The primary contributions to the area of electronic business integration, propounded by this thesis, are (in no particular order):  A novel examination of global Business-to-Business (B2B) interoperability in terms of a "multiplicity paradox" and of a "global electronic market-space" from a Complex Systems Science perspective.  A framework for an, integrated, global electronic market-space, which is based on a hierarchical, incremental, minimalist-business-pattern approach. A Web Services-SOA forms the basis of application-to-application integration within the framework. The framework is founded in a comprehensive study of existing technologies, standards and models for secure interoperability and the SOA paradigm. The Complex Systems Science concepts of "predictable structure" and "structural complexity" are used consistently throughout the progressive formulation of the framework.  A model for a global message handler (including a standards-based message-format) which obviates the common problems implicit in standard SOAP-RPC. It is formulated around the "standardized, common, abstract application interface" critical success factor, deduced from examining existing models. The model can be used in any collaboration context.  An open standards-based security model for the global message handler. Conceptually, the framework comprises the following:  An interoperable standardized message format: a standardized SOAP-envelope with standardized attachments (8-bit binary MIME-serialized XOP packages).  An interoperable standardized message-delivery infrastructure encompassing an RPC-invoked message-handler - a Web service, operating in synchronous and/or asynchronous mode, which relays attachments to service endpoints.  A business information processing infrastructure comprised of: a standardized generic minimalist-business-pattern (simple buying/selling), comprising global pre-specifications for business processes (for example, placing an order), standardized specific atomic business activities (e.g. completing an order-form), a standardized document-set (including, e.g. an order-form) based on standardized metadata (common nomenclature and common semantics used in XSD's, e.g. the order-form), the standardized corresponding choreography for atomic activities (e.g. acknowledgement of receipt of order-form) and service endpoints (based on standardized programming interfaces and virtual methods with customized implementations). / Theoretical Computing / PHD (INFORMATION SYSTEMS)

The purpose of this project is to investigate the infrastructure requirements for a currency exchange market for holders of currencies issued through the Lightweight Currency Protocol. The Lightweight Currency Protocol was designed as a means for entities to issue currencies for the purpose of cultivating low value business transactions between collaborating nodes in a peer-to-peer market.

Inom varje verksamhet förekommer det alltid någon form av projektplanering när man vill bedriva sin verksamhet på en ny marknad. Dessa typer av förberedelser görs på olika sätt och utmaningen för företagen blir att använda sig av rätt etableringsstrategi. För att lyckas med implementering av ett projekt, på respektive marknad som organisationer verkar på, är en utav framgångsfaktorerna att ha en tydlig och genomtänkt metod. Företaget Beta erbjuder molnbaserade tjänster inom tullhantering där man skapar lösningar som hjälper andra företag att hantera sina tullärenden. Aktören är etablerad på den svenska marknaden och vill prova att erbjuda sina IT-lösningar i Norge. Företaget har därför ett behov av att undersöka hur den norska marknaden ser ut, om det finns en möjlighet att bredda deras befintliga systemlösningar och i så fall hur de ska gå tillväga för att få ett fungerande system som kan kommunicera med norska tullverket. I rapporten föreslås en metod som kan användas som underlag vid utvidgning av en verksamhet till nya marknader. Utvecklingsprocessen som presenteras ska också kunna generaliseras, fungera som underlag och användas även av andra företag som ställs inför samma utmaning som Beta. Denna rapport innehåller även en analys av den norska marknaden. Det finns en jämförelse mellan delar av svenska och norska tullsystemet och en presentation av de ändringar som behöver göras utifrån skillnader som finns. Som resultat ger rapporten en tydlig bild av hur man möjligen kan gå tillväga för att ta sig an liknande problem. Författarna presenterar även ett resultat som beskriver en lösning till Betas problem. / Within each activity, there is always some kind of project planning when you want to do business in a new market. These types of preparation are done in different ways and the challenge for companies is to make use of the right establishment strategy. To succeed in implementing a project, on the respective market that organizations are working on, one of the success factors is to have a clear and thoughtful approach. The company Beta offers cloud-based customs management services, which provide solutions that help other companies handle their customs issues. Beta is established in the Swedish market and wants to try to offer their IT solutions in Norway. The company therefore has a need to investigate how the Norwegian market looks, if there is an opportunity to broaden their existing system solutions and, if so, how they should go about getting a working system that can communicate with the Norwegian customs office. The report proposes a method that can be used as a basis for expanding a business to new markets. The development process presented should also be generalized, serve as a basis, and used by other companies facing the same challenge as Beta. This report also contains an analysis of the Norwegian market. There is a comparison between parts of the Swedish and Norwegian customs system and a presentation of the changes that need to be made based on differences. As a result, the report provides a clear picture of how one might possibly be able to address similar problems. The project members also present a result describing a solution to Beta's problems.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of implementing the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) model in an MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations) partnership, and highlight its potential economic, environmental, and organizational benefits, as well as limitations. Approach - First, a comprehensive literature review was conducted on fields relevant to VMI. Second, empirical data was gathered from a single exploratory case study with Momentum Industrial, and its customer Stora Enso. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from the case companies. Findings - Results suggest that VMI results in benefits for the supply chain in general, such as reduced administration and inventory costs, improved service levels, reduced information distortion, and improved relationship among partners. For the particular case of VMI in an MRO partnership, improved service levels can be obtained by a reduced risk of production downtime for the customer. Moreover, the implementation of VMI has potential environmental benefits, such as reduced paper use, and higher transportation fill rate. Limitations of implementing VMI include the difficulty in system integration, and information sharing. Trust could be a potential issue that limits information sharing amongst supply chain partners. Moreover, the difference in organizational cultures and policies of partners should be taken into consideration. Limitations - The study is limited to opinions from one MRO customer in the paper and packaging industry. Even though the questions asked to informants in Momentum and Stora Enso tackled benefits to MRO customers in general, a broader image could have been achieved by interviewing customers from different industries. Moreover, the case companies do not currently adopt VMI in their partnership, so the case study results are based on what they think would be the potential benefits and limitations of implementing VMI in an MRO partnership. Practical Implications - This paper can serve as a guideline for logistics managers who are considering VMI in an MRO partnership specifically, as it provides them with the benefits and limitations associated with VMI. More generally, any company considering VMI can also benefit from the theoretical framework presented.

Among the plethora of solutions to the Business-to-Business interoperability problem, no other solution has obtained as much attention asWeb Services Technology (WST), which allows entities to exchange data regardless of their underlying platforms. WST also allows services to be composed in order to provide high quality customer service over the web. In order to perform transactions across different service providers, standard protocols need to be supported by participating providers. Many useful protocols are coming into the market, but are often ambiguously specified by protocol designers and not fully verified. Furthermore, even if the specifications are reasonably clear, programmers often make subtle assumptions, possibly leading to errors that are hard to detect and locate, especially when the number of participating entities is dynamic. Consequently, these can lead to interoperability problems among implementations of the same protocol and high software maintenance costs. To address these issues, a hierarchical automata-based framework is proposed to model the functional aspects of Web Services (WS) protocols that also assists in verifying their correctness. The modelling formalism has a sound mathematical foundation and aims to reconcile desirable features while still maintaining syntactic and semantic simplicity. The properties to be verified are specified using a pattern system and/or 'observer' states, which have been adapted for WS protocols. In particular, always in a positive observer state implies proper termination and partial functional correctness while reachability of a negative observer state signifies deadlock and/or violation of a safety property. Verification itself is handled by automatic translation of the model and its properties into a model-checker's input code and interpretation of the output produced by the model-checker. A test-bed is proposed to check the conformance of a protocol implementation to its specification It helps in locating errors in the implementations of WS protocols especially where the number of participating entities is dynamic. Conformance checking is achieved by capturing sequences of exchanged messages of the actual implementations and checking them against the formal specification. Experience using the framework is also described and illustrated using two non-trivial WS protocols, namely WS-BusinessActivity and WS-AtomicTransaction.

近年來由於資訊科技的發達與通訊網路的開放，國內流通業者逐漸意識到資訊科技的可得性與重要性，尤其是電子資料交換(EDI) 近來在國內更是方興未艾，成為業者因應通路革命的一大競爭武器。本研究主要是探討行銷通路與 EDI的互動關係，分析 EDI應用對通路體系效益的影響以及個別通路成員所分配到的成本效益，並說明第三者機構 (如政府單位與加值網路業者) 在推動 EDI 交易的角色定位。本研究屬於探索性研究，主要是藉由實地訪談國內食品飲料業的上中下游廠商，參考國外相關文獻，以探討通路成員目標、政府機構、組織特質對 EDI應用策略的影響，進一步分析 EDI交易對通路結構、通路關係、及通路效益的衝擊。經由理論與實務之觸發印證，本研究發現在通路系統中，由於零售商與供應商的通路地位不同，不但引進 EDI的動機有所差異，由電子連線交易中所獲致的效益亦有層次之分。此外，在建立 EDI系統初期，政府機構的介入有其必要性，而加值網路業者在通路系統中的角色亦將益形重要。最後，必須強調的是 EDI系統雖然對後勤活動的助益最顯而亦見，但是與 POS系統相結合應 用之後，將可幫助通路成員在行銷活動上發揮更大的效益。 EDI 對通路成員的長期涵義仍未十分明確，與交易對象建立電子連線也可能對組織造成複雜的管理問題，然而，EDI 將逐漸成為企業經營的必要方式，其對競爭態勢的衝擊值得吾人重視。

<p>Background: It has been shown that EDI can yield positive effects within companies. Which effects are possible for a company to direct assign to the introduction of EDI and is it possible to estimate the total effect.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to estimate and analyze the effects of using EDI in electronic business. We also want to contribute with a model for measure and estimate the effects of EDI.</p><p>Accomplishment: We have studied literature concering EDI and realized a preliminary studie in form of interviews with experts to establish deeper knowledge of EDI. We have also tried to estimate the effects obtained in companies in three different businesses, power, government and transport industry.</p><p>Result: To obtain as good effects as possible it is important that the co- oporation is built on trust and engagement. Before implementing the EDI-system a thorough overhaul of the processes in the company should be done, involving both the top managers and the staff. Internet can be used to achieve minimal cost and it is important to limit the information sent by EDI to only send the information demanded. Finally companies also should mediate the advantages of EDI inside the organisation to make the co-operators realize the good effects obtained by EDI.</p>

Background: It has been shown that EDI can yield positive effects within companies. Which effects are possible for a company to direct assign to the introduction of EDI and is it possible to estimate the total effect. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to estimate and analyze the effects of using EDI in electronic business. We also want to contribute with a model for measure and estimate the effects of EDI. Accomplishment: We have studied literature concering EDI and realized a preliminary studie in form of interviews with experts to establish deeper knowledge of EDI. We have also tried to estimate the effects obtained in companies in three different businesses, power, government and transport industry. Result: To obtain as good effects as possible it is important that the co- oporation is built on trust and engagement. Before implementing the EDI-system a thorough overhaul of the processes in the company should be done, involving both the top managers and the staff. Internet can be used to achieve minimal cost and it is important to limit the information sent by EDI to only send the information demanded. Finally companies also should mediate the advantages of EDI inside the organisation to make the co-operators realize the good effects obtained by EDI.

NETI@home, a distributed network measurement infrastructure to collect passive end-to-end network measurements from Internet end-hosts was developed and discussed. The data collected by this infrastructure, as well as other datasets, were used to conduct studies on the behavior of the network and network users as well as the security issues affecting the Internet. A flow-based comparison of honeynet traffic, representing malicious traffic, and NETI@home traffic, representing typical end-user traffic, was conducted. This comparison showed that a large portion of flows in both datasets were failed and potentially malicious connection attempts. We additionally found that worm activity can linger for more than a year after the initial release date. Malicious traffic was also found to originate from across the allocated IP address space. Other security-related observations made include the suspicious use of ICMP packets and attacks on our own NETI@home server. Utilizing observed TTL values, studies were also conducted into the distance of Internet routes and the frequency with which they vary. The frequency and use of network address translation and the private IP address space were also discussed. Various protocol options and flags were analyzed to determine their adoption and use by the Internet community. Network-independent empirical models of end-user network traffic were derived for use in simulation. Two such models were created. The first modeled traffic for a specific TCP or UDP port and the second modeled all TCP or UDP traffic for an end-user. These models were implemented and used in GTNetS. Further anonymization of the dataset and the public release of the anonymized data and their associated analysis tools were also discussed.

Among the plethora of solutions to the Business-to-Business interoperability problem, no other solution has obtained as much attention asWeb Services Technology (WST), which allows entities to exchange data regardless of their underlying platforms. WST also allows services to be composed in order to provide high quality customer service over the web. In order to perform transactions across different service providers, standard protocols need to be supported by participating providers. Many useful protocols are coming into the market, but are often ambiguously specified by protocol designers and not fully verified. Furthermore, even if the specifications are reasonably clear, programmers often make subtle assumptions, possibly leading to errors that are hard to detect and locate, especially when the number of participating entities is dynamic. Consequently, these can lead to interoperability problems among implementations of the same protocol and high software maintenance costs. To address these issues, a hierarchical automata-based framework is proposed to model the functional aspects of Web Services (WS) protocols that also assists in verifying their correctness. The modelling formalism has a sound mathematical foundation and aims to reconcile desirable features while still maintaining syntactic and semantic simplicity. The properties to be verified are specified using a pattern system and/or 'observer' states, which have been adapted for WS protocols. In particular, always in a positive observer state implies proper termination and partial functional correctness while reachability of a negative observer state signifies deadlock and/or violation of a safety property. Verification itself is handled by automatic translation of the model and its properties into a model-checker's input code and interpretation of the output produced by the model-checker. A test-bed is proposed to check the conformance of a protocol implementation to its specification It helps in locating errors in the implementations of WS protocols especially where the number of participating entities is dynamic. Conformance checking is achieved by capturing sequences of exchanged messages of the actual implementations and checking them against the formal specification. Experience using the framework is also described and illustrated using two non-trivial WS protocols, namely WS-BusinessActivity and WS-AtomicTransaction.