Implementing commercial information exchange: a construction supply chain case study

Figures & data

Table 1 List of suppliers implementing eCIX

Supplier code	Sector	Company turnover^a	Percentage of orders^f	Percentage of the total number of orders^g
S2	Safety and workplace commodities	£100 m	40.7	8.8
S10	Construction materials (timber and building materials)	£1.9 bn	13.9	3
S1	Heating and Plumbing supplies	£1.8 bn	12.1	2.6
S7	Underground Drainage Materials	Unknown^e	9.7	2.1
S5	Construction materials (timber and building materials)	£1.8 bn	7.2	1.6
S8	Office and stationary supplies	£250 m^d	5.2	1.1
S6	Printing and document management	£50 m^b^,^c	3.5	0.8
S9	IT Services	£50 m	3.3	0.7
S3	Construction tools and equipment	£100 m	2.6	0.6
S4	IT hardware, software and services	£350 m	1.7	0.4
Totals			100	21.6

Note: Bold values indicates percentage of the total number of orders raised in 2010.

^a UK turnover only. Except otherwise stated, figures are based on 2013–2014 financial year submitted to the Companies House and rounded to nearest £50 k.

^b Figure published in 2012 for the trade period between 2011 and 2012.

^c The company was acquired by a competitor for an undisclosed amount in 2014.

^d Unofficial estimate only, not based on any factual data. The global turnover of the company is £14.5 bn.

^e The company went into administration in 2012 and no financial information before pre-acquisition could be found.

^f Percentage of orders placed with each company in 2010.

^g Percentage of the total number of orders raised in 2010.

Table 2 Challenges and barriers to eCIX implementation

	Challenges	Barriers
Technical	Capability and adaptation of existing systems Availability of human and IT resources Impact of eCIX on existing commercial processes and EDIs Lack of clear specification Late design changes Inadequate documentation	Flexibility of suppliers to accommodate changes Cost of development for suppliers
Coordination	Lack of adequate project coordination Inadequate change management Large number of people involved Clear identification of roles/responsibilities	Dispersed virtual teams Differences in time-zones Social/cultural diversity of teams
Integration	Single-hub connections: impact of any new changes on existing connections/processes Inter-hub connections: duplicating data conversion efforts	Competition amongst hub-providers
Organizational	Lack of commitment from suppliers Lack of eCIX implementation strategy Lack of strategic support High staff turnover in project management/coordination team Inaccurate business strategy for suppliers Lack of people with appropriate skills and experience in EDI projects	Supplier relationship discontinuity Supplier business uncertainty

Figure 1 eCIX implementation map (supplier implementation options shown by white arrows)

Figure 2 The eCIX procurement process

Figure 3 Stages involved in implementing eCIX shown in V-diagram (a slight variant of waterfall model) (After Cadle and Yeates, 2008)

Figure 4 The Circos graph of email communication (after Krzywinski et al., 2009)

Figure 5 eCIX implementation project summary

Figure 6 Average duration of each project stage, development activities and email communication

Table

Project stages	Phase completion dates			Development (days)				Project hold (days)	Email count (no)	Average email response (days)
	Start date	End date	Phase duration^a	HP	CF	Supplier	Total
1. Commercial agreement	14/09/2012	13/02/2013	101				0	0	11	22
2. Project specification	18/06/2012	14/09/2012	63				0	54	15	5
3. Connection and mapping exercise	29/08/2012	26/11/2012	63	19	6	3	33	32	22	4
4. Implementation	09/10/2012	22/10/2012	9		3		3	0	4	3
5. Phase 1 testing	20/09/2012	21/11/2012	44				0	0	25	4
6. Phase 2 UAT testing	22/11/2012	12/03/2013	71	4		3	7	48	142	2
7. Deployment	12/03/2013	02/04/2013	13	1			1	5	40	1
			Totals	24	9	6	39	139^b	259

Cadle, J. and Yeates, D. (2008) Project Management for Information Systems, 5th edn, Pearson Education, London.

 Google Scholar

Krzywinski, M.I., Schein, J.E., Birol, I., Connors, J., Gascoyne, R., Horsman, D., Jones, S.J. and Marra, M.A. (2009) Circos: An information aesthetic for comparative genomics. Genome Research, 19(9), 1639–45.10.1101/gr.092759.109

 PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar