The rise of the hyper-chain: business effects of emerging internet-enabledinformation systems. Early experiences from the wood/furniture sector

The Internet is often regarded as a revolutionary technology that in the lo ng run will have immense consequences, both on our everyday life and on how business is conducted. Although still mainly used for content publishing, there are an increasing number of reported cases where it has enabled signi ficant business success. This paper attempts to provide evidence that Inter net-enabled business information systems coupled with graphics technologies and open, co-operative technologies such as Standard for Exchange of Produ ct Data (STEP) will soon be a common practice. What is perhaps even more im portant are the business effects these rapidly proliferating technologies w ill ultimately have. We believe that a great impact on the layout of busine ss value chains should be anticipated. More specifically, we expect symptom s of value chain deconstruction and re-synthesis along new operational para digms. Perhaps the term hyper-chain would best describe what we foresee as a result of this drastic transformation of the layout of business value cha ins. In any case, a much more efficient operational environment will emerge , along with new business opportunities, to the clear benefit of the end us er. Enabling data sharing and business interactivity across the Wood sector value chain by developing a custom set of Internet based IT Tools (WIT), a European Esprit project, has stimulated this work and has provided some sm all but convincing evidence on the arguments raised and on the positions ad opted herein. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.