INtrODUctION
The role of corporate portals as tools for managing
organizational knowledge has been constantly
changing throughout their short lifetime. An important
recent advancement in the functionality
of portals is their ability to connect companies
together, joining internal and external knowledge
sources to assist in the creation of valuable knowledge.
Nowhere is this increased functionality and
utility more evident than in the use of portals to
manage the supply chain.
A common trend in supply chain management
(SCM) is the formation of one central strategy for
the entire production network, which involves going
beyond an organization’s external boundary.
This represents a shift from a commodity-based
approach to SCM to a more collaborative and
relationship-building strategy. As this “extended
enterprise” comes into being, an extended IT infrastructure
is needed. Systems, such as portals,
that assist in spanning organizational boundaries
and ensuring a timely information exchange
can help support this strategy. Portal technology
allows the IT infrastructure of one firm to span
multiple organizations and be utilized by many
(Dyer, 2000). The globalization of supply chains
also presents an opportunity for the utilization
of portal technology (Tan, Shaw, & Fulkerson,
2000). Geographically dispersed organizations
have an increasingly greater need to share information,
even though they experience issues with
systems spanning different processes, cultures,
and vast distances. A portal’s ability to utilize
the Internet can assist in the networking of such
distributed firms.