2,950 research outputs found
Incorporating Information Quality Management into EAI Processes
Nowadays Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is rather a technical problem than an organizational issue in enterprise systems. Due to the increased complexity of EAI processes, it is difficult to guarantee the information quality (IQ) without scientific process control. Information Quality Management (IQM) highlights the control of the business processes by resolving IQ problems through IQ definition, measurement, analysis and improvement. When considering EAI’s emphasis on the integration of business processes and the information flow within an enterprise, they are potentially mutually complementary for the IQ improvement. However, there are very few studies carefully examining IQ improvement in EAI processes, and complementary nature of IQM and EAI. By analyzing the challenges of EAI to IQ, and theoretical foundations of incorporating IQM into EAI processes, this study proposes a framework to effectively improve the IQ of EAI processes, and suggests six propositions for future research
The impact of enterprise application integration on information system lifecycles
Information systems (IS) have become the organisational fabric for intra-and inter-organisational collaboration in business. As a result, there is mounting pressure from customers and suppliers for a direct move away from disparate systems operating in parallel towards a more common shared architecture. In part, this has been achieved through the emergence of new technology that is being packaged into a portfolio of technologies known as enterprise application integration (EAI). Its emergence however, is presenting investment decision-makers charged with the evaluation of IS with an interesting challenge. The integration of IS in-line with the needs of the business is extending their identity and lifecycle, making it difficult to evaluate the full impact of the system as it has no definitive start and/or end. Indeed, the argument presented in this paper is that traditional life cycle models are changing as a result of technologies that support their integration with other systems. In this paper, the need for a better understanding of EAI and its impact on IS lifecycles are discussed and a classification framework proposed.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Grant Ref: (GR/R08025) and Australian Research Council (DP0344682)
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A conceptual model for EAI adoption in an e-government environment
The non-integrated nature of Local Government Authority (LGA) Information Systems (IS) is
strongly associated with the inconsistency and duplication of data, reduction in data integrity and
quality, and high operational and maintenance cost. The reason is that legacy IS within the LGAs
are usually tailored to support particular business processes and functions and are as a
consequence usually difficult to integrate. This gives rise to a strong need for an integrated
architecture that facilitates reuse of existing applications and flexibly implementing business
processes across the functional boundaries within the LGAs. This paper examines a potentially
important area of IS integration in the United Kingdom (UK) LGAs through Enterprise
Application Integration (EAI) technology. A review of the literature indicates that EAI has been a
focal technology for several organisations in solving their integration problems. However, is new
in the LGAs; thus research literature around it is limited. Yet the effect of IS integration using
EAI technology remains under explored, as little research has been conducted to comprehend the
LGAs perception of integration that influences their decisions and actions. The author
demonstrates that it is of high importance to investigate this area within LGAs and result in
research that contributes towards successful EAI adoption. Therefore, resulting in the
development of a conceptual model that may be used to assist the government decision-making
process for EAI adoption in an electronic Government (e-Government) environment
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Towards a methodology for the development of integrated IT infrastructures
In this paper, the authors propose and validate
a methodology for the development of integrated
Information Technology (IT) infrastructures. The
motivation for putting forward a new methodology is
grounded on the limitations of the various software
engineering methodologies (traditional) that exist
today. Despite that the traditional methodologies result
in the development of Information Systems (IS) from
scratch, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
builds integrated IT infrastructures using existing
applications. This significant difference is associated
with many issues needed to be realised and addressed
like: (a) the changes that such an infrastructure brings
to organisations, (b) the resistance to change and (c)
the extension of IS lifecycle’s. The proposed
methodology consist of eight stages and aims at
supporting software engineers, organisations and
researchers to build integrated IT infrastructures. As a
result the methodology seeks to contribute to the body
of knowledge
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Information systems and healthcare XXIV: Factors affecting the EAI adoption in the healthcare sector
Recent developments in the field of integration technologies like Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) have emerged to support organizations towards improving the quality of services and reducing integration costs. Despite the importance of EAI, there is limited empirical research reported on its adoption in the healthcare sector. Khoumbati et al. [2006] developed a model for the evaluation of EAI in healthcare organizations. In doing so, the causal interrelationship of EAI adoption factors was identified by using fuzzy cognitive mapping. This paper is a progression of previous work in the area and seeks to contribute by validating the model through a different case environment. Thus, this paper contributes by deriving and proposing the MAESTRO model for EAI adoption. MAESTRO identifies a set of factors that influence EAI adoption and it is evaluated through a real-life case study. It provides an understanding of the EAI adoption process through its grounding on empirical data. In doing so, the MAESTRO model supports the management of healthcare organizations during the decision-making process for EAI adoption
Evaluating the integration of supply chain information systems: A case study
Supply chain management (SCM) is the integrated management of business links, information flows and people. It is with this frame of reference that information systems integration from both intra- and inter-organisational levels becomes significant. Enterprise application integration (EAI) has emerged as software technologies to address the issue of integrating the portfolio of SCM components both within organisations and through cross-enterprises. EAI is based on a diversity of integration technologies (e.g. message brokers, ebXML) that differ in the type and level of integration they offer. However, none of these technologies claim to be a panacea to overcoming all integration problems but rather,
need to be pieced together to support the linking of diverse applications that often exist within supply chains. In exploring the evaluation of supply chain integration, the authors propose a framework for evaluating the portfolio of integration technologies that are used to unify inter-organisational and intra-organisational information systems. The authors define and classify the permutations of information systems available according to their characteristics and integration requirements. These, classifications of system types are then adopted as part of the evaluation framework and empirically tested within a case study
Towards a novel framework for the assessment of enterprise application integration packages
In addressing enterprise integration problems, a diversity
of technologies such as CORBA and XML were
promoted, yet no single integration technology solves all
integration problems. As a result, a new generation of
software called Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
is emerging to addresses many integration problems by
combining a diversity of integration technologies (e.g.
message brokers, adapters, XML). Since EAI is a new
research area, there is an absence of literature discussing
issues like its adoption, evaluation and implementation.
This paper, examines the application of two frameworks
for the evaluation of EAI packages in the practical arena.
In doing so, the authors use case study strategy to
investigate integration issues. Empirical data derived
from the case study suggest additions to the two
evaluation frameworks. Therefore, the authors revised
and extend previous works by proposing a novel
evaluation framework for the assessment of EAI
packages. The proposed framework makes novel
contribution at two levels. First, at the conceptual level,
as it incorporates criteria identified separately in previous
studies as evaluation criteria. The proposed framework
can be used as a decision-making tool and, supports
management when taking decisions regarding the
adoption of EAI. Additionally, it can be used by
researchers to analyse and understand the capabilities o
Deterministic scheduling for energy efficient and reliable communication in heterogeneous sensing environments in industrial wireless sensor networks
The present-day industries incorporate many applications, and complex processes, hence, a large number of sensors with dissimilar process deadlines and sensor update frequencies will be in place. This paper presents a scheduling algorithm, which takes into account the varying deadlines of the sensors connected to the cluster-head, and formulates a static schedule for Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) based communication. The scheme uses IEEE802.15.4e superframe as a baseline and proposes a new superframe structure. For evaluation purposes the update frequencies of different industrial processes are considered. The scheduling algorithm is evaluated under varying network loads by increasing the number of nodes affiliated to a cluster-head. The static schedule generated by the scheduling algorithm offers reduced energy consumption, improved reliability, efficient network load management and improved information to control bits ratio
Ontology-based patterns for the integration of business processes and enterprise application architectures
Increasingly, enterprises are using Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as an approach to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). SOA has the potential to bridge
the gap between business and technology and to improve the reuse of existing applications and the interoperability with new ones. In addition to service architecture
descriptions, architecture abstractions like patterns and styles capture design knowledge and allow the reuse of successfully applied designs, thus improving the quality of
software. Knowledge gained from integration projects can be captured to build a repository of semantically enriched, experience-based solutions. Business patterns identify the interaction and structure between users, business processes, and data.
Specific integration and composition patterns at a more technical level address enterprise application integration and capture reliable architecture solutions. We use an
ontology-based approach to capture architecture and process patterns. Ontology techniques for pattern definition, extension and composition are developed and their
applicability in business process-driven application integration is demonstrated
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