1. E-government for State Business Services
Rutgers Faculty:
Dr. Nabil Adam
Dr. Vijay Atluri
Dr. Francisco Artigas
Students:
Soon ae Chun
Pietro Mazzoleni
Ahmed Gomaa

2. E-Government Project Collaboration with The State of New Jersey
Office of Information Technology
Department of Commerce
Department of Revenue
Department of Commercial Recording
Department of Environmental Protection
Columbia, UMBC, CUNY
New Jersey Small Business Development Center

3. Collaborators Rutgers-CIMIC (workflow, interoperability, GIS)
Nabil Adam, Vijay Atluri, Francisco Artigas, Soon Chun, Dihua Guo, Ahmed Gomaa, Pietro Mazzoleni
NJ State Government (The Development of individual portals at each agency, Security and Privacy
Wendy Rayner (CIO), Adel Ebeid (CTO), Odysseus Marcopolus (Director, EGOV), Sue Colbert (EGOV, manager)
Columbia (ontology and interoperability)
Kathy Mcowen, Vasilios Hatzivassiloglou, Melania Degeratu
UMBC (workflow validation)
Yelena Yesha
CUNY (implementation)
Richard Holowzcak
Small Business Development Center (evaluation of the prototype)
Web site:

4. Outline State Government Objectives and Efforts
Research Areas and Issues
Prototype

5. State Government Objectives
OIT has established the EGOV division
EGOV’s goal is to develop a E-government portal that redefines the way in which citizens, government and businesses exchange information
Most state government agencies currently offer services/information via the web, independently
To make the entire process of registering a new business with the state transparent to users

6. Problems What information is available for my business?
Web pages,documents, forms, news, rules and regulations, maps, other business related information is available, but either it is abundant, or hidden
Which agencies are relevant, what steps do I need to perform? In which order?
Permits from different agencies
Why do I have to submit redundant information to various agencies?
User information is hardly shared across agencies

7. Register business for taxes
Example:
Business Registration Process
file for
certificate
of incorp
Secretary of State
FEIN
enter
new
business
entity
Register business for taxes
open
bank
accnt
apply for
Employer
reg number
Insurance
not incorp
Local IRS
Div. Of Revenue
Dept of labor
Cert of authority
for sales tax
Annual payroll >=1000
hire >= 1
Input
application bs
Payroll<1000
incorporation bc
process
state permits
identify
permits needed
submit
form/fee
DEP
complex process; Users are often lost,
overwhelmed with information
Geographically and functionally dispersed agencies
Autonomy of agencies with their own business policies and processes
Individual clients interact with each agency
duplicate information is submitted for each agency

8. Our Objective
Address the research challenges that arise in this process
Develop a prototype that includes our solutions
Transfer the technology to NJ state
Build on existing web based services already developed by the state agencies

9. More Specific Goal
Address the research issues required to guide entrepreneurs through these various processes
generate the exact steps required for the specific business type, and the sequence in which they need to be executed, and by which agency (we call this a workflow)
provide monitoring of the status
protect the security and privacy of user information

10. Research Areas Workflow Systems
GIS-based Business Information services
Ontology and Interoperability

11. Architecture

12. Workflows: Research Objectives
Automatic rule-based generation of customized workflows
Provision of decentralized control for workflows
Address the conflict-of-Interest issues among competing enterprises
Provide mechanisms for dynamic workflows to handle run-time changes and exceptions
Automatic validation of workflows
Interoperation of among heterogeneous systems

13. Workflows: Research Objectives
Automatic rule-based generation of customized workflows
Provision of decentralized control for workflows
Address the conflict-of-Interest issues among competing enterprises
Provide mechanisms for dynamic workflows to handle run-time changes and exceptions
Automatic validation of workflows
Interoperation of among heterogeneous systems

14. Automatic Generation of Customized Workflows
Complete specification of business processes at the Design phase:
requires enumerating all possibilities
May not be feasible
error prone
Hard to debug or change
Rule-based generation of customized workflow definition, given
User Profile, Services, Business Rules
Compact representation of workflow
Easy to design
Lead to faster reaction to customer demands and timely reaction to changing tasks/services or participating agencies

15. Architecture Business Rule Base Interview Session Customized User
Profile
Rule Base
Customized
Workflow
generator
Business

16. Interview Session Type of Business INPUT FROM RULES TO Type of Busin
Type bus=Sol Pr & gp
Fictitious Name
Type bus=Corp & lim
Local foreign
Local Foreign
Begin on success
Name & Location
Fictitius Name
Kind of business
Kind bus = Autobody
Autobody interv.
Kind bus != autobody
End interview
Type of
Business
INPUT

17. Interview Session Type of Business Type of Business Local & Foreign
FROM
RULES TO
Type of Busin
Type bus=Sol Pr & gp
Fictitious Name
Type bus=Corp & lim
Local foreign
Local Foreign
Begin on success
Name & Location
Fictitius Name
Kind of business
Kind bus = Autobody
Autobody interv.
Kind bus != autobody
End interview
Type of
Business
Type of
Business
Local &
Foreign
INPUT

18. Interview Session Easy to adapt to changes (add, delete, etc.)
Type of
Business
Local &
Foreign
Name &
Location
Easy to adapt to changes (add, delete, etc.)
Easy to create new application interview
Reusable interview steps
Rules/knowledge based interview steps

19. Architecture Agency 1 Task Execution Agent Local DB Interoperability
Workflow
Interface
Customized
Worflow
generator
WFMS
Stub
Form &
Service
Agency 1
Task Execution
Agent
Interoperability
WFMS Stub
Local DB
Agency N

20. Workflow Generation Input Kind busin = Corporation DMV DMV Cert. Of
Autobody
Kind of busin <> Corp.
Autobody && spray
Begin on success
DEP
File for
Fein
File for
Fein
STATIC RULES
Begin on Success
Reg. Bus
For Taxes
Reg. Bus
For Taxes

21. INTERACTIVE FORMS Don’t need to print Easy to use
FORM PDF
Don’t need to print
Easy to use
Real-time Error checking

22. Filling a Form
TEMPLATE
PRE FILLED
USER
USER
PROFILE
COMP. FILLED

23. Workflows: Research Objectives
Automatic rule-based generation of customized workflows
Provision of decentralized control for workflows
Address the conflict-of-Interest issues among competing enterprises
Provide mechanisms for dynamic workflows to handle run-time changes and exceptions
Automatic validation of workflows
Interoperation of among heterogeneous systems

24. Decentralized Control
Problems with Centralized Control
Performance bottleneck
do not scale well
not suitable if systems are inherently autonomous and distributed bs
Central WFMS t2 t1 t4 bs t3 bf
A1 (t1)
A3 (t3)
A2 (t2)
A4 (t4)

25. Our Approach to Decentralized Workflow Management
Self-describing Workflow
Workflow Stub
WFMS server (A0) t2 bs t1 t4
self describing workflow
WFMS stub bs t3 bf
(t1, A1, Input (t1), t2 bs t1 t4 bs t3 bs
WFMS Stub
WFMS Stub
(t2, A2, Input (t2),
A2 (t2) t2
WFMS Stub
A1 (t1)
A4 (t4)
(t3, A3, Input (t3),
(t4, A4, Input (t4),
WFMS Stub t4 t4 t3 bs
A3 (t3)

26. Workflows: Research Objectives
Automatic rule-based generation of customized workflows
Provision of decentralized control for workflows
Address the conflict-of-Interest issues among competing enterprises
Provide mechanisms for dynamic workflows to handle run-time changes and exceptions
Automatic validation of workflows
Interoperation of among heterogeneous systems

27. Conflict of Interest Groups
Task Agents
COI group1
COI group2
COI group n
Continental
Delta
Holiday
Inn
Marriot
Avis
Hertz

28. Chinese Wall Security Policy
Objective: prevent information flows that cause conflict of interest for individual consultants
Brewer and Nash Model
Read Rule
Discretionary access
Mandatory denial r X
consultant
Bank B
Bank A r w
Insurance
Oil B

29. Chinese Wall Security Policy
Read Rule: One can read an object only if
the object is within the wall,
Write Rule: One can write to an object only if
he can read it by the Read rule
no object can be read which is in the different company set to the one for which write access is requested w
Bank A
Oil A
Consultant A r X r
Oil B
Consultant B w

30. Decentralized Control: Problem
Execution agents may have conflict of interest
one agent can manipulate control or value dependencies in Workflow to its advantage
e.g. Continental may offer the ticket at a price such that Delta is always at a disadvantage
HILTON
Enter Input
Date/destination
Reserve
airline
Rent a car bs
clerk
HERTZ
Bs and
p<=$400
Notify
Reserve a
hotel
Bf or
p>$400
CONTINENTAL
Date <3/21/01
DELTA
AVIS

31. Will Cryptography Work?
Onion Ring: Mobile code security, distributed computing
A message for each execution agent is encrypted with the agent’s key
Works for predefined execution paths => can’t work in case of workflows as a result of dynamic execution paths based on the state P m1 m2 m3
host1
host1
host1
Key(A)
Key(B)
Key(C)
Encrypted control information and destination:
wouldn’t be able to evaluate control info or destination

32. Workflows: Research Objectives
Automatic rule-based generation of customized workflows
Provision of decentralized control for workflows
Address the conflict-of-Interest issues among competing enterprises
Provide mechanisms for dynamic workflows to handle run-time changes and exceptions
Automatic validation of workflows
Interoperation of among heterogeneous systems

33. Dynamic Workflows In the real world, Dynamic Workflow should address
workflows are dynamically evolving
ad hoc deviations from preplanned workflows happen
Predicting and capturing all possible runtime exceptions and events at design time is not possible
business rule base may evolve
Dynamic Workflow should address
Detection and propagation of changes
User Triggered Run time modification
Global and local Business policy and rule changes
Run-time Exceptions

34. Research Areas Workflow Systems
GIS-based Business Information services
Ontology and Interoperability

35. GIS-based Business Services
Interactive mapping services to help in deciding the business location
find available property, rent rates,
environmental restrictions, contaminated sites,
location of basic services (e.g. banks, gas stations, schools, hospitals etc.),
basic demographics from census (e.g. median income, age, education, etc.),
Transportation infrastructure, traffic flow patterns,
zoning regulations and building codes
local business incentive programs
competing businesses

36. System Architecture -- Rutgers University -- GIS Services GIS
Interface

37. GIS based Business Information Service

38. Research Areas Workflow Systems
GIS-based Business Information services
Ontology and Interoperability

39. Architecture
-- Columbia University --
Ontology
Component

40. Automatic Generation of Business RulesID
CONDITION
TASK 1
Btype = Corporation
File certificate of Incorporation 2
Business = Autobody Shop
Obtain DMV Permit 3
Autobody Shop and Spray Painting
Obtain DEP Permit

41. Prototype Phase 1 Phase 2 Using existing web based services
Integrating with the NJ Division of Revenue
Phase 2
Transfer technology to NJ Division of Revenue
Incrementally Expand to other agencies
New services

42. … Phase 1: Current Status CENTRAL SERVER Revenue Revenue Labor DMV DEP
Business
Registrarion
Name
Registration
Entity Filing
Revenue
Revenue
Labor
DMV
DEP
Entity Filing
Name
Registration
Form
Business
Registrarion

43. Phase 1: Prototype General Interface Customized Workflow
Complete Workflow For Revenue Division
Customized link with their services
Incremental Expansion

44. Phase1: Customized Workflow
BUSINESS RULES
CENTRAL
WEB-SERVICES
USER
CENTRAL SERVER !
Addresses the following questions
Which Agencies do I have to contact?
Which services are already on the web?
What I have to do first?

49. Phase 2: Objectives BUSINESS PORTAL DEPLOY PROTOTYPE TO REVENUE DIV.
Build on the services already implemented on the web by state agencies
Create a workflow Interface for all the different services
BUSINESS PORTAL

50. Phase 2: Prototype Include All the agencies Complete workflow
Monitoring
Pre-filling services
INTEGRATE EXISTING BUSINESS SERVICES

51. … Future Scenario USER CENTRAL SERVER Agency N Agency 1 Agency 2
BUSINESS RULE
CENTRAL
WEB-SERVICE
USER
CENTRAL SERVER
READY FOR BUSINESS …
Agency N
Agency 1
Agency 2

52. Integration of Agency Systems: Alternative solutions
Interview Steps
Rule Base
Rule Base
Workflow
Customized
Workflow
generation
Client
Interview
session
Forms Base
User profile
monitoring
WFMS
Cental Server
Agency 1
Agency 2
Agency n
WFMS Stub
WFMS Stub
WFMS Stub

53. Only By E-mail 1 E-MAIL PROGRAM AGENCY PROGRAM FORM AGENCY DB DISPLAY
PRINT
AGENCY CLIENT

54. Connection and Storage2
FORM DB
AGENCY
PROGRAM
FORM & WF
CLIENT INTERFACE
User friendly interface
Show list of tasks
Send output information to
stub
COLLABORATION
Provide Account mail
Storage space for forms
Install a lightweight
application on the server
WORKFLOW STUB
Read Form Data
Interact with User interface
Update workflow
Forward to the next agencies
CLIENT
INTERF
STUB
AGENCY DB
OUT & WF
AGENCY CLIENT

55. Application interaction3
FORM DB
AGENCY
PROGRAM
FDF & WF
APPLICATION INTERF.
Worklists for users
Direct Interface with
Agency Applications
COLLABORATION
Provide a mail account
Provide storage space
Provide information on
Ag. Application Systems
Application
Interface
STUB
AGENCY DB
FEE
SECURE CONNECTION
OUT & WF
AGENCY CLIENT
FIREWALL

56. NJ Portal Solution 4 OTHER SERVICES Statistics Monitoring
FORM DB
AGENCY
PROGRAM
OTHER SERVICES
News from the agency
Statistics
Monitoring
Tax/form expiration due dates
Fee change information
etc...
FDF & WF
STUB
Application
Interface
AGENCY DB
OUT & WF
OTHER
SERVICES
AGENCY CLIENT
FIREWALL

57. More details about the prototype will be shown in the demo session
Web site: