Building enterprise‐wide information supply chains based on the fractal concept

Presents work carried out in the wider context of the IST Adrenalin project whose aim is to facilitate formation and lifecycle management of networked enterprises utilising concepts from two key information research areas. The approach described places heavy emphasis on the notion of mobile agent technologies and their adaptation for achieving the IT realisation of the above theoretical background. It covers specification, design and conceptual realisation of how information supply chains and routes can be organised and navigated across networked enterprise activities within the context of a branch independent model. Builds on the distribute and integrate concept as well as on the fractal idea by supporting self‐similarity, self‐organisation, self‐optimisation and dynamic organisational behavior. The harmonised combination of the concepts formulated in the Adrenalin theoretical framework and their IT realisation are employed within the context of a real‐world case study in an industrial ERP system.