Using information structures to gain competitive advantage

Successful organisations need, amongst other things, to be able to store, manage and control information both within the organisation and, increasingly importantly, between strategic partners. With the increasing popularity of extended enterprises, the use of advanced technology has taken over from traditional "paper-based" forms of communication and information sharing within and between organisations. This paper describes the results of a preliminary study concerning a product data management (PDM) introduction project in an engineer-to-order (ETO) company operating within an extended enterprise environment. One of the main aims was to formulate an overall plan for the introduction of PDM in the given company while considering the imperatives dictated by the company\´s strategic intent and the business trends of extended enterprises. To achieve this an investigation of how technology is changing the way in which organisations do business, both as autonomous organisations and as members of extended enterprises, was conducted