Disruptive Transformation of Enterprise Supply Chain Performance through Strategic Technology-enabled Networking to Improve Business Value

📝 Abstract

In a dynamically changing world, businesses must transform themselves to survive. Although the necessity for change may be apparent; how to change is not. Learning from the experiences of successful pioneers in a core business function is useful. Procurement is essential for all organisations. It is how organisations acquire assets and inputs including facilities, materials and people. Traditionally, the business objective from procurement was to increase availability and reduce costs. Subsequently, the objective became more tactical. Leading procurement practice today is disruptive; beyond cost to creating value. The strategy for market leaders has also transformed; from competition to collaboration. Technology-enabled business networks are now driving business disruption globally. Through a rigorous field study of two world-class pioneering corporations, this paper explores how disruption is transforming Enterprise Supply Chains. Lessons, contributions and their implications for current IS theory and practice, are discussed.

💡 Analysis

In a dynamically changing world, businesses must transform themselves to survive. Although the necessity for change may be apparent; how to change is not. Learning from the experiences of successful pioneers in a core business function is useful. Procurement is essential for all organisations. It is how organisations acquire assets and inputs including facilities, materials and people. Traditionally, the business objective from procurement was to increase availability and reduce costs. Subsequently, the objective became more tactical. Leading procurement practice today is disruptive; beyond cost to creating value. The strategy for market leaders has also transformed; from competition to collaboration. Technology-enabled business networks are now driving business disruption globally. Through a rigorous field study of two world-class pioneering corporations, this paper explores how disruption is transforming Enterprise Supply Chains. Lessons, contributions and their implications for current IS theory and practice, are discussed.

📄 Content

Australasian Conference on Information Systems

    Elliot, McCann and Manley  

2015, Adelaide

                Strategic Networks to Improve Business Value    

Disruptive Transformation of Enterprise Supply Chain Performance: Strategic Business Networks to Improve Business Value Steve Elliot University of Sydney Business School, Sydney, Australia Email: steve.elliot@sydney.edu.au (corresponding author) Martin McCann The Digital Institute Kory Manley Ariba, Inc. Abstract In a dynamically changing world, business must transform to survive. Although the necessity for change may be apparent, how to change is not. A useful approach can be to learn how successful pioneers transform a core business function such as procurement: how organisations acquire assets and inputs including facilities, materials and people.
Traditionally, the business objective for procurement has been to increase availability of purchased materials and to reduce costs. Subsequently, the objective became more tactical. Leading procurement practice today is disruptive; beyond cost to creating value. The strategy for market leaders has also transformed; from competition to collaboration. Technology-enabled procurement networks are now key to driving business disruption globally. Through a rigorous field study of two world-class pioneering corporations, this paper explores how digital disruption is transforming procurement functions. The impact on Enterprise Supply Chains, contributions and implications for current IS theory and practice are discussed.
Keywords
Business transformation, supply chain, procurement, business networks, IS theory and practice
1 Introduction In an increasingly volatile world driven by transformative forces including globalization, developments in technology, a changing world order, geo-political instability and the escalating impacts of unsustainable practices, change has become an imperative for business, government and society (NIC 2012, KPMG 2013; Stern 2007; UN SDG 2013; WEF 2010). Although the necessity for transformative change may be apparent; to business executives, why, what, how, where and when to change is not.
The questions, “why, what, where and when” to change may be specific to the organisation. The “how” question, less so. Many, if not most, businesses of any size utilise enterprise systems to provide mission-critical capabilities without which the business would be unable to communicate, organise, manage or perform primary or secondary activities on their value chain (Porter 1985). The role of technology is greater than simply enabling innovation. With globalisation, technology developments have been a major driver of business transformation (Porter and Reinhardt 2007).
Motivations to address the question “why change” include government regulation or directive (European Union 2003a, 2003b), stakeholder influence (Elliot 2013) or societal pressure, as in a ‘name and shame’ campaign targeting aspects of corporate behaviour (Greenpeace 2007). The remaining questions, “what, where and when” may be a challenge. A useful approach in this situation is to seek to learn from relevant experiences of pioneering businesses. Transformation of a core business function was selected for its potential relevance to organisations as a whole. Procurement is essential for all organisations: business, government and societal. It is how organisations acquire assets and inputs including facilities, materials and people. Traditionally, the business objective for procurement was at an operational level; to acquire the necessary materials and services at the lowest cost. Subsequently, while the business objective remained the same, the focus became more tactical; process improvement to cut inventory and to reduce process costs. Leading procurement practice today is disruptive; moving beyond reducing cost to creating business value. The strategy adopted by Australasian Conference on Information Systems

    Elliot, McCann and Manley  

2015, Adelaide

                Strategic Networks to Improve Business Value    

market leaders has also transformed; from competing to collaborating. Technology-enabled business networks are now driving business disruption globally (Aberdeen 2011; Hackett 2014). This paper aims to address business uncertainties, motivate IS researchers and facilitate IS research. First, to assist business executives responding to the drivers of transformative change by exploring how disruption is transforming an Enterprise Supply Chain function. Based on a study of disruptive pioneering business practices a model is proposed to inform the responses of executives uncertain about how to proceed. Second, to stimulate IS researchers to increase the relevance of their work by examining digital disruption of this core business function, and by closing gaps between pioneering business pra

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