Up to now there is neither data available on how many errors can be expected in process model collections, nor is it understood why errors are introduced. In this article, we provide empirical evidence for these questions based on the SAP reference model. This model collection contains about 600 process models expressed as Eventdriven Process Chains (EPCs). We translated these EPCs into YAWL models, and analyzed them using the verification tool WofYAWL. We discovered that at least 34 of these EPCs contain errors. Moreover, we used logistic regression to show that

The paper investigates the challenges of process ownership in business processes crossing organizational boundaries. A literature review explores the research traditions of business process reengineering, interorganizational systems (IOS), workflow management, and system development with regard to process ownership and the changing role from intraorganizational issues to interorganizational issues. The result is a list of relevant process owner tasks, classified by different issues in which a shift of focus is suggested.

Two important classes of information systems, Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, have been used to support ebusiness process redesign, integration, and management. While both technologies can help with business process automation, data transfer, and information sharing, the technological approach and features of solutions provided by WfMS and ERP are different. Currently, there is a lack of understanding of these two classes of information systems in the industry and academia, thus hindering their effective applications. In this paper, we present a comprehensive comparison between these two classes of systems. We discuss how the two types of systems can be used independently or together to develop intra- and inter-organizational application solutions. In particular, we also explore the roles of WfMS and ERP in the next generation of IT architecture based on web services. Our findings should help businesses make better decisions in the adoption of both WfMS and ERP in their e-business strategies.

The complex business environment requires managing business processes with the ability to adapt to changes and to collaborate in activities. Conventional workflow approaches based on predefined logical procedure offer little support for the dynamic business environment. A cognitive agent-based approach is proposed to manage business activities based on situational awareness and real-time decisions on activities. Business activities are delegated to a number of cognitive and collaborative problem-solving agents. Each software agent perceives its environment by capturing events and monitoring the state of tasks and resources. Based on the continuous perception of environment, business rules concerning process routing, operational constraint, exception handling and business strategy are used by such software agents to perform appropriate actions. The mechanism of this approach is investigated, and a case application of exception management in securities trading is developed to demonstrate the validity and benefits of this approach.

This paper proposes a new framework that integrates simulated and physical agents to provide an efficient way for companies to form supply chains dynamically. In this integrated framework, physical agents coordinate with inter-organizational physical agents to conduct business processes whereas simulated agents model and analyze business processes to support physical agents in making rational decisions under uncertain situation and with incomplete information. This paper surveys different techniques used for dynamic process coordination and explains how the proposed integrated framework can be used by companies to reach a commonly accepted goal in dynamic supply chains. This paper also elaborates the efficient supply chain formation using a business process example of the mold industry, and finally discusses the development issues of this framework and future research directions.

The importance of the service economy is widely recognized. New information technology, specially Internet, the social networks and web 2.0, have redefined the ways of conducting business, providing new e-services, new customer experiences, new work practices, and new business models competing in the global market place. This course provides the participants with an understanding of service design, mainly online-service design. The course integrates principles suggested by the design thinking, applied to business service design. The course introduces concepts, frameworks, and tools for designing new front stage services, back stage processes, and business models. Learning will be accomplished through lectures, research, case studies, and group co-design sessions. 2 Course Objectives Upon completion this course, the participants will have a general understanding of the current state and trends in service design, and be aware of design processes and tools (scenario, storytelling, task analysis, hand-sketching, brainstorming and ideation, mind mapping, process modeling, cognitive walkthrough, and others). More specifically, the participants will be able to use theses design techniques for • designing services, • re-engineering business processes, and • co-creating business models for innovation. The first part presents the front stage view of services, and explores techniques for designing services, analyzing the customer tasks, defining use cases and scenarios, prototyping e-services, and defining service quality. The second part deals with the back stage, and presents tools and models for reengineering business processes and taking care of service productivity. The third part illustrates and examines the co-design of business models for improving innovation. This part also deals with service uncertainty and scenario planning. 1 3 Course Materials Course materials are provided on the web site

Large corporations increasingly utilize business process models for documenting and redesigning their operations. The extent of such modeling initiatives with several hundred models and dozens of often hardly trained modelers calls for automated quality assurance. While formal properties of control flow can easily be checked by existing tools, there is a notable gap for checking the quality of the textual content of models, in particular, its activity labels. In this paper, we address the problem of activity label quality in business process models. We designed a technique for the recognition of labeling styles, and the automatic refactoring of labels with quality issues. More specifically, we developed a parsing algorithm that is able to deal with the shortness of activity labels, which integrates natural language tools like WordNet and the Stanford Parser. Using three business process model collections from practice with differing labeling style distributions, we demonstrate the applicability of our technique. In comparison to a straightforward application of standard natural language tools, our technique provides much more stable results. As an outcome, the technique shifts the boundary of process model quality issues that can be checked automatically from syntactic to semantic aspects. Keywords:

The topic of collaboration in cross-organizational and cross-border settings is an emerging subfield of information systems research. This paper presents a compressive literature review of 52 research papers, published from 2000 to 2007, in four leading journals. The focus of the analysis are topics of investigation, sources of data, and the underlying theories. The results indicate that most of the research still focuses on a limited number of technical issues related to inter-organizational systems adoption. The identified research gaps which represent promising research opportunities are discussed.

Abstract. The proliferation of goods and services offered online, as well as the growing number of e-consumers are catalysts for the ongoing burgeoning of e-commerce among Internet activities. Numerous industries have adopted e-commerce technologies to optimize and automate business processes. In this paper, we are mainly concerned on the synergic relationship between three fundamental components of e-commerce—negotiation, contracts, and business workflow. We conduct a survey on e-commerce technologies and evaluate this body of work through a multidimensional framework. On one dimension, our framework assesses the extent to which negotiation, contracts, and business workflow are integrated and interoperate within e-commerce architectures. On the other dimensions, we assess if and how desirable system properties such as decentralization, dynamic adaptation, automation, and security are supported within each of these e-commerce phases. Our findings show that despite the existence of studies approaching these concerns, full exploitation of co-dependent e-commerce components—negotiation, contracts, and workflow—is elusive. In addition, there is insufficient support for dynamic adaptation, automation, security,