According to the service orientation design paradigm there are business (BS) and electronic services (ES). BS encapsulate business concerns. ES encapsulate computing systems, information systems and software applications. In environments with a high number of BS and ES the decision on which ES provides the most suitable support for a certain BS is not a trivial task. The objective of the thesis is to provide models, methods, and techniques for preselection of ES for a given BS. Preselection is about reducing the large amount of ES to a significant smaller amount under the consideration of a particular BS.

According to the service orientation design paradigm there are business (BS) and electronic services (ES). BS encapsulate business concerns. ES encapsulate computing systems, information systems and software applications. In environments with a high number of BS and ES the decision on which ES provides the most suitable support for a certain BS is not a trivial task. The objective of the thesis is to provide models, methods, and techniques for preselection of ES for a given BS. Preselection is about reducing the large amount of ES to a significant smaller amount under the consideration of a particular BS.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The emergence of information exchange and act of offering features through external interfaces is a vast but immensely valuable challenge, and essential elements of learning environments cannot be excluded. Nowadays, there are a lot of different service providers working in the learning systems market and each of them has their own advantages. On that premise, in today's world even large learning management systems are trying to cooperate with each other in order to be best. For instance, Instructure is a substantial company and can easily employ a dedicated team tasked with the development of a video conferencing functionality, but it chooses to use an open source alternative instead: The BigBlueButton. Unfortunately, different learning system manufacturers are using different technologies for various reasons, making integration that much harder. Standards in learning environments have come to resolve problems regarding exchanging information, providing and consuming functionalities externally and simultaneously minimizing the amount of effort needed to integrate systems. In addition to defining and simplifying these standards, careful consideration is essential when designing new, comprehensive and useful systems, as well as adding interoperability to existing systems, all which subsequently took part in this research. In this research I have reviewed most of the standards and protocols for integration in learning environments and proposed a revised approach for app stores in learning environments. Finally, as a case study, a learning tool has been developed to avail essential functionalities of a social educational learning management system integrated with other learning management systems. This tool supports the dominant and most popular standards for interoperability and can be added to learning management systems within seconds.

1 online resource ([13], 172 leaves) / The concept of a service-oriented approach and the role of communication in such an approach is nothing new. Service management and marketing are two constructs that are deemed invaluable for an organisation operating in the current competitive and seamless globalised business environment. Literature proposes that a market-oriented point of view is not enough anymore to achieve a competitive advantage; the core solution to an organisation's problems should lie in a management perspective that understands the internal value-generating processes of customers and employees alike. This study strives to assess the role of internal communication in creating a service-oriented approach. Particular attention is given to the support that communication can provide to an organisation wishing to establish a service-oriented approach. The evolution of the service-oriented approach is discussed along with the internal and external changes that took place in the organisational environment. A service-orientation as a possible answer to environmental changes is discussed. An assessment of the contribution of communication to service orientation was undertaken. The results of the research undertaken have led to the deduction that internal communication at George Municipality is not effective. / COMMUNICATION SCIENCE / MA - SPEC IN ORG COMMUNIC

Nowadays more and more enterprises transform into service-oriented infrastructure to sustain their competitive advantage. Although IT is an enabler of service-orientation, IT must align with business strategies to deliver expected value. In order to ensure the investment of service-oriented IT can improve the quality of customer service effectively, we aim to develop an IT-business alignment framework to assess the quality of alignment in the context of service-oriented enterprises. In our framework we propose three components of IT-business alignment: strategic alignment, operational alignment and social alignment. The strategic alignment is the degree to which the business process and information can support corporate service strategies. The operational alignment is the degree to which information systems fulfill the information and process needs of service orientation. The social alignment is the degree to which a common service climate is shared between IT and business units. Our data is collected from web questionnaires. The total data set constitutes a representative sample of n=300. Among all returned questionnaires, 96 were found to be complete and usable; this represented a response rate of 32 percent. From this research we get four conclusions: (1) Regardless of customer integration level, strategic alignment plays a significant role in improving customer service quality. (2) Strategic alignment is particularly influential to customer service quality when the enterprise is not service-oriented. (3) Operational alignment is not significant; however with the increasing of data integration level, enterprises increasingly emphasize the operational alignment. (4) Regardless of service-orientation; social alignment effectively helps enterprises make good customer service quality and retain customers. / Nowadays more and more enterprises transform into service-oriented infrastructure to sustain their competitive advantage. Although IT is an enabler of service-orientation, IT must align with business strategies to deliver expected value. In order to ensure the investment of service-oriented IT can improve the quality of customer service effectively, we aim to develop an IT-business alignment framework to assess the quality of alignment in the context of service-oriented enterprises. In our framework we propose three components of IT-business alignment: strategic alignment, operational alignment and social alignment. The strategic alignment is the degree to which the business process and information can support corporate service strategies. The operational alignment is the degree to which information systems fulfill the information and process needs of service orientation. The social alignment is the degree to which a common service climate is shared between IT and business units. Our data is collected from web questionnaires. The total data set constitutes a representative sample of n=300. Among all returned questionnaires, 96 were found to be complete and usable; this represented a response rate of 32 percent. From this research we get four conclusions: (1) Regardless of customer integration level, strategic alignment plays a significant role in improving customer service quality. (2) Strategic alignment is particularly influential to customer service quality when the enterprise is not service-oriented. (3) Operational alignment is not significant; however with the increasing of data integration level, enterprises increasingly emphasize the operational alignment. (4) Regardless of service-orientation; social alignment effectively helps enterprises make good customer service quality and retain customers.

More and more enterprises plan to switch their legacy system to service-oriented architecture (SOA). SOA, the focus of recent software-engineering, modulizes the IT components as “services” which could be re-jointed with each other flexibly and reused to avoid building parts repeatedly. This methodology also yields network externalities (Katz and Shapiro 1986; Markus 1987) as a number of services are integrated. An enterprise could increase the number of services to earn network externalities but such benefits come with risks. / This study aims to evaluate the investment of SOA and justifies the switch of current systems to SOA. Since SOA investment is usually a long-term and risky project for most enterprises, uncertainty becomes an important evaluation factor of an SOA project. This research applies the real option approach to evaluate an SOA switching project which majorly justifies the uncertainties, and use Monte-Carlo simulation to do the option pricing work. We consider three components of uncertainty in the model– risk, exercise time and number of connecting services for reusing- and evaluate how the uncertainty relates to the value of an SOA project. Finally, this research deduces the investment strategies under uncertainties, and describes what advantages for real option SOA has which are SOA could reduce the investment friction.

隨著雲端運算基礎架構的發展，如何結合企業資訊服務與外部雲端運算資源，是當前重要的研究課題。目前市面上一些主要的資服業者，如Google、IBM以及HP等，大力推動並提供強大雲端運算能力與完善的應用服務環境；然而目前雲端運算架構多需將整體應用與資料放置於外部平台，引發企業導入雲端運算時控制權移轉與資訊安全的疑慮。為解決雲端運算所衍生出內外部資源有效配置的問題，與企業導入上的資安疑慮，本研究結合雲端運算與服務導向架構，發展出雲端運算服務導向架構運作機制，包含服務串接、資源配置、資料控管與管理機制，並依照這些運算機制建構出以服務介面層、中心控管層、服務供應層與基礎架構層組成的『雲端運算服務導向架構平台』。 服務串接機制負責連接服務需求方、服務元件商與服務套餐業者；資源配置機制具備負載平衡、平行運算與容錯機制等功能；資料控管機制利用部分授權的方式讓資料以片段的方式存在，避免有心人士竊取的風險，對於資料運算的安全性，讓服務供應方只能取得經授權的必須資料，關鍵資訊僅掌握在資料擁有人手中，以確保資料安全性；管理機制實作了AAA協定，認證機制決定服務使用者的身份與服務範圍。 而服務平台中的應用介面層利用開放平台的優勢，降低服務介面開發的負擔；中心控管層連接服務供應方與服務需求方，掌控完整的服務流程，以及使用外部雲端運算與資料中心之資源；服務供應層結合各式應用服務與資料來源，藉由將運算與資料分離的方式，讓服務需求者保持對資料的控管權力，以解決企業導入雲端架構時對資安的疑慮；基礎架構層可連結雲端運算資源，未來可利用各雲端業者所提出的服務架構、運算能力以及儲存資源，並依照個別平台的優勢與特性，充分發揮雲端運算架構的效益。 最後本研究藉由發展金融發票融資之應用，以說明本服務平台之可行性與整合外部雲端運算服務的優越性，以及未來研究方向。 / Cloud Computing heralds an evolution of business, this creates a research question on how to integrate enterprise information service and external Cloud Computing resource. Information service big players like Google, IBM and HP, providing powerful Cloud Computing ability and application environment. However, when enterprises adopt Cloud Computing architectures proposed recently, and transfer applications and data to external platform arouses the problems of management authority shifting and information security. We proposed a 4-layer service platform and related operation mechanism that incorporates Google Cloud Computing environment and Service Oriented Architecture in a sense to provide new paradigm of system development. Service Combination Mechanism connects service consumer, service provider and service menu. Resource Allocation Mechanism provides loading balance, parallel processing and fault-tolerant features. Data Control Mechanism only authorizes the necessary part of data to avoid the risk of information security. Management Mechanism implements AAA protocol. Service Interface Layer utilizes the advantage of open platform and reduces the burden of interface development. Control Center Layer connect service providers and service requesters, while handling service flow and using the resource of external cloud computing and data center. Service Provider Layer reserves the management authority and ownership of the data resources. Infrastructure Layer assemble service framework, computing ability and storage resource that are provided by Cloud Computing providers. We believed that with the 4-layers service platform proposed in this paper, one can leverage the advantages and merits of Cloud Computing architecture. Finally, by developing a invoice financing case based on proposed platform, we are able to justify the service platform’s feasibility and its advantage with the use of cloud computing.

(略) / Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm is an emerging architectural blueprint which enables flexible process-oriented application systems. While more and more enterprises plan to adopt SOA to increase reusability and flexibility of their business processes, the readiness of this technology becomes important to enterprises. However, previous SOA studies focus mainly on the technical issues but ignore the organizational or managerial issues. To fill this gap, this research aims to explore the factors of adopting SOA. Developed upon institutional theory and diffusion of innovation theory, we not only consider the technical factors with SOA adoption, but also pay attention to factors related with organizations and IT innovations. Furthermore, a content analysis of online Webs, blogs, and forums is taken to verify our research framework, and research findings indicate the relative advantage of SOA, compatibility of SOA, the characteristics of decision makers, culture, IT capability, and SOA socioeconomic characteristics are the most important drivers for SOA adoption. The contribution is summarized in two folds: (1) enterprises can use this framework as a reference to diagnose their organization conditions and then make a decision to adopting SOA; and (2) researchers can develop their study upon the constructs of this framework.

Earthquake engineering is increasingly focusing on large international collaborations to address complex problems. Recent computing advances have greatly contributed to the way scientific collaborations are conducted, where web-based solutions are an emerging trend to manage and present results to the scientific community and the general public. However, collaborations in earthquake engineering lack a common interoperability framework, resulting in tedious and complex processes to integrate results, which cannot be efficiently used by third-party institutions. The work described in this thesis applies novel computing techniques to enable the interoperability of earthquake engineering resources, by integrating data, distributed simulation services and laboratory facilities. This integration focuses on distributed approaches rather than centralised solutions, and has been materialised in a platform called Celestina, that supports the integration of hazard mitigation resources. The prototype of Celestina has been implemented and validated within the context of two of the current largest earthquake engineering networks, the SERIES network in Europe and the NEES network in the USA. It has been divided into three sub-systems to address different problems: (i) Celestina Data, to develop best methods to define, store, integrate and share earthquake engineering experimental data. Celestina Data uses a novel approach based on Semantic Web technologies, and it has accomplished the first data integration between earthquake engineering institutions from the United States and Europe by means of a formalised infrastructure. (ii) Celestina Tools, to research applications that can be implemented on top of the data integration, in order to provide a practical benefit for the end user. (iii) Celestina Simulations, to create the most efficient methods to integrate distributed testing software and to support the planning, definition and execution of the experimental workflow from a high-level perspective. Celestina Simulations has been implemented and validated by conducting distributed simulations between the Universities of Oxford and Kassel. Such validation has demonstrated the feasibility to conduct both flexible, general-purpose and high performance simulations under the framework. Celestina has enabled global analysis of data requirements for the whole community, the definition of global policies for data authorship, curation and preservation, more efficient use of efforts and funding, more accurate decision support systems and more efficient sharing and evaluation of data results in scientific articles.

Pour faire face aux contraintes économiques (demande de plus en plus importante pour de la personnalisation de masse, globalisation et réduction des coûts…), le développement de stratégies de production « Juste À Temps », ou « Lean Manufacturing » impose la réorganisation de l’entreprise sur les activités génératrices de valeur en suivant une logique de chaîne de valeur pour éviter tout gaspillage. Cette stratégie conduit de fait à un recentrage métier et une extension de la chaîne de valeur. L’entreprise est donc amenée à développer des stratégies de collaboration (Bare et Cox, 2008 ; Davis, 1987) et doit disposer d’un SI Lean (réponse au plus juste), agile pour réagir aux fluctuations et aléas, ouvert pour assurer un partenariat avec ses fournisseurs, ses clients et ses partenaires et, enfin, interopérable pour faciliter la communication entre les différents systèmes et concilier ces différentes facettes métiers. Or, le SI de l’entreprise est constitué d’une multiplicité de logiciels (l’ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), le MES (Manufacturing Execution System), le PLM (Product Life-cycle Management), le SCM (Supply Chain Management)…). Chaque système vise à répondre à un objectif donné pour une facette métier, et est développé selon des spécifications métier propres échappant le plus souvent à toute standardisation. Ceci engendre une redondance, une hétérogénéité et une augmentation du volume d’information, d’où des risques d’incohérence, de rigidité du SI et notamment une grande difficulté de communication dans le cadre de collaboration interentreprises. Pour répondre à ces aléas, il importe de définir un SI agile et interopérable et de réorganiser les processus pour supporter la chaîne de valeur de l’entreprise. C’est dans cet objectif que nous proposons de développer un Lean ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), socle d’une Architecture Orientée Services, doté d’une couche sémantique métier. Nous avons défini quatre modules du Lean ESB : • Le module de médiation définit les échanges d’information entre les différents métiers et entre le métier et la technologie pour assurer le fonctionnement des autres modules. • Le module de chorégraphie dynamique permet de composer les services industriels pour définir les processus selon les besoins de production spécifiés par le client. • Le module de routage intelligent organise les ressources de l’atelier pour définir des processus en flux tirés. • Le module de monitoring et gouvernance permet de contrôler la performance de la production et la qualité des produits. / To meet the economic constraints (growth of mass customization demands, globalization and cost reducing), the development of new strategies forms as a “Just In Time” production strategy or “Lean Manufacturing” needs to reorganize the enterprise taking into account the activities which generates value (following the value-chain logic) in order to avoid wastefulness. This strategy leads to a business refocusing and a value-chain extension. The enterprise has to develop collaboration strategies (Bare and Cox, 2008 ; Davis, 1987) and has to have a Lean (just in time response) Information Systems (IS), agile IS to react fluctuations, open IS to support a partnership with suppliers, customers and partners and interoperable IS to make easier the communication between systems and business views. However, the enterprise IS contains multiple systems: ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), MES (Manufacturing Execution System), PLM (Product Life-cycle Management), SCM (Supply Chain Management)…Each system is designed to meet a particular business view, and is developed according to specific business requirementswithout any standardization which cause redundancy, heterogeneity and increase the volume of information including an inconsistency, a rigidity of the IS and a difficulty of inter-enterprise collaboration. To face theses disadvantages we have to define an agile and interoperable IS and to reorganize processes to support the enterprise value-chain. Therefore, we propose to develop a Lean ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) which is a Service Oriented Architecture middleware, improved by a business semantic layer. We defined four modules of Lean ESB:• The mediation module defines information exchange between a business layers and IS and insures other modules operating. • The dynamic choreography module enables industrial services composition to define processes in accordance with customer demands. • The intelligent routing module organizes workshop resources in order to reorganize processes in a pull flow strategy. • The monitoring and governance module enables the control of production performance and products quality.