Goal-Oriented RE for E-Services

Current research in service-oriented computing (SoC) is mainly\ud about technology standards for SoC and the design of software components that\ud implement these standards. In this paper we investigate the problem of\ud requirements engineering (RE) for SoC. We propose a framework for goaloriented\ud RE for e-services that identifies patterns in service provisioning and\ud shows how to compose business models from them. Based on an analysis of 19\ud business models for e-intermediaries we identified 10 intermediation service\ud patterns and their goals, and show how we can compose new business models\ud from those patterns in a goal-oriented way. We represent the service patterns\ud using value models, which are models that show which value exchanges\ud business patterns engage in. We conclude the paper with a discussion of how\ud this approach can be extended to include business process patterns to perform\ud the services, and software components that support these processes

Web Services Support for Dynamic Business Process Outsourcing

Outsourcing of business processes is crucial for organizations to be effective, efficient and flexible. To meet fast-changing market conditions, dynamic outsourcing is required, in which business relationships are established and enacted on-the-fly in an adaptive, fine-grained way unrestricted by geographic distance. This requires automated means for both the establishment of outsourcing relationships and for the enactment of services performed in these relationships over electronic channels. Due to wide industry support and the underlying model of loose coupling of services, Web services increasingly become the mechanism of choice to connect organizations across organizational boundaries. This paper analyzes to which extent Web services support the dynamic process outsourcing paradigm. We discuss contract -based dynamic business process outsourcing to define requirements and then introduce the Web services framework. Based on this, we investigate the match between the two. We observe that the Web services framework requires further support for cross - organizational business processes and mechanisms for contracting, QoS management and process-based transaction support and suggest ways to fill those gaps

An Architecture for Information Commerce Systems

The increasing use of the Internet in business and commerce has created a number of new business opportunities and the need for supporting models and platforms. One of these opportunities is information commerce (i-commerce), a special case of ecommerce focused on the purchase and sale of information as a commodity. In this paper we present an architecture for i-commerce systems using OPELIX (Open Personalized Electronic Information Commerce System) [11] as an example. OPELIX provides an open information commerce platform that enables enterprises to produce, sell, deliver, and manage information products and related services over the Internet. We focus on the notion of information marketplace, a virtual location that enables i-commerce, describe the business and domain model for an information marketplace, and discuss the role of intermediaries in this environment. The domain model is used as the basis for the software architecture of the OPELIX system. We discuss the characteristics of the OPELIX architecture and compare our approach to related work in the field

Online Travel Service Quality: The Importance of Pre-Transaction Services

The Internet revolution has led to significant changes in the way travel agencies interact with customers. Travel websites are used to different degrees, and for a variety of combinations of pre-transaction, transaction and post-transaction services. A better understanding of how customers interact with online services will help providers improve service quality to levels that satisfy or even delight customers, and thus create loyalty. This article provides a comprehensive review of the literature on online service quality, applies the theory to online travel offerings, and reports on an empirical study of quality perceptions of pre-transaction services provided on three travel websites. Effects on customer perceived quality were measured for process and outcome dimensions of online services. Implications for the design of online travel services and suggestions for further research are formulated.Economics ;

Are we relevant to the digital natives?

Bruce Grant-Braham looks at the latest hospitality information technology application

Electronic Publishing: Research Issues for Academic Librarians and Users

published or submitted for publicatio

Developing front-end Web 2.0 technologies to access services, content and things in the future Internet

The future Internet is expected to be composed of a mesh of interoperable web services accessible from all over the web. This approach has not yet caught on since global user?service interaction is still an open issue. This paper states one vision with regard to next-generation front-end Web 2.0 technology that will enable integrated access to services, contents and things in the future Internet. In this paper, we illustrate how front-ends that wrap traditional services and resources can be tailored to the needs of end users, converting end users into prosumers (creators and consumers of service-based applications). To do this, we propose an architecture that end users without programming skills can use to create front-ends, consult catalogues of resources tailored to their needs, easily integrate and coordinate front-ends and create composite applications to orchestrate services in their back-end. The paper includes a case study illustrating that current user-centred web development tools are at a very early stage of evolution. We provide statistical data on how the proposed architecture improves these tools. This paper is based on research conducted by the Service Front End (SFE) Open Alliance initiative

Flexible coordination techniques for dynamic cloud service collaboration

The provision of individual, but also composed services is central in cloud service provisioning. We describe a framework for the coordination of cloud services, based on a tuple‐space architecture which uses an ontology to describe the services. Current techniques for service collaboration offer limited scope for flexibility. They are based on statically describing and compositing services. With the open nature of the web and cloud services, the need for a more flexible, dynamic approach to service coordination becomes evident. In order to support open communities of service providers, there should be the option for these providers to offer and withdraw their services to/from the community. For this to be realised, there needs to be a degree of self‐organisation. Our techniques for coordination and service matching aim to achieve this through matching goal‐oriented service requests with providers that advertise their offerings dynamically. Scalability of the solution is a particular concern that will be evaluated in detail

A proposed marketing strategy for GO2HK.COM

Within these few years, the Internet becomes popular in the world. There are many well-known websites, such as the eBay, Amazon and Yahoo, etc.. In foreign countries, Web auction is very famous for the Internet users in foreign countries, while it is a new kind of electronic business in Hong Kong. The trend of web auction has penetrated into Hong Kong in this few years, but it is still at a growth stage of the industry life cycle. Web auction seems to be a new type of business in electronic commerce, thus it can attract the people to participate it in future. The potential market for web auction is quite large. In Hong Kong, there are four major companies that work on the business of web auction. They are the (1) Red-dots, (2) Go2hk, (3) Yahoo and (4) Clubciti. Whereas, go2hk is the smallest company in terms of company size, it is the second in terms of the number of registered users. The industry is growing rapidly and facing a keen competition. Therefore, the company needs to have good marketing mix strategies to establish its brand name. This project aims to purpose an appropriate marketing strategy of GO2HK.COM, which can allow the company to match the consumer needs with marketing strategy. Interviews are conducted and questionnaire surveys are initiated to look into the most preferable strategy for GO2HK. Before doing the questionnaire survey, we have interviewed the company, in order to identify the current marketing mix first. After that, questionnaire surveys are used to access the information about the procedure of non-users, sellers and bidders. Based on the findings, a proposed marketing strategy is recommended for go2hk. To conclude, security is the most critical aspect that both users and non-users are highly concerned