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