Enterprise Interoperability Research Articles

Implementing data exchange and interoperability on LADM country profiles using the ISO framework for enterprise interoperability standard

For a complete, harmonized and modernized land administration processes, seamless data exchange among departments within an organization, and among organizations is a fundamental requirement. Interoperability is therefore crucial and should be based on a well-developed Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) country profile for the implementation of a Land Administration System (LAS). This paper, through a research synthesis type of literature review methodology, looks into the existing documentation on interoperability in Land Administration (LA). Employing research synthesis method, analysis of the identified and existing resources is done. Since interoperability plays a role at multiple levels, it is paramount to apply a solid framework such as the Framework for Enterprise Interoperability (FEI) developed by International Standards Organization (ISO). This allows for the investigation of the critical aspects of data exchange: (i) business, processes, services and data, (ii) interoperability barriers: conceptual, technological and organizational, and (iii) interoperability approaches: federated, unified and integrated. The paper looks into the interoperability concerns and barriers and the approaches to addressing them for Land Administration against the elements of FEI. This provides an effective guideline for implementation of a LADM-based land administration system for any country.

A Land Administration Data Exchange and Interoperability Framework for Kenya and Its Significance to the Sustainable Development Goals

Sharing land data from one department to the other is a continuous process. A solid structure and a set of guidelines on how to share them is to be put in place as a foundation for the development of a land administration data exchange and interoperability framework in support of data acquisition, land transactions and distribution of land data. In this research, the application of the ISO Framework for Enterprise Interoperability (FEI) as a standard is the starting point. Utilising the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) profile for Kenya as a base, an interoperability framework in support of land administration in Kenya is developed that addresses concerns, removes barriers and selects the approach for implementation. Due to the critical nature of land, it fits into the United Nations 2030 sustainability agenda. During the development of the Kenyan profile, four country-specific issues in the context of people-to-land relationships have been identified and modeled. The mapping of those issues relevant to the sustainable development goals supports the achievement of those goals so that all related targets and indicators can be attained. Using GIS tools, the implementing and testing of the new LADM profile for Kenya is not a difficult task. By using existing land data combined with newly collected data in the LADM-compliant database, a complete and accurate workflow is assured. Integration with external databases is useful for improving efficiency and eliminating duplication. Data collection with all stakeholders and validation through public inspection are recommended.

Digital Transformation from Planning to Execution — A Strategic Framework based on Ambidexterity and Enterprise Architecture and Interoperability

The demand for business structures that respond more quickly to changes imposed by a competitive market makes digital transformation (DT) the driver of more agile and cost-effective production systems. From such perspective derives the following question: How does literature organize the main strategies demanded by the DT challenge in an organization? Based on a systematic literature review, this study aims to identify and analyze DT’s main characteristics, leading to the development of a framework to support its understanding from planning to execution. The Digital Transformation – Planning to Execution Framework (DT-P2EF) is divided into two conceptual blocks. The first block focuses on the DT planning, including the organizational requirements of an enterprise architecture (EA), the organizational characteristics based on the organizational ambidexterity (OA) introduction, and the barriers that may impact the DT, according to Enterprise Interoperability (EI). The second block of the framework regards the DT execution, the translation of the strategy defined and the performance monitoring of the DT in the organization. The DT-P2EF consists in identifying business influence factors and dimensions for a better understanding and development of the DT journey in enterprises.

Data interoperability assessment, case of messaging‐based data exchanges

AbstractData interoperability implies data exchanges among intra and inter enterprises collaborating with information systems (IS). The multiplicity of these exchanges and the increasing number of data exchanged generates complexity and brings out the needs for control to avoid dysfunctions with a negative impact on the overall performance of the systems. Indeed, actually, interoperability has become a necessary performance lever that thus requires particular attention. Being at a low level in the enterprise interoperability concerns, data interoperability is mainly automated, which leads us to question: Is it possible to evaluate data interoperability performance and security based on inspection and analysis of ongoing data exchanges? We therefore endeavored to answer this question by establishing monitoring and analysis systems. In this paper, we present a research work which addresses services provided by a messaging‐based communication system. In order to collect information on Information System interactions allowing one to assess their level of data interoperability, we propose a messaging metamodel that aggregates the collected information. It provides a single point of control and enables one to determine indicators of potential interoperability problems. The approach is validated on two case studies. An industrial case study of interactions among existing systems is presented to showcase the feasibility and interest of the approach. It is proposed on top of RabbitMQ and allows our partner to identify some issues in the studied information system. The second case study shows that the approach can integrate other protocols, by reading MQTT messages. The approach is implemented using Moose, a software analysis platform.

Towards Cognitive Interoperability in Cyber-Physical Enterprises

This paper is about Cognitive Interoperability of Cyber-Physical Systems and Humans in an enterprise context where both are expected to have the capabilities to work collaboratively. We review the relevant state of the art, highlighting related concepts, propose a definition for Cognitive Interoperability in Cyber-Physical Enterprise context and list characteristics of Cognitive Systems, towards a Cognitive System-of-Systems.

Digitalization Workflow for Automated Structuring and Standardization of Maintenance Information of Wind Turbines into Domain Standard as a Basis for Reliability KPI Calculation

Abstract Maintenance data of wind turbines is an important information source for calculating key performance indicators. Also, it can be used for developing models for early fault detection. Both activities aim for supporting informed decisions in operation and maintenance. However, such data is rarely available in a structured and standardized format which hinders the interoperability of different enterprises. Consequently, maintenance information is often unused or only usable with considerable personnel effort. To digitalize wind farm maintenance, a digitalization workflow is developed and presented in this paper. The workflow consists of the steps optical character recognition, information extraction and text classification. The workflow is applied on real-world wind turbine service reports and invoices. First results for each step show good performance metrics and potential for further real-world application of the proposed method.

Assessement of Enterprise Interoperability Maturity Level through Generative and Recognition Mo

In a globalized and networked society, enterprise interoperability is a key factor of success for enterprises in their effort to maximize their own added values and to exploit the market opportunities. The sustainable enterprise interoperability is a continuous challenge of the networked collaborative environment. By making business decisions, managers have to take into account the maturity level of their own enterprise and of others’ with whom they get involved into businesses. Maturity level of enterprise interoperability has been defined by the Framework for Enterprise Interoperability (FEI), standardized by CEN EN ISO 11354. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to assess maturity levels of enterprise interoperability (MLEI) through latent factor analysis (LFA) and generative and recognition models applied to the categories and features defined by FEI. Given an enterprise interoperability maturity matrix we have trained a stochastic neural network, namely Restricted Bolzmann Machine (RBM) to learn the MLEI. Our research seeks to answer the following questions: whether the maturity level assessed by evaluators correlate with the maturity levels recognized by RBM trained in a supervised learning representation, and how to model recognition matrix of MLEI by using maturity level correlations between observed performances (inputs) and latent or hidden factors that influence the correct assessment. We considered a maturity level correlation matrix representing the enterprise features as defined in FEI in addition to a set of latent factors, representing the type of maturity level of each individual enterprise. Our proposal is based on a generative and a recognition model using deterministic non-linear functions in a Bayesian setting. The model has been tested on artificial data by training a RBM. Experiments on artificial data sets of enterprises proved that our proposal is a reliable approach that can be further developed into a methodology and extended for the design of adaptive learning agents. In the perspective of the Future Internet, such agents may successfully assist human evaluators in the tedious and time consuming process of the assessment of MLEI in real settings.

Towards a smart connector for dynamic interoperability in agile enterprises

The “industry 4.0” transition requires a digital chain capable of self-adapting face to evolving and increasingly complex organizational, informational and technological contexts. For this need, this paper discusses the incentive to develop new kind of connectors, intelligent and pragmatic, as a unique and universal interface to support interoperability between different types of technological and software systems in various collaborative processes in the enterprise of the future.

Heterogeneity and Interoperability in Local Public Health Information Systems.

Heterogeneity and Interoperability in Local Public Health Information Systems.

Dicom_wsi: A Python Implementation for Converting Whole-Slide Images to Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine Compliant Files

Background: Adoption of the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard for whole slide images (WSIs) has been slow, despite significant time and effort by standards curators. One reason for the lack of adoption is that there are few tools which exist that can meet the requirements of WSIs, given an evolving ecosystem of best practices for implementation. Eventually, vendors will conform to the specification to ensure enterprise interoperability, but what about archived slides? Millions of slides have been scanned in various proprietary formats, many with examples of rare histologies. Our hypothesis is that if users and developers had access to easy to use tools for migrating proprietary formats to the open DICOM standard, then more tools would be developed as DICOM first implementations. Methods: The technology we present here is dicom_wsi, a Python based toolkit for converting any slide capable of being read by the OpenSlide library into DICOM conformant and validated implementations. Moreover, additional postprocessing such as background removal, digital transformations (e.g., ink removal), and annotation storage are also described. dicom_wsi is a free and open source implementation that anyone can use or modify to meet their specific purposes. Results: We compare the output of dicom_wsi to two other existing implementations of WSI to DICOM converters and also validate the images using DICOM capable image viewers. Conclusion: dicom_wsi represents the first step in a long process of DICOM adoption for WSI. It is the first open source implementation released in the developer friendly Python programming language and can be freely downloaded at https://github.com/Steven N Hart/dicom_wsi.

RANKING OF SUSTAINABILITY CRITERIA FOR INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS APPLICATIONS BASED ON ANP

Enterprises have started to establish partnerships both to use their internal resources efficiently and to increase their environmental performance. Partnerships and interoperability of enterprises with different processes enable them to benefit more from their benefits. Moving towards the local and regional economy, these partnerships that increase environmental and own resources have created industrial symbiosis practices. Industrial ecology fields are established in these applications. Both environmental and economic gains can be achieved through the efficient use of resources by enterprises and the minimization of wastes. For the sustainability of these partnerships to be established by enterprises, they need to analyze the measures they take internally. In this study, the concept of industrial symbiosis and the criteria that are effective for the sustainability of these industrial symbiosis are evaluated. Analytical network process method is used. Thus, the industrial symbiosis infrastructures to be established by enterprises have been enabled to move strategically.

Model Driven Interoperability for System Engineering

To keep up to date, manufacturing enterprises need to use the latest results from the ICT sector, especially when collaborating with external partners in a supply chain and exchanging products and data. This has led to dealing with an increasing amount of heterogeneous information exchanged between partners including machines (physical means), humans and IT in the Supply Chain of ICT Systems (SC-ICTS). In this context, interoperability management is becoming more and more critical, but paradoxically, it is not yet fully efficiently anticipated, controlled and accompanied to recover from incompatibilities issues or failures. This paper intends to present how enterprise modeling, enterprise interoperability and model driven approaches can lead, together with system engineering architecture, to contribute to developing and improving the interoperability in the SC-ICTs. Model Driven System Engineering Architecture (MDSEA) is based on Enterprise Modeling using GRAI Model and its extensions. It gives enterprise internal developments guidelines, but originally, MDSEA is not the considering interoperability that is required between partners when setting a collaboration in the frame of SC-ICTS. As a result, the MDSEA, extended with interoperability concerns, led to the design of the MDISE (Model Driven Interoperability System Engineering) framework, which capitalizes on the research on enterprise interoperability. To finish, some proposals are made to extend the Model System Tool Box (MSTB) and the use of MDISE for Cyber Physical System (CPS) that are relevant components of SC-ICTS.

Assessment of supply chain segmentation from an interoperability perspective

ABSTRACT Based on an integrative literature review, this study aims to verify the qualifying attributes of supply chain segmentation, that is, the requirements or competencies crucial for companies to maximise effectiveness of supply chain segmentation, and evaluate them from the perspective of interoperability (business, process, service, and data). Based on the definition of segmentation attributes and the perspective of interoperability, the attributes were evaluated by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to set priorities among the target attributes. The applicability of the proposed model is demonstrated through a case study of a company in the consumer goods industry. Generally, this study aims to assist managers and professionals to identify elements of relevance, as well as to support decision-making in terms of managing problems involving segmentation and enterprise interoperability in the supply chain.

Enterprise interoperability assessment: a requirements engineering approach

ABSTRACTOne of the main challenges within collaborative business ecosystems are the management of Interoperability. Indeed, Interoperability is a crucial prerequisite that must be satisfied when enterprises need to work together for seizing new business opportunities and improving competitiveness. To develop and improve enterprise systems interoperability, a set of interoperability requirements needs to be verified. Indeed, knowing the different requirements and their relationships are paramount for identifying potential impacts on the overall system. Many research works have been proposed in the literature for defining and analysing such requirements. However, existing work do not explicitly specify the interdependencies between interoperability requirements. The objective of this article is, therefore, to investigate and define the interoperability requirements and their interdependencies. This will provide a holistic and clear view of the relations between the system components and their associated requirements. Therefore, one will be able to identify potential causes of the non-fulfilment of requirements, and their impacts on the concerned system. To do so, a Requirements Engineering approach is used to identify and formalise interoperability requirements and their relationships.

An ontology for interoperability assessment: A systemic approach

Abstract Enterprise Interoperability is a requirement for ensuring an effective collaboration within a network of enterprises. Therefore, interoperability should be continuously assessed and improved for avoiding collaboration issues. To do so, an interoperability assessment can be performed by the concerned enterprises. Such an assessment provides an overview of the enterprise systems’ strengths and weaknesses regarding interoperability. A plethora of assessment approaches are proposed in the literature. The majority of them focus on one single aspect of interoperability. In general, to have a holistic view of the assessed systems, i.e. consider different aspects, enterprises have to apply different approaches. However, the application of multiple approaches may cause redundancy and confusion when assessing the same system using different metrics and viewpoints. Therefore, this article is to propose an ontology for interoperability assessment. The main objective of such an ontology is to provide a sound description of all relevant concepts and relationships regarding an interoperability assessment. Inference rules are also provided for reasoning on interoperability problems. A case study based on a real enterprise in presented to evaluate the proposed ontology.

Enterprise interoperability development in multi relation collaborations: Success factors from the Danish electricity market

ABSTRACT Increased complexity and the risk of fragmentized business processes and data in many-to-many relationships is hindering development of interoperability. This study aims at clarify what are the success factors for overcoming issues of business process and data fragmentation in the development of enterprise interoperability in multi relation collaborations. A case study allowed for in-depth understanding of experiences and conditions. Seven deep interviews with actors in the Danish electricity market provided empirical data. A literature study formed the base for the analytical framework. Success factors fell into the categories of general project and change management, business process and information and data.

Towards the deep, knowledge-based interoperability of applications

The interoperability of enterprise applications in a dynamic environment is a complex issue. New methodological approaches and solutions are required. The methodological background of our approach is the internal modeling paradigm integrated with MDA approach. The modified MDA schema includes the new layer of the domain knowledge discovery, frameworks for internal modeling of enterprises. The peculiarity of the modified MDA is a focus on the cross-layer transferring of domain causality. The presented frameworks will help to trace the domain causal dependencies across the layers of the software system development, and they will aid in determining the influence of domain causality to the integrity and interoperability of the application. Researchers consider that the dynamic enterprise domain must be a goal-driven and self-managed system. The management transaction concept uses the internal modeling of the enterprise, which reveals the goal-driven information transformations inside the enterprise management activity (deep knowledge). This approach is combining the business process modeling and control theory principles, enterprise architecture modeling and autonomic computing concepts. The ArchiMate enterprise architecture modeling language is used for illustrating the cross-layer transferring of domain causality. Finally, we developed the architecture of the interoperable enterprise applications with the autonomic integration component.

Enterprise operating system framework: federated interoperability based on HLA

Operating system (OS) is a well-known concept in computer science as an interface between human and computer hardware (MacOS, Windows, IOS, Android). In the perspective of developing future generation of enterprise systems based on IoT and cyber-physical system principles, this paper proposes to develop an enterprise operating system (EOS) that will act as an interface between enterprise business managers and enterprise resources performing enterprise operations. The paper presents at first a set of requirements and functionalities of EOS. Then a survey on existing relevant works is given and mapped to the requirements. After that the existing models related to the federated enterprise interoperability are presented. The architectures of envisioned EOS and the federated interoperability are outlined. The last part draws some conclusions and gives future perspectives.

Enterprise operating system framework: federated interoperability based on HLA

Operating system (OS) is a well-known concept in computer science as an interface between human and computer hardware (MacOS, Windows, IOS, Android). In the perspective of developing future generation of enterprise systems based on IoT and cyber-physical system principles, this paper proposes to develop an enterprise operating system (EOS) that will act as an interface between enterprise business managers and enterprise resources performing enterprise operations. The paper presents at first a set of requirements and functionalities of EOS. Then a survey on existing relevant works is given and mapped to the requirements. After that the existing models related to the federated enterprise interoperability are presented. The architectures of envisioned EOS and the federated interoperability are outlined. The last part draws some conclusions and gives future perspectives.

Enterprise modelling for interoperable and knowledge-based enterprises

The paper first takes a look at the state of the art on the overlapping areas of: Enterprise Modelling, Enterprise Integration/Interoperability, Organisational Learning and Knowledge Management. We identify requirements, characterisation and recent contributions for the interoperable and knowledge-based enterprises in the area of production of goods or services. It is then advocated that Enterprise Modelling and Knowledge Representation should combine their efforts to develop reference and reusable core manufacturing enterprise ontologies to support Enterprise Integration and Interoperability on one hand and open the door to Organisational Learning and management of active knowledge for the ‘smart’ enterprises of tomorrow on the other hand. This is illustrated by case studies from projects carried out in industry.