“EII Meta-model” on integration framework for viable enterprise systems — City planning metaphor based on structural similarity

Abstract

Enterprise systems must have the structure to adapt the change of business environment. When rebuilding enterprise system to meet the extended operational boundaries, the concept of IT city planning is applicable and effective. The aim of this paper is to describe the architectural approach from the integrated information infrastructure (In3) standpoint and to propose for applying the “City Planning” concept for rebuilding “inter-application spaghetti” enterprise systems. This is mainly because the portion of infrastructure has increased with the change of information systems from centralized systems to distributed and open systems. As enterprise systems have involved heterogeneity or architectural black box in them, it may be required the integration framework (meta-architecture) as a discipline based on heterogeneity that can provide comprehensive view of the enterprise systems. This paper proposes “EII Meta-model” as the integration framework that can optimize the overall enterprise systems from the IT city planning point of view. EII Meta-model consists of “Integrated Information Infrastructure Map (In3-Map)”, “Service Framework” and “IT Scenario”. It would be applicable and effective for the viable enterprise, because it has the mechanism to adapt the change. Finally, we illustrate a case of information system in an online securities company and demonstrate applicability and effectiveness of EII Meta-model to meet their business goals.