A methodological eBook and a software tool conceived to complementarily support collaboration in extended enterprises

The Extended Enterprise (EE) paradigm establishes new rules and constraints for effective business collaborations. Therefore, the evolution from the traditional forms of involvement of external partners in own business processes to the EE paradigm implies the necessity of developing adequate methodologies and tools to manage this new business context: tailored methods are requested in order to help EE partners manage common business strategies and activities in an efficient and effective manner; adequate ICT tools are needed to support day-to-day collaborative business processes. This paper presents the results achieved within the co-funded European project Prominence: a collaborative software tool (Pro-Mat) and an electronic handbook (Pro-eBook) suitably developed to be adopted in EE-based collaborations. Both solutions are expected to supplement each other in a complete tool set, with the overall aim of fostering the creation of value all along the extended supply chain, in a short- as well as long-term horizon.