Unleashing the IT potential in the complex digital business ecosystem of international trade: The case of fresh fruit import to European Union

The digital ecosystem for import of goods in international trade is analyzed, in-efficiencies are identified and their possible causes are revealed. The business ecosystem is rather complex and interlocked with many actors and various rules and regulations. It is supported by a digital business infrastructure, which however is very disjointed. The communication of information among the actors involves many disconnected information systems and manual processes, which introduce delays and lower data quality. This has severe consequences in the shape and form of increased lead-time, which our case analysis of import of fresh fruit reveals is critical for the quality of the fruit. However, the coordination is difficult since information is stored in isolated information systems and only shared among few actors. The IT potential in the digital business ecosystem could be unleashed by using a state of the art integrated information infrastructure to exchange information between the actors and their information systems in real time. This potentially could ameliorate the complexity of business ecosystem and thereby be a foundation for improvements of the business processes for all import to EU including of course fruit.