Realizing the promise of e-business - Developing and leveraging electronic partnering options

The advent of superior connectivity and integration technologies is paving the way for flexible electronic partnering options. Such flexibility is essential if a company wants to attract a large number of partners (with varying connectivity needs and preferences) to its supply chain network. This article conceptualizes twelve electronic partnering options. It then discusses the various types of sensemaking and conversion challenges that companies encounter in developing this critical electronic business (e-business) capability and proposes a multi-pronged approach to effectively deal with them. This approach involves four distinct but synergistic campaigns of digitization-strategic congruency, organizational design, technology infrastructure, and relational campaigns. The utility of this approach is illustrated by examples of successful business-to-business (B2B) digitization initiatives.