Piloting Service Oriented Architecture—A Case Study in the Oil Industry

The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm introduced a few years back has already become the driving force behind enterprise systems. It is also a force behind most cutting edge technologies today. Although much is written about SOA, empirical studies on its implementation are next to none. This exploratory case study examines a pilot implementation at an oil-drilling equipment manufacturing company to understand the process and issues involved in SOA adoption. The study depicts the implementation methodology and the roadmap adopted by this organization to help connect its disparate systems using enterprise SOA. This paper can help researcher better understand SOA implementation and help them further explore the managerial issues involved in implementing this new technology

Information visualization for business applications

Business applications are generating ever-increasing amounts of data, and more and more of [these] data are in real-time data. Data mining is a standard feature in most data management system[s] for retrieving complex information but the challenge is about how to represent [this] information in an effective way for better analysis and decision making. With this rich information, the challenge still remains to derive the most business value from [an] ever-increasing amount of available information. Information visualization can significantly solve this problem for handling such complex and high volumes of data to be represented in business applications. Through this research, an attempt will be made to solve this problem by prototyping an interactive data driven business application through visualization. The key focus of this research work will be given in the \u27Presentation Tier\u27 of a business application for visually representing the information in an aesthetic matter for better understanding

Workflow processing using ERP objects

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) Systems, and Workflow Management Systems (WFMS) evolved parallel in the past. The main business drivers for automation came from the ERP world, but the WFMS solutions discovered their own way figuring out the necessity of such applications without ERP as well. In our paper we follow only the usage of workflows in ERP systems. The central elements of built-in workflows are the ERP objects, which embed and handle the business data providing real life meaning of business objects as well. The capabilities of built-in workflow systems of such ERP solutions are presented via two market-leaders: SAP and Microsoft Dynamics AX. Both solutions are dealing with ERP objects in sence of the workflow management. We recognized and present the weaknesses and restrictions of the built-in workflow systems on these two ERP examples. In our paper we describe the results of our analysis of the interoperability of the built-in workflow systems as well and demonstrate the required add-on functionalities to provide usable cross-system workflows in such an environment. We also mention the possibility of using a built-in workflow as a full-featured WFMS

Analysis of requirements and technologies to migrate software development to the PaaS model

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementSoftware development has been evolving during the last years and, more and more, the software architecture to support this development has become more complex to meet the new requirements and new technologies. With the new cloud computing architecture and models, IT departments and ISV are developing new applications and moving the traditional software architecture to the cloud. In this context, Platform as a Service (PaaS) model can provide software development services and components within a new architecture for building a new generation of software with all benefits of cloud, like scalability and elasticity. However, currently, most companies have significant challenges to adapt and change its software development process to use the PaaS architecture and the cloud services. In this dissertation, it will first be identified and analyzed the changes and challenges for develop software with the PaaS architecture. Afterwards, will be analyzed and identified the requirements in a traditional software development and architecture (on premise) to development new software or adapt the existents software with the PaaS.Dissertation submitted as partial requirement for obtaining the Master’s degree in Information Managemen

A Model-Driven Approach for Mobile Business Intelligence

The concept of Mobile Business Intelligence is nowadays gaining prominence in business markets. With the emergence and evolution of mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets, the users gain the opportunity to analyze the corporate information, anywhere and anytime, based on charts, tables and dashboards. However, there is also the question of how to provide the freedom to the user to build its own analytical components. This work will address the problem of developing a hybrid mobile solution towards the Business Intelligence domain, offering monitoring services and simultaneously addressing the problem of user empowerment, with easy configuration and semi-automatic generation of analytical widgets. To provide such capacity to the user, the proposed solution is based on the design of a Domain Specific Modeling Language, aligned with the Model-Driven Development approach and inspired by the Product Lines principles. The last part of this work is dedicated to evaluate the language usability based on an empirical test, executed by a set of subjects with different backgrounds of specialization. In this sense, we define two groups: end users and domain experts. The goal is to determine the extent to which the prototype can be used to empower the end users. As support for the analysis we have extracted a set of measures, alongside with the final appreciation from the domain experts group, composed by people currently working on Business Intelligence

Towards the Implementation of an Intelligent ERP System: Guidelines for Building Intelligent ERP Systems

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThe digital age has forced companies to change the way they operate their businesses and adapt quickly to the digital transformation driven by increased global competitiveness in recent years. To remain competitive, organizations must implement management solutions that allow them to efficiently control all business areas through an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Management systems have had to evolve to keep up with technological advancements by incorporating intelligent tools. As a result, ERP companies have created new systems known as intelligent ERP (i-ERP). Given the variety of improvement opportunities, it has become necessary to develop a series of guidelines for i-ERP manufacturing as well as for companies that want to implement intelligent solutions in their different business areas, in order to assist technical and non-technical people selecting the best existing option. A design science research (DSR) methodology was used to accomplish the study's goal. It was mandatory to start by defining what an i-ERP system is. Furthermore, their seven capabilities have been clarified, such as intelligent behaviour, learning management, advanced analytics, process automation, intelligent interfaces, dark analytics, and simplification of customization. These capabilities are based on technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and cloud computing. The guidelines were based on these seven capabilities and were applied to the four major modules of an ERP, which are financial, purchasing, sales, and human resources. As a result, it was possible to create a table with recommendations in general by i-ERP capabilities, followed by guidelines focusing on the financial, purchasing, sales, and human resources areas, and an assessment tool that allowed creating measures to evaluate an ERP system, considering its level of intelligence based on the recommendations created. Finally, the evaluation system was used to rate the latest system developed by SAP SE, SAP S4/HANA, demonstrating its usefulness, followed by expert interviews to validate the recommendations for the four areas identified in terms of their use and acceptance. The relevant literature review and my personal work experience were used as the basis for this master's thesis. It is expected that this study will contribute to the scientific community's understanding of intelligent information systems as well as arouse curiosity in future studies.A era digital forçou as empresas a mudarem a forma como operam os seus negócios e a adaptarem-se rapidamente à transformação digital impulsionada pelo aumento da competitividade global nos últimos anos. Para se manterem competitivas, as organizações devem implementar soluções de gestão que lhes permitam controlar eficazmente todas as áreas de negócio através de um sistema de planeamento de recursos corporativos (ERP). Os sistemas de gestão tiveram de evoluir para acompanhar os avanços tecnológicos, incorporando ferramentas inteligentes. Como resultado, as empresas de sistemas ERP criaram produtos conhecidos como ERP inteligentes (i-ERP). Dada a variedade de oportunidades de melhoria, tornou-se necessário desenvolver uma série de orientações para fabricantes de i-ERP bem como para empresas que pretendam implementar soluções inteligentes nas diversas áreas de negócio, a fim de ajudar as pessoas técnicas e não técnicas na seleção da melhor opção existente. Uma metodologia de desenho de investigação científica (DSR) foi utilizada para atingir o objetivo do estudo. Foi obrigatório começar por definir o que é um sistema i-ERP bem como as suas sete capacidades identificadas, como ter um comportamento inteligente, gestão da aprendizagem, análise avançada, automatização de processos, interfaces inteligentes, análise escura, e simplificação da personalização, que têm como base tecnologias como inteligência artificial, aprendizagem de máquinas, grandes dados e armazenamento em nuvem. As orientações utilizaram como base estas sete capacidades e foram aplicadas aos quatro principais módulos de um ERP, que são o financeiro, compras, logística e recursos humanos. Como resultado foi possível criar uma tabela de recomendações gerais por capacidades de um i-ERP, seguida de recomendações com foco na área financeira, compras, logística e recursos humanos e por último uma ferramenta de avaliação que permitiu criar medidas para avaliar um sistema ERP, considerando o seu nível de inteligência com base nas recomendações criadas. Por último, o sistema de avaliação foi utilizado para classificar o mais recente sistema desenvolvido pela SAP SE, o SAP S4/HANA, demonstrando a sua utilidade, seguido de entrevistas a especialistas para validar as recomendações para as quatro áreas identificadas em termos de respetiva utilização e aceitação. Uma relevante revisão bibliográfica e a minha experiência profissional foram utilizadas como base para esta tese de mestrado. Espera-se que este estudo contribua para a compreensão dos sistemas de informação inteligentes pela comunidade científica, assim como despertar curiosidade em estudos futuros