Smart Business Networks: Their Evolution

In the field of research and international developments in business management, in particular in e-commerce, the most significant achievements outreach intelligents contracts and block-chains. They are called "Smart business networks". Indeed, in line with business agility concepts enabled by the generalized deployment of IP networks, they integrate not only business process management, auction based negotiations (direct and reverse auctions), but above all they rely on dynamic linking of partners via a network. Alike exploratory IP packet routing, a smart business network shall: 1) search for partners who, at a given instant, may co-bid to a specific request for proposal, 2) checks the conformity between business process blocks (via their BPM, UML or other specifications), 3) executes a multi-attribute negotiation (price, delays, quality, etc..), 4) synthezises the features of the virtual network which associates winning bidders for the order fulfillment. Another much simplified way of looking at these theories and implementations, is to get inspiration from "plug and play" or from "quick connects & disconnects" deals. The paper outlines the main concepts, provides examples of implementations, discusses a concrete case, specifies the required architectural components, and discusses how to extend smart business networks to the case where intellectual property rights too get networked. The conclusion addresses risks and future research avenues.