Formulation of an e -business inter-enterprise collaboration for the construction industry

Demands for optimization and greater efficiency in the construction industry become particularly critical when the flow of project information extends beyond the borders of individual organizations. In addition, traditional business partnerships are changing in response to technology advancements and business innovations. Many companies have already reengineered their internal processes, and now the focus has shifted to their trading partners. With network connectivity, supply chain integration is the core strategic competence that enables many companies to act as one. The development of an integrated supply chain over the Internet is one of the most important business trends in e-business. This study focuses on the development of an object-oriented enterprise blueprint for construction business operations. This approach enables (a) the tedious redesign efforts of information systems to be avoided, thus allowing the corporate information system to become very adaptive, (b) applications to be run on different platforms through network connectivity, and (c) the schematic business blueprint to be viewed as an open architecture that links a given enterprise to its trading partners via process-to-process oriented communication. Major issues include (a) the practices of information technology in the construction industry and the opportunities that current business and technological innovations can offer, (b) the abstract theoretical modeling of business and object-oriented operations, (c) the business-to-business supply chain framework that embraces all aspects of production and service, (d) the integration of business systems that enables construction partners to create a common business portal, and (e) the value that the proposed solution might contribute to the construction industry. With a new focus on process and supply chain management, traditional A/E/C partnerships will have to redefine their business strategies. The collaborative commerce supply chain scheme and adaptive information architecture that enables a knowledge-sharing “virtual construction team” to retain dynamic equilibrium while moving forward at an ever-increasing speed to fulfill many mission-critical business processes throughout a project lifecycle will undoubtedly be the best business solution for the new millennium.