André Ludwig

Privacy preserving BPMS for collaborative BPaaS

Collaboration in business environments is an ongoing trend that is enabled by and based on cloud computing. It supports flexible and ad-hoc reconfiguration and integration of different services, which are provided and used via the internet, and implemented within business processes. This is an important competitive advantage for the participating stakeholders. However, trust, policy compliance, and data privacy are emerging issues that result from the distributed data handling in cloud-based business processes. Up to now, several architectures and technical systems that enable the cloud-based collaboration within business processes have been developed, but the selection of an appropriate business process management system (BPMS) is missing. An implemented BPMS has to meet certain requirements that result from the cloud-based characteristics and from the other implemented systems. This paper derives requirements for BPMSs in cloud-based environments, currently available BPMSs are evaluated against the derived requirements and the selected one is implemented subsequently.

Data security in decentralized cloud systems --- system comparison, requirements analysis and organizational levels

Cloud computing has been established as a technology for providing needs-orientated and use-dependent IT resources, which now are being used more frequently for business information systems. Particularly in terms of integration of decentralized information systems, cloud systems are providing a stable solution approach. Still, data security is one of the biggest challenges when using cloud systems and a main reason why many companies avoid using cloud services. The question we are facing is how cloud systems for integration of decentralized information systems have to be designed, in terms of technology and organization, so that privacy laws of the cloud user can be guaranteed. This contribution summarizes the results of a system comparison of decentralized cloud systems in social networks, a requirements analysis based on a literature analysis, and a model for organizational levels of cloud systems, derived from the requirements analysis.

Perspektiven zu aktuellen und künftigen Entwicklungen im Schnittbereich IT und Mobilität

Mobilität ist ohne Informationstechnologie heute kaum noch denkbar. Dennoch führt die immense technologische Entwicklung zu weiteren disruptiven Veränderungsprozessen in allen Bereichen der Mobilität. Gleichzeitig werden aber auch zahlreiche Fragen aufgeworfen. Unterschiedliche Perspektiven zu aktuellen und künftigen Entwicklungen im Schnittbereich IT und Mobilität beschreiben veränderte Kundenbedürfnisse nach Mobilität, neue Geschäftsmodelle für digitale Mobilitätsdienste, Handlungsbedarfe und Lösungsansätze im städtischen Raum aber auch rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen des autonomen Fahrens.

Die Transformation von Automobilherstellern zu hybriden Leistungsanbietern

Digitalisierte Automobile sind eine Manifestation des Internets der Dinge und partizipieren in einem Mobilitätsökosystem mit einer Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Stakeholder. Die Marktteilnehmer befinden sich im Wettbewerb um Kundenwissen und etablierte Unternehmen durchlaufen digitale Transformationsprozesse, um in diesem bestehen zu können. Als Differenzierungsfaktor rücken Services ins Zentrum des Geschehens. Der Service-Ausbau ändert das automobile Leistungsversprechen und die Art und Weise, wie Werte kreiert als auch Kunden in die Wertschöpfungsprozesse integriert werden. Vorliegender Artikel beschreibt diesen Wandel und gibt Ansatzpunkte zur Gestaltung von Mobilitätsdiensten.

Ontological structuring of logistics services

The paradigm of cloud logistics is essentially built upon the virtualization of logistics resources from different logistics service providers. The virtualized resources are pooled and can subsequently be combined and encapsulated within customer-specific modular logistics services. The pooling within bigger logistics networks leads to a high quantity of different available logistics resources and services. Domain-specific structuring with the concept of the logistics service map helps to retrieve specific requested services from that quantity. The structuring of resources and services is a challenging task based on the semantic gap of differing wordings, descriptions used by different providers. The developed ontology design pattern for domain-specific structuring of logistics services can help to close the semantic gap as well as to enable the concept of the logistics service map. Structuring data and information (of services) from different providers can be made available, linked and interchanged easily within the network. Digitalized collaboration is supported and the disruptive paradigm of cloud logistics is enabled.

Logistics Service Map Prototype

Concentration on core competencies in logistics requires collaboration between logistics service providers in order to fulfill complex customer demands. The increasing demand for flexibility in logistics is facing the heterogeneity of the providers. This creates a challenging field for planning complex supply chains. Logistics integrators are meeting this challenge. One main issue is the retrieval of the services available in the logistics network and their combination for planning complex supply chains. The prototype presented in this paper supports the retrieval by providing a customizable domain-specific dimension concept for structuring services. With the help of the dimensions and a customizable domain-specific template scheme, a dynamic matrix is created in order to facilitate the retrieval of services matching the selected dimensions. After retrieval, the services can be combined on a canvas via drag and drop in order to plan complex services and simultaneously create both their BPMN diagram and corresponding XML file.

Automation of Privacy Preserving BPMS in Collaborative Cloud-Based Business Processes

Collaboration in business environments is an ongoing trend that is enabled by and based on cloud computing. It supports flexible and ad-hoc reconfiguration and integration of different services, which are provided and used via the internet, and implemented within business processes. This is an important competitive advantage for the participating stakeholders. However, trust, policy compliance, and data privacy are emerging issues that result from the distributed data handling in cloud-based business processes. In an earlier paper, we have discussed the requirements that a Business Process Management System (BPMS) should meet in order to enable privacy preserving business process as a service. This paper presents the necessary steps for implementing such a BPMS for an architecture to enable management of privacy-preserving collaborative business process.

Evaluation of User Specific Privacy Policy Architecture for Collaborative BPaaS on the Example of Logistics

Nowadays, collaboration between multiple companies along the supply chain is one of the key factors for ensuring sustainable success. Although this fact is known by almost all companies the actual collaboration is quite low because of the fear of losing sensitive and critical data to competitors. To solve this problem an architecture for modeling and execution of privacy preserved business processes and a privacy modeling approach have been developed. This paper evaluates both artifacts. The used method is framework for evaluation in design science (FEDS).

Planning of Composite Logistics Services: Model-Driven Engineering and Evaluation

Tactical planning of composite services in heterogeneous logistics networks is facing two major problems. First, existing planning methods lack in concreteness as they instruct to compare different alternatives of possible composite services in order to find the best solution, but they do not state how to develop and engineer those alternatives. Second, the planning and evaluation of composite services via simulation is difficult, because services are offered and processed by different logistics service providers of the network and thus are based on different information sources and different kind of models. In this paper both issues are addressed with a comprehensive method. Engineering is supported by the service map that is an electronic catalog and construction system for services to create alternatives of process models from composite services automatically. Evaluation is assisted by an automated transformation of process models to simulation models. Information exchange between both concepts is realized with a model-driven integration approach.