1. Exploitation of Semantic Web Technology in ERP Systems Amin Andjomshoaa, Shuaib Karim Ferial Shayeganfar, A Min Tjoa (andjomshoaa, skarim, ferial, amin@ifs.tuwien.ac.at) Institute of Software Technology & Interactive Systems http://www.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/ Vienna University of Technology

2. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 2 Outline Motivations Introduction –Integration of ERP & PIM –Sharing business processes –Business security Proposed Solutions Conclusion

3. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 3 Motivations At present detailed capture of activities is possible LEADING TO possible integration with ERP systems Semantics generated from various sources and / or specified with business processes LEADING TO semantic services interoperability for open industry interaction using SOA Security requirements for open industry interaction

4. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 4 ERP System Development Environment Information System, Reports C R M S C M Mobile Service... Human Resources Finance Controlling Material Management Production Planning …… E-Commerce CIM Workflow I N T E R N E T Sales Maintenance Quality Management Project

5. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 5 ERP scenario example: The Procurement Cycle Determine source of supply 2 Vendor selection 3 Order processing 4 Order monitoring 5 Determine requirements Determine requirements 1 Goods receipt 6 Invoice verification 7 Payment 8

6. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 6 ERP System (implementation) 1/2 relies on large datasets and their interrelations Influenced by contextual parameters like country-specific regulations User has to make critical decisions about business objects & methods CONSEQUENTLY the user should master the disparate domains of expertise such as: –Currently used software –Customer order tracking –Managing the interdependencies of complex BOM and product structure –Supply chain and interaction with suppliers

7. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 7 ERP System (implementation) 2/2 The domain knowledge may be captured in: –Object specifications –Requirements and regulations –ERP software features >

8. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 8 ERP System-current situation 1/4 Different persons working on different modules Belong to different professional domains Follow a predefined project schedule Heterogeneity of information sources Have to work together for common goal >

9. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 9 ERP System-related issues 2/4 Usage of different terminology with in different business domains Existence of different perspective of the same entity The predefined schedule often violated for good reasons

10. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 10 ERP System-Consequences 3/4 Integration problems between the ERP modules Integration problems in inter-organization processes Significant training required for working with ERP Much of user’s invested time is not tracked

11. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 11 Precise information capture 4/4 ERP ?

12. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 12 Proposed solution – what to do? Capture (trace) the detailed user activities Specify the semantics of ERP modules explicitly Provide mapping between semantics of different ERP modules Share processes that makes sense with other business partners

13. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 13 Proposed solution – how to do? Use ontologies for specifying and sharing the semantics (semantic web technology) Capture as much data about user activities as possible in terms of domain ontology The Web Services should be profiled in semantic way (using SOA)

14. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 14 Precise information capture Possible in our prototype with the help of: –Data acquisition –Manual annotations –Automatic associations

15. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 15 SemanticLIFE Prototype Google Explorer Plug- in Repository Plug-in Personal Reposito ry Ontologies Message Bus Plug-in Pipeline Plug-in PipelinesStyle sheets User Profile Plug-in Annotation Plug-in Web Service Plug-in Other data feeds Analysis Plug-in

16. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 16 Typical activities are: –Browsed web pages –Emails –Chat sessions –Local processes –Telephone logs –Appointments –Documents –File system monitor

17. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 17 Use of Ontology Based PIMS

18. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 18 Semantic web technology 1/4 Semantic Web is a web of data enables the machines to comprehend the data changes the already existing information to knowledge sources usable and process-able by machines

19. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 19 Semantic web technology 2/4

20. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 20 Semantic web technology 3/4 RDF (Resource Description Framework) triples for specifying assertions – Subject, Predicate, Object The resources have unique identifiers URIs RDFS / OWL to specify semantics Apply reasoners (Racer, Pellet) to make inference

21. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 21 Semantic web technology 4/4 „John is working on task abc and xyz. Task abc is for project TFT production“

22. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 22 Sample Project Ontology

23. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 23 Sharing Business Processes 1/2 Processes/services not limited to an organization Integration & process automation are two of the most important issues facing organizations today Web service standards are good but cover only web service syntax and not service semantics >

24. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 24 Sharing Business Processes 2/2 Using Semantic Web, the service profiles can be captured in terms of: –Meaning of parameters –Business objects –Internal sub-processes –Intent of operations

25. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 25 Business Security 1/2 Growing need for enforcing the complex security policies due to opening the organization’s applications domain to outside world Security requirements of a typical business: –Task level security which needs the access security model –Process level security which requires a business security model

26. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 26 Business Security 2/2 The access security and business security models are partly overlapping Semantic Web paradigm may address the complexity of overlapping models in two steps: –Step 1: organization structure may be captured in an ontology model –Step 2: the business processes and activities will be captured and added to the domain ontology

27. 25.4.2006 CONFENIS 2006 27 Conclusion The semantic integration of Personal Information Management (PIM) systems could be regarded as a first step toward the modernization of ERP applications Applications of Semantic Web technologies can make a significant difference in terms of companies productivity and increase of revenue In future SOA and Semantic Web integration will play an important role in business processes Semantic Web can also be used as a mean for capturing and applying business security requirements