Business Commons^™

E-Contracting: Towards It-Enabled Collaboration Processes In Contract Management, Jan Schemm, Christine Legner, Hubert Oesterle

Hubert Oesterle

E-contracting implies pre-order electronic interaction between customers and suppliers engaging in business transactions. This paper examines electronic contracting from an interorganizational perspective. It derives a collaboration process architecture for contracting in retail and industrial companies and outlines key design decisions concerning a process-supporting system architecture. A case from the retail industry illustrates major problems with paper-based contracting processes currently practiced by most companies and emphasizes the usefulness and applicability of the developed framework in industrial practice. Finally, we present a research agenda towards a holistic framework providing support for retail and industry companies in deploying e-contracting solutions.