DIP: Data, Information and Process Integration with Semantic Web Services

Alexander Wahler, NIWA WEB Solutions

Frankfurt 17.1.2003

Content

• NIWA WEB Solutions• Tiscali Österreich GmbH• Case Study ISP• NIWA, Tiscali objectives and

expectations to DIP

NIWA WEB Solutions

• NIWA founded in 1998 by Alexander Wahler & Klaus Niederacher

• Background: Research in Internet based Information Systems at University of Technology, Vienna. Experience in EU founded projects

• IT-Service Provider• Success Stories: Sony Austria, Porsche

Austria, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanova Pharma, T-Systems, ...

NIWA WEB Solutions

• IT-Consulting– Innovation and Product Development– Knowledge Transfer– Focus on “Semantic Web Services”

• Current Research and Development – MIKSI – Web-Services for Marketing,

Information and Communication for Cultural Institutions

– CFA – Contemporary Fashion Archive

• Site Management & IT-Services

Tiscali Österreich GmbH

• Subsidiary of Tiscali S.p.A. • Tiscali S.p.A. – leading pan-European

Internet Communication Company– Local Operations in 15 European countries– Providing: Access, content, applications,

innovative communication services– 20,5 registered subscribers; 7 million

active users (06/2002)– Strong position on the Austrian B2B market

• NIWA consultant of Tiscali Österreich

Tiscali Österreich GmbH

• Leading Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Austria

• Focus on Business Customers• Expansion by acquisition of

Nacamar/World Online, SurfEU, Vianet,...• Product power spectrum: connectivity,

VPN solutions, hosting, housing, security• Expansion to Eastern European

Countries planned• CEO Dieter Haacker

Semantic Web Services – Impact on ISP Business

Case Study

Content

• Motivation• Measures• Model• Solutions• Methods of E-Commerce • Examples of E-Commerce• Conclusion

Motivation

• Strong displacement competition• Low turnover and cost effectiveness• Saturation of the market for

standard services

Economic Measures

• Set new measures to rise turnover and cost effectiveness– Automation of product selling– Enhancements and improvements in

provisioning– Expansion of sales channels– Optimisation of offered product

portfolio– Creative configuration of existing basic

services into new bundles of products and services

Technical Measures

• Achieving these measures implies:– Flexible and dynamic set-up and

organisation of product portfolio – Possibility of permanent adaptation to

market needs– Cross linking, communication and data-

exchange of all involved applications (e.g. billing, accounting, provisioning, CRM, ...)

Model

Solutions

• Semantic Web Services – problems to solve (selection):– Determination of applications exposing

as web service -> definition of criteria– Bridging semantic differences in web-

service description– Easy to use and invocation of semantic

web services– Flexibility in building new semantic

web-services

Methods of E-Commerce

• Business Model:– Virtual Internet Service Provider (VISP)

• B2B Services– ISP offers new portal services

E-Commerce - VISP

• Virtual Internet Service Provider– Classical reseller principle – Third Party Companies sell Tiscali

services under their own label– VISP offer their customers individual

products based on Tiscali services according to their business policy

– High automation level of trading– Examples of VISP: portal operators,

electricity supplier, expansion to other countries

E-Commerce - VISP

• Critical success factors:– Processing of the product catalogue

(current > 4000)– Heterogeneity in the product catalogue– Promote the product catalogue to VISP– Flexibility and dynamic in handling of

different trading modes with each customer (e.g. pricing, product bundles, level of data-exchange)

– Automation of accounting, billing

E-Commerce – B2B services

• Services for business customers:– ISP-Portal as gateway for new business

services– Customers may invoke related services

according to their business needs– Customers composite and configure their

individual business services consisting of other services, which are provided by the ISP or other suppliers over the Web

– Automated billing and accounting

Examples of E-Commerce

• Marketing manager of a pharma company introduces new product. The following process has to be modelled and should be executed automated by one Web Service

• Check of available internet domains for product name (.at, .com, ...)

• Check of available patent for product name • If check=true, then ...

– Register domains – Register patent (external service)– Order webspace (vhost)

Examples of E-Commerce

• Web Services for monitoring data-sources from the web and alert, when special events occur:– E.g. send me an SMS, when YEN

declines under x.x Euro and company X in Singapore announces insolvency

Conclusion

• Success in E-Commerce depends on successful EAI process of heterogeneous information systems

• Billing and accounting of invoked services is a driving force

• Easy to use and reusable• Easy definition of new temporary Web

Services according to my business needs, which discover and invoke existing Web Services

Objectives in DIP

• Analysis and development of new e-commerce methods for ISP based on semantic web-services

• Development of ISP product descriptions and catalogues (ontology)

• Development and implementation of „real world“ Semantic Web Services

• Participation in training activities

Tiscali in DIP

• Implementation of DIP methods and models of Semantic Web Services

• Case studies and applications in:– Enterprise Application Integration– E–Commerce

• Exploitation

NIWA in DIP

• Knowledge transfer university – industry

• Case studies and applications in:– Knowledge Management – E–Commerce

• Dissemination