The Netcentric Revolution is Here!

DCCI, a computer company, receives an order from a business customer in Saginaw, Mich., via its Web site. The order is instantly visible to everyone in the supply chain. The order automatically triggers a search of DCCI’s own component databases to fill the order, while simultaneously searching the component databases of its network of suppliers in Japan and Belgium. Based on these results, the assembly of the order is scheduled and the delivery date is determined. The customer receives an e-mail providing a shipping date and a tracking number to trace the real-time progress of the order. The entire process is accomplished before you can count to three.

This is netcentricity - the power of digital networks to distribute information instantly and without borders. Characterized by global connectivity, real-time collaboration and rapid and continuous information exchange, netcentricity is a ubiquitous force reshaping every facet of our markets, organizational cultures, and personal lives at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

A unique laboratory for Digital business

Because of its enormous transforming power and pervasiveness, the netcentric revolution cannot be understood or influenced by any single element in isolation. A multi-disciplinary approach is required to address and study its comprehensive and inter-related dimensions.

Under the auspices of its Netcentric Research Initiative, the Robert H. Smith School of Business has created the Netcentricity Laboratory. This advanced teaching, research, and corporate resource brings together leading scholars and practitioners to study netcentricity as an evolving competitive force of the Internet economy. As the first academic center to be a partner in Sun Microsystems’ world-wide iForce Initiative, the lab provides the technology, the expertise and the intellectual leadership for applying digital networks to business, organizations, and the economy.

The second component of the lab, the Financial Markets Laboratory, opened in Fall 2001. This lab is now used as a research lab and a new teaching lab opened in Fall 2002 in Van Munching Hall's new wing, along with the new Netcentric Supply Chain Lab. The Behavioral Laboratory, the third component, opened in spring 2003.