In this paper, we introduce e 3 alignment for inter-organizational business-ICT alignment. With the e 3 alignment framework, we create alignment between organizations operating in an agile networked value constellation-which is a set of organizations who jointly satisfy a customer need-by (1) focusing on the interaction between the organizations in the constellation, (2) considering interaction from four different perspectives, and (3) utilizing conceptual modeling techniques to analyze and create alignment within and between the perspectives. By creating inter-organizational business-ICT alignment between the actors in the constellation, e 3 alignment ultimately contributes to a sustainable and profitable constellation. To actually create alignment, e 3 alignment iteratively takes three specific steps: (1) identification of alignment issues, (2) solution design, and (3) impact analysis. We illustrate our approach with cases from the Dutch aviation industry, Spanish electricity industry, and Dutch telecom industry.

While exploring value webs -cooperating enterprises-it is common to view such webs from multiple perspectives:(1) the business value perspective, (2) the business process perspective, and (3) the information system perspective. The value perspective explains why a web can exist from a commercial perspective, whereas the process perspective shows the interacting processes of enterprises and the IT perspectives shows the supporting IT architecture. These perspectives each take a different view on the same phenomenon: the value web. Because the phenomenon is for each viewpoint the same the perspectives need to be consistent. This paper introduces an approach to arrive at a business process model of a value web that is consistent with a business value model of the same value web. We propose a step-wise approach that starts with considering the independent transfer of ownership right of a value object and the actual object itself, and finally considers time ordering of these transfers. We illustrate our approach using an industrial strength case study in the aviation sector.

Enterprises increasingly form networked value constellations; networks of enterprises that can jointly satisfy complex consumer needs, while still focusing on core competencies. Information technology and information systems play an important role for such constellations, for instance to coordinate inter-organizational business processes and/or to offer an IT-intensive product, such as music or games. To do successful requirements engineering for these information systems it is important to understand its context; being here the constellation itself. To this end, business value modeling approaches for networked constellations, such as e 3 value , BMO, or REA, can be used. In this paper, we extend these business value modeling approaches to understand the strategic rationale of business value models. We introduce two dominant schools on strategic thinking: (1) the "environment" school and (2) the "core competences" school, and present the e 3 forces ontology that considers business strategy as a positioning problem in a complex environment. We illustrate the practical use and reasoning capabilities of the e 3 forces ontology by using a case study in the Dutch aviation industry.

Current e-business technology enables the execution of increasingly complex coordination processes that link IT services of different companies. Successful design of cross-organizational coordination processes requires the mutual alignment of the coordination process with a commercial business case. There is however a large conceptual gap between a commercial business case and a coordination process. The business case is stated in terms of commercial transactions, but the coordination process consists of sequences, choices and iterations of actions of people and machines that are absent from a business case model; also, the cardinality of the connections and the frequency and duration of activities are different in both models. This paper proposes a coordination process design method that focusses on the the shared physical world underlying the business case and coordination process. In this physical world, physical deliveries take place that realize commercial transactions and that must be coordinated by a coordination process. Physical delivery models allow us to identify the relevant cardinality, frequency and duration properties so that we can design the coordination process to respect these properties. In the case studies we have done so far, a physical delivery model is the greatest common denominator that we needed to verify consistency between a business case and a coordination process model.Research supported by NWO project 638.003.407.

In this paper we introduce the e 3 alignment approach for inter-organizational alignment. With e 3 alignment we create alignment between organizations operating in a value web -which is a set of organizations who jointly satisfy a customer needby (1) focusing on the interaction between the organizations in the value web, (2) considering interaction from four different perspectives, and (3) utilizing conceptual modeling techniques for each perspective. By creating inter-organizational alignment between the actors in a value web e 3 alignment ultimately contributes to a sustainable and profitable value web. To actually create alignment, e 3 alignment iteratively takes three specific steps:(1) identification of alignment issues, (2) solution design, and (3) impact analysis. We tested e 3 alignment on an industrial strength case study in the Spanish electricity industry.

In this paper we present a framework and methodology for aligning the business strategy and IT/IS for an organization offering an e-service in a multi-organizational setting. We explore three perspectives on the e-service to be offered: 1) The business strategy perspective, in terms of the organization's strategic position; 2) The value creation perspective, in terms of a networked value constellation enabling value creation; 3) The IT/IS perspective, in terms of an IT architecture enabling the provision of the e-service. We explore these three perspectives and modify them, until we find a situation in which 1) the designed IT architecture enables the provision of the e-service and can be implemented in a profitable way by the networked value constellation, and 2) the enterprise under study is positioned in the networked value constellation such that the enterprise can execute its business strategy. We have tested our approach on a starting enterprise offering a mobile e-service.

Abstract. In this paper we aim to align an organization's information system with its strategic environment. We propose an alignment framework which takes four perspectives into account: Strategy, Value, Processes, IT/IS. This alignment framework is 1) intended for the exploration phase of information system design, 2) considers the complex environment in which an organization -and its IS -operates, and 3) uses conceptual modeling techniques (IS architectures and e 3 forces) and provides clear steps to analyzes and align the perspectives. We have tested our approach in a real life case setting, where we assisted in aligning an enterprise's IS and business strategy.

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