Services Business Process Research Articles

Cloudy transaction costs: a dive into cloud computing economics

Looking merely from the neoclassical perspective, cloud computing is price effective. However, according to institutional and transaction cost economics, cloud customers should estimate other costs beyond the price. Such costs may not be known to cloud customers, leading to unmet expectations and implementation challenges. The aim of this paper is to study transaction costs of cloud computing from the customer perspective to make the cloud journey less cloudy, i.e. more informed and well planned. This paper applies transaction cost theory to cloud computing through a 360-degree industry analysis. Expert interviews with vendor, customer and consultancy sides were conducted to understand costs associated with cloud computing. Findings were validated through a case study. Findings of this research indicate that cloud has high ‘asset specificity’ due to change management costs, meta services costs and business process reengineering costs. Cloud also has a considerable level of ‘uncertainty’ asking for managing contracts, investing in cloud-specific monitoring solutions and consciously reviewing of the legal compliance. Finally, cloud has high ‘transaction frequency’, which compensates for the needed investments triggered by ‘uncertainty’ and ‘asset specificity’.

Toward a Formalization of BPEL 2.0 : An Algebra Approach

The WS-BPEL 2.0 (Web Service Business Process Execution Language) has been the dominant standard to describe Web Services (WS) orchestration approach. It is a rich and expressive language that provides interesting features, among them we find four mechanisms to deal with abnormal situations (Event, Fault, Compensation and Termination) handlers, EFCT- handlers. However, WS-BPEL is not rigorously defined as a formal language making EFCT- handlers complicated and ambiguous. This paper aims to remove ambiguities from EFCT-handlers by formalizing their semantics.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and Business Process Management for System Development

This study aims to proposed system development using Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and Business Process Management (BPM). It will construct based on specific EA documents such as business architecture. In this study, we design and build simulation using Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) tools and Business Process Management (BPM) tools also. The research sample is a business architecture document from an organization. The results of the study is mechanism to construct system development using ESB and BPM tools.

A framework to align patient records management practices with healthcare provisions in the public hospitals in Limpopo province

Records management frameworks have always played a central role in ensuring effective records management in organisations, but if not properly aligned with business systems and workflow, patients’ records become difficult to manage effectively. The ineffective management of records creates problems for service providers or records end-users and their clients. For instance, records may be lost or misfiled, which eventually makes it impossible for patients healthcare service providers or records end-users and their clients to access the patient’s health and medical history. This study sought to propose a framework for use by healthcare institutions to align their medical records management processes with the healthcare service business process or workflow in the Limpopo province, South Africa. The researcher used a questionnaire to collect quantitative data, supported by data collected using the observation method. The author discovered that the current practice of records management in the healthcare institutions of the Limpopo province in South Africa is not aligned with healthcare service delivery, which has a negative impact on the safety and security of medical records. This resulted in healthcare providers not having access to the medical records of their patients, which is vital in assessing patients’ medical status. The recommendation made here is that healthcare institutions should use a recommended medical records management framework to align their records management processes with healthcare service delivery, so as to strengthen safety and security and allow healthcare providers appropriate access to medical records, as part of the workflow process.

Guest Editorial: Energy Internet and its Related Technology Research

Guest Editorial: Energy Internet and its Related Technology Research

PERANCANGAN APLIKASI PELAYANAN CLEANING SERVICE BERBASIS WEB

Problems that occur in a service can be seen in a business process carried out. Customer service, management of orders, promotions, and other services, whether it is a main process or a supporting process. In service business this service still uses social media. In business reporting, running is still done manually. To provide good results on this service, the system requires web-based e-commerce to help all who will run the service business process. With the existence of e-commerce services can facilitate existing promotions. This e-commerce system service uses the MVC model (Model, View, Controller). The programming language used is the programming language PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) and uses the Laravel framework and MySQL as a Database Management System (DBMS) and Sublime Text 3 as supporting editors. Business processes that exist in this service can cover a wider area in order to convey information to consumers and facilitate customer access in ordering services.Keywords :Laravel Framework, MySQL, E-Commerce.

PERANCANGAN SISTEM INFORMASI KOPERASI PEGAWAI SMK NEGERI 2 PAYAKUMBUH

The problems of union can arise in various parts of the business process implementedthat are services to members and consumers, financial management, sales management, promotions and other various services, both the main process and supporting one. For service business processes, the union uses social media and other similiar platform. For reporting business processes, it is still carried out in a manual way. To improve the results of the business process in the system of union, it requires web-based e-commerce in order to help all of the aspects. The presence of an e-commerce system is to help promoting the products and facilitate consumers to do everything within the business processes. The design of the e-commerce system uses the MVC (Model, View, Controller). The programming language used is the PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) based on Codeigniter framework and MySQL as a Database Management System (DBMS) and Sublime Text 3 as the editor. Business processes that exist in this union could sell products in a larger area in order to convey the information about the products to consumers quickly. With the system in the union, consumers will be much easier in ordering the producs they want.Keywords : Codeigniter Framework, MySQL, E-Commerce.

RaceTest: harmful data race detection based on testing technology in WS-BPEL

Web service composition is widely used nowadays, and it is realized by Web Service-Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL). WS-BPEL provides concurrency mechanisms so that data races commonly occur within it. Some researchers have focus on data race detection in WS-BPEL. However, none of them focus on identifying harmful data races from benign data races. This paper proposed RaceTest, a novel technique that aims to identify harmful data races in WS-BPEL effectively. Unlike previous detectors, RaceTest identifies harmful data races through dynamic detection based on testing technology. Firstly, it obtains potential data races with static detection. Secondly, it prunes the false positives statically with constraint solving and then generates test cases that contain feasible potential races. Finally, it executes test cases to identify harmful data races by deterministic technique which can actively control thread interleaving. The experimental results show that RaceTest is effective; it effectively reduces a lot of false positives and confirms harmful data races with high accuracy.

Predictive performance models in the South African Business Process Services industry

Orientation: An earlier systematic literature review study (Jacobs Roodt, 2011) conducted on research in Business Process Services (BPS) industry sector companies identified a number of variables that could be empirically linked to turnover intention and individual performance. The literature pointed to a potential health promotion process, as well as an individual performance process in the BPS environment.Research purpose: The purpose of this study is to test two different predictive models that may explain two distal outcomes, namely turnover intention and individual employee performance, in the South African (SA) BPS industry.Motivation for the study: There is little, if any, peer-reviewed, empirical research available on the BPS industry that links variables to either proximate or distal outcome variables, such as turnover intention and individual employee performance.Research approach/design and method: A two-stage, census-based sampling approach was followed that initially targeted 40 organisations within the industry that employ about 13000 employees. Sixteen of these organisations (employing about 6800 individuals) indicated that they wish to voluntarily participate in the study; 821 individuals were targeted to participate in the cross-sectional survey and 487 usable responses were obtained (a 59% response rate). Multivariate data analyses were conducted from an exploratory perspective to retrospectively explain relationships in the structural models.Main findings: An overall health promotion process model that predicted the distal outcome, turnover intention, was confirmed within the context of this exploratory study, where human resource management (HRM) practices, job demands (JDs) and job resources (JRs) were related to burnout as the only proximate outcome. On the other hand, an individual performance enhancing process model was also confirmed within the context of this exploratory study by using HRM practices, JRs and JDs, together with proximate variables, such as employee competence and engagement, to explain the distal outcome, individual performance.Practical/managerial implications: The study has implications for executive (strategic) management, human resource (HR) professionals and work unit team leaders in the BPS industry. This study shows which JRs contribute towards the reduction of burnout and turnover intention in the BPS context. On the other hand, it explains how HRM practices, as well as JRs and JDs, in combination with employee competence and engagement, can be used to promote individual performance.Contribution/value-add: This is the first SA study that uses a range of variables in a multivariate analysis to predict turnover intention and individual performance in the SA BPS industry.

BIM technologies in customer service business processes. Commercial pricing classifier

In the construction industry, implementing the information modeling technologies directly in the business processes of the Customer’s Department will allow improving the following procedures on a deeper scale: designing buildings and structures with the parameters that enable to receive consolidated cost estimates in an automated mode at various stages; monitoring and control over construction and installation works at any stage of the process; and creating a federated model.

Burnout and Mindfulness-A Study of South African Employees Working in a Business Process Services Environment

Burnout and Mindfulness-A Study of South African Employees Working in a Business Process Services Environment

What makes a city attractive for business services centers? Cluj-Napoca case study

As proven in the case of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj for short, business services centers, either in-house or outsourced, can expand phenomenally in a city or an area, and become one of the major employers; their evolution being limited only by the local conditions. This paper analyzes the business services sector, both from the perspective of available statistics and data as well as from the perception of the major companies in the market. Companies which setup shared services centers (SSC) and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies have been surveyed to understand what has drawn them to Cluj and what the challenges they are confronted with are. Looking forward, the theoretical and practical strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats are used to build potential strategic directions for the development of the city, as they result from a Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) application. While the contents of the article are based on Cluj, the framework for analysis and the method of eliciting feedback from the major participants in the market can be applied on any other area or city which has or wishes for a similar development.

EVOLUTION OF OUTSOURCING RELATIONS IN THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY OF RUSSIA

Purpose:thepurposeofthisarticleistostudytheevolutionofoil&gasserviceoutsourcing,todeterminetrendsandfactorsthatdefinethesetrends.Thearticlealsoteststhemethodologyof“fiveforcesofoutsourcing”modelformulatedbytheauthor.Methods:anumberoffactors,whichconstitutethe“fiveforcesofoutsourcing”model,proposedbytheauthor,influencesoutsourcing.Theelementsofthemodelaretransactioncosts,competitiveadvantages,trustandcommitment,levelofeconomicdevelopmentandthe“sourcingcycle”.Thearticleusesextensiveamountofcompanydataandmarketresearch,containsassessmentofthemarketvolumeandprospectsofitsgrowth.Results:oil&gasservicesarethemostdynamictypeofoutsourcingintheoil&gasindustry.Thearticleanalysestheevolutionofoil&gasservicesoutsourcingforthepast20yearsthroughthelensesofthe“fiveforces”methodology.ThistypeofoutsourcingfirstemergedwhentheRussianeconomyturnedtomarketeconomy.Itstartedfromthe“groundzero”point,evolved,maturedandfinallybecameanindispensablepartoftheoil&gasindustrynowadays.Atthesametimetheoil&gasindustryreimagineditsvaluechain,havingconcentratedonitscompetitiveadvantagesandtransferredservicebusinessprocessestooutsourcingproviders.Themarketofoil&gasservicesoutsourcingpassedthetestwhenanattempttocreateastatemonopolyinthisfieldfailedduetothematurityofthemarket.Conclusionsandrelevance:thetaskofincreasingeficiencyoftheoil&gasindustryinRussiaisparamountespeciallytakingintoaccountthedecreaseinoilprices.Outsourcingis,undoubtedly,oneofthemeansofachievingsucheficiency.Itsvolumeswillkeepgrowing.Yetsomecompanieswillcontinuetotesttheeffectivenessofinsourcingoperations.Theanalysisalsoconfirmesthevalidityofthe“fiveforces”methodologyaswellasthe“sourcingcycle”theory.

UML activity diagram transformation into BPEL integration flow

The growing interest of companies in integration and interoperability between information systems has caused increase in significance of Service-Oriented Architecture which provides tools for Enterprise Application Integration. In that architecture, Enterprise Service Bus provides technical possibilities of communication between IT systems. A key element in the communication are integration flows. Objective: The aim of this article is to present a new transformation Integration2BPEL, which automates the development of executable integration flow expressed in the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) based on the model of the integration flow presented in the Unified Modelling Language (UML) activity diagram. Method: The author proposes a transformation of the type of model-to-code type which generates integration flow expressed in WS-BPEL, which can be executed in any BPEL-compliant process engine. The integration flow is modelled using UML activity diagram with stereotypes from ‘UML Profile for Integration Flows’ profile in an IBM Rational Software Architect (RSA). Using Integration2BPEL transformation a complete, executable integration flow is generated, which is composed of many mediation mechanisms. Generated integration flows have been executed on OpenESB. Results: The ability to generate a complete integration flow in BPEL, which without any additions can be run on enterprise service bus. Implementation phase of an integration flow construction was automated. Each of integration flows is implemented according to the same rules. In addition, it allows to avoid mistakes made by designers and programmers. Conclusions: Model-Driven Development is an approach that leads to the automation of the design and programming phases. Integration2BPEL transformation is a uniform mechanism to design integration flow. Potentially, it also allows to avoid implementation errors. Keywords: Web Services Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), Unified Modelling Language (UML), UML activity diagram, Model-Driven Development (MDD), Transformation. null

A path detecting method to analyze the interactive compatibility of service processes based on WS‐BPEL

SummaryPetri nets are frequently used formal tools to analyze the compatibility of interactive service processes described by Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS‐BPEL). However, the traditional methods based on Petri nets were with a high computable complexity for state space explosion. To resolve such problem, a logic Petri net–based path detecting method for compatibility analysis of interactive service processes is proposed. From the provided mapping rules, the service process described by WS‐BPEL is modeled as a service net based on logic Petri nets. The evaluation of interactive compatibility of two service processes is converted to analyze whether their service nets can be composed as a non‐blocked synthetic service net. The non‐blocked property is checked by detecting the reachability of the potential connected paths in a service net. To reduce the complexity of computing the connected paths in a service net, we propose a merge‐reduced method to generate the path expression of its skeleton service net. The potential connected paths of a service net can be obtained by unfolding the path expression. Compared with the traditional method based Petri nets, the proposed method is with high efficiency and it can greatly alleviate the problem of state space explosion in analyzing interactive compatibility of service processes.

International Conference on Industrial and System Engineering (IConISE) 2017

PrefaceThe 1st International Conference on Industrial and System Engineering was hosted by Department of Industrial Engineering ITS, Surabaya, Indonesia The conference was held in Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel & Suites, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, on 29-30th August 2017. The conference’s theme was “Enhancing Industrial Resilience through Disruptive Innovation”. Under this theme, we explored various theories and methods related to value creation and innovation in product and service design, business process, industrial technology, information, and management concerning disruptive innovation. We also discussed approaches to collect, process, manage, and use any information efficiently and effectively, thus the result will be able to improve industrial competitiveness and value in facing the global challenges in industrial environment.Total abstracts submissions is approximately 180 from about 15 countries. The review is conducted in two stages: abstract submission and full paper submission. The number of papers scheduled for presentation is 94 which represent authors from 7 countries.

A survey on automation of security requirements in service-based business processes

Service-oriented computing (SOC) and business process management (BPM) are essential topics in computer science. Companies are widely adopting business process standards, such as BPMN, to model their business processes, while automatise them by using services from the SOC world. The automation leads to a gain of efficiency in executing business processes and facilitates the execution of tests. However, the automation also raises fundamental security concerns, especially considering that it can use external services available on the internet, e.g., web services. For example, companies are not comfortable to use systems that communicate over the internet without guarantees that secure actions have been adequately used. The main objective of this work is to provide a holistic view of current initiatives and tools to model and enforce security requirements in service-based business processes along with open research and practical challenges on this subject. The intention is that this work can serve as a source of theoretical and pragmatic ideas for those who want to execute their business processes having in mind security concerns.

Offshoring industry of Central and Eastern Europe: the perspective of service vendor and investor

Business process offshoring industry has been dynamically growing worldwide in recent years, and its rapid expansion has been particularly visible in Central Europe. Both parties involved in the organisational transformation: service buyer and vendor, can perceive such changes in a different way. The paper examines the attractiveness of a service offshoring destination, both from the investment and customer point of view, and provides a comparative analysis of five countries considered as key regional competitors: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. Although the cost reduction is still very important, additional factors become major influencers for the offshore destination, like the potential for business process reengineering and service optimisation, political stability, and access to wide talent pools of sector-experienced workers. The study is supposed to serve decision makers as a reference in the assessment of offshoring investments.

Life cycle perspective on tourism management: the case of Borobudur village economic chamber

Borobudur Temple is one of the world cultural heritage owned by the Indonesian nation. The existence of this Borobudur temple has an impact for the surrounding community, one of which led to new tourist destinations. This study aims to analyze the tourism potential of the area around Borobudur Temple in the concept of sustainable tourism. This research was conducted by using life cycle assessment perspective on tourism activity in the district level, including: the primary inputs (resources), process and outputs. The data collected from one of the Village Economic Chambers in the districts surrounding the Borobudur Temple regions, named Borobudur VEC. The Borobudur VEC has provided two products and services: tempe mendoan and lodging services. Those two business products have different characteristics. The tempe mendoan business process requires more raw material than the lodging service business process. Based on the result, emission tempe mendoan production is more than from lodging services.

Mapping Scdl/Bpel to Ada for Formal Verification of the Behavioral Properties of Service-Component Architecture

The Service Component Definition Language (SCDL) and the Web Service Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) are the standards de-facto used in the modeling and implementing of Service-Component Architecture (SCA). However, these powerful languages lack a formal foundation for the specification and verification of the SCA properties. In this study, the use of Wright formal ADL and Ada programming language was proposed to check the behavioral properties of SCDL/WS-BPEL Service-Component architectures. To achieve this, the mapping of SCDL/WS-BPEL to the Wright formal ADL was suggested in order to verify the standard behavioral consistency of the source description. As a second step, the target specification could be transformed into Ada to check the specific and dynamic behavioral properties of the SCDL/WS-BPEL source architecture.