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Use Profile Management for Standard Conformant Customisation

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The adoption of public applicative standards could improve eBusiness adoption, especially among networks of SMEs. Nevertheless the adoption of such specifications encounters obstacles and hampering factors. This paper analyses some of such factors and the experience of promoting the adoption of standards for eBusiness in sectors dominated by SME’s presence and outlines some of the actions that can be pursued through the adoption of use profiles. The paper also present an approach for the management of use profiles, that appear as a way to overcome some of the major problems arising from the nature of the standardised specifications and to reduce the efforts necessary to achieve true interoperability between systems.
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... In order to meet the requirements for interoperability in SMEs networks the project focused on three aspects: -clear, free, easy to use documentation of the specifications (targeting different potential types of users) and availability of a set of related public resources (XML Schema, XSL, samples, technical user guides, use profiles, tools, economical benefit studies) and related tool for automatic documentation creation/maintenance/change management (eBIZ 09) -adoption of use profiles and strict typing to reduce Redundancy and Uncertainty in the specifications in order to reduce the efforts a) to map internal processes and data models towards the specifications, b) to reconcile different implementations of the same specifications. A first method to measure these parameters was proposed (Brutti et al., 2010) -clear identification of the different layers of decisions (figure 4) that are necessary to reduce Redundancy and Uncertainty in the implementation: from the general standard model (UBL) to the sectorial use profile (eBIZ-TCF) to the intercompany agreement (firms through ebXML) (Brutti et al., 2010). Brutti et al., 2010). ...
... In order to meet the requirements for interoperability in SMEs networks the project focused on three aspects: -clear, free, easy to use documentation of the specifications (targeting different potential types of users) and availability of a set of related public resources (XML Schema, XSL, samples, technical user guides, use profiles, tools, economical benefit studies) and related tool for automatic documentation creation/maintenance/change management (eBIZ 09) -adoption of use profiles and strict typing to reduce Redundancy and Uncertainty in the specifications in order to reduce the efforts a) to map internal processes and data models towards the specifications, b) to reconcile different implementations of the same specifications. A first method to measure these parameters was proposed (Brutti et al., 2010) -clear identification of the different layers of decisions (figure 4) that are necessary to reduce Redundancy and Uncertainty in the implementation: from the general standard model (UBL) to the sectorial use profile (eBIZ-TCF) to the intercompany agreement (firms through ebXML) (Brutti et al., 2010). Brutti et al., 2010). ...
... A first method to measure these parameters was proposed (Brutti et al., 2010) -clear identification of the different layers of decisions (figure 4) that are necessary to reduce Redundancy and Uncertainty in the implementation: from the general standard model (UBL) to the sectorial use profile (eBIZ-TCF) to the intercompany agreement (firms through ebXML) (Brutti et al., 2010). Brutti et al., 2010). ...
Chapter
This paper presents the experience that is running in the Textile, Clothing and Footwear industry under the framework of the European project eBIZ-TCF as a case of standardisation in industrial sectors that are characterised by the large presence of SMEs. The activities are presented in connection with previous initiatives that constitute the industrial and technological background of such initiative. In fact it is a long way that leaded the actors of the project to identify the requirements and remove the bottlenecks that hamper eBusiness adoption in a crucial part of the European manufacturing industry.
... The complexity of the specification as an entry barrier in interoperability standards' adoption and the definition of User Profile and the adoption of methodologies and tools to facilitate their adoption are evidenced and proposed by [12] The adoption of a testing strategy in order to speed up the deployment of interoperable solutions is suggested in [13] [14]. Despite this, the lack of the adoption of a standard from SMEs to support the interoperability and the exchange of the information among the Supply Chain remain a critical aspect in the TCF Industry [15]. ...
Chapter
The present paper aims to analyse the main barriers and drivers that obstacle and push the adoption of an eBusiness standard, such as eBIZ, and IoT technology, such as RFId, within the fashion industry. This purpose represents the first step of the European project “eBIZ 4.0—Enhancing textile/clothing sector by eBIZ and RFIds technologies adoption”, aiming to promote the integration between RFId technology and eBIZ standard for improving data interoperability among companies operating along the fashion supply chain. The tool used for this kind of analysis has been an online survey dispatched to the mailing list of all the project partners belong to different European Community countries and involving both software houses and fashion companies. The survey results have been crossed with the external variables that characterize the analysed companies, in order to classify the evidences related to one or another cluster of companies similar in terms of external variables such as dimension, headquarter location, industry segment.
Chapter
Purpose. This paper aims to define the overall Made in Italy perception within the on-line and off-line contexts. Particularly, authors attempt to consider three main aspects; the first one regards the key product categories linked to the Made in Italy production; the second aspect concerns the key characteristics linked to the Italy Country Image and the overall sentiment related to it. Finally, the research aims at identifying whether Italian brands enhance their Country of Origin (COO) image or not.
Article
E-Business standards, or standards for interoperability, are developed outside the traditional standard development organizations, often within industry specific domain organizations. These organizations need some guidance in how to develop and manage standards for their specific domain in order to achieve long lasting standards that actually achieve interoperability between organizations. The Dutch government, together with the standards community, decided to publish a tool called BOMOS for giving guidance to the management and development of open standards. BOMOS is not profoundly grounded on scientific evidence, but it builds on the best practices already used in domain standardization. This chapter will present two highlights of BOMOS: the activity model for management of standardization, and a development approach for standards.
Article
Data standards should play an important role in achieving inter-organizational interoperability. Millions are spent on development and adoption of these standards, but does it lead to interoperability? This important question is often not addressed. In this study data interoperability in the Dutch temporary staffing industry is studied by focusing on the quality of the SETU standard and its implementations in practice. The Stichting Elektronische Transacties Uitzendbranche (foundation for electronic transactions in the staffing industry) or SETU, develops and maintains standards for exchange of electronic data in the staffing industry. Our results show that although the SETU standard is equipped for achieving interoperability, this in practice has not been achieved due to low quality implementations. We raise the question why these studies are not being performed on every standard. Another result is that localizations (profiles) may be needed for high quality standards; without localizations interoperability is limited in the SETU case.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper presents the experience that is running in the Textile, Clothing and Footwear industry under the framework of the European project eBIZ-TCF as a case of standardisation in industrial sectors that are characterised by the large presence of SMEs. The activities are presented in connection with previous initiatives that constitute the industrial and technological background of such initiative. In fact it is a long way that leaded the actors of the project to identify the requirements and remove the bottlenecks that hamper eBusiness adoption in a crucial part of the European manufacturing industry.
Article
This paper presents the experience that is running in the Textile, Clothing and Footwear industry under the framework of the European project eBIZ-TCF as a case of standardisation in industrial sectors that are characterised by the large presence of SMEs. The activities are presented in connection with previous initiatives that constitute the industrial and technological background of such initiative. In fact it is a long way that leaded the actors of the project to identify the requirements and remove the bottlenecks that hamper eBusiness adoption in a crucial part of the European manufacturing industry.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The MODA-ML project aims to enhance the interoperability between enterprises in the Textile/Clothing sector defining a common interchange language based on a set of XML business components and on a framework to exchange business documents related to production processes. The message switching system is built on a peer-to-peer architecture and is based for the transport specification on the ebXML standards. In order to enforce this architecture a set of tools has been developed to face the security and the maintenance of the system, and to encourage the diffusion of MODA -ML framework. Some considerations on the first phase of the experimentation conducted by a group of leading Italian T/C enterprises are presented at the end of the paper.
Book
Interoperability: the ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without special effort from the user is a key issue in manufacturing and industrial enterprise generally. It is fundamental to the production of goods and services quickly and at low cost at the same time as maintaining levels of quality and customisation. Interoperability is achieved if internal and external collaborators can interact on at least three levels: data, applications and business enterprise (through the architecture of an enterprise model and making allowance for the semantics of both partners). Not only a problem of software and IT technologies, it implies support for communication and transactions between different organisations that must be based on shared business references. Today, a new and important consideration must be taken into account – economic business evaluation and the definition of dissemination policy. Composed of over 90 papers, Enterprise Interoperability II ranges from academic research through case studies to industrial and administrative experience of interoperability. The international nature of the authorship continues to broaden. Many of the papers have examples and illustrations calculated to deepen understanding and generate new ideas. The I-ESA’07 conference from which this book is drawn was sponsored by the European Union via the INTEROP network of excellence and the ATHENA integrated project (in the frame of the 6th IST Framework Research Program). It is also supported by the International Federation for Information Processing, the International Federation of Automatic Control and various national associations. A concise reference to the state of the art in software interoperability, Enterprise Interoperability II will be of great value to engineers and computer scientists working in manufacturing and other process industries and to software engineers and electronic and manufacturing engineers working in the academic environment.
Conference Paper
This paper looks at two different approaches to the development of standards in sectors with a strong presence of SMEs. A case study explores Covisint, one of the automotive industry's major electronic markets, as an example of a sector-specific approach to standards setting. This approach eventually failed, and the reasons for this failure are identified and analysed. The committee-based approach to standardisation is subsequently discussed. Theoretical deliberations, together with the outcome of a survey, lead to a number of recommendations how more relevant standards could be produced, and how the role of SMEs in standards setting could be improved.
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