parts. Each part starts with a brief introduction
summarizing the various e-business applications presented, including the most
relevant aspects of the underlying cases. Part I analyzes the current state of the art
and future trends in e-business applications. It also serves as an introduction to the
book that frames the general context in which the specific applications presented
in the other three parts of the book have been developed. Parts II, III, and IV pre-
sent a collection of case studies in the three main application areas of e-business
that are the focus of this book: e-commerce, supply chain management, and ex-
tended and virtual enterprise applications.
The editors would like to thank all authors for their high quality contributions.
Furthermore, we thank Ralf Gerstner for the opportunity to publish this book at
Springer and his team for the editorial support they provided.

Brussels and Bremen, Jorge Gasos and Klaus-Dieter Thoben

September 2002
Contents

List of Contributors .................................................................... XIII

Part I: E-Business - State of the Art and Trends

1. E-Business Principles, Trends and Visions •••.•••...•.•.•.••••••..•••••••••.••..•.•.•.•.•.•• 3

J. Browne, P. Higgins, I. Hunt

2. Emerging Concepts in E-Business and Extended Products ...................... 17

K.-D. Thoben, J. Eschenbacher, H. S. Jagdev

3. The Dynamic Networked Organization:

A New Paradigm that is here to Stay? ..•.•.••••.•...•••.••••••....••.••••.......•••••......•• 39
F. Frederix

4. Transactions in E-Procurement .................................................................. 47

A. Slade

Part II: Advanced E-Commerce Applications

5. Intelligent E-Commerce with Guiding Agents

Based on Personalized Interaction Tools•.•......•.•.•.••.......•••..••••.•....••••••.••.••• 61
U. Thiel, M. L' Abbate, A. Paradiso, A. Stein, G. Semeraro, F. Abbattista, P. Lops

6. A Virtual-Sales-Assistant Architecture for E-Business Environments •••• 77

C.-T. Eberhardt, T. Gurzki, P. Schweizer
X Contents

7. Knowledge Intensive Product Search and Customization

in E-Commerce ..................................•....•.•.•.•.••••••.••••••.•.•.••............••••.•.•.•.•.• 87
R. Bergmann, R. TraphOner, S. Schmitt, P. Cunningham, B. Smyth

8. Lean Configuration: Interactive 3D Configuration

for E-Commerce Environments ................................................................ 103
K-O. Detken, I. Fikouras

9. Web-Based Commerce in Complex Products and Services

with Multiple Suppliers .•.........................•••••••.••••.•.••••.•.•.•.•.•••..•...........••••• 123
L. Ardissono, A. Felfemig, G. Friedrich, A. Goy, D. Jannach,
R. Schaefer, M. Zanker

10. E-Tailor: Integration of 3D Scanners, CAD and Virtual-Try-on

Technologies for Online Retailing of Made-to-Measure Garments .•.•.•. 137
G.A. Kartsounis, N. Magnenat-Thalmann, H.-C. Rodrian

Part III: Supply Chain Management Applications

11. Intercompany Supply Chain Management

Based on a Holistic E-Business Concept .....•.•••••...•.••.•.............................. ISS
J. Martinetz, N. Brehmer, B. Meik, M. Arendt

12. Supporting the Animal Feed Industry in an E-Business Environment

Using Simulation ........................................................................................ 171
I. Hunt, J. Browne, P. Higgins

13. Business Model and Internet Broker Concept for Efficient Electronic
Bidding and Procurement in the Tile Industry ....................................... 191
O. Peters, J. Zabel, F. Weber

14. Dynamic Forecasting for Master Production Planning

with Stock and Capacity Constraints ...................................................... 207
J. J. Pinto Ferreira, N. S. Antunes, J. C. Azinhais, R. J. Rabelo, A. Pereira
Klen, D. Gillblad, M. Celen
 Contents XI

Part IV: Extended- and Virtual-Enterprise Applications

15. Cooperation in Dynamic Networked Organizations ....•.•.•........•.•••.•....... 221

F. Frederix

16. A Web-Based Collaborative Environment for Concurrent Project Life

Cycle Management in Networked Enterprises .•.........•........................•... 233
D. Gazzotti, M. Felice, P. Paganelli, R. Stevens

17. E-Hubs: The Critical Role of First-Tier Suppliers .................................. 249

T. Gulledge

Author Index ......................................................................................................263

SUbject Index ...•.•........•.•......•.•.•...•.•.••••.....•..................•......................•.•.........•.• 265

List of Contributors

F. Abbattista N. Brehmer
Dipartimento di Infonnatica Mobile Business
Universita di Bari and Innovative Solutions M-BIS GmbH
Via Eo Orabona 4 Sandtorstrasse 23
70125 Bari D-39106 Magdeburg
Italy Gennany

N. S. Antunes J. Browne
Pararede CIMRU
Avo Jose Ma1hoa, 21 National University oflreland Galway
1070-161 Lisboa Ireland
Portugal
M. Celen
L. Ardissono Nordisk Media Ana1ys
Dipartimento di Infonnatica Skeppsbron 36
Universita de Torino S-lll 30 Stockholm
Corso Svizzera 185 Sweden
10149 Torino
Italy P. Cunningham
Trinity College Dublin
M. Arendt Department of Computer Science
Hennes Schleifrnittel GmbH & COo Dublin 2
Luruper Hauptstrasse 106-122 Ireland
D-22547 Hamburg
Gennany K.-O. Detken
DECOIT eK
J. C. Azinhais D-28879 Grasberg at Bremen
Pararede Gennany
Avo Jose Ma1hoa, 21
1070-161 Lisboa C.-T. Eberhardt
Portugal FhG-IAO
Nobelstro 12
R. Bergmann 70569 Stuttgart
University of Hildesheim Gennany
PO Box 101363
31113 Hildesheim
Gennany
XIV List of Contributors

J. Eschenbaecher D. Gazzotti
BIBA Gruppo Formula SpA
University of Bremen Via Matteotti 5
Hochschulring 20 40055 Villanova di Castenaso (BO)
28359 Bremen Italy
Germany
D. Gillblad
A. Felfernig Swedish Institute of Computer Science
Computer Science & Manufacturing Box 1263
Research Group SE-I64 29 Kista
University of Klagenfurt Sweden
Universitatsstrasse 65
A-9020 Klagenfurt A.Goy
Austria Dipartimento di Informatica
Universita de Torino
M. Felice Corso Svizzera 185
Gruppo Formula SpA 10149 Torino
Via Matteotti 5 Italy
40055 Villanova di Castenaso (BO)
Italy T. Gulledge
Enterprise Engineering
I. Fikouras Laboratory
BIBA George Mason University
University of Bremen Fairfax, VA 22030
Hochschulring 20 USA
28359 Bremen
Germany T. Gurzki
FhG-IAO
F. Frederix Nobelstr. 12
Alcatel Microelectronics 70569 Stuttgart
Zaventem and Oudenaarde Germany
Belgium
P. Higgins
G. Friedrich CIMRU
Computer Science & Manufacturing National University of Ireland
Research Group Galway
University of Klagenfurt Ireland
Universitatsstrasse 65
A-9020 Klagenfurt I. Hunt
Austria CIMRU
National University ofIreland
Galway
Ireland
 List of Contributors XV

H. S. Jagdev J. Martinetz
Computation Department IAF
UMIST University of Magdeburg
POBox 88 Universitatsp1atz 2
Manchester M60 lQD D-39106 Magdeburg
United Kingdom Germany

D. Jannach B. Meik
Computer Science & Manufacturing Hermes Schleifmittel GmbH & Co.
Research Group Luruper Hauptstrasse 106-122
University of Klagenfurt D-22547 Hamburg
Universitatsstrasse 65 Germany
A-9020 Klagenfurt
Austria P. Paganelli
Gruppo Formula SpA
G. A. Kartsounis Via Matteotti 5
Athens Technology Centre S.A. 40055 Villanova di Castenaso (BO)
1 Astronafton St. Italy
151 25 Athens
Greece A. Paradiso
FhG-IPSI
M. L'Abbate Dolivostr. 15
FhG-IPSI 64293 Darmstadt
Dolivostr. 15 Germany
64293 Darmstadt
Germany A. Pereira K1en
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
P. Lops Departamento de Engenharia Meciinica
Dipartimento di Informatica Caixa Postal 476
Universita di Bari Florian6polis (SC)
Via E. Orabona 4 88.040-900
70125 Bari Brazil
Italy
o. Peters
N. Magnenat-Thalmann BIBA
Centre Universitaire d'Informatique University of Bremen
University of Geneva Hochschulring 20
24, Rue du General Dufour 28359 Bremen
CH 1211 Geneva Germany
Switzerland
J. J. Pinto Ferreira
FEUP-DEEC
R. Roberto Frias
4200-465 Porto
Portugal
XVI List of Contributors

R. J. Rabelo B. Smyth
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina University College Dublin
Departamento de Automayao e Sistemas Department of Computer Science
Caixa Postal 476 Dublin 4
Florian6polis (SC) Ireland
88.040-900
Brazil A. Stein
FhG-IPSI
H.-C. Rodrian Dolivostr. 15
TecmathAG 64293 Darmstadt
Sauerwiesen 2 Germany
67 661 Kaiserslautem
Germany R. Stevens
Gruppo Formula SpA
R. Schafer Via Matteotti 5
DFKIGmbH 40055 Villanova di Castenaso (BO)
Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3 Italy
66123 Saarbriicken
Germany U. Thiel
FhG-IPSI,
S. Schmitt Dolivostr. 15
University of Kaiserslautem 64293 Darmstadt
PO Box 3049 Germany
67653 Kaiserslautem
Germany K.-D. Thoben
BIBA
P. Schweizer University of Bremen
FhG-IAO Hochschulring 20
Nobelstr. 12 28359 Bremen
70569 Stuttgart Germany
Germany
R. TraphOner
G. Semeraro empolis Knowledge Management
Dipartimento di Informatica GmbH,
Universita di Bari Bertelsmann Mohn Media Group
Via E. Orabona 4 Sauerwiesen 2
70125 Bari 67661 Kaiserslautem
Italy Germany

A. Slade F. Weber
University of Sunderland BIBA,
United Kingdom University of Bremen
Hochschulring 20
28359 Bremen
Germany
 List of Contributors XVII

J. Zabel M.Zanker
BIBA Computer Science & Manufacturing
University of Bremen Research Group
Hochschulring 20 University Klagenfurt
28359 Bremen Universitatsstrasse 65
Germany A-9020 Klagenfurt
Austria

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