EA Management Patterns for Smart Networks

With the growing complexity of products and processes in a globalized market, companies are required to strive for a new quality of partnership. In Smart Networks, networking of partners goes beyond mere organizational networking, but involves also networking on the levels of knowledge and information/communication technology (ICT). The setup of ICT networking in newly formed Smart Networks requires not only information about already existing ICT infrastructure, but also a clear understanding of the organizational interconnections and knowledge interdependencies. This paper presents how the respective knowledge can be identified, visualized, and structured through information models in order to obtain decision support for the introduction of additional ICT support for the collaboration within a Smart Network.