SUPPORTING IT IMPLEMENTATION DECISIONS WITH ANP — SUPPLIER SCHEDULING FOR e-INVOICING

Companies aim to make their supply chains more efficient by using modern information technology (IT). Owing to limited resources there is a need to prioritize IT projects and those generating the highest business value should be implemented first. In this paper, we first develop the theoretical foundations for the prioritization decision and then implement the theoretical principles by applying the ANP (analytic network process) approach. A model is developed to aid a buyer company in selecting prioritized suppliers for adopting electronic invoicing. The case company is a leading Finnish textile and clothing design company. The ANP approach is considered suitable for this type of decision problem with many interconnected decision-making criteria. As the result of the analysis, the prioritized suppliers, representing different supplier types in the case company, are determined. The results can be applied to schedule e-invoicing implementation projects among the supplier companies. Based on the case study it can be concluded that the theoretical principles and the ANP approach can also be applied to other IT implementation decisions concerning supply chain efficiency.