Identifying Inter-organizational Key Performance Indicators from EDIFACT Messages

Inter-organizational relationships (IORs) are important<br> for creating business potential and increasing business<br> performance. The evaluation of IORs is necessary for analyzing<br> the collaboration between businesses as well as for assessing<br> business partners. However, the evaluation of IORs is ambiguous<br> since it is usually measured by success factors, such as trust<br> and information sharing, which are difficult to be measured<br> quantitatively. In this paper, we propose using quantifiable Key<br> Performance Indicators (KPIs) for measuring success factors.<br> We aim to identify KPIs in inter-organizational scenarios where<br> information is exchanged electronically based on EDIFACT<br> message types. In particular, we i) derive inter-organizational<br> KPIs and propose guidelines for their calculation from EDIFACT<br> data elements, and ii) aggregate these KPIs to define quantitative<br> measurements reflecting inter-organizational success factors.<br> Therefore, we first define a method for the systematic selection<br> of suitable data elements from EDIFACT message types based<br> on frequency analysis. Second, we consider the semantics of data<br> elements and message types in defining KPIs. Having these KPIs<br> at hand supports the quantitative evaluation of success factors<br> which in turn enables the evaluation of IORs.