building blocks for a virtual distributed enterprise

IADIS International Conference e-Society 2007

BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A VIRTUAL DISTRIBUTED ENTERPRISE George Asimakopoulos Computer Engineering and Informatics Department, University of Patras, Greece & Technological Educational Institute of Mesolongi, Nafpaktos Greece Nafpaktos Antirrio National Road, 30300, Greece

George Polizos and Vassilis Triantafillou Technological Educational Institute of Mesolongi, Nafpaktos Greece Nafpaktos Antirrio National Road, 30300, Greece

ABSTRACT Many knowledge intensive enterprises face the need to adopt a distributed organization model in order to achieve a multi point presence so that they can exploit both local markets and to utilize highly skilled personnel that is sighted in universities and research centers. This paper presents an information system architecture that can enable and support a distributed virtual business model based on management and organizational best practices. KEYWORDS Enterprise organization, business software, virtual enterprise, collaborative software environments, knowledge management, distributed enterprise.

1. INTRODUCTION Knowledge intensive enterprises, such as IT sector companies, rely heavily on the degree of collaboration that is built up among co-workers. There has been a lot of research developed on such issues over the past few years. In order to achieve a high level of collaboration, information systems along with company mentality are being put under consideration. Such organizations are often forced by business and technological factors to adopt a distributed organization model. Due to a number of reasons that mainly are related to local markets and proximity to research centers and technology originators. Thus, such companies often end up having multiple premises operating that are sighted in different geographical locations that can extend over different countries. A company with such an organizational scheme in order to be competitive via utilizing every available knowledge asset regardless of this asset’s location and the location that knowledge is required must utilize a framework infrastructure. Even more, due to the intense competition such companies are stressed by, mergers and acquisitions are a very common situation, making seamless distributed operation a bounden need. This paper presents an architecture that has been during the development of METHODIKA, a toolbox that aims at providing both a software infrastructure and a methodology that enables distributed enterprises to operate seamlessly regardless of premise location. METHODIKA is being co-developed in a real life distributed environment, along with two medium sized IT companies that are heavily distributed, in various locations and which have acquired recently other companies, thus issues that require further research have already emerged. In the heart of the METHODIKA project lays the concept that in order to truly enable distributed operation, a holistic approach is required, along with analyzing business sector specific attributes. This is why METHODIKA focuses on business operations, processes and transformation methodologies as much as on software tools and platforms.

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The presented architecture includes methods, tools and a development process. METHODIKA takes into account mature and standardized technologies that are widely available. METHODIKA is developed under a project that is co-funded by the Greek government and the European Union. The project duration is 18 months and it started in March 2006 and will end at October 2007. 1

2. THE METHODIKA APPROACH 2.1 METHODIKA Development Process In order to build METHODIKA, it is essential to engage people that have a wide variety of skills, ranging from IT experts to organizational and managerial theory experts. This implies that the development should be broken up in a manner that would allow different expertise groups to function independently, while enabling seamless collaboration. Another important aspect of the development process is that in every step the end user is included at all times. The end users are the two IT companies that participate in the project, so all work is done in collaboration with these end users. In order to achieve the project goals, the following steps have been defined:

2.1.1 Review State of the Art and selected case studies During this step the project team collects and analyzes available best practices and reviews case studies in order to adopt the most relevant and competitive methods and tools that can help enabling a distributed virtual enterprise. The review is a critical tool that enables rational decision making in the following process steps. The state of the art review extends to both technological and organizational research, trying to tackle the business needs of both companies.

2.1.2 Requirement Analysis and Existing Organization Model Analysis The project team undertakes a standardized requirement analysis procedure that is applied on the real life processes of the participating companies. Via this requirement analysis business organization areas that need to be altered are brought to light, business processes that will be altered are spotted and recorded in a typical manner. This step is critical for the project development, as the out coming requirement analysis drives the following project activities as it highlights both the project objectives and the operational areas that will be the object of further research.

2.1.3 Distributed Organizational System Specification During this step the project team selects the processes that will be transformed and describes these processes in their new form using standardized process description methodologies (IDEF standard). Only a subset of the processes that are highlighted from the previous step will be selected based on their organizational importance and the research interest they present. Such processes may orient from HR functions, software development, marketing and sales etc. Via this step a complete specification is derived which appoints the desired company operation and the functionality that a IT system must present in order to support such distributed operation.

2.1.4 Business System Modeling and Transition Methodology Following the two previous steps a sound and typical methodology will be developed. This methodology will denote both a business model that must be adopted by a distributed company and a sequence of tasks that must be completed in order to achieve the transition to a distributed virtual organization. These results are relevant to companies that belong to the sector that the two investigated companies belong to.

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The METHODIKA project is funded by the GSRT (General Secretariat of Research and Technology) of the Hellenic Ministry of Development via the “R&D Conglomeration” program which runs under the action “3.4 Linking Research and Production” of the “Western Greece Operational Program”.

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IADIS International Conference e-Society 2007

2.1.5 Business System Application and Software Development and Deployment Based on the results that are derived from the previous steps, a set of software tools is developed. These tools will support and enforce the observance of the new processes and business roles of the transformed distributed enterprise. This tool set includes a workflow management system, collaboration tools etc. Special effort is being applied in order to select as many tools as possible from available open source software. Along with the completion of the software toolbox, the new distributed business model is applied to both companies. This means that the research results are tested in a real life environment, which provides fine tuning and measuring possibilities that may lead to a commercial commodity.

2.2 METHODIKA Description and Architecture The METHODIKA project aims to implement a set of software tools that are integrated into a software platform that enables and enforces processes that are derived from the desired distributed organizational structure. These software tools are selected by input that emerges from organizational, cultural and business function requirements that are set by the two companies that are under investigation. Thus, this approach is suitable for IT software companies that are operating in a distributed manner. This platform is assembled by a set of discrete subsystems, which are briefly set forth and shortly described in the following list (see also Figure 1. METHODIKA architecture).

Figure 1. METHODIKA architecture • • • • •

Distributed software development environment that will enable the distributed operation of the core process, which is software development. Knowledge management subsystem that mainly facilitates knowledge exchange and diffusion throughout all company venues. On line real time communication system that incorporates both voice and video images. This subsystem aims at facilitating a mean of communication between co-workers that are sighted at different geographical locations, attempting to substitute real life contact that is developed in such workplaces. Synchronous and asynchronous e-learning system, that will be utilized in order to diffuse structured and standardized knowledge across the distributed organization in a typical manner. Project Management subsystem that is capable of managing distributed processes and takes into account issues such as remote project teams, tele-working techniques etc.

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Customer Relationship Management system that manages customer relations transparently regardless of geographical issues. • Enterprise resource planning subsystem that is capable of managing distributed procedures transparently. • Integrated interface subsystem that will present the system through an internet enabled portal. These subsystems are built using software modules and technologies which can be utilized by more than one subsystem and are selected so that they can be integrated with each other. Following is a list of the main software modules that are utilized and adopted by METHODIKA. • Repository which serves as an information storage mechanism that takes into account the systems distributed nature. • Project event tracker, dashboard. • HR allocation and time scheduling • Workflow management system • Offline communication modules such as forums and email. • Authentication and user management. • Secure VPN and WAN. • Reporting module. • Code versioning system and code library. • Application and desktop sharing that performs session recording. • Voice to text module. • Data retrieval module for all information stored within the system.

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3. CONCLUSION In this paper we have presented the METHODIKA project approach for the design and implementation of a system that aims at enabling the distributed operation of software development companies. The design is based on requirements that emerge from two real life companies that are already operating in a distributed manner thus have revealed issues that require further research. In order to build such a system that integrates well formed and mature software modules in order to build a set of software tools that are seamlessly integrated under an internet portal application. Future work involves the Business system modeling and transition methodology formulation and the application of the transformed business system and the software application development and deployment for both of the involved companies. After that, the project will be evaluated and further research areas will emerge based on real life situations that are being dealt with by both companies.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to than all METHODIKA partners for their collaboration and their contribution to our work.

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