Business Systems Analysis &
Design
Research Paper Presentation
A Procedure Model for a SOA-Based
Integration of Enterprise Systems
Anne Lämmer, Sandy Eggert, Norbert Gronau.
International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems.
Hershey: Apr-Jun 2008. Vol. 4, Iss. 2
Presented by:
Abhinav Gupta
Ashish Agarwal
Avinash Kumar
Introduction
• Two important systems used by enterprises are - ERP
and ECM
• ERP - Enterprise resource planning
– Backbone of information systems
– Management of master and transaction data
• ECM - Enterprise Content management systems
– Index all information within the system
– Enterprise wide content collection, creation, editing,
management, dispensing and use
– To improve enterprise and cooperation processes
Introduction
• ECM Combines - document management, workflow
management, content management, digital archiving
• Rapidly rising use of ECM led to need for integration with
the ERP
– Economic aspects - system run time
– Cross system improvement of business process
Service Oriented Architechture
• SOA is suited for a process oriented
distributed integration
• User needs some service
• He is interested just in the output and
not the internal processes
• SOA tries to string together 'services'
from various chunks of unrelated
pieces of software, which perform
specific functions
Service Oriented Architechture
• The application of SOA takes place mostly as web
services
• Advantage Web Services
– Possibility of reusing raw source code
– Old time tested algorithms can be used instead of creating new
ones
• The whole old system is not reused, but significant parts
of it
• To do this, there is the need to deconstruct old
enterprise systems and to locate reusable source code
parts
Self Diagnosis
• The self diagnosis process is the new offering of this
research paper
• Used to locate useful source code
• Can be defined as the system's capacity to assign
specific diagnosis to a detected symptom
Self Diagnosis
• Symptoms are the abstract part of self diagnosis
• Can be high network loads, missing signals, buffer
overloads, frequency of usage
• Self diagnosis can be categorised by the symptom
acquisition method
– passive self diagnosis
– active self diagnosis
Self Diagnosis
• In passive self diagnosis, monitor detects and collects
symptoms and information - the idea of what is to be
observed needs to be pre programmed
• In active self diagnosis the program's modules and
functions are active elements and send the information
to the monitor
• Advantage active self diagnosis
– new symptoms can be detected
• The diagnosis gives idea on source code usage and
dependencies
• Required for allocation of code parts to different fields
and functions
Procedure model
• The steps involved
– Deconstruction of systems into services
– Mapping of redundant functions
– Assignment of original code to services
– Orchestration of Web services
Procedure model
• Deconstruction
– Important to define the level of 'service' - a whole system to a
single method
– The authors proposed a three tiered hierarchical approach
– First stage is the 'Area of Function' level - determined by asking
the question - what are the tasks of the particular systems
Procedure model
• Deconstruction
– Second stage corresponds to the services that are contributed
by various functions - question to be asked - which functionality
derives from each task?
– Third stage refers to the types of objects utilised by the systems
- question to be asked - which business objects are utilised by
the systems?
– The data stage (level) is not touched by this process, and hence
is irrelevant to the paper
Procedure model
• Preparation and mapping
– By division into three hierarchical levels, it is possible to spot
redundancy at each level
– The next step is the integration and mapping of identical
functions
– The process step requires the following questions to be asked:
– Which tasks, functions and business objects appear more than
once?
Procedure model
• Preparation and mapping
– Are these multiple functions and objects redundant or do they
provide different services?
– Can these multiple functions and objects be combined by the
way of appropriate programming
– Advantages of the stage - high reuse and minimization of
programming
Procedure model
• Detection and assignment of services to code fragments
– Previous stage was at abstract level, this stage transforms it to
code level
– The diagnosis described earlier is used at this stage - in order to
tie up the complicity of code fragments in specific jobs
– Diagnosis points may be set up, and usage data collected and
monitored
Procedure model
• Detection and assignment of services to code fragments
– Monitor recognises and analyses which method calls belong
together
– Code fragments are analysed and assigned to the functions into
web services
– Usage of existing source code and description of relevant parts
with a web service description language
– Redundant services are reengineered here
Procedure model
• Orchestration of Web Services
– Context is defined
– Service description language is selected
– Web services are combined
Discussed example
• An unnamed German manfacturer of engines and
devices
• Uses Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP systems
• Also uses OS.5|ECM of Optimal Systems
• An example of business process in which both systems
are used is the processing of incoming mails.
Conclusion
• The process has been successfully deployed in one case
• A sufficient cost benefit analysis not possible as it is still
under test - however, examples show convincing results
• The use of web services improves integration ability,
interoperability, flexibility and sustainability
Thank You