1. E-Collaboration Challenges Ahead
Jane Fedorowicz, Ph.D.
Rae D. Anderson Professor of Accounting and Information Systems and
Principal Investigator, The Bentley Invision Project
Bentley College, Waltham, MA USA
13 April 2005
© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

2. © 2005 Bentley Invision Project
Agenda
My perspective on e-Collaboration
The Bentley Invision Project
An e-Collaboration design framework
Key design principles
EC-US collaboration opportunities
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

3. What is e-Collaboration?
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

4. Interorganizational e-Collaboration
The Environment
Interorganizational system
Organization 1
Organization 2
Organization 3
E-Collaboration/interorganizational system
--a virtual unit of analysis comprising parts of multiple organizations engaged in a common endeavor
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

5. Bentley Invision Project
Year 3 of project with 7 faculty researchers
Transdisciplinary team
Accounting, Computer Information Systems, Government, Management researchers
Other contributors from US, England, India, Australia and Germany
Focus on e-Collaborations within multi-organizational case studies
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

6. © 2005 Bentley Invision Project
Current Research
Five multi-organizational case studies
E-health
HIPAA and a health data consortium
E-prescribing and EMR
E-government
Emergency response
E-procurement
E-business
Supply chain collaboration
Diagramming with BPMNe
Cross-case analysis
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

7. Invision’s High-level Research Questions
Why do interorganizational e-Collaborations succeed or fail?
How do we define success?
e-Collaboration perspective
Stakeholder perspectives
What design choices would make an e-Collaboration more “successful”?
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

8. Invision Project Framework
Environmental Factors
Regulations
Economy
.etc.
Individual and Collective Outcomes
Relational outcomes
E-Collaboration Outcomes
Adoption
Use
Intended and
unintended effects
Organizational Factors
Operational complexity
IT readiness
.etc.
e-Collaboration Properties
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

9. e-Collaboration Properties
Process—participants’ roles & activities
Process restructuring, role of intermediaries/consortia
Information—nature & quality of information
Representation, transparency, standards
Application software—architecture, functionality & usability
Proprietary vs. open source, interface integration
IT Infrastructure—components, architecture, flexibility
Data location and redundancy, centralized vs. P2P
Confidence—participant assurance
Security, data access rules, authentication, inspection
Economics—financial costs for participation
Pie-sharing agreements, risk sharing, set-up costs,
usage fees
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

10. Examples of Key e-Collaboration Design Principles
Seamless integration with partners’ systems and business processes
Local ownership of data (decision rights)
Open-source or royalty-free licensing
Non-redundant, decentralized data storage
Data and process governance (contracts, legislation, standards)
Pie-sharing equity (distribution of costs, benefits, risks)
e-Collaboration
Properties
Process
Information
Software
Infrastructure
Confidence
Economics
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

11. What does this mean for designers of e-collaboration technologies?
Design Properties matter
All e-Collaborations possess significant enablers /constraints for diffusion and use
Stakeholders each have their own definition of success
Key benefits differ
Timeliness
Accuracy
Whole is greater than sum of the parts
Unintended consequences will occur
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

12. © 2005 Bentley Invision Project
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

13. EC-US e-Collaboration Collaboration Opportunities
NSF/IST jointly sponsored researcher meetings
Seattle, 2004 – Digital Government
Bologna, 2003
Prague, 2002
2004 Research supplements
Areas of joint interest in dependability and security, embedded systems, e-business, e-government, and e-health.
2005 NSF/IST interested in additional supplements, including e-collaboration
Only current awardees eligible
NSF, IST must initiate contact
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© 2005 Bentley Invision Project

14. Jane Fedorowicz, PhD jfedorowicz@bentley.edu www.bentleyinvision.org
Thank you!
Jane Fedorowicz, PhD
13 April 2005
© 2005 Bentley Invision Project