Fitting.Organization,.Environment,.and.ICT:

In the previous section, we argued that businesses can be involved in three types of organizational
integration. As the business needs to be integrated, ICT systems need to be
integrated, too (as is discussed in contingency theory; see, e.g., Borgatti, 2001). Therefore,
as companies are confronted with three basic types of integration at organizational level
(internal, within the Extended Enterprise, and with the marketplace) we should recognize
three levels of IT-integration as well.
The first type of IT-integration companies should realize is the internal integration of the
diverse systems within company walls generally referred to as �enterprise application integration�
(EAI).
The two other types of IT-integration concern B2Bi, the topic of this chapter. First there is the
extended enterprise integration (EEi). In the context of the extended enterprise, companies
that dispose of capabilities that are useful for each other try to cooperate/collaborate. It is
important to note that partnering organizations have decided to do business with each other
for an extended period of time. They know the other company can deliver to a certain extent
what is needed. A partnership is set up to get more out of the other company than what is
already being delivered, and it is recognized that some form of coordination is necessary to
realize additional benefits. Partnering enterprises need to find out how they can be of more
value to each other. The development of customized software is part of this value adding
effort. It is clear that partner-specific IT investments can be made.
Essentially, this is not the case in the other type of B2Bi. This second form of B2Bi we call
market B2Bi. Companies that do business in the marketplace do not cooperate/collaborate.
Basically for each transaction they try to find out who can deliver what is needed. Every
time again, companies have the free choice to choose the services from a company (present
in the marketplace) that fulfills the needs. Therefore, no thorough coordination among the
companies is needed. Of course, service-providing companies try to pick up signals from the
market to deliver the services that are useful, and they try to minimize costs, but there is no
partnering. This scenario shows the IT integration alternatives. Market Web services have
mainly been developed in isolation and may be found through a market mechanism such
as the global UDDI (universal description, discovery, and integration) registries. Furthermore,
organizations may do business with many other organizations through an electronic
marketplace. Figure 3 shows the ideas presented here.
Currently, the boundary between EEi and market B2Bi is vague. These two types of B2Bi
actually cover a whole continuum of B2Bi practices (as is also clear from organization theory).
With the current state of technology, we believe that Market B2Bi primarily concerns the
indirect integration through electronic marketplaces. In the future new Web services standards
and semantic Web standards may be developed that enable organizations to dynamically