The Challenges of Inter-Organizational Business Process Design - A Research Agenda

Given the increasing importance of value chain collaboration, business processes need to be more closely aligned across organizational boundaries. Hence, business process modeling and design have to be enhanced and extended to cope with inter-organizational business relationships. Among the challenges that arise are interdependencies between internal and external processes, different process logic and terminology, missing clarification of responsibilities and confidentiality issues. This paper analyzes existing approaches to business process modeling, workflow management and B2B standardization with regard to the specific requirements concerning inter-organizational business process design. It extracts the relevant concepts addressing these requirements and draws up an agenda for further research

Modelling Inter-Organizational Business Processes Governance

Digital transformation requires decentralizing business process governance due to the increasing interdependencies of organizations and more complex business pipelines enabled by information technologies. We present a modelling approach to assist companies in their inter-organizational business process governance (IO-BPG). The results emerge from a design science research conducted with a major European telecommunications service provider. They include (1) the key domain attributes, (2) a domain-specific ontology, and (3) a BPMN extension instantiated in IO-BPG scenarios of Software-as-a-Service, covering structure, processes, and relational mechanisms. For theory, this paper extends the literature on business process governance with a modelling approach evaluated in one of the most regulated and dynamic economic sectors. For practice, our proposal may help appraise accountability, confidentiality, compliance, autonomy, authority, traceability, and collaboration configurations that are crucial to IO-BPG

Experimental Evaluation of a Process Benchmarking Tool in a Green Business Process Management Context

Using a combination of metamodels, ontologies, green performance indicators and metrics, we apply a novel approach in Semantic Business Process Benchmarking to the area of Green Business Process Management (Green BPM). Up to now, process benchmarking has mainly been a manual process; the approach described and empirically evaluated in this paper partially automates the time-consuming and costly process analyses while introducing more flexibility regarding varying terminology, level of abstraction and modeling notation. Also, overviews of literature relevant to the field of Green Semantic BPM and commonly applied metrics in a Green BPM context are given

A Systematic Literature Review to Understand Cross-organizational Relationship Management and Collaboration

An increasingly dynamic, unpredictable and challenging environment leads organizations to cross their own borders and establish partnerships to other organizations for remaining competitive. This cross-organizational relationship allows participating organizations to share resources with each other and collaborate to better handle an identified opportunity for joint work. However, besides having a mutual or compatible goal, it is common that these organizations face several challenges during the partnership. The present research aims to explore the cross-organizational relationship management. To this end, this paper outlines the systematic literature review performed to understand the collaboration and relationship establishment between different organizations and organize an ICT related body of knowledge about the topic. A discussion about the findings, challenges and open issues identified from the retrieved literature is also provided to guide further work

Assessing Tools for Coordinating Quality of Master Data in Inter-organizational Product Information Sharing

Product information sharing, i.e., inter-organizational transfer of master data relating to products, is a problematic, error-prone, labor-intensive, and costly process in many companies. This paper presents findings of a focus group interview and case studies at three wholesale trading companies that share product information with hundreds of suppliers. We identify and assess coordination mechanisms and tools used to facilitate product information sharing. Spreadsheet files, e-mail messages, telephone calls, and personal meetings are predominant coordination tools. EDI connections, product identification and classification standards, online product catalogs, and data pools are not widely adopted in the trading organizations covered by our study. Reasons for the low adoption rate are that employees responsible for master data quality are either unaware of these resources or that they are convinced that the tools are too cost-intensive or not flexible enough

From Cross-Organizational Business Process to Public Services

Service-oriented architectures promise flexible process integration in heterogeneous environments, particularly in cross organizational contexts. Therefore, a systematic approach for deriving service definitions from cross-organizational business processes is required. The paper at hand presents a structured, model driven approach that allows for cross-organizational integration with service-oriented concepts and technologies based on a cross-organizational business process. The resulting method is specified by means of a metamodel and a procedure model. Taking into account existing approaches in the research field, the paper focuses on the activities for the service design specification and the subsequent implementation of the public services. Feasibility of the method is shown by applying it in a Business-to-Government (B2G) real-world scenario, namely the collaboration between a consigning company and customs authorities according to the new European harmonized customs procedures

Ontology-based standards development: Application of OntoStanD to ebXML business process specification schema

Business-to-Business (B2B) interoperations are an important part of today's global economy. Business process standards are developed to provide a common understanding of the information shared between trading partners. These standards, however, mainly capture the syntax of the transactions and not their semantics. This paper proposes the use of ontologies as the basis for standards development and presents an ontology for the ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (ebBP) with the aim of empowering the capture and sharing of semantics embedded within B2B processes as well as enabling knowledge deduction and reasoning over the shared knowledge. The paper utilises the Ontology-based Standards Development methodology (OntoStanD) as a methodological approach for designing ontological models of standards. This research demonstrates how Semantic Web technologies can be utilised as a basis for standards development and representation in order to improve standards-based interoperability between trading partners

9. Interuniversitäres Doktorandenseminar Wirtschaftsinformatik der Universitäten Halle-Wittenberg, Jena und Leipzig

Das zum neunten Male durchgeführte interuniversitäre Doktorandenseminar der Universitäten Halle-Wittenberg, Jena und Leipzig repräsentiert eine Kooperation mehrerer Wirtschaftsinformatik-Professoren. Es hat sich als Forum des fruchtbaren Austausches zu Forschungsthemen etabliert, die gemäß der Brückenfünktion der Wirtschaftsinformatik ein breites Spektrum zwischen Betriebswirtschaft und Technik aufspannen.:1 Die Bedeutung von Logistik-Netzwerken 2 Eine Analyse von hindernisberücksichtigenden Spatial Clustering Verfahren 3 Multivariate Analyse postoperativer Schmerzdaten 4 Gestaltung Serviceorientierter Architekturen in Finanznetzwerken - Vorgehensmodell und Referenzservicearchitektur 5 Qualitätsindikatoren in der Wikipedia 6 Gestaltungsbereiche und funktionale Anforderungen des überbetrieblichen CRM 7 Untersuchung der Robustheit des Sporas-Reputationssystems auf Basis eines evolutionären Bewertungsansatze

Tagungsband zum Doctoral Consortium der WI 2009

Bereits seit Anfang der 1990er Jahre wird jungen Wissenschaftlern im Vorfeld der Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik ein Doctoral Consortium als unterstützendes Forum angeboten. Diese Einrichtung wurde auch zur größten internationalen Konferenz der Wirtschaftsinformatik, der WI 2009 in Wien fortgeführt. Dieser Band fasst die zum Vortrag ausgewählten Beiträge zusammen. Table of Contents: Tina Balke, On the Enforcement of Institutions for Reducing Uncertainty in Utility Computing Computational Economies …1; Christian Czarnecki, Gestaltung von Customer Relationship Management über die Grenzen von Telekommunikationsunternehmen hinweg …11; Christoph Danne, Assessing the cost of assortment complexity in consumer goods supply chains by reconfiguration of inventory and production planning parameters in response to assortment changes … 24; José M. González V., Gestaltung nachhaltiger IT-Landschaften in der Energiewirtschaft mit Hilfe von Referenzmodellen … 35; Christoph Habla, Eine Grobterminierungskomponente zur funktionalen Erweiterung von Manufacturing Execution Systems … 45; Frank Hogrebe, Integriertes Produkt- und Prozessmodell für die öffentliche Verwaltung … 55; Sebastian Hudert, A protocol-generic infrastructure for electronic SLA negotiations in the Internet of Services … 65; Bernd Jahn, Der Manager als Prosumer seines Unterstützungssystems - Ein Ansatz zum Entwurf Konfigurierbarer Managementunterstützungssysteme … 75; Florian Johannsen, Konzeption und Evaluation eines Ansatzes zur Methodenintegration im Qualitätsmanagement … 85; Karin Kronawitter, IT-Outsourcing in banking industry - stage of maturity model as strategic approach … 95; Barbara Krumay, Der Einuss von Online Kundenservice-Angeboten auf Kundenloyalität … 105; Tyge Kummer, Kulturelle Einflussfaktoren der Akzeptanz ambienter Systeme zur Vermeidung von Medikationsfehlern in Krankenhäusern … 115; Stefan König, Elektronische Verhandlungen im Internet-of-Services unter Berücksichtigung von Reputationsinformationen … 125; Tim Püschel, Intelligentes Ressourcenmanagement für Clouds - Konzept und Implementierung eines Entscheidungsmodells … 135; Olaf Reinhold, Auswirkungen auf die Gestaltung von CRM-Anwendungssystemen durch Kooperation von Unternehmen entlang von Wertschöpfungsketten und in Unternehmensnetzwerken … 144; Markus Ruch, Kundenindividuelle Steuerung von Transaktionsrisiken im E-Commerce … 155; Frank Schlosser, Die Bedeutung von operativem Business/IT-Alignment für nachhaltigen Unternehmenserfolg - Ein theoretisches Rahmenwerk und Richtlinien für die Praxis … 168; Christian Schultewolter, Konzeptuelle Modellierung für modellgetriebene Decision Support Systeme … 178; Gudrun Schütz, Preisstrategien von Internethändlern und deren technische Umsetzung … 188; Sarah Voltz, Prognose und Förderung des Verordnungsverhaltens von Ärzten in Netzwerkstrukturen … 198; -- Since the early 1990es, young researchers participate in the doctoral consortium series, co-located with the Wirtschaftsinformatik conference. This volume contains the selected papers of 20 PhD candidates of the 2009 doctoral consortium in Vienna.Wirtschaftsinformatik,Wirtschaftsinformatikstudium

Ontology-based information standards development

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Standards may be argued to be important enablers for achieving interoperability as they aim to provide unambiguous specifications for error-free exchange of documents and information. By implication, therefore, it is important to model and represent the concept of a standard in a clear, precise and unambiguous way. Although standards development organisations usually provide guidelines for the process of developing and approving standards, they are usually more concerned with administrative aspect of the process. As a consequence, the state-of-the-art lacks practical support for developing the structure and content of a standard specification. In short, there is no systematic development method currently available: (a) For developing the conceptual model underpinning a standard; and/or (b) to guide a group of stakeholders to develop a standard specification. Semantic interoperability is considered to be an essential factor for effective interoperation – the ability to achieve semantic interoperability effectively and efficiently being strongly equated with quality by some. Semantics require that the meaning of terms, their relationships and also the restrictions and rules in the standards should be clearly defined in the early stages of standard development and act as a basis for the latter stages. This research proposes that ontology can help standards developers and stakeholders to address the issues of improving conceptual models and providing a robust and shared understanding of the domain. This thesis presents OntoStanD, a comprehensive ontology-based standards development methodology, which utilises the best practices of the existing ontology creation methods. The potential value of OntoStanD is in providing a comprehensive, clear and unambiguous method for developing robust information standards, which are more test friendly and of higher quality. OntoStanD also facilitates standards conformance testing and change management, impacts interoperability and also assists in improved communication among the standards development team. Last, OntoStanD provides an approach that is repeatable, teachable and potentially general enough for creating any kinds of information standard.Fujitsu Laboratories of Europe Ltd, Google Anitaborg Memorial Scholarshi