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THE BENTLEY COLLEGE INVISION PROJECT

Information and communication technology has led to a huge increase in our ability to create and disseminate information. Organizations routinely use IT to improve internal business processes and to enhance their products and services. They seek further competitive strength by coordinating across organizational boundaries. Sharing information and coordinating business processes with external partners presents new challenges for business and government alike, as decisions, processes, and systems required for interorganizational coordination interact with internal business and decision-making processes and systems in complex and sometimes unpredictable ways.

The Bentley Invision research team investigates the factors that promote and impede successful interorganizational systems through a series of multi-organizational case studies in, and at the intersection of, the public and private sectors. Drawing on interdisciplinary research strengths, the team is developing a framework for understanding interorganizational coordination issues and linking them to successful attainment of participants' collective objectives. The framework, when coupled with results from Invision's extensive cross-industry analysis, should aid businesses and government bodies in achieving their individual and collective goals in a more predictable way.

Current Invision research studies span five topical areas, each of which involve extensive and ongoing interviewing and data gathering at multiple sites. The five areas include: (1) supply chain, with a focus on the sharing of demand forecasts in a buyer-supplier relationship, (2) a first responder network supporting coordination across a multi-agency, multi-government-level emergency response team, (3) an e-procurement system facilitating the purchase-to-pay processes for federal government agencies and private sector vendors, (4) health care industry compliance with the data sharing regulations within HIPAA, and (5) e-Health initiatives to share clinical data among providers and payers.

Initial data collection in these five areas has ended. Data is undergoing analysis. Some findings have been published; other papers are in preparation for publication. Click on the Publications link at the left for currently available findings.

Principal Investigator:
Jane Fedorowicz, Ph.D.
Rae D. Anderson Chair in Accounting and Information Systems
Phone 011-781-891-3153
Fax 011-781-891-2896
Email: TheInvisionProject@bentley.edu