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