Project A8 SME Interoperability in Practice Igor Santos, European Software Institute

1© ATHENA Consortium 2007

Project A8SME Interoperability in Practice

Igor Santos, European Software InstituteHåvard Jørgensen, AKM

David Chen, UB1

ATHENA Final Review28 March 2007

Madeira, Portugal

2

ATHENA Final Review, March 2007, Madeira

© ATHENA Consortium 2007

Presentation Outline● Introduction

● Project Goals● General view

● Problem domain● SME Interoperability needs● Scenario

● Requirements domain● Interoperability barriers● Conceptual solutions

● Solution domain● Methodology● Provisioning model

● Impact● Conclusion and outlook

3



Project Goals

1. Understand the interoperability needs and requirements of SMEs compared to large scale enterprises (LSEs). (WP.A8.1)

2. Analyze typical interoperability scenarios involving SMEs. (WP.A8.1)3. Evaluate the applicability of ATHENA results in SME environments.

(WP.A8.4)4. Adapt, integrate and target solutions for SMEs based on ATHENA

results identifying provision models adequate for them. (WP.A8.2)5. Develop a simple establishment methodology including an

assessment of the capability to interact of an SME and an improvement plan. (WP.A8.3)

6. Support and maintenance of the tools used in piloting activities with SMEs within B5 sub-project. (WP.A8.4)

- Introduction- Problem domain- Requirements domain- Solution domain- Impact- Conclusion and outlook

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A8 View


SME needs Establishmentmethodology

Scenarios

Proposedtechnicalsolution

Adaptation ofATHENA

results

Provisionmodels

Collaboration spaces

Tool support -B5 feedback

WPA8.1

WPA8.2WPA8.3

WPA8.4

Proposedconceptual

solution

ATHENASolutions

Interoperabilitygaps andbarriers

applied to

applied to

uses

based on

input for

solution for

improves validates

address

give access to

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A8 Process


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Problems to adopt interoperability

• Limited financial and human resources

• Absence of value proposition for an interoperability solution

• Scarce perception of the benefits of interoperability (e.g. successful case studies)

• Lack of trust (e.g. loss of knowledge)


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SMEs vs LSEs


LSE SME

Re-engineering approach: technology seen as primary vehicle of change

Conservative approach: technology seen as a commodity

Large investments on project scale Incremental investments on a service scale

Focus on formalized processes and transactions

Focus on interactive communication

Emphasis on data structures integration Emphasis on content (e.g. product designs, pictures

• SMEs face similar interoperability problems

• Differences arise from business perspective and scale of solutions demanded

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A8 Scenario: Carrier-Shipper


Shipper

Sales OrderSales Order

DeliveryDelivery

PickingPicking

PackingPacking

ShipmentShipment

Carrier A

Calculate RateCalculate Rate

Generate RoutingCode

Generate RoutingCode

Generate LabelGenerate Label

Carrier B

Calculate RateCalculate Rate

Generate Routing Code

Generate Routing Code

Generate LabelGenerate Label

How can SMEs easily switch between carriers?

How can SMEs adapt their processes to different carriers?

Which carrier applications should the SME interface, and how?

What data should be exchanged?

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Carrier-Shipper Scenario


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Overall SME requirements


• Guidelines and best practices for interoperability solutions adoption• Integration in several network organizations, with as few investment

and resources as possible• Provision of cost effective, mature, "Plug-and-play” and flexible

ICT solutions

• Support of mapping and interconnection of the internal methods and standards with the standards of the market

• Mapping definition between several information models, independently of meta-model used

• The technologies for interoperability should allow openness, while preserving IPR and know how in front of their competitors

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Requirements from the Scenario

● The solution should be easy to install, run and maintain,● The design and execution of the business processes implemented by the

solution should take the existing business constraints into account,● The solution should support interaction with services with the same

business functionality but different business protocols and document formats

● The messaging infrastructure of the solution should support web services, synchronous and asynchronous messaging and a rule based definition of message sequences

● Predefined and easy configurable adapters to different devices for populating messages inside the SME


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Building on ATHENA Results - The AIF

EIDM

Maestro, Gabriel, Nehemiah, Johnson, WSDL analyzer

Athos, ARES, A*, THEMIS, ASSERT

MPCE

PIM4SOA to AgentMM

POP* Meta-model

EIMM

PIM4SOA Meta-model


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ATHENA Interoperability Methodology (AIM)


Definition

Phases

Analysis Negotiation Realisation Operation Termination

Def. #1 Analyis. #1 Neg. #1 Real. #1 Real. #2 Oper. #1 Term. #1

Iterations

Support disciplines

Interoperability disciplines

Project management

Business collaboration modelling

Testing

Implementation

Interoperability maturity analysis

Deployment and assessment

Analysis and requirements

Solution mapping and design

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Interoperability Establishing Methodology for SMEs

Structured procedure Interoperability MeasurementStructured groups/meetings

Definition ofobjectives and needs

Existing systemanalysis

Select and combinesolutions

Implementationand test








Solutions and

existing tools

InteroperabilityFramework

EnterpriseInteroperabilityMaturity Model

(EIMM)

EnterpriseInteroperability

DegreeMeasurement

Structured procedure Interoperability MeasurementStructured groups/meetings












Solutions and

existing tools

InteroperabilityFramework

EnterpriseInteroperabilityMaturity Model

(EIMM)

EnterpriseInteroperability

DegreeMeasurement


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EIMM for SMEs - Questionnaire


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EIMM for SMEs - Results

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EIDM


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Template: Business Process Configuration

Template elements Description

Enterprise levelsconcerned

Business, Process

Barriers to interoperability Conceptual

Different business process variants of thesame business process

Gap between business level interoperability requirements and technical configuration of a CBP

Interoperability problem Business configuration problems in a CBP

ATHENA solution identified A2 (Maestro, Nehemiah), Gabriel, A5 (Johnson)

Outcome of ATHENA resultsevaluation – Relevance to SMEs

Maestro: no verification ofbusiness process configuration during design-time.

Configuration is an expensive and time consuming task for SMEs


CONCEPTUAL TECHNOLOGICAL ORGANIZATIONAL

BUSINESS

PROCESS

SERVICE

DATA

BARRIER

LEVEL

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Provisioning models

● Objective● Describe how IT and interoperability services can be provided to

SMEs● Address business level interoperability barriers

● Cost of interoperability● IT competence and maturity● Business alignment and trust

● A service provider hosts a network for cooperating businesses● Reduce the need to invest in interoperability software● Pool IT competence


Shipper

(SME)

Carrier 1

(Provider)

Carrier 2

(Provider)

Carrier 3

(Provider)

Customer 1

Customer N

SME Service Provider

Provider

(SME)

Provider

(SME)

ServiceProvide

r

Customer

(SME)

Customer

Customer

Customer (SME)

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Services Provided to the SMEs

● ‘Service’ means different, related things to different people● Web service, e.g. placeOrder(orderId, …)● User service, e.g. a project management application● Business service, e.g. interoperability consulting

● Services for SMEs at different maturity levels● Email and web portals● Data mapping (EAI)● Shared document repositories● Shared catalogues and reference models● Cross-organisational BPM● Federated product knowledge repositories● Consulting services

● Infrastructure● Model-configured collaboration spaces decrease hosting and customization

costs


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Model-Configured Collaboration Spaces

● Define collaboration spaces through active knowledge models

● Products, components, properties, requirements, constraints etc.● Organizational roles and networks, users● Processes and tasks● IT Infrastructure, services and systems

● Customised workplaces for each user● Adapted to their modelled roles, tasks, product responsibilities,

information and IT needs● Pilot testing experience

● EADS● Intracom● Electronics SMEs (MAPPER)● Automotive supplier (MAPPER)


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Model-Configured Collaboration Spaces


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I-ESA Conference - Workshop

● “Overcoming the pain of culture, knowledge and cost of interoperability in SMEs”

● Identify barriers and priorities to enable, deploy and manage rapid and reliable SME specific interoperability.

● Elaborate on the challenges and provide solutions for SMEs focusing on three particular viewpoints:

● Culture● Knowledge● Cost


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Dissemination

● Paper presented at European Semantic Web Conference, Semantics for Business Process Management Workshop, 11-14 June 2006, Budva.

● Towards Business Level Verification of Cross-Organizational Business Processes

● Paper presented at Fourth German Conference on Multiagent System Technologies, 19-20 September 2006, Erfurt.

● Meta-models, Models, and Model Transformations: Towards Interoperable Agents

● Paper presenteded at E-Challenges 2006, 25-27 October, Barcelona. ● SME Interoperability Establishing Methodology

● Paper to be presented at Challenges in Collaborative Engineering Workshop, April 10-12, 2007, Krakow

● Business Process Management for Electronics SMEs


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Links to other ATHENA projects

Action Line C

Action Line BB3 – Business Interoperability Research

B4 – Dynamic Requirement Definition

B5 – Piloting

B6 – Training

B2 – Knowledge Sharing

Action Line A

A1 – Enterprise Modelling

A2 – Cross-Organizational Business Processes

A3 – Knowledge Support and Semantic Mediation

A4 – Interoperability Framework and Services

A5 – Planned and Customizable Service-Oriented Architectures

A6 – Model-Driven and Adaptive Interoperability Architectures

A7 – Business Documents and Protocols

A8 –

SM

E In

terop

erability

Action Line C



B5 – Piloting

B6 – Training




B5 – Piloting

B6 – Training


Action Line A








A8 –

SM

E In

terop

erability

Action Line A








A8 –

SM

E In

terop

erability


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Overall Contribution to ATHENA

• Demonstration of relevance of ATHENA solutions to SMEs● Building on and using existing results for solving the problem scenario● Validate technical applicability of these results in SME environments

• Guidelines and Best Practices for applying AIF● Interoperability Establishing Methodology● Development of conceptual solutions● Development technical solutions

• Identification of “missing pieces” and adaptation/configuration needs● Technical solution -> adaptation requirements

• Relevance of solutions for SMEs• Adapted to SME’s infrastructure, no maintenance• Allow them adapt to LSE’s requirements• Don’t require large investments


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Fulfilment of objectives1. Understand the interoperability needs and requirements of SMEs

compared to large scale enterprises (LSEs). (D.A8.1) 2. Analyze typical interoperability scenarios involving SMEs. (D.A8.1.

WD.A8.1)3. Evaluate the applicability of ATHENA results in SME environments.

(D.A8.3)4. Adapt, integrate and target solutions for SMEs based on ATHENA

results identifying provision models adequate for them. (D.A8.2, D.A8.3)

5. Develop a simple establishment methodology including an assessment of the capability to interact of an SME and an improvement plan. (D.A8.2)

6. Support and maintenance of the tools used in piloting activities with SMEs within B5 sub-project. (WD.A8.4)
