Peter Weiß

Towards adaptive ontology-based virtual business networks

In the future scenarios of evolving business networks, enterprises will transform themselves into better forms by becoming “more intelligent”. “Intelligent” means ability of a network or company to react and adapt to changing market opportunities and conditions. Consequently, a fast and easy docking and quick formation of network entities or new business partners providing needed competencies is vital. In this paper we propose an ontology-based methodology (ODAMY) allowing flexible ontology-based partner integration into existing or evolving business networks. On the basis of an empirical model describing key criteria for successful partner integration, we show how ontologies can be applied to support a fast, on demand integration of required resources. ODAMY will be outlined facilitating partner fit and matching seen as crucial functionalities in future dynamic business ecosystems. Our approach is presented using examples and ODAMY is introduced applying ontologies. ODAMY allows accessing and providing information in machine understandable form.

A New Approach to Competence-Based Business Partner Profiles for Collaborative Business Process Management

In this paper a novel approach and thinking to foster the derivation of competence and skill requirements by business process models is presented. Management of intra- and inter-organizational business processes is a significant issue that influences a company’s success. A multitude of competence models, standards and frameworks exist. Furthermore, current resource models in business process management solutions are not sophisticated and adequately reflecting the needs of collaborative resource planning and competence management. Our research activities yielded a meta model which tends to overcome existing shortfalls. In this article we present an extensible resource meta-model that allows the modeling of resources including their competences, skills and knowledge. Furthermore we demonstrate the aggregation of competence concepts to business partner profiles in collaborative networks.

Conceptual Design of Service Procurement for Collaborative Service Networks

In this paper we propose a conceptual model for e-procurement solutions for industrial services. Product-related services are of particular interest of companies and should be supported through an appropriate network strategy. However, in the service field, e-business solutions and current standards are still not or only partially considering specifications and related variables of services. We make an approach to develop a conceptual model which allows analyzing existing systems and to specify requirements by distinguishing four system levels. Services can be classified using criteria such as degree of tradeability, intangibility, degree of labor intensity or interaction, etc. In the context of collaborative networks and professional services another common variable is the level of customer contacts or interactions. Services looked at in this paper require close buyer-supplier relationships in nature, and motivate to apply collaborative networks as a strategy, as trust between buyer and seller can be seen as a central focus.

Towards Ontology-Based Smart Organizations

Smart organisations are one example for business networking which ranks amongst the most important capabilities businesses will need in the information age. However, there is a serious lack of knowledge on how to set up smart organisations. This situation was the starting point for the Infranet1 project. This best-practice pilot shows us typical problems for SMEs to build up smart organisations. Thus, it intends to disseminate the lessons learned and to set up new research questions concerning virtual organizations. Based on the experiences within our best-practice pilot we propose a new framework of ontology-based smart organizations in this paper. Specific focus Is set on the application of Semantic Web technologies to enable or improve the partner fitting and matching process.

Smart Organization Metrics — Partner Fit

Infranet is a Best-Practice-Pilot performed by a group of SMEs from five European countries, the Infranet-Partners, which are combining their individual marketing, technical and support resources under a single brand, to grow the market for their products and services in Europe by exploiting new project opportunities, especially in market sectors where their technologies are not widely used today. This paper presents the results of an analysis regarding the co-operation habits and business rules between the partners (all of them are SMEs). Points of interest are information exchange, confidence, time bonding, technology experiences and requirements. In this way success factors as well as barriers for smart organizations have been determined and described.

Flexible Integration of Service Suppliers in Collaborative Service Procurement Networks

A new conceptual design for service procurement networks may surpass existing limitations and bottlenecks. Thereby efficiency can be improved and transaction costs be reduced. To overcome existing limitations a design approach is presented that supports enterprise application integration based on master data and company-wide business process integration. Master data is harmonized with standardized data types and service-oriented architectures (SOA). eBuS-XML is introduced, in the proposed solution it serves as service-specific XML-based library for transaction data types, storage and integration of service e-procurement order processing.

Methoden und Instrumente zur Messung und Verbesserung der Produktivität industrieller Dienstleistungen in KMU

In diesem Kapitel werden die Erkenntnisse des ersten Projektjahres des BMBF-Verbundvorhabens PROMIDIS dargestellt. Der Fokus der Arbeiten liegt auf der Messung und Verbesserung der Produktivitat von industriellen oder produktbegleitenden Dienstleistungen von kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen (KMU). Dazu wird zunachst der Losungsraum fur potenzielle Losungen erschlossen und ein ganzheitliches Produktivitatsmodell erarbeitet. Dies bildet den Ausgangspunkt und Rahmen zur Gestaltung von praxistauglichen Methoden und Instrumenten. Neben dieser theoretischen Perspektive werden auch erste Ergebnisse aus einer empirischen Untersuchung prasentiert, die Barrieren und Einflussfaktoren eines Produktivitatsmanagements industrieller Dienstleistungen untersucht. Dabei stellt sich heraus, dass sich insbesondere sechs Faktoren identifizieren lassen, die die Produktivitat von Dienstleistungen beeinflussen konnen. Abgerundet wird das Projekt durch ausgewahlte Fallstudien, die die Evaluierung und Erprobung der entwickelten Gestaltungs- und Steuerungsinstrumente zur Messung von Produktivitat von Dienstleistung realisieren. Auf Grundlage einer detaillierten Prozessaufnahme werden Dienstleistungsprozesse eines KMUs exemplarisch untersucht. Dazu wird die sogenannte Turtle-Methode angewendet, die eine praxisnahe Modellierung und Analyse von Geschaftsprozessen von Unternehmen ermoglicht. Das Kapitel endet mit einer Zusammenfassung und einem Ausblick auf die nachsten Schritte und Aktivitaten.

Meta-model for Data Harmonization and Business Process Compliance in Service Procurement

Diminished transaction costs, increased transparency and shortened procurement times entail increased importance of service e-procurement compared to traditional service procurement. Due to proprietary data exchange formats and individual business processes, data harmonization and business process compliance are shortcoming. In this paper a meta-model to formulate requirements of service procurement collaborations with a combined view on information and control flow is presented. Our focus is on two constituent elements of the model: collaborative business processes and service objects. Both elements define features which are characteristic for investigated value constellations. Challenge at hand is to implement standardized interfaces easing seamless exchange of information between business partners. Existing procurement systems need enhanced process-awareness and compliance with service-dominant-logic. The meta-model also serves as reference framework which identifies and correlates typical entities of service procurement collaborations. Furthermore a domain specific meta-model extension for industrial service procurement is derived. This extension serves as basis for data harmonization of service procurement data and enacts compliance of business processes in industrial service procurement collaborations.

Business Process Driven Matching of Partner Profiles to Resource Requirements

Based on recent research in business process modeling and management enhanced integration of resource management can be beneficial. In this context appropriate resources can be identified by matching their profiles with business process requirements. Requirements may be generated from business process models as competence profiles, if advanced modeling techniques that enable detailed modeling are being used. Matching generated profiles to profiles of internal resources (typically maintained by human resource departments) or external business partners (organizations as well as individuals) requires profile descriptions at a similar level of detail. In order to enable sound matching of resource profiles between supplicants and suppliers in collaborative networks, we suggest modeling and system architecture that can handle these challenges. As one main pillar we will present a framework that allows formal description of competence profiles as well as their aggregation to common job profiles; we will outline this approach for the sector of information and communication technology (ICT). Formal description is accomplished by building profiles with the Resource Modeling Language (RML). Regarding architecture we focus on exchange and processing of profile description models. The practical application of our approach is demonstrated by formalization of competence descriptions given by the European e-Competence Framework (eCF).

Prozess- und Data Governance als strategischer Ansatz zur Verbesserung der Prozess- und Datenqualität in Unternehmen

ZusammenfassungDas Stammdatenmanagement steht unter Druck, den geleisteten Beitrag zum Unternehmenserfolg aufzuzeigen. Der Wertbeitrag von Stammdatenmanagement (MDM — Master Data Management) ist meist nicht oder nur indirekt erkennbzw. bestimmbar. Dieser Herausforderung hat sich das »Product and Master Data Management Centre« (PMDMC) angenommen. Mit einem Prozess- und Data-Governance-Ansatz soll der Wertbeitrag von Stammdaten in direktem Zusammenhang mit den Geschäftsprozessen ermittelt werden. Ziele sind die Schaffung von mehr Transparenz, die Analyse der Wirkungszusammenhänge zwischen Stammdaten und Geschäftsprozessen sowie die Nutzung von Standards am Beispiel des Klassifikationsstandards eCl@ss.