g of an MIS. The old payables process at Ford Motor Company involved three functions: purchasing, inventory, and accounts payable. These functions participated in the process indirectly, with many intermediate steps, and a sequential flow of paper documents. After MIS-based re-engineering, this high degree of mediation changed through the use of a shared database. Work activities are no longer triggered by a flow of documents. Rather, each function participates in the process directly, with information from the shared database, without mediation from the other functions. The re-engineered process achieved a 75 percent reduction in the relevant work force.
According to Rockart and Short (1991, p. 191), networked organizations "are usually conceived of as communication-rich environments, with information flows blurring traditional intracompany boundaries." These organizations may be perceived "more as interrelationships within or between firms to accomplish wo
...