; As eBusiness uses quite some specific language, an overview of terms used in this field has been added. Not all of the terms are being used in this paper;

Following appendices have been added to this paper:

- The interviews held at DSM Coating Resins; Two different interviews have been used.

One in order to retreive the information regarding the IM organization and a second one to determine the eBusiness related topics;

- eBusiness ABC

; As eBusiness uses quite some specific language, an overview of terms used in this field has been added. Not all of the terms are being used in this paper;

- List of figures; An overview of all figures used in the research;

- References; A list of all sources that have been used in order to exploit the research area.

Main literature areas concern: 1)eBusiness, 2) Information technology, 3) Strategy and 4) DSM.

1

Source: “DSM intranet”, June 2002

I NTERVIEWS

The following interviews have been held with various key people within the DSM Coating Resins organization. The questions have been used as a guideline for the interview. After each interview the interpreted information has been reflected with the interviewees. Next to these interviews frequently bilaterals have been used to add or reflect retreived information.

Interview to retreive information concerning the IM organization

--- Name interviewer: ………

Name interviewee: ………

Date: ………

---

What is your role within the IM organization?

………

………

………

………

………

What would you describe as your main activities?

………

………

………

………

………

Does the IM organization have a strategy? What would you define as key elements of that strategy?

………

………

………

………

………

How does the organization structure of the Information Management organization look like?

………

………

………

………

………

How would you characterize your “customers” or clients?

………

………

………

………

………

What are the main services and/or products the IM organization delivers?

………

………

………

………

In what kind of formalised processes and/or structures do you participate?

………

………

………

………

………

In what kind of non formalised (ad hoc) processes and/or structures do you participate?

………

………

………

………

………

What would you define as the five key strengths of the IM organization and why?

………

………

………

………

………

What would you define as the five key weaknesses of the IM organization and why?

………

………

………

………

………

Interview to retreive information concerning the eBusiness vision

--- Name interviewer: ………

Name interviewee: ………

Date: ………

---

What is your role within the DSM Coating Resins organization?

………

………

………

………

………

What would you describe as your main activities?

………

………

………

………

………

How would you define eBusiness?

………

………

………

………

………

Does DSM Coating Resins have a eBusiness strategy? What would you define as key elements of that strategy?

………

………

………

………

………

How does the organization structure of the eBusiness organization look like?

………

………

………

………

………

What kind of eBusiness solutions have already been implemented and what is the current status?

………

………

………

………

………

How would you characterize the DSM Coating Resins market?

………

………

………

………

………

Is there a eBusiness solution segmentation? How does it look like?

………

………

………

………

………

What were the main experiences from the already implemented eBusiness initiatives?

………

………

………

………

………

What would you define as the main hurdles during those implementations?

………

………

………

………

………

What would you define as the main challenges for the coming years in the eBusiness field?

………

………

………

………

………

Interview to retreive information concerning the eBusiness influences

--- Name interviewer: ………

Name interviewee: ………

Date: ………

---

What is your role within the DSM Coating Resins organization?

………

………

………

………

………

What would you describe as your main activities?

………

………

………

………

………

How would you define eBusiness?

………

………

………

………

………

What would you define as the main differences between eBusiness and traditional information system development?

………

………

………

………

………

What consequences of eBusiness did you see in relation with job roles within the IM organization?

………

………

………

………

………

What consequences of eBusiness did you see in relation with technology within the IM organization?

………

………

………

………

………

T HE E B USINESS ABC

A

Absolute URL The Internet address of a page or other World Wide Web resource that includes the protocol and complete network location of the page or file. The absolute URL includes a protocol, such as "http," network location, and optional path and file name. For example,

http://www.acme.com/welcome.htm is an absolute URL.

ActiveX Microsoft alternative to Java, ActiveX. Active X is a distributed language whose components are o downloaded and installed on a computer without any intervention by the user. It is not, however, as platform nonspecific as Java.

Aggregator A company that brings a number of offerings together into one web-site, without even having to supply any of those offerings itself. The aggregator can be the company that manages the partnerships between suppliers of different offerings.

Angels Wealthy individuals who pool their investments to fund new companies (startups)

API Application Programming Interface. A set of routines or function calls that allow an application to control, or be controlled by, other applications.

Application server

A program run on a mid-sized machine that handles all application operations between browser –based computers and a company's back-end business applications or databases.

Because many databases cannot interpret commands written in HTML, the application server works as a translator, allowing, for example, a customer with a browser to search an online retailer's database for pricing information.

ASP – Application Service Providers

Application Service Providers are third-party entities that manage and distribute software- based services and solutions to customers across a wide area network from a central data center.

In essence, ASPs are a way for companies to outsource some or almost all aspects of their information technology needs.

NOTE: ASP also stands for Active Server Pages. Active Server Pages is a compile-free application environment for Microsoft's IIS Web Server.Active Server Pages provide a method to create dynamic or database driven web pages with IIS.

Auction A buying and selling model where bids are peaced.

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange. The predominant method for encoding 7-bit characters on a personal computer.

B

Backbone The main trunkline of a network, which supports all the branches and subnetworks. Usually higher speed than the other parts of the network, so that it can easily handle communications between all the outlying parts of the network.

Bandwidth The data transmission capacity of a network connection, usually expressed in kilobits per second (Kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps). For instance, the bandwidth of a typical consumer modem is about 28.8 Kbps. The Internet backbone, on the other hand, has a bandwidth of 45 Mbps, over 1000 times larger. Data transfer volumes and speed increase as the bandwidth increases.

Bluetooth Local area wireless network for interoperating devices

Bricks & Clicks Company selling it’s products both through offline channels as through online (internet) channels.

Bricks & Mortar Company selling it’s products only through offline channels.

Broken hyperlink

A hyperlink that does not correctly point to a page or other Internet file. A broken hyperlink either indicates an incorrect URL or a missing page or file.

Browser caching To speed surfing, browsers store recently used pages on a user’s disk. If a site is revisited, browsers display pages from the disk instead of requesting them from the server. As a result, servers under-count the number of times a page is viewed.

Business to Business (B2B)

Business to business (B2B) eCommerce refers to eCommerce business interactions between a company and its suppliers, partners, VARs, etc. These interactions may include sales transactions, parts ordering, bill payments, service requests, technical support and many other transactions. B2B has succeeded over EDI (electronic data interchange) because the

infrastructure is universally in place and does not require special arrangements between the parties. B2B is a much larger market than business to consumer eCommerce.

Business to Consumer (B2C)

Business to consumer (B2C) eCommerce refers to direct sales, service and support to the customer. Using tools like BroadVision, Blue Martini and Site Server, companies can focus on the ‘market of one’ to target individual customers based on their demographic and

psychographic profiles, as well as their past shopping patterns. Through tools such as Kana,

Silknet and Motive, companies can provide customised service and support after the sale.

Buyer Centric Consumer

Business models which are geared towards the specific needs of the buyer in markets where the buyers are more empowered than the sellers and are effectively able to post their needs on a website and wait for a seller to fulfill their requirement.

Buyer’s internet site

A single buyer presents its requirement to potential suppliers who can then bid for the business. A significant brand or marketing effort is needed to attract a sizeable number of suppliers to the site (Travelbids.com).

Buying Consortium

A central organization creates relationships with a number of suppliers, typically gaining volume discounts, part of which it passes on to its members (FOB.com, Afforde.com).

C Common Gateway Interface (CGI)

A standard mechanism for extending web server functionality by executing programs or scripts on the server in response to browser requests. A common use of CGI is in forms processing, where the browser sends the form data to a CGI script on the server, and the script integrates the data with a database and sends back an HTML page containing the results.

COM/DCOM The Component Object Model (COM) is a software architecture that allows applications to be built from binary software components. COM is the underlying architecture that forms the foundation for higher-level software services, like those provided by OLE.

DCOM is short for Distributed Component Object Model, an extension of the Component Object Model (COM) to support objects distributed across a network. DCOM was developed by Microsoft and since 1996, it has been part of Windows NT, and is also available for Windows 95.

Company-out Taking your own business (strengths and current processes) as a starting point to improve or change your business (opposite of customer-in).

CORBA Short for Common Object Request Broker Architecture, an architecture that enables pieces of programs, called objects, to communicate with one another regardless of what programming language they were written in or what operating system they’re running on. CORBA was developed by an industry consortium known as the Object Management Group (OMG).

Customer-in Taking the customers needs/wishes in order to improve or change your business (opposite of company-out)

Cyberspace Coined by author William Gibson in his 1984 novel “Neuromancer,” cyberspace is now synonomous with the Internet.

D

Domain A way of organizing the Internet, characterized by the suffix of the domain name. For example, com is the commercial domain which includes organizations like microsoft.com, whereas edu is the educational domain which includes entities such as mit.edu and columbia.edu. Other domains include org (nonprofit organizations), mil (military organizations), gov (government organizations), and net (network providers and service centers. Special geographical domain suffixes are provided for Internet services originated in countries outside the United States, such as ca for Canada, fr for France, and de for Germany.

Domain name An easy-to-remember name that can be used to address a specific computer over the Internet or intranet. Typically, the domain name is associated with a specific IP address and can be used interchangeably with its assigned address. For example, if the domain name xyz.com is assigned to the computer at network address 189.243.110.10, you can use either xyz.com or 189.243.110.10 to address the computer.

Dotcom Typical referal to a company that operates over the internet. It comes from the extension a URL-address to a website has operated from the United States.

Dynamic HTML Dynamic HTML refers to new HTML extensions that will enable a Web page to react to user input without sending requests to the Web server.

E

eBusiness Leverages technology by bringing together customers, vendors, suppliers, partners and employees. This includes strengthening of partnerships, improving means of communication and simplifying interactions (eBusiness is more than eCommerce)

eCommerce Any interchange of goods, services or property of any kind through an electronic medium e.g.

the internet

eCRM Maximizing the value of the electronic marketplace as a customer channel to market, sell, and serve in a personalized, differentiated manner to improve the overall customer experience and brand loyalty.

eEconomy The eEconomy is the broad business environment in which global commerce is conducted,

including the regulatory, trade and global management framework.

value electronically, including goods, services, information and money.

eHr Delivering employee information and services virtually to the desktop or kiosk, organized around work and life events.

eProcurement The value-added application of electronic commerce solutions to facilitate, integrate and streamline the entire supply process, from consumer to supplier and back.

Equity Stock shares of a company – Angels and Venture Capitalists take equity in a startup. Is also a way of rewarding your employees

eSupply Chain Using the power of the Internet to develop, build and implement solutions that enable companies to collaborate and synchronize operations with their supply chain partners.

eTailer They are the virtual equivalent of offline retailers. They often exist as an alternative channel of an established bricks-and-mortars organization although increasingly they have been established in their own right. Examples include most of the high street retailers who are now represented on the Web and the pure internet company, PlanetRx, which delivers medicines online.

Extranet The extranet refers to an intranet that is partially accessible to authorized outsiders. Whereas an intranet resides behind a firewall and is accessible only to people who are members of the same company or organization, an extranet provides various levels of accessibility to outsiders. You can access an extranet only if you have a valid username and password, and your identity determines which parts of the extranet you can view.

F

Firewall A system or combination of systems that enforces a boundary between two or more networks and keeps hackers out of private networks. The purpose is to protect the private network. A firewall blocks unwanted access to the protected network while giving the protected network access to networks outside of the firewall. A company will typically install a firewall to give users access to the Internet from an intranet (or LAN) while protecting their internal information.

Frames A frame appears in a web browser as a scrollable window in which pages can be displayed.

You assign a page to a frame when you create a hyperlink to the page.

FTP File Transfer Protocol. A method by which files may be transferred from one computer to another, usually from the client to the server.

G

Gateway An interface between different types of computers, networks, or applications. The gateway may control access to the network, and automatically convert the data from one format or protocol to another.

GIF Graphics Interchange Format. A commonly used method of encoding images that contain up to 256 colors.

H

Hit Each time a Web server sends a file to a browser, it is recorded in the server log file as a “hit”.

Hits are generated for every element of a requested page (including graphics, text and interactive items). If a page containing two graphics is viewed by a user, three hits will be recorded – one for the page itself and one for each graphic. Webmasters use hits to measure their server’s work load. Because page designs vary greatly, hits are a poor guide for traffic measurement.

Home directory The root directory for a service, where the content files are stored. By default, the home directory and all its subdirectories are available to users.

Home page The starting point on a web site. It is the page that is retrieved and displayed by default when a user visits the site. The default home page name for a site depends on the server’s

configuration. On most web servers, it is default.htm. index.htm and index.html is also a common default page name. Some servers support multiple home pages.

Horizontal market

Cross industry focussed product or market (e.g. an office supplies procurement site) Hostname An easy-to-remember name that can be used to address a specific computer on an internal

network. See also domain name.

Hotspot A graphically defined area in an image that contains a hyperlink. An image with hotspots is called an image map. In browsers, hotspots are invisible. Users can tell that a hotspot is present when the pointer changes from an arrow to a pointing hand.

Hub Marketplace of marketplaces

Hyperlink A way of jumping to another place on the Internet or intranet. Hyperlinks usually appear in a

different format from regular text, e.g., blue color with an underline. You initiate the jump by

clicking the link.

Hypertext Documents with links to other documents. Click a link to display the other document.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

The formatting language used for documents on the World Wide Web. HTML includes style tags for headings, bullet lists, and other formatting features. It also provides ways of creating hyperlinks to link pages, as well as online forms, multimedia, and embedded applications.

Hypertext

Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

The underlying protocol by which World Wide Web clients and servers communicate.

I

Incubators Companies who help startups to get from an idea to mature company. This is done through investing in this startup with money and/or sweat capital. Amongst others, these incubators are set up as part of multinationals like Eastman and consultancy firms like Andersen Consulting) Infomediary An infomediary or information intermediary serves as a trusted third party that helps customers

reduce search and transaction costs for goods and services. It is effectively the virtual

equivalent of a distributor in the real world. First! In Brief, for example, gathers information from a broad range of news and science journals and then resells the information with a margin to customers who want their information pre-sorted and pre-selected as well a grouped into relevant subject areas.

Initial Funding The first funding a startup gets, mostly based only on an idea/business plan.

Image A graphic in GIF or JPEG file format that can be inserted in a World Wide Web page.

Image map An image containing one or more hotspots, which are assigned hyperlinks. Typically, an image map gives users visual cues about the information made available by clicking on each part of the image. For example, a geographical map could be made into an image map by assigning hotspots to each region of interest on the map.

In-sourcing The delivery of entire business processes or application solution sets from external companies, that work inside the company.

Internet The global network of computers that communicate through a common protocol, TCP/IP.

Internet Protocol (IP)

The part of TCP/IP that routes messages from one Internet location to another.

Internet Protocol (IP) address

Internet Protocol address. Every system connected to the Internet has a unique IP address, which consists of a number in the format A.B.C.D where each of the four sections is a decimal number from 0 to 255. Most people use Domain Names instead and the resolution between Domain Names and IP addresses is handled by the network and the Domain Name Servers.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

Internet Relay Chat is a worldwide network of people talking to each other in real time.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

Public providers of remote connections to the Internet.

Intranet A set of servers installed on your internal network that uses World Wide Web technology to display data and documents for anyone who is directly connected to the network. Technically, the intranet is a TCP/IP network that can be connected to the Internet, but is usually protected by a firewall or other device.

IPO - Initial Public Offering

The first sale of stock by a company to the public.

J

Java A general purpose programming language created by Sun Microsystems. Java can be used to create Java applets and Java applications. A Java program is downloaded from the web server and interpreted by a program running on the machine containing the web browser.

Java applet A short program written in Java that is attached to a World Wide Web page and executed by the browser machine.

Java application General programmes written in Java (like C++ programmes).

JavaScript A cross-platform web scripting language developed by Netscape Communications. JavaScript code is inserted directly into the HTML page. Microsoft’s version of JavaScript is called Jscript.

JPEG Joint Photographic Expert Group. A color image format with excellent compression for most kinds of images. JPEG is commonly used on the web for 24-bit color images and

photographs.

JSP Java Server Pages. JSP is a Java platform technology for creating applications containing dynamic Web content (e.g., HTML, DHTML, XHTML, and XML). JSP is an HTML-like page (.jsp) with java code between <% %> tags. When the JSP page is opened, Java code is compiled on the fly by the

Servlet engine, which creates servlets. JSP separates static and dynamic content

K

Kbps Kilobits per second. A common unit of measure for bandwidth. For example, 28.8 Kbps is the typical data transfer rate of most consumer modems. These modems transfer data at the rate of about 28,800 bits/second.

L

Logging Storing information about events that occurred on a firewall or network.

M

Market creator The market creator is an environment that brings together buyers and sellers of goods and services that would not otherwise have had a direct access to each other. The Internet, through its communities of interest, has spontaneously brought together many new groups of like-minded people who are often interested in purchasing particular goods and services.

EBay.com is a well known example.

Marketplace Sellers offer goods for sale and buyers post their needs at an online meeting point. Price is often the most significant factor in the buying decision and the model works best when commodities are traded (ChemConnect.com).

Mbps Megabits per second. A common unit of measure for bandwidth.

m-Commerce Any interchange of goods, services or property of any kind through mobile devices(not connected to a network /phone-line)

Middleware Software that connects two otherwise separate applications. For example, there are a number of middleware products that link a database system to a Web server. This allows users to request data from the database using forms displayed on a Web browser, and it enables the Web server to return dynamic Web pages based on the user’s requests and profile.

Multihosting The ability of a web server to support more than one Internet address and more than one home page on a single server.

N

Net-sourcing The delivery of entire business processes or application solution sets from external companies, using an electronic network.

O

ODBC Open DataBase Connectivity. A method of communicating with databases through a “driver”

interface that works on the same principle as a printer driver This way, if you want an application to control a certain type of database, you select the ODBC driver for the database and the control mechanisms are handled automatically.

Object-oriented programming

OOP is a programming technique (not a language structure; in fact, you don’t even need an object-oriented language to program in an object-oriented fashion) designed to simplify complicated programming concepts. In essence, object-oriented programming revolves around the idea of user-and system-defined chunks of data, and controlled means of accessing and modifying those chunks. Object-oriented programming consists of Objects, Methods and Properties.

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)

OEM stands for original equipment manufacturer, which is a misleading term for a company that has a special relationship with computer producers. OEMs buy computers in bulk and customize them for a particular application. They then sell the customized computer under their own name. The term is really a misnomer because OEMs are not the original

manufacturers – they are the customizers. Another term for OEM is VAR (value-added reseller ).

P

Packager The Packager pulls together offerings in particular commodity areas from a number of suppliers and presents them in a manner which allows a buyer to compare them more easily and reach a more informed buying decission (ChemUnity.com).

Perl Short for Practical Extraction and Report Language, Perl is a programming language developed by Larry Wall, especially designed for processing text. Because of its strong text processing abilities, Perl has become one of the most popular languages for writing CGI scripts. Perl is an interpretive language, which makes it easy to build and test simple programs.

Personalization Also refered to as customization or one-to-one market. Instead of having one standardized

website or a number of standard offerings, the intend is to serve the customer on a personal

basis. A website could have personal features (which others wouldn’t have in the same way) or a product would be configured to meet personal needs.

Plug-in A program designed to play back special file types directly inside the browser window.

POC – Proof of Concept

The testing of a concept/software solution in a very early stage, in order to see if it is worthwile spending money on.

Portal A web-site or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as email , forums, search engines, and on-line shopping malls. The first Web portals were online services, such as AOL, that provided access to the Web, but by now most of the traditional search engines have transformed themselves into Web portals to attract and keep a larger audience.

Port number A number identifying a certain Internet application. For example, the default port number for the World Wide Web service it is 80.

Protocol Software that allows computers to communicate over a network. The Internet protocol is TCP/IP.

Proxy A software program that connects a user to a remote destination through an intermediary gateway.

Proxy server An Internet server that acts as a firewall, mediating traffic between a protected network and the Internet.

Public auction Auction where all bidders can see the bids.

Pure player Company selling it’s products only through online (internet) channels

R

Relative URL The Internet address of a page or other World Wide Web resource with respect to the Internet address of the current page. A relative URL gives the path from the current location of the page to the location of the destination page or resource. A relative URL can optionally include a protocol. For example, the relative URL doc/sample.htm refers to the page sample.htm in the child directory doc, below the current directory.

Remote Access Service (RAS)

A service that allows remote clients running Microsoft Windows or Windows NT to dial in to a network.

Revers auction Sellers place bids to seek to a buyer.

Router A hardware or software device that directs network traffic.

S

Seed Capital A name for the capital startups get in order to grow their business (‘seed’)

Seller Centric Business models which will empower the seller and allow them to control the flow of products and services to the buyers.

Seller’s Internet Site

A single seller presents an electronic catalogue of goods and services for sale. The benefits include the complete control the owner has over content and presentation. One drawback is the considerable investments in advertising that the model demands (Eastman

Chemicals.com).

Server A term used in various ways to describe different aspects of network computing. From a hardware standpoint, it may refer to a specific hard drive or dedicated workstation that is used to store common data and applications shared by multiple people. From a software standpoint, it is typically the half of the client-server application that handles the processing and storage of data. A “web server” is the software that transfers files to web browsers on request, or the machine it is installed on.

Servlet Java servlets are similar to Java applets. It does not start in the main () mathod. It is loaded immediately. It runs on the server side like an applet.

Slow link A modem connection, usually from 9,600 bps to 28,800 bps.

SQL Structured Query Language (pronounced SQL or Sequel).A language used to create, maintain, and query relational databases.It is an ISO and ANSI standard.SQL uses regular English words for many of its commands, which makes it easy to use.It is often embedded within other programming languages.

Standard auction

Buyers place bids to buy a particular item from the seller.

Start up A new company – starting from scratch, only with an idea and some money. Lot of the eBusiness-companies are startups.

Streaming audio/video

A method of delivering multimedia data so that it can be read or played back in near real time, or as soon as it is received.

Sweat Capital Investments in start up companies not with money, but by helping them build their

organization. This can be by providing facilities like offices, phones, computers, but also by

handling their Accounts Payables/Receivables or having Consultants work with them to set up

T

T1, T3 Very fast network connections that range from 1.5 Mbps to 45 Mbps.

TCP/IP See Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

Thumbnail A small version of an image on a page, often containing a hyperlink to a full-size version of the image.

Transmission Control

Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

A networking protocol that allows computers to communicate across interconnected networks and the Internet. Every computer on the Internet supports TCP/IP.

U Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

A naming convention that uniquely identifies the location of a computer, directory, or file on the Internet.

V

Venture Board A group of people from different backgrounds (e.g. executives, bankers, lawyers content experts) who decide on funding an idea/venture or not. This can be an internal mechanism to evaluate ideas which don’t fit into the traditional decision making process.

Venture Capitalist

Company who invests in companies. Lately very popular due to the financing of internet start ups. They tend to do very tough business, bottom line for them is making big money by IPO-ing the startup after 1-3 years.

Vertical market Industry focussed product or market.

Visited hyperlink A hyperlink on a page that has been activated. Visited hyperlinks are usually displayed in a unique color by the browser, different than the initial display color for hyperlinks, when the page is re-displayed.

W

Web browser A software program, such as Internet Explorer, that retrieves a document from an Web server, interprets the HTML codes, and displays the document to the user with as much graphics as the software can supply.

Web page A World Wide Web document. Pages can contain almost anything, such as news, images, movies, and sounds.

Web publishing A form of publishing akin to desktop publishing, but where the finished document is displayed online via a browser instead of on paper.

Web server A computer that delivers Web pages. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name. For example, if you enter the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html in your browser, this sends a request to the server whose domain name is pcwebopedia.com.

The server then fetches the page named index.html and sends it to your browser.

Web site A collection of folders arranged in a hierarchical fashion on a web server, to serve a business purpose. The top folder in the collection contains the home page for the site.

World Wide Web (WWW)

Hypertext documents link to other web objects which creates a “web-like” view of the internet resources. The World Wide Web contains “formatted” text, video, audio, 3D images as well as plain text.

WYSIWYG web editor

An HTML editor that lets you edit a web page inside a display that looks exactly like the final online document will look. Compare this to an ordinary HTML editor, which shows the text with embedded HTML tags. The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor hides the tags completely from the author, yet still includes them in the final output file.

X

XML XML, a subset of the SGML, is a document format for the Web that is more flexible than the

standard HTML format. While HTML uses only predefined tags to describe elements within the

page, XML allows tags to be defined by the page developer. As a result, tags for virtually any

data item (e.g., product, sales rep, amount due) can be used for specific applications, allowing

Web pages to function like database records. The definition of these tags is provided in a

Document Type Definition (DTD).

L IST OF FIGURES

Figure 1; Relationship between SAP R/3, BIW, Webmethods, Asera and partnersError! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 2; The Demand Chain Management organization ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 3; The research framework ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 4; Elements of strategic management... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 5; The five forces within an organization that ICT will have impact on..Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 6; A market segmentation for the IM organization ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 7; Information Management organization ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 8; Structures within the IM organization ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 9; The Information Management Value Chain... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 10; Activities within the IM Value Chain... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 11; Strategic options eBusiness for DSM Coating Resins ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 12; Stages of eBusiness ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 13; An overview of the sell side eBusiness channels ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 14; A technical overview of web publishing ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 15; A technical overview of Online Ordering... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 16; A technical overview of ERP – ERP Connectivity... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 17; A technical overview of Vendor Managed Inventory... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 18; An overview of the buy side eBusiness channels ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 19; SWOT analysis for the IM organization ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 20; The main differences per primary activity ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 21; New strategic product-market combination for the IM organization Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 22; Affected structures by eBusiness ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 23; The DSM global eBusiness architecture... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 24; The main influenced activities within the IM Value Chain Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 25; Development strategies ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 26; Alternative directions for strategy development... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Figure 27; Proposed organization structure IM organization ... Error! Bookmark not defined.

R EFERENCES

Books

Kalakota, R. & Robinson, M.

“e-Business: Roadmap for succes”

Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999 Johnson, G. & Scholes, K.

“Exploring corporate strategy”

Prentice Hall Inc., 1988 Porter, M.

“Competitive Advantage. Creating and sustaining superior performance”

The free press, 1985 Scott Morton, M.S. & others

“The corporation of the 1990s. Information technology and organizational transformation”

Oxford University Press, Inc.,1991 Mintzberg, H. & Quinn, J.B.

“The strategy process. Concepts and contexts”

Prentice Hall Inc.,1992 Oosterhaven, J.A.

“Informatiestrategie. Kort en krachtig”

Samsom Bedrijfsinformatie bv, 1994 Keen, P. & McDonald, M.

“The eProcess edge. Creating customer value and business wealth in the internet era”

Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 2000 Leeuw, A.C.J. de

“Bedrijfskundige methodologie. Een boekje over management van onderzoek”

Van Gorcum & Comp bv, 1993 Zwaan, A.H. van der

“Organisatie-onderzoek. Leerboek voor de praktijk:het ontwerpen van onderzoek in organisaties”

Van Gorcum & Comp bv, 1995

Bots, J.M. & Heck, E. Van & Swede, V. Van & Simons, J.L.

“Bestuurlijke informatiekunde. Een praktisch studie- en handboek voor de mondige gebruiker van informatiesystemen”

Lansa Publishing bv, 1990 Treacy, M & Wiersema, F.

“The discipline of market leaders. Choose your customers, narrow your focus, dominate your market”

Harper Collins Publishers, 1996

DSM sources

DSM Resins Communiqué January 1997, DSM Resins 1997 DSM Resins Communiqué January 1999, DSM Resins 1999 DSM Corporate intranet, June 2002

DSM Coating Resins intranet, January 2003 DCR eBusiness Status report, June 2002 DCR eBusiness Status report, January 2003 eBusiness sales office manual, April 2002

Guide to business strategy and long term performance measurement, 1995

Internet sources http://www.dsm.com http://www.techieindex.com

http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/ebusiness/links.asp http://www.line56.com/articles/ebiz_ecosys_index.asp http://whatis.techtarget.com

http://www.gartner.com http://cio.pagina.nl

http://www.topmanagement.giarte.com/artikelen.html

http://www.mapnp.org/library/plan_dec/str_plan/str_plan.htm#anchor4293716937 http://www.elemica.com

http://www.chemconnect.com