  In this position paper, we present our vision on the future of the logistics
business domain and the use of information technology (IT) in this domain. The
vision is based on extensive experience with Dutch and European logistics in
various contexts and from various perspectives. We expect that the vision also
holds for logistics outside Europe. We build our vision in a number of steps.
First, we make an inventory of the most important trends in the logistics
domain - we call these mega-trends. Next, we do the same for the information
technology domain, restricted to technologies that have relevance for
logistics. Then, we introduce logistics meta-concepts that we use to describe
our vision and relate them to business engineering. We use these three
ingredients to analyze leading concepts that we currently observe in the
logistics domain. Next, we consolidate all elements into a model that
represents our vision of the integrated future of logistics and IT. We
elaborate on the role of data platforms and open standards in this integrated
vision.
