Integrating mobile technologies in enterprise architecture with a focus on global supply chain management systems

This chapter investigates opportunities to integrate mobile technologies within an organization's enterprise architecture (EA), with an emphasis on supply chain management (SCM) systems. These SCM systems exist within the overall EA of the business. SCM systems are further influenced by the increasing modern-day need for information and communications technologies (ICTs) within a business, to bring together all of its disparate applications. The resultant enterprise application integration (EAI) also stands to benefit immensely from the incorporation of mobile technologies within it. Traditionally, supply chain management systems have involved management of the flows of material, information, and finances in a complex web of networks that include suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and customers. Thus, these traditional supply chain management systems have a great need for integration under the umbrella of EAI. Mobile technologies can provide time and location independence to these EAIs in terms of information in the supply chain systems, creating the possibility of multiple business processes that traverse diverse geographical regions. This chapter, based on the research conducted by the authors at the University of Western Sydney, discusses the opportunities that arise in supply chain management systems due to the time and location independence offered by mobility, and the resultant advantages and limitations of such integration to the business.