For many years companies have been investing in enterprise systems and IT initiatives but they are now struggling to achieve the desired results. It takes a long time to make the best of your enterprise systems so businesses must stop looking for the next technology 'silver bullet' and instead maximize the value of existing IT investments.

The purpose of the 7th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS) was to bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in the advances and business applications of information systems. Five simultaneous tracks have been held, covering different aspects of Enterprise Information Systems Applications, including Enterprise Database Technology, Systems Integration, Artificial Intelligence, Decision Support Systems, Information Systems Analysis and Specification, Internet Computing, Electronic Commerce and Human Factors. ICEIS focuses on real world applications: therefore authors were asked to highlight the benefits of Information Technology for industry and services. During the conference there was an interesting debate on how to solve business problems, using IT. Paper presentations included the description of advanced prototypes, systems, tools and techniques as well as general surveys indicating future directions for information systems and technologies. Papers included in the book are the best papers presented at the ICEIS 2005 conference.

"The rapid commercialization of the Internet and success of online direct marketing led to the burgeoning field of business-to-business e-commerce, a growing industry analyzed with the most recent research developments and successful implementation strategies in this business volume. E-commerce environments, supply chain management issues, and value chain networks are explored with respect to process, research, and electronic tendering. More complex discussions of classification schemes, manufacturing connectedness, and structuration theory provide the academic dimension of the practical business challenges presented."

This volume is comprised of the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Information Systems Development held August 26th-28th, 2004, at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius, Lithuania. The aim of this volume is to provide a forum for the research and practices addressing current issues associated with Information Systems Development (ISD). Every day, new technologies, applications, and methods raise the standards for the quality of systems expected by organizations as well as end users. All are becoming dependent on systems reliability, scalability, and performance. Thus, it is crucial to exchange ideas and experiences, and to stimulate exploration of new solutions. This proceedings provides a forum for both technical and organizational issues.

Organizations are complex social systems that are not easy to understand, yet they must be managed if a company is to succeed. This book explains networks and how managers and organizations can navigate them to produce successful strategic innovation outcomes. Although managers are increasingly aware of the importance of social relations for the inner-workings of the organization, they often lack insights and tools to analyze, influence or even create these networks. This book draws on insights from social network theory; insights sharpened by research in a number of different empirical settings including production, engineering, financial services, consulting, food processing, and R&D/hi-tech organizations and alternates between offering critical real business examples and more rigorous analysis. This concise book is vital reading for students of business and management as well as managers and executives.