Looking at Future of Research Challenges in Enterprise Information

Systems

Michele Missikoff (CNR)

FInES Research Roadmap 2025 Rapporteur

Unit D4, DG Information Society and Media

CAiSE 2012 Conference, Gdansz

missikoff@iasi.cnr.it

Predicting the Future

“Our future is no more as it used to be”

(Sir Arthur C. Clarke)

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especially about the future”

I agree with the physicist Neils Bohr

“Prediction is very difficult,

Examples of fallacious prophecies

Prophecy, forecast, outlook, ... always the risk of missing the point

Three ‘historical’ examples in:

• Media development

• Telecommunication

• Mass transportation

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Media development

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Six centuries ago: invention of movable type printing

Prophecy: this invention is irrelevant, since less

than 1% of the population can read.

Telecommunications

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One+ century ago: about the development of the

telephone system.

Prophecy: soon the expansion will be slowed down

because of problems in finding girls to operate at the

manual switchboards.

Mass transportation

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One+ century ago: about the development of public

transportation in Manhattan.

Prophecy: soon the expansion will be slowed down

because of problems in the disposal of horse

excrement.

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FInES Research Roadmap

• A Task Force of the FInES (Future Internet Enterprise Systems) Cluster, DG InfSo, Unit D4

• To drawing the main lines for future research in the domain of FInES

• With a long-term, highly innovative vision, 2025 as time horizon.

• Assuming a socio-economic marked discontinuity in the next decade (… forget ‘business as usual’!)

• Editorial Board (EB ): restricted team of 4 people (Ensemble CSA Project)

• Scientific Advisory Group (SAG): a group of 15 invited members

• Expert Scientific Committee (ESC): committee of 15 selected members (after a call)

• FInES Cluster RR Coordination (CRRC): a restricted informal group, coordinated by the FInES Cluster Chair Cristina Martinez, Co-chair Man-Sze Li, and the EB, with the support of EC staff

• FInES Cluster Projects and Domain Experts

(more info at: www.fines-cluster.eu)

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Objectives of the FInES Research Roadmap

• To draw the main lines for future research in the domain of FInES: Future Internet Enterprise Systems

• Such research lines are positioned in a long-term, highly innovative vision, with 2025 as time horizon.

• This activity follows, and is based, on the previous FInES RR published in 2010

• It has been an input to the Commission for the Horizon 2020 Work Programme

Roadmapping Philosophy

• Roadmapping, seen essentially as a Knowledge Management endeavour

• Activities started with the definition of the overall knowledge organization

• 4 FInES Knowledge Spaces:

(i) Socio-technical (ii) Enterprises

(iii) Enterprise Systems (iv) Enabling Technologies

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The positioning of FInES Spaces

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Socio-economic

Enterprise

FInES

Technology

The 4 FInES Knowledge Spaces

1. Socio-economic Space

the larger context in which enterprises operate. It includes topics such as:

the social responsibility of enterprises, the impact on the environment and their carbon footprint, until the system of values goes beyond the pure financial dimension.

2. Enterprise Space

the key traits of future enterprises, the emerging

business and production models, new governance and organization paradigms, new forms of cooperation, all geared towards the continuous innovation paradigm

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The 4 FInES Knowledge Spaces (cont’)

3. Future Enterprise Systems

ICT solutions and socio-technical systems aimed at supporting the emerging future enterprises. In essence: FInES, aligned with business needs and rationale identified for the future enterprises.

4. Enabling Technology Space

ICT solutions, including knowledge representation, cooperation and interoperability, trust and security advanced services, etc., necessary for the development of FInES. In general, ICT enabling solutions that be needed for the purpose of FInES.

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Syn

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tic v

iew

the

4 F

In

ES

Sp

aces

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Socio-economic Space

Enterprise

Space Humanistic

Inventive

Agile

Sensing

Community - oriented

Cognitive

Liquid

Sustainable

Glocal

Enterprise Quality

FInES

Space Enterprise Knowledge Application Systems FInES Engineering

RC1 RC2 RC3 RC4 RC5 RC6 RC7 RC8 RC9

Networking

Knowledge Tech

App Software

Computing & Storage

Natural

Interaction

Technology

Space

Social requirements, Drivers

Impacts

Business requirements Functions

Technical requirements

Enablers

Operational Dimension

1. A Vision on the Socio-economic Space in 2025

1. The need for a socio-economic discontinuity, current growth model is not sustainable (for 7 bln of people)

2. Different growths for wealth and well-being in reduced economic expansion

3. Disconnecting the Quantity of production from the Quality of Life (use better and longer what we have)

4. New model needs social cohesion

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Towards a new Development Model

• The current development model has reached an end

• Continuous growth of production and consumption (and waste disposal) is unbearable

• New value systems are emerging (ref. Stiglitz, Sen, Fitoussi report; S.Latouche and the ‘graceful degrowth’)

• Towards a development model where the quality of life is loosely connected to the possession of goods (see: Servitization)

• Innovation need to be re-considered in light of the above concerns

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Syn

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tic v

iew

the

4 F

In

ES

Sp

aces

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Socio-economic Space

Enterprise

Space Humanistic

Inventive

Agile

Sensing

Community - oriented

Cognitive

Liquid

Sustainable

Glocal

Enterprise Quality

FInES

Space

Technology

Space

Social requirements, Drivers

Impacts

Business requirements Functions

Technical requirements Enablers

Operational Dimension

2. The Future Internet-based Enterprise

2a. Quality of Being

2b. The Operational Dimension

2c. New approaches to Future Enterprises Governance

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2a. Quality of Being: a first characterization

1. Humanistic Enterprise.

Putting human beings in the center

2. Inventive Enterprise.

Beyond R&D, nurturing creativity and continuous innovation

3. Agile Enterprise.

Continuous alignment with business needs and market requirements

4. Cognisant Enterprise

Beyond KM, promoting K at work, Learning Organizations, HR valorization

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QoB (cont’d)

5. Sensing Enterprise

Like a ‘living entity’, with sensors, smart objects, decentralised sensing, decision, (re)action

6. Community-oriented Enterprise

New forms of collaboration, community spirit, informal interaction, Working Social Networs

7. Liquid Enterprise

Fading boundaries (wrt customers, partners, competitors), new professional roles/positions

8. Glocal Enterprise

Enterprise capable of thinking globally acting locally

9. Sustainable Enterprise

Economical, social and environmental aware ••• 20

2b. The Operational Dimension

The following operational areas are connected in a spiral/fractal fashion

• Invent

• Plan

• Build

• Operate

• Monitor&Manage

• Dismiss

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2c. New approaches for Future Enterprises Governance

• Enterprise as a complex artefact

• Enterprise Engineering: need for a systematic approach

• Current Engineering methods are not suited for Enterprise Engineering

• Accepting the limits of Engineering approach (artefacts escaping our control...)

• Surviving with partial models, here Complexity Theory is a reference area

• E.g., from BPM to Complex Event Proc ••• 22

Syn

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the

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Socio-economic Space

Enterprise

Space

Enterprise Quality

FInES

Space Enterprise Knowledge Application Systems FInES Engineering

RC1 RC2 RC3 RC4 RC5 RC6 RC7 RC8 RC9

Technology

Space

Social requirements, Drivers

Impacts

Business requirements Functions

Technical requirements

Enablers

3. The Future Internet-based Enterprise Systems

This the Core Space, organised in three

dimensions:

1. Knowledge Dimension, since before acting it is necessary to know

2. Functional Dimension, to see what will be the main functions of a FInES

3. Engineering Dimension investigate new development techniques, with a specific focus on software applications.

Each dimension will be articulated with its Research Challenges

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3.1 The Knowledge Dimension

RC1. Unified Digital Enterprise

full digital image of the enterprise (Enterprise Architecture Fwk), with conceptual and factual (data) knowledge, behavioural and structural aspects, at various levels of details

RC2. Linked Open Knowledge

to connect and integrate actual knowledge/ data, in/outside of the enterprise (Web of Knowledge)

RC3. Complex Systems Modelling

with sections fully specified and sections characterised by non deterministic behaviour

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3.2 The Functional Dimension of a FInES

RC4. Innovation-oriented enterprise

production platforms

Invent – Plan – Build – Operate – Manage&Monitor – Dismiss

RC5. Unified Digital Enterprise (UDE) Management System

Constantly evolving the UDE to guarantee a digital reality mirroring the analogical reality

RC6. Cooperation and collaboration platforms

Smart Objects, Apps, people: all seamlessly Intp

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3.3 The Engineering Dimension of FInES

RC7. Proactive FInES Mashup (Design)

combined top-down (goal- and human-driven) and bottom-up (event- and object-driven) design

RC8. Autonomic Computing Components and Subsystems (Build)

Dynamic (re)organization of computational business resources resources mirroring (collective intelligence).

RC9. Flexible Execution platforms (Exec)

Different integrated paradigms, Agents, Smart Objects, Utility and Commodity Clouds

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The Science Base of FInES

• Much of the above Research Challenges need rigorous, well-founded approaches

• In the future FInES researches it is highly advisable to include activities related to Science Base

• E.g.:

– Design Science

– Complexity Theory

– Fuzzy self-organising systems

– Semantics

– Enterprise Engineering

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Syn

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the

4 F

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Sp

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Socio-economic Space

Enterprise

Space

FInES

Space

Networking

Knowledge Tech

App Software

Computing & Storage

Natural Interaction Technology

Space

Technical requirements

Enablers

4. Future Technologies for FInES

ICTs are not our core research interest, but we rely on to achieve the sought FInES

• Networking

• Knowledge

• Application

• Computation and Storage

• Natural interaction

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4. Future Technologies for FInES

4.1 Future Networking technologies

Converging, seamless scaling networking infrastructures

4.2 Future Knowledge technologies

a – Diffused Knowledge Base Technology and Smart Objects

b – From raw data to knowledge assets

c – Innovation-oriented knowledge assets

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(4. Future Technologies for FInES)

4.3 Future Application Technologies

a - Proactive and autonomic computing

b - From deterministic to fuzzy computing

c - Beyond system consistency

d - Governance application technologies

e - Top-down problems definition and bottom-up systems aggregation

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(4. Future Technologies for FInES)

4.4 Future computation and storage technologies

From Cloud to Ground Computing (IoT). Glocal computing. Interoperability, trust&security, ...will be largely achieved. New computational models

4.5 Future Natural Interaction

• Disappearance of keyboard, mouse, HCI.

• Evolution of Natural User Interface (MS) ••• 33

From Cloud Computing for a Computing Enterprise

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In the 90s: the Network is the Computer...

In 2020: the Enterprise is the Computer

The Future of FInES RR

• Research Roadmapping as a Knowledge Management socio-cultural venture

• Open venture, leveraging on a constituency and collective intelligence

• Following the model of Wikipedia

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Future Perspectives

• FInES Research Roadmap as a ‘territory’ to continue to explore

• Organise the future along 3 dimensions

Content

Governance

Technology

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FInES Knowledge Flow

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Instances

Editors

Docs

Contributors

Community

FInES RR/Txt

Folksonomy

Web FInES RR/Web

The story is not over ...

• Questions?

• Comments?

• Proposals?

• Are you ready to be part of the team?

Thank you fo your attention!

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