Design Guidelines for Adoption of an Information Infrastructure for

International Trade in the Global Supply Chain Over Sea

Copenhagen Business School: Thomas Jensen, Stefan Henningsson, Niels Bjørn Andersen

Delft University of Technology:

Arjan Knol, Yao-hua Tan

Presentation Outline

• Domain of Information Infrastructure in International Trade: – History of projects

– Design concept

– Adaption issues

• Research: – Ambition

– Approach

• Initial findings: – Design guidelines based case studies

– Design guidelines from literature

– Guidelines for initial design

• Outlook

• Questions / advices

Domain: International trade: Activities when avocados crossing borders

Figure 5: Physical infrastructure linking the national activities, the actors and the actions for international trade of avocados

Existing document / information flow for international trade

Proposed document / information flow for international trade

Collaboration and Information Infrastructure type

Design Principles / rules and issues

• Standardization of documents

• Peer-to-peer communication • Costly

• Mandatory use • Data quality -> security

• Data pipeline

• Data from the source • No willingness to share

• Counter generativity

The way forward?

A. Evolve existing II • Protection

• Business model

• Etc.

B. Seed a new II • Bootstrap problem

• Adaption

• Neutral forum

• Collaboration culture

• “Killer app”

History of II within international trade

• 1980’s: IOS utilizing EDI - reduce cost

• 1990’s: enhanced IOS e.g. single window – reduce cost and usability

• 2000’s: Propose Design Concept for II for international trade to reduce trade cost and to improve security (ITAIDE, Cassandra and other projects)

• 2014-2018: reduce international trade cost and increase security (CORE)

Collaboration and Information Infrastructure reach

B2B – IOS - EDI (enterprise)

B2G • IOS – EDI

(enterprise) • single window

(country) G2B

• port community (local)

G2B • ENS (Region)

• B2G2G2B (Trade lanes) • FE -> EU • US <-> EU • Africa ->EU • FE -> US • Etc.

• Global?

In u

se

Futu

re

Domain history of Information Infrastructure within International Trade and derived design principles in use

The way forward -> Research ambition and approach

A. Evolve existing IIs • Many existing II’s within International

Trade

• Protection

• Business Model

• Etc.

B. Design a new seed Identify design guidelines for

information infrastructure for international trade to achieve increased adaption for improvement of global supply chain visibility and security?

OR

Research approach

Our case studies

II design principles

Design Build

Our case studies

Design principle

evaluation

Literature review

Case studies analysis

Design Develop /

build Test in

living lab

Traditional Design Science Action Design Research

Research Practitioners End users

Learning / challenges from previous projects utilizing the Design Concept for II for International Trade

Adaption challenges Impact on proposed Design Guidelines

Non-EU freight forwarders are reluctant to share source data in II, because: - They could by bypassed by partners further

up the chain once these partners know “who packed the box” (Hesketh, 2010, p3)

- Sharing is not necessarily beneficial

Incite generativity / openess / sharing of source data, focus on the benefits of sharing

Carriers are unwilling to access accurate source data in II because this could increase their legal responsibility

Develop an open information infrastructure in where supply chain partners have freedom

A fear that the IT vendor responsible for implementation and maintenance of the II will gain too much power

Avoid monopolies of IT vendors

Many partners with many different IT systems Achieve a stable II with operable IT systems, basic governance mechanisms are required

Financial issues regarding access to the II (subscription and transaction costs)

Develop an open system that can be used free of charge (or only charge for premium users)

Initial findings from literature review II design guidelines for success

From literature successful cases Hanseth and Lyytinen (2010) – case Internet

1. Design initially for usefulness

2. Draw upon existing installed base

3. Expand installed base by persuasive tactics

4. Make each IT capability simple

5. Modularize the II

Scott & Zachariadis (2012) - case of SWIFT

6. Cooperation / mutual alliances

7. Influence and change legislation

8. Utilize existing technology

Eaton et al. (draft) – case BankID in Norway

9. Establish a strong neutral body at the core of the ecosystem

10.Collaboration culture a. Use hard and soft power to facilitate cooperation

b. Build trust and success to maintain group cohesion

c. Employ appropriate business models

11.Develop a killer app to kick start and evolve

Aanestad &Blegind (2011) Organization of work

Our attempt on design guidelines a) Initial Design Principles

– Ease of use / usefulness

– The infrastructure must have one clear purpose

– No facilitation of commercial agreements

– Built-in trust

– Will become part of the general business infrastructure

b) Establish cooperation – Neutral ground / body incl. authorities / legislation / standard

– Collaboration culture (including funding)

– No “big brother” – not authorities, not big companies, ..etc.

– Collaboration build on trust and governance

– The use of an information infrastructure should not give a direct competitive advantage in itself / create lock-in

c) II bootstrapping – Open and free to everyone trusted involved in trade

– “killer app”

– One virtual Pipeline build by many physical pipelines

– The infrastructure has a network effect

d) II adaptability – Build on top of existing technology / standards e.g. the Internet

– Simple and modular architecture

– Start small and evolve

– Integrate once – Connect to everyone

The Information Infrastructure for International Trade is a service based facility to allow partners in the supply chain to share accurate original data

– It can connect any number of trading partners

– There is no central data hub and only a minimum of data is stored to run the service

– There is no browser, no mobility, it is purely service based

Initial Design of The Information Infrastructure for International Trade for one Trade Lane

Shipper Forwarder Authority Authority Trucker Consignee

Information Infrastructure for International Trade

Carrier

Three main components:

– The Authentication will act as an authentication and authorization engine to validate certificates and service security

– The Directory Service where businesses can register and search for Web services. It will act as a one stop repository to publish & consume services providing proxy end points after service look up

– The Event & Notification Service will act as a hub for events and allow publishers to indicate when events have occurred and documents are ready to be consumed

Initial Design of The Information Infrastructure for International Trade

Directory

Service

Event &

Notification

Service

Authentication

Shipper Authority

Event consumed Event published

Request for packing list

The packing list

Outlook

1. Thorough identification of II design guidelines from literature and international trade case studies – please advice!

2. Use the guidelines for the design, development and implementation of the information infrastructure for international trade for one trade lane

3. Evaluation –> redesign

4. Next iteration

Contribution: Complement the Design Theory (5 Principles and 13 rules) for information infrastructures of Hanseth and Lyytinen (2010), (3 Critical Success Factors) of Eaton et al. (2014) and (5 steps of Organization of work) Aanestad &Blegind (2011) with Design Guidelines.