Daniel V. Oppenheim

Direct combination

This paper reports on Direct Combination, a new user interactiontechnique. Direct Combination may be viewed variously as: asystematic extension to Direct Manipulation; a concise navigationalframework to help users find the operations they need; and as aframework to make a greater range and variety of operationsavailable to the user, without overburdening user or interfacedesigner. While Direct Combination may be seen as an extension ofDirect Manipulation, it may also be applied to a wide range of userinteraction styles, including even command line interfaces.Examples from various hypothetical systems and from an implementedsystem are presented. This paper argues that Direct Combination isapplicable not just to problem seeking or design oriented domains(where the technique originated) but is generally applicable. Avariety of new interaction styles for Direct Combination arepresented. The generalisation of Direct Combination to then-dimensional case is presented.

Agility of Enterprise Operations across Distributed Organizations: A Model of Cross Enterprise Collaboration

We discuss the need for agility of business operations in a collaborative services ecosystem of partners and providers, and present a new system architecture for cross collaboration among multiple service enterprises. We demonstrate the importance and inevitability of such collaboration along with challenges in its proper realization through several real-life examples taken from different business domains. We then show that these challenges are rooted in two key factors: unpredictability and responsiveness; agility enables optimal response to unpredictable events. The key contribution of this manuscript is the presentation of a new model, centered on the modeling of work-asa-service (WaaS) and an intelligent hub for coordinating cross enterprise collaboration. This hub is constructed in a manner intended to directly identify and solve the two key fundamental challenges of cross enterprise collaboration. As such, we expect it to outperform other means of collaboration across service providers. We demonstrate the potential for such performance using field examples.

On cross-enterprise collaboration

Globalization, specialization, and rapid innovation are changing several aspects of business operations. Many large organizations that were once self-sufficient and that could dictate processes to partners and suppliers are now finding this model difficult to sustain. In the emerging model of global service delivery several competing service providers must work collaboratively to develop business solutions, either hierarchically or as peers. Overall project failures, uncontrollable delays, and significant financial losses have been observed in many global service delivery projects, indicating the importance of finding new ways to better support cross-enterprise work. This paper puts forth directions to explore the management and coordination of complex end-to-end processes carried out collaboratively by several organizations.

Optimizing Cross Enterprise Collaboration Using a Coordination Hub

In this manuscript, we present a new system architecture for cross collaboration among multiple service enterprises. This collaboration is through relaxing the ideal skill set requirements and distributing service requests among the enterprises using an intelligent hub. The hub operates under knowledge of current and expected future service request arrival for all enterprises. We also present an optimal operation logistic for the hub under which objectives such as cost can be optimized. We illustrate the overall system operation as well as details of the coordination hub service request assignment strategy.

Coordinating distributed operations

In this manuscript, we discuss the need for, and present a new system architecture for cross collaboration among multiple service enterprises. We demonstrate the importance and inevitability of such collaboration along with challenges in its proper realization through several real-life examples taken from different business domains. We then show that these challenge are rooted in two key factors: unpredictability and responsiveness. The key contribution of this manuscript is the presentation of a new model, centered on an intelligent hub, for coordinating the logistics of cross enterprise collaboration. This hub is constructed in a manner intended to directly identify and solve the two key fundamental challenges of cross enterprise collaboration. As such, we expect it to outperform other means of collaboration across service providers. We demonstrate the potential for such performance using field examples.

Work as a Service Meta-model and Protocol for Adjustable Visibility, Coordination, and Control

The Work-as-a-Service (WaaS) paradigm models work engagements as compositions of interconnected service requests, where there is a separation between the coordination of work and the actual work enactment. Here we revisit the WaaS conceptual meta-model and extend it to enable work decomposition and adjustable management/control of how work is coordinated and how it is done. In particular, we propose a specific WaaS protocol for decomposition, delegation, and control of work engagements, using ideas from the area of Business Artifacts. The goal is to enable simple communication and coordination between requestors and providers of work; and to support clear management and coordination during both planning and enactment of work. Importantly we introduce a new notion of a coordination lifecycle, consisting of loosely coupled milestones, domain-specific information attributes, and sets of abstract observable activities to be performed. Algebraic operations on coordination lifecycles when encapsulated service requests are torn, merged, paused, and resumed are defined and valid operations are specified. The meta-model and protocol are independent from the specific coordination enactment model which may employ centralized coordination, fully distributed coordination, or other models under various optimization objectives.

Enterprise oriented services

We describe a service-oriented framework that supports how distributed enterprises can collaborate on doing work. Our model separates the concerns of doing from managing work. Work is modeled as a capability and can be provided as a service by some organization. A desired business outcome can then be described by its required capabilities. The framework enables dynamic composition of capabilities into just-in-time service plans that can be executed collaboratively by distributed organizations. A Hub is used to manage and coordinate the overall work. It comprises stakeholders from the collaborating organizations. The Hubs infrastructure enables them to see the big picture, detect issues early, decide on the best response, and quickly enact their decision. Executing service plans can then be modified in real-time, providing the enterprise with agility and flexibility.

The WaaSaBE Model: Marrying WaaS and Business-Entities to Support Cross-Organization Collaboration

With a growing services-based focus in enterprises, functionally-tiered organizational structures have emerged. Synchronizing among the tiers is difficult due to differing concerns and vocabularies, especially when cross-enterprise collaboration is involved. Furthermore, deficiencies in work handoff among different roles and parties also occur within tiers. Building on the notions of work-as-a-service for work execution and business entities in operations, this paper proposes the WaaSaBE model as a boundary object for integrated management across and within tiers and across enterprises. We describe the framework, a formal model arising from the framework, and its basic instantiation for a given problem domain.

Towards a Plug-and-Play B2B Marketing Tool Based on Time-Sensitive Information Extraction

The LARIAT system developed at IBM Research uses information extraction applied to news feeds and other time-sensitive documents, along with historical and enterprise data, to provide a stream for B2B sales leads to different sales teams. This paper overviews the system and discusses lessons learned. LARIAT is contrasted with the IBM infoSage system from almost two decades ago. The experience with LARIAT is used as the basis for the design of a Solution-as-a-Service framework that will enable a richly extensible version of the capability, which could serve multiple B2B companies while affording economies of scale.

Allegro: A Metrics Framework for Globally Distributed Service Delivery

Globalization and specialization are growing trends in service organizations. Engineering and operating optimal structures within these service organizations requires coordinating the doing of service work, which in turn requires capturing and sharing information across localized teams. There is a need for a metrics framework, implemented in information technology, to make this possible. This paper describes the need for a metrics framework in global service delivery, properties of effective metrics frameworks, and Allegro, a metrics framework that is designed specifically to support globally distributed human intensive work, such as complex software development. Allegro is based on an abstract model of service delivery as a decomposition into a network of atomic service requests, each formalized according to a protocol we call Work-as-a-Service (WaaS). In this approach, Metrics do not only fulfill their traditional roles in driving quality and improvement. They also serve as configurable sensors essential to the effective coordination of a distributed service network.