Towards business integration as a service 2.0 (BIaaS 2.0)

Cloud Computing Business Framework (CCBF) is a framework for designing and implementation of Could Computing solutions. This proposal focuses on how CCBF can help to address linkage in Cloud Computing implementations. This leads to the development of Business Integration as a Service 1.0 (BIaaS 1.0) allowing different services, roles and functionalities to work together in a linkage-oriented framework where the outcome of one service can be input to another, without the need to translate between domains or languages. BIaaS 2.0 aims to allow automation, enhanced security, advanced risk modelling and improved collaboration between processes in BIaaS 1.0. The benefits from adopting BIaaS 1.0 and developing BIaaS 2.0 are illustrated using a case study from the University of Southampton and several collaborators including IBM US. BIaaS 2.0 can work with mainstream technologies such as scientific workflows, and the proposal and demonstration of BIaaS 2.0 will be aimed to certainly benefit industry and academia. © 2011 IEEE

Towards Business Integration as a Service 2.0

Cloud Computing Business Framework (CCBF) is a framework for designing and implementation of Could Computing solutions. This proposal focuses on how CCBF can help to address linkage in Cloud Computing implementations. This leads to the development of Business Integration as a Service 1.0 (BIaS 1.0) allowing different services, roles and functionalities to work together in a linkage-oriented framework where the outcome of one service can be input to another, without the need to translate between domains or languages. BIaS 2.0 aims to allow full automation, enhanced security, advanced risk modelling and improved collaboration between processes in BIaaS 1.0. The benefits from adopting BIaS 1.0 and developing BIaS 2.0 are illustrated using a case study from the University of Southampton and several collaborators including IBM US. BIaS 2.0 can work with mainstream technologies such as scientific workflows, and the proposal and demonstration of BIaaS 2.0 will certainly benefit industry and academia

A Semantic Grid Oriented to E-Tourism

With increasing complexity of tourism business models and tasks, there is a clear need of the next generation e-Tourism infrastructure to support flexible automation, integration, computation, storage, and collaboration. Currently several enabling technologies such as semantic Web, Web service, agent and grid computing have been applied in the different e-Tourism applications, however there is no a unified framework to be able to integrate all of them. So this paper presents a promising e-Tourism framework based on emerging semantic grid, in which a number of key design issues are discussed including architecture, ontologies structure, semantic reconciliation, service and resource discovery, role based authorization and intelligent agent. The paper finally provides the implementation of the framework.Comment: 12 PAGES, 7 Figure

Maturity model to position and orient organizations through the process automation implementation

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Business AnalyticsNowadays, companies are seeking for processes done with a zero error rate enhancing their service quality, while the demand for costs reduction and speed is also increasing. For these reasons, the value of Artificial Intelligence is raising, namely in the area of optimization and processes automation. These concepts lead to a hot topic: Hyperautomation, which aims to achieve an environment where machines are working together with each other or alongside human employees. However, it is not clear what does the introduction of intelligence means in processes. Previous studies have defined maturity models regarding Business Process Management or Industry 4.0, but there is a gap in this topic for the automation area. The Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) was applied to build a Maturity Model that can help position and orient organizations through the process automation implementation. The model aims to be a framework where the companies can rely to be successful in the journey of automating and optimizing business processes not only by understanding their position but also finding the actions needed to improve. Thus, the Maturity Model incorporates a taxonomy to classify each level as well as a description of what each level represents. Additionally, the proposed Maturity Model provides an evaluation framework

A strategy for the integration of hyper-automation technologies into the Portuguese companies

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceToday´s competitive world demand companies to explore and discover new business automation technologies in order to evolve their processes and obtain tremendous benefits, from increased efficiency to reduced costs. The business processes that currently involve a lot of manual work or are considered as non-value added to the company are in the lead to automate so employees can focus their knowledge into more relevant tasks. The purpose of this study is to propose a strategy for the integration of hyper-automation technologies into current Portuguese companies’ processes and by this way increase the competitiveness of the Portuguese companies. An analysis of the subject and understanding the relevance of hyper-automation processes is conducted, as well as a collection of information from Portuguese companies of their automated processes, as the basis to identify business needs that may be included in a strategy to apply hyper-automation technologies. It will be gathered relevant literature on the domain being analyzed for building a comprehensive body. The results will be analyzed to understand in what extent Portuguese companies would adjust from hyper-automation technologies, reporting the benefits inherent to technological evolution and measure in which areas/departments the managers believe hyper-automation will have a major influence in the short-term

Impact of HPC and Automated CFD Simulation Processes on Virtual Product Development : A Case Study

High-performance computing (HPC) enables both academia and industry to accelerate simulation-driven product development processes by providing a massively parallel computing infrastructure. In particular, the automation of high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses aided by HPC systems can be beneficial since computing time decreases while the number of significant design iterations increases. However, no studies have quantified these effects from a product development point of view yet. This article evaluates the impact of HPC and automation on product development by studying a formula student racing team as a representative example of a small or medium-sized company. Over several seasons, we accompanied the team, and provided HPC infrastructure and methods to automate their CFD simulation processes. By comparing the team’s key performance indicators (KPIs) before and after the HPC implementation, we were able to quantify a significant increase in development efficiency in both qualitative and quantitative aspects. The major aerodynamic KPI increased up to 115%. Simultaneously, the number of expedient design iterations within one season increased by 600% while utilizing HPC. These results prove the substantial benefits of HPC and automation of numerical-intensive simulation processes for product development

A Building Information Modeling (BIM)-centric Digital Ecosystem for Smart Airport Life Cycle Management

An increasing number of new airport infrastructure construction and improvement projects are being delivered in today\u27s modern world. However, value creation is a recurring issue due to inefficiencies in managing capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx), while trying to optimize project constraints of scope, time, cost, quality, and resources. In this new era of smart infrastructure, digitalization transforms the way projects are planned and delivered. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a key digital process technique that has become an imperative for today\u27s Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations (AECO) sector. This research suggests a BIM-centric digital ecosystem by detailing technical and strategic aspects of Airport BIM implementation and digital technology integration from a life cycle perspective. This research provides a novel approach for consistent and continuous use of digital information between business and functional levels of an airport by developing a digital platform solution that will enable seamless flow of information across functions. Accordingly, this study targets to achieve three objectives: 1- To provide a scalable know-how of BIM-enabled digital transformation; 2- To guide airport owners and major stakeholders towards converging information siloes for airport life cycle data management by an Airport BIM Framework; 3- To develop a BIM-based digital platform architecture towards realization of an airport digital twin for airport infrastructure life cycle management. Airport infrastructures can be considered as a System of Systems (SoS). As such, Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) with Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is selected as the key methodology towards designing a digital ecosystem. Applying MBSE principles leads to forming an integrating framework for managing the digital ecosystem. Furthermore, this research adopts convergent parallel mixed methods to collect and analyze multiple forms of data. Data collection tools include extensive literature and industry review; an online questionnaire; semi-structured interviews with airport owner parties; focus group discussions; first-hand observations; and document reviews. Data analysis stage includes multiple explanatory case study analyses, thematic analysis, project mapping, percent coverage analysis for coded themes to achieve Objective 1; thematic analysis, cluster analysis, framework analysis, and non-parametric statistical analysis for Objective 2; and qualitative content analysis, non-parametric statistical analysis to accomplish Objective 3. This research presents a novel roadmap toward facilitation of smart airports with alignment and integration of disruptive technologies with business and operational aspects of airports. Multiple comprehensive case study analyses on international large-hub airports and triangulation of organization-level and project-level results systematically generate scalable technical and strategic guidelines for BIM implementation. The proposed platform architecture will incentivize major stakeholders for value-creation, data sharing, and control throughout a project life cycle. Introducing scalability and minimizing complexity for end-users through a digital platform approach will lead to a more connected environment. Consequently, a digital ecosystem enables sophisticated interaction between people, places, and assets. Model-driven approach provides an effective strategy for enhanced decision-making that helps optimization of project resources and allows fast adaptation to emerging business and operational demands. Accordingly, airport sustainability measures -economic vitality, operational efficiency, natural resources, and social responsibility- will improve due to higher levels of efficiency in CapEx and OpEx. Changes in business models for large capital investments and introducing sustainability to supply chains are among the anticipated broader impacts of this study

Construction Productivity Graph. A Structured Framework to Enhance Productivity and Safety on Construction Sites

The construction industry is characterised by the constant production of unique products in dynamic contexts where, moreover, the workplace coincides with the product itself. This limits the adoption of standardization and process automation methodologies. Furthermore, the average size of professional firms and companies often does not allow for investments in process innovation or skills development. Then, we need to consider that construction is a highly risky activity, also to the lack of standardization as aforementioned. The paper aims to present the framework of a methodology based on linking the information managed by a BIM model with Agent-based simulation techniques - ABS. The scope is to simulate the duration of the work under efficient conditions, understood as the best occupation of the available areas by a suitable number of workers. The result is the Construction Productivity Graph - CPG, a graph that indicates the optimization level of the construction process

BIM-Based Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment for Buildings

In recent years, the progress of digitization in the architecture and construction sectors has produced enormous advances in the automation of analysis and evaluation processes. This is the case with environmental analysis systems, such as the life cycle analysis. Methodology practitioners have found a fundamental ally in the building information modeling platforms, which allow tasks that conventionally consume large amounts of energy and time to be carried out more automatically and efficiently. In this publication, the reader will find some of the latest advances in this area