Bill Karakostas

• PhD
• City, University of London

Web analytics tools provide a wide range of information regarding the performance of a company. This information is valuable for assessing the strategic performance of a company. However, Web analytics tools at their current state of development fall short in providing all the necessary information and data analysis functionality that is required t...

The management of cloud deployments is still largely the responsibility of system administrators. Introducing autonomy in cloud management would entail, amongst other things, the ability for automated cloud manager systems to scale up or down the number of deployed virtual machines, and/or deploy machines of different types to meet performance and...

In recent years, social media have revolutionized the way people communicate and interact with each other. This development has transformed the Internet into a more personal and participatory medium, where social networking is the top online activity. The massive amount of data, that is accumulated as a result of these online interactions, discussi...

This chapter reviews the potential benefits and challenges of knowledge-based computer game simulation as means of understanding the dynamics of global procurement and manufacturing supply chains. In particular the chapter focuses on the use of a multi agent-based framework for decision making across the supply chain, for example in raw material pr...

This chapter reviews the potential benefits and challenges of knowledge-based computer game simulation as means of understanding the dynamics of global procurement and manufacturing supply chains. In particular the chapter focuses on the use of software agents to assist decision making across the supply chain, for example in raw material procuremen...

Supply chain coordination has emerged as one of the major areas for companies to gain a competitive edge in a globalized world. Business organizations are increasingly located at the intersection of multiple supply chain networks. Managing such networks is hugely dependent on automation through combining advanced technologies such as software agent...

Web sites become more powerful when they can adjust to their users’ needs. Web personalisation refers to adapting both the content and the presentation of web sites, so that to deliver the maximum effect to the user in the most appropriate way. A main objective of web personalisation is to adapt the presentation of the web content in a manner that...

This paper demonstrates that contemporary smartphones act as effective message filtering systems in high traffic environments such as emergency response organisations, without relying on central servers. We have prototyped a mobile messaging application for Android smartphones in the Erlang language. We implemented filtering rules based on message...

The paper identifies requirements for an Information and Communication (ICT) platform for the European freight transport sector- an e-Freight Platform. The e-Freight Platform can be used to support integrated multimodal transport and improved interoperability between freight transport and administration systems. The authors illustrate the potential...

Cloud computing has made it possible to virtualise not only computing resources, but also whole business processes. A business process workflow that involves multiple participants can now be orchestrated on the Cloud using methods such as service virtualisation, message queues and dynamic message routing. This paper proposes a Cloud architecture fo...

This chapter discusses several frameworks from the literature, which address the complex interactions between IT and business in service design. It then introduces a methodology that advocates the development of a conceptual network that interrelates concepts from the business and IT domains at strategic, business process, and technological level,...

This chapter presents a service customization case study from the health sector that follows the modeling approaches presented in Chapters 5 and 6. The case study analyses the process of a patient’s admittance to a hospital. The chapter describes the factors that reflect all stakeholder views that are related to health care service design and discu...

This chapter discusses service customization from the perspective of service providers. It explains the role of service quality in customization. This chapter defines service quality and discusses several service quality models such as Servqual, Grönroos’ Model, the e-SQ Model, and others, that provide the foundation for measuring service quality a...

Virtual communities are groups of people with similar interests who meet online and together act as a learning environment, place for social support, or as bodies for influencing public opinion. In this paper, the authors identify characteristics of a virtual community that influence its members to customize e- services provided to or received by t...

This chapter analyzes the technologies that underpin organizational processes for customization and personalization. It discusses enterprise systems such as customer relationship management systems (CRM) that can assist service customization, as well as components of such systems, such as recommender tools. This chapter also introduces technologies...

This chapter investigates the service customization process from a consumer perspective. The consumer perspective of customization can be defined as all the concepts, models, processes, and theories concerned with consumer knowledge, information, behavior, and psychological traits relevant to service customization. E-service customization is diffic...

Composite applications integrate web services with other business applications and components to implement business processes. Model-driven approaches tackle the complexity of composite applications caused by domain and technology heterogeneity and integration requirements. The method and framework described in this paper generate all artefacts (wo...

This chapter is a step by step application of the customization methodology of Chapter 6 to an e-banking scenario. It exemplifies the proposed approach for service customization using a case study of loan management services and focuses on the generation of customized services, the analysis of their impact, and the resulting process redesign initia...

This chapter discusses existing service customization projects in the health sector. It first defines e-health and compiles a list of personal health management applications that range from those that provide access to electronic health records and health information, to community interaction and social media environments, and finally to decision s...

This chapter draws on the methodology for e-service customization presented in chapter 5 and presents a modeling approach for realizing the service customization strategies. The described models are a combination of object-oriented business process and task models, and of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM) that represent the interrelationships between busi...

This chapter discusses Web environments that allow users to compose services in a visual manner, without the need to write programs. This is similar to the concept of visual programming. Visual service composition can potentially make service customization by end users a possibility. By empowering users to create their customized e-services, busine...

Composite applications integrate web services with other business applications and components to implement business processes. Model-driven approaches tackle the complexity of composite applications caused by domain and technology heterogeneity and integration requirements. The method and framework described in this paper generate all artefacts (wo...

Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) has been a continuing top concern for IS/IT management, since the mid 1980’s. Responding to the increasing interest in SISP, researchers have developed a large number of SISP methodologies and models. However, when organisations embark on planning for their information systems, they face difficulties an...

Virtual communities are groups of people with similar interests who meet online and together act as a learning environment, place for social support, or as bodies for influencing public opinion. In this paper, the authors identify characteristics of a virtual community that influence its members to customize e- services provided to or received by t...

Virtual communities are groups of people with similar interests who meet online and together act as a learning environment, place for social support, or as bodies for influencing public opinion. In this paper, the authors identify characteristics of a virtual community that influence its members to customize e-services provided to or received by th...

Among different approaches in business processes modelling procedure are those in virtual and dynamic organizational environments. In this paper, a conceptual framework for modelling business processes in Virtual Organizations is suggested, by introducing Web Services technology. Web Services can be the business enabler for the new organizational f...

Mobile peer to peer (P2P) computing is becoming a major revolution in computing owing to advances in computing power, network connectivity and storage capacity of mobile devices. Mobile workflow is, however, characterized by the unreliability of mobile peers who can drop out of the network due to sudden loss of connectivity, drained battery and so...

This study investigates the potential of Virtual Communities (VCs) as a business model in the arts sector. It reports on the views of artists and the people who are interested in art with respect to the required functionality and business potential of VCs in arts. The artists who participated in the study are members of a VC which promotes contempo...

Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) has been a continuing top concern for IS/IT management, since the mid 1980's. Responding to the increasing interest in SISP, researchers have developed a large number of SISP methodologies and models. However, when organisations embark on planning for their information systems, they face difficulties an...

Summary only given. In this presentation we argue that a business value chain model drives the identification and modeling of business services, and the business oriented/technology neutral modeling language IDEF0, is used for modeling web services. We expect the next generation of advanced (i.e. intelligent/semantics-based) Web services to be gene...

Over the past few decades, organizations have witnessed dramatic changes in their environment. The globalisation of the economy with the emergence of Asia’s new economic powerhouses, the rise of the knowledge economy, the rapid growth and sometimes equally rapid decline of disruptive technologies and business models are some examples of the modern...

In Chapter II we discussed the fundamental properties and concepts of a service. Concepts like interface, contract, service provider and service consumer are universal (i.e., they apply to all types of services). However, in as much as they are intuitive and universal, service concepts such as the aforementioned lack widely agreed upon semantics. T...

Chapter II presented the main concepts underlying business services. Ultimately, as this book proposes, business services need to be decomposed into networks of executable Web services. Web services are the primary software technology available today that closely matches the characteristics of business services. To understand the mapping from busin...

Chapter III introduced standards for Web service specification, such as WSDL and SOAP. With the use of such standards, Web service designers can model the functionality of a service in terms of inputs and outputs, thus allowing the consumers of the service to understand what to expect (and what not to expect) from the service, before actually using...

Having discussed a method for service realization in Chapter VII, the service methodology that was first outlined in the Introduction of this book is now complete. We have covered the following, so far: • Service concepts and fundamentals (Chapter II). • Service identification from business models and modeling, using the IDEF0/ IDEF1X notations (Ch...

Services are something we routinely experience in everyday life as consumers. Also, depending on our profession, we may deal with services as providers. School teachers, hairdressers, and airline pilots are three examples of professions that offer services to consumers. The typical domestic dwelling is connected to several services such as services...

This book has introduced a model-driven approach for identifying, designing, deploying, and managing business services in software. The concept of e-service is an extension of conventional business services, made possible thanks to the rapid explosion in popularity of the Internet and the World Wide Web (Rust & Kannan, 2003). The first generation o...

This chapter is concerned with concepts, technologies, and standards for deploying, executing, and managing services. In previous chapters, we have argued that the design of the service must strive for a balance between offering to customers what they want and creating potential for developing additional revenue generating services. We have already...

This chapter argues that modeling is at the core of every service engineering method. Modeling not only allows us to understand business services but, what is equally important, to transform them into software-realized services. In general, models provide abstractions of a physical system that allow engineers to reason about that system while ignor...

Chapter II introduced universal service concepts (i.e. concepts that apply to any type of organization and service). In that chapter, we argued that services are so ubiquitous, that it is hard to think of any organization that does not offer services of some sort to internal (i.e., its own departments, divisions, employees) or external consumers (c...

This book has introduced a model-driven approach for identifying, designing, deploying, and managing business services in software. The concept of e-service is an extension of conventional business services, made possible thanks to the rapid explosion in popularity of the Internet and the World Wide Web (Rust & Kannan, 2003). The first generation o...

This chapter argues that modeling is at the core of every service engineering method. Modeling not only allows us to understand business services but, what is equally important, to transform them into software-realized services. In general, models provide abstractions of a physical system that allow engineers to reason about that system while ignor...

Over the past few decades, organizations have witnessed dramatic changes in their environment. The globalisation of the economy with the emergence of Asia’s new economic powerhouses, the rise of the knowledge economy, the rapid growth and sometimes equally rapid decline of disruptive technologies and business models are some examples of the modern...

This chapter is concerned with concepts, technologies, and standards for deploying, executing, and managing services. In previous chapters, we have argued that the design of the service must strive for a balance between offering to customers what they want and creating potential for developing additional revenue generating services. We have already...

Chapter II presented the main concepts underlying business services. Ultimately, as this book proposes, business services need to be decomposed into networks of executable Web services. Web services are the primary software technology available today that closely matches the characteristics of business services. To understand the mapping from busin...

In Chapter II we discussed the fundamental properties and concepts of a service. Concepts like interface, contract, service provider and service consumer are universal (i.e., they apply to all types of services). However, in as much as they are intuitive and universal, service concepts such as the aforementioned lack widely agreed upon semantics. T...

Services are something we routinely experience in everyday life as consumers. Also, depending on our profession, we may deal with services as providers. School teachers, hairdressers, and airline pilots are three examples of professions that offer services to consumers. The typical domestic dwelling is connected to several services such as services...

Chapter III introduced standards for Web service specification, such as WSDL and SOAP. With the use of such standards, Web service designers can model the functionality of a service in terms of inputs and outputs, thus allowing the consumers of the service to understand what to expect (and what not to expect) from the service, before actually using...

Having discussed a method for service realization in Chapter VII, the service methodology that was first outlined in the Introduction of this book is now complete. We have covered the following, so far: • Service concepts and fundamentals (Chapter II). • Service identification from business models and modeling, using the IDEF0/ IDEF1X notations (Ch...

This chapter introduces a service.engineering.platform (CLMS) that caters for all the phases of the service engineering life cycle. Although complete coverage of the service life cycle is important, currently, few software environments and platforms manage it, with the majority of such environments dealing with just service execution (delivery). It...

Chapter II introduced universal service concepts (i.e. concepts that apply to any type of organization and service). In that chapter, we argued that services are so ubiquitous, that it is hard to think of any organization that does not offer services of some sort to internal (i.e., its own departments, divisions, employees) or external consumers (c...

Virtual Communities (VCs) are expected to become a new business model that may spawn opportunities for the new digital economy. The business potential of VCs is mainly in terms of increased trust among their members combined with quality services that may improve customer loyalty. This paper reports the findings of an empirical study that was carri...

Business services are deliveries of capabilities to consumers. The way such capabilities are selected, combined and delivered makes for the flexibility in services provision compared to, for example, manufacturing of tangible goods. The coordination (‘orchestration’) of services is an essential requirement for the delivery of more complex services....

Integration definition for function modelling (IDEF0) is one of the most popular notations for modelling business processes. It employs a rather simple and intuitive modelling construct, consisting of boxes representing functions and arrows connecting them signifying flow of information and materials. Web services on the other hand are an emerging...

In recent years, organisations have begun to realise the importance of knowing their customers better. Customer relationship management (CRM) is an approach to managing customer related knowledge of increasing strategic significance. The successful adoption of IT-enabled CRM redefines the traditional models of interaction between businesses and the...

This paper presents the architecture of a novel Peer to Peer (P2P) workflow management system. The proposed P2P architecture is based on concepts such as a Web Workflow Peers Directory (WWPD) and Web Workflow Peer (WWP). The WWPD is an active directory system that maintains a list of all peers (WWPs) that are available to participate in Web workflo...

Due to the market-driven nature of modern organisations, it is important that they can easily adapt to changing business needs. In order to be able to do so, organisations need to employ information systems that exhibit the important characteristic of adaptability. Change, however, is risky because it encompasses unpredictable behaviours. Organisat...

Virtual communities (VCs) are formed on the Internet and are expected to evolve to a strategically important e-business model. VCs foster trust among their members and allow them to interact, exchange ideas and experiences, regardless of their geographical or ethnic origin. Organisations should consider VCs as a new market place since their members...

This chapter is concerned with Application-to-Application (A2A) integration, in dynamic heterogeneous environments, where applications are not aware of each other in advance and must therefore exchange data in a peer to peer (P2P) fashion. This is achieved via dynamic discovery of application services and integration through XML message exchange us...

When modelling inter-organisational workflow it is important not to make assumptions such as with regard to the formats of the data exchanged between the workflow participants or the technical infrastructures and platforms, as they can restrict the range of possible workflow management implementations. The approach presented in this paper allows fo...

This chapter is concerned with Application-to-Application (A2A) integration, in dynamic heterogeneous environments, where applications are not aware of each other in advance and must therefore exchange data in a peer to peer (P2P) fashion. This is achieved via dynamic discovery of application services and integration through XML message exchange us...

Electronic Commerce (EC) is expected to change dramatically the way that organisations operate. Businesses invest in Information Technology and prepare their infrastructure so that they can support EC applications. The potential of EC however, is not confined to individual companies but extends to whole nations. Governments are considered as a key...

For the last 15 years, in an attempt to successfully face the competition, organisations have been carrying out quality management initiatives such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR). A key aspect of quality management is business performance assessment and process re-design. Traditionally, the overall perfo...

Virtual communities (VCs) represent a promising area of Electronic Commerce. Members of a VC have the opportunity to access products and services information and exchange experiences and ideas, without being constrained by physical interaction or geography. Companies may also use VCs to build customer loyalty by cultivating on-line human relationsh...

This paper describes an architecture for workflow management systems based on Workflow Intelligent Business Objects (WIBOs). The design of WIBOs is based on principles of intelligence, autonomy, collaboration and co-operation. Using WIBOs that carry out tasks on users’ behalf, it is possible to build workflow systems that bring further improvements...

This paper describes the architecture of an XML based prototype system for application and business process integration in shipping organisations. The described architecture has been driven by requirements and constraints imposed b y the shipping domain, such as low bandwidth communications, heterogeneous hardware and software systems (such as ship...

Businesses become more competitive if their information sources, such as Statistical Information Systems (SIS), are designed in a way that they reflect the particular needs of the organisations, their employees, their customers and their stakeholders in general. Business needs however are not always known and stable. They change quickly due to comp...