Guy Jonathan James Rackham

Impact of service orientation at the business level

In the current business environment in which companies are under increasing pressure not only to increase revenue but also to respond quickly to changing market conditions, companies will be successful only if they transform themselves and become on demand businesses. In this paper we describe the changes needed to effect this transformation, and in particular, we describe the important role played by componentization and by service orientation. We discuss the way componentization enables a business to operate in a value net, a network of partnerships with customers and suppliers supported by real-time information flows and information technology systems. We also describe the need for service orientation to achieve seamless integration of business components. We illustrate these ideas with a case study from the rental car business. Finally, we describe IBM activities in this area and the resulting methods and tools that help businesses deal with these challenges.

A Top-Down Approach from Service Centers to Business Processes

Business service centers (BSC) design a framework for defining non-overlapping, independent, reusable, cost-effective business centers that provide business services. Business services define the way service centers interact and exchange information and assets to achieve business goals. BSC modeling offers many advantages over traditional techniques, such as reuse, simplicity, implementation autonomy, and responsiveness. On the other hand, defining and modeling business processes (BP) is a critical factor in improving business performance. We propose a top-down approach from the business level to the operational level, taking advantages of both BSC and BP approaches. Using the guidelines described in this framework, business designers can use both BSC and BP techniques to provide an end-to-end view of business operations. In a climate of constant and unpredictable change, synergy between process thinking and service center thinking becomes essential to the success of enterprises.

A Method for Service Center Architecture Based on Industry Standards

Component Business Modeling (CBM) designs a framework for defining non-overlapping, independent, reusable, cost-effective business components or service centers that provide business services. CBM is gaining broad acceptance in todays marketplace. On the other hand, compliance with industry standards is becoming an imperative in todays enterprises. We propose a bottom-up method for deriving business components from industry standards, based on the artifact-centric approach. In a climate of constant and unpredictable change, alignment between service centers and industry standards becomes essential to the success of enterprises.

Calculating the Business Importance of Entities in a Service-Oriented Enterprise

Component business modeling (CBM) serves as a powerful analytical framework for reasoning about the business as a set of business components that collaborate through the provision and consumption of business services. This paper proposes and illustrates a method to calculate the relative importance of the entities that make up a componentized enterprise architecture. The proposed method includes a formal definition of the importance of each entity in the business architecture calculated from the high level business values.

A top-down approach to aligning business service centres with business processes

Business Service Centres (BSCs) design a framework for defining non-overlapping, independent, reusable, cost-effective business centres that provide business services. Business services define the way service centres interact and exchange information and assets to achieve business goals. BSC modelling offers many advantages over traditional techniques such as reuse, simplicity, implementation autonomy and responsiveness. On the other hand, defining and modelling Business Processes (BPs) is a critical factor in improving business performance. We propose a top-down approach from the business level to the operational level, taking advantages of both BSC and BP approaches. Using the guidelines described in this framework, business designers can use both BSC and BP techniques to provide an end-to-end view of business operations. In a climate of constant and unpredictable change, synergy between process thinking and service centre thinking becomes essential to the success of enterprises.