Description
The internetworking and the outsourcing of business activities have become essential in the short term to maintain competitiveness in the market, as it allows to signi cantly reduce time and cost of core business processes.
Knowledge and Business Intelligence
Technologies in Cross-Enterprise Environments
for Italian Advanced Mechanical Industry
- Project Presentation -
Francesco Arigliano
3
, Antonia Azzini
1
, Chiara Braghin
1
, Antonio Caforio
2
,
Paolo Ceravolo
1
, Ernesto Damiani
1
, Vincenzo Savarino
3
, Claudia Vicari
3
, and
Francesco Zavatarelli
1
1
SESAR Lab - Dipartimento di Informatica
Universit` a degli Studi di Milano, Italy
Email: {name.surname}@unimi.it
2
Centro Cultura Innovativa d’Impresa, Universit del Salento, Lecce, Italy
Email: {name.surname}@unisalento.it
3
Research & Development Laboratory - Engineering, Ingegneria Informatica, Italy
Email: {name.surname}@eng.it
Abstract. The internetworking and the outsourcing of business activi-
ties have become essential in the short term to maintain competitiveness
in the market, as it allows to signi?cantly reduce time and cost of core
business processes. However, outsourcing, increasing the level of informa-
tion sharing, imposes new precautions to maintain, in the medium and
long-term, strategic control over the knowledge produced and exchanged,
both in terms of “know-how” and “know-that”. Especially for SMEs, his
implies substantial risk of a technological nature, in that it requires com-
plex and extremely expensive technological framework. KITE.it aims to
develop a methodological and technological framework to support the
transition of the advanced mechanical supply chains towards Value Net-
work models able to guarantee:
– interoperability and cooperation between ?rms and individuals in the
network;
– the management and securing of the intellectual capital;
– measurement and performance optimization.
Key words: Business Process Management, Data Analysis
1 Introduction
The exit from the great global crisis towards a new cycle of development re-
quires to move from organizational and inter-organizational models, based on
a strict de?nition of roles and organizational boundaries, to structures de?ned
as a Value Network (VN): an organizational structure by ?uid boundaries and
the complex relational dynamics in which individuals, groups and organizations
thrive through complex processes of interchange and integration of value, based
104
Fig. 1. KITE.it end to end methodology
on the network paradigm[2]. In this context, the competitiveness of the Made in
Italy must be defended and enhanced rede?ning business models and business
processes according to the VM Paradigm. We de?ne VN as the integration of
a Business Network (or network of enterprises) and the corresponding Social
Network: the ?rst characterized by the mediation of the economic value, while
the second by the mediation of knowledge and intellectual capital of knowledge
workers. In an increasingly, uncertain and changeable market, business agility
is the mantra of knowledge driven organization [1]. A variety of tools and tech-
nologies were developed to simplify the communication among organizations and
people across the VN. These tools are focused on information sharing and are
characterized by the ability to integrate information systems, to connect the
processes of an organization to those of suppliers and make the process acces-
sible to the customers. Exhortation to collaboration, sharing, cooperation and
the ability to rapidly set up their business and the value network in which an
organization operates, is hampered by several kinds of issues, such as the dis-
semination of know-how, and this could damage the company. KITE.it project,
is aimed at providing the conceptual, methodological and technological tool to
maximize the ability to obtain agile, collaborative and social business in a se-
cure manner, that is minimizing the risk. Therefore the fundamental ambition
is the safe business agility; which means that both the process and the entire
organization needs to be ?exible.
2 KITE.it Methodology
An agile organization is expected to adapt itself to a changing environment
proactively. Such adjustment should be done quickly at the level of modeling and
implementation: a modi?ed model is to be transferred seamlessly and quickly to
the computer systems supporting the organization.
KITE.it “End to End” Methodology manages iteratively the entire business
life cycle both at strategic and operational level. At the strategic level the ex-
ogenous variables and the value network in which the organization operate are
105
Fig. 2. Elements of the Strategy phase
analyzed. At the operational level, the strategy and the corporate policies are
realized by an architecture of core processes supported by support processes.
The big picture of KITE.it methodology is very simple. As described in Fig.1,
it consists of two main iterative phases, which correspond to the two levels of
analysis the methodology is based on: Strategy and Operations, preceded by a
initial bootstrap phase in which teams are set up and the methodology imple-
mentation plan is established. As described in Fig.2, in the Strategy phase we
identify four iterative steps:
– Strategic Analysis S.
– Goal Setting S2.
– KPI and Target S3.
– Risk and Policies S4.
2.1 Strategical Analysis S1
After an analysis of the value network environment (socio-economic-political),
it is necessary:
– to establish the vision,
– to analyze the value networks in which the company operates by identifying
roles and value ?ows,
– and ?nally to de?ne the value proposition.
The E3Value method [3] is indicated by KITE.it methodology as the preferred
notation to model Value Networks. In addition, services to be implemented or
modi?ed are identi?ed. The last step of this phase is to establish the value chain,
that is the core processes that will be linked with the goals identi?ed in step S2.
106
2.2 Goal Setting S2
At this stage strategic goals, that the organization wants to achieve, are identi-
?ed. This analysis is done according to four di?erent perspectives:
– Financial.
– Value Network.
– Processes.
– Learning and growth.
These perspectives are borrowed from the BSC methodology [4] (balanced
scorecards) in which the Customer perspective is extended to the Value Network
and the Internal Process perspective is extended to cover collaborative processes.
2.3 KPI and Target S3
All goals previously identi?ed are mapped to key performance indicators and
target values, that give the possibility to check the distance from each goal
achievement. Trough the objective identi?ed in the scorecard perspectives, at this
stage we establish all the measures with a low level of detail. In the operational
phase methodology such measures will become detailed process metrics.
2.4 Risk and Policies S4
The ?nal step in this phase gathers business requirements for the operational
phase, policies that will support the objectives are established and the business
risks associated with the objectives and any policies to mitigate them are identi-
?ed. The Strategy phase is iterative by nature and therefore the steps described
are repeated until a stable and shared strategic model is obtained. These itera-
tions may a?ect structural changes: once a risk is identi?ed and its probability
and impact is assessed, it may be necessary not only to review the objectives
and the policies, but sometimes even the value proposition with profound e?ects
on the organization. In order to carry out this phase in a truly e?ective way, it
is needed the active involvement of the top management. As described in Fig.2,
in the Operation phase we identify four iterative steps:
– Business modeling - O1.
– De?ne Metrics - O2.
– Enacts - O3.
– Monitoring - O4.
2.5 Business Modeling - O1
This is the stage where the requirements of the strategic analysis become business
models or diagrams; di?erent models will be de?ned to establish the process
architecture, the organizational structure, processes at various levels of detail,
the business decisions and the operational risks associated with the processes.
107
Fig. 3. Elements of the Operation phase
2.6 De?ne Metrics - O2
Starting from performance indicators, identi?ed in the step S3 of the Strategy
phase, the measures to be carried out on individual processes and methods for
the recovery of the necessary information are set out in detail. The KITE.it
methodology provides a model for the metrics speci?cally de?ned by the project.
2.7 Enacts - O3
At this stage the models are ingrained into the organization’s operations. The
necessary components will be developed and put into production with the pro-
cesses by integrating all in an environment of social cooperation.
2.8 Monitoring - O4
The Monitoring stage is critical to ensure the ability:
– to continuously improve the performance of the organization,
– to verify the achievement of strategic objectives,
– and to control risks.
Using the information about the process, and the security and SNA measures,
we will be able to close the loop and to reiterate the end-to-end methodology
by restarting from the Strategic analysis (S1) or from Business modeling (O1)
to make ever more e?ective the action of the business.
108
Fig. 4. Kite.it integrated BPM approach
3 Data Loss Prevention Scenario
Our ?rst investigations was related to a Data Loss Prevention Scenario. The loss
of sensitive information are critical for organization, solutions for preventing data
leakage incidents are based on systems designed to detect potential data breach
transmissions and prevent them by blocking data while in-use (endpoint actions),
in-motion (network tra?c), and at-rest (data storage)[5]. These systems provides
logs describing the interactions among the organization and are typically able
to track the originator and addressee of a data transmission, together with the
action operated on data. Using this information KITE.it tacks the dynamics
on the exchange of intellectual capital within the VN. In fact, the DLP system
allows to extract information about the manufacturing process, the collaboration
process and the social network of the interactions. The objective of KITE.it is
to provide an uni?ed view on these dimensions providing integrated metrics to
enhance Business Process Monitoring, as illustrated in Fig.4.
Acknowledgements
This work was partly funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development
under the Industria 2015 contract -KITE.it project.
109
References
[1] Allee, V.: The future of knowledge: Increasing prosperity through value
networks. Routledge (2003)
[2] Prahalad, C.K., Ramaswamy, V.: The future of competition. Harvard Busi-
ness School Press, Boston, MA (2004)
[3] Gordijn, J., Akkermans, H., Van Vliet, J.: Designing and evaluating e-
business models. IEEE intelligent Systems 16(4) (2001) 11–17
[4] Kaplan, R., Kaplan, R.S., Norton, D.P.: The balanced scorecard: translating
strategy into action. Harvard Business Press (1996)
[5] Shabtai, A., Elovici, Y., Rokach, L.: A taxonomy of data leakage prevention
solutions. In: A Survey of Data Leakage Detection and Prevention Solutions.
Springer (2012) 11–15
110
doc_790383159.pdf
The internetworking and the outsourcing of business activities have become essential in the short term to maintain competitiveness in the market, as it allows to signi cantly reduce time and cost of core business processes.
Knowledge and Business Intelligence
Technologies in Cross-Enterprise Environments
for Italian Advanced Mechanical Industry
- Project Presentation -
Francesco Arigliano
3
, Antonia Azzini
1
, Chiara Braghin
1
, Antonio Caforio
2
,
Paolo Ceravolo
1
, Ernesto Damiani
1
, Vincenzo Savarino
3
, Claudia Vicari
3
, and
Francesco Zavatarelli
1
1
SESAR Lab - Dipartimento di Informatica
Universit` a degli Studi di Milano, Italy
Email: {name.surname}@unimi.it
2
Centro Cultura Innovativa d’Impresa, Universit del Salento, Lecce, Italy
Email: {name.surname}@unisalento.it
3
Research & Development Laboratory - Engineering, Ingegneria Informatica, Italy
Email: {name.surname}@eng.it
Abstract. The internetworking and the outsourcing of business activi-
ties have become essential in the short term to maintain competitiveness
in the market, as it allows to signi?cantly reduce time and cost of core
business processes. However, outsourcing, increasing the level of informa-
tion sharing, imposes new precautions to maintain, in the medium and
long-term, strategic control over the knowledge produced and exchanged,
both in terms of “know-how” and “know-that”. Especially for SMEs, his
implies substantial risk of a technological nature, in that it requires com-
plex and extremely expensive technological framework. KITE.it aims to
develop a methodological and technological framework to support the
transition of the advanced mechanical supply chains towards Value Net-
work models able to guarantee:
– interoperability and cooperation between ?rms and individuals in the
network;
– the management and securing of the intellectual capital;
– measurement and performance optimization.
Key words: Business Process Management, Data Analysis
1 Introduction
The exit from the great global crisis towards a new cycle of development re-
quires to move from organizational and inter-organizational models, based on
a strict de?nition of roles and organizational boundaries, to structures de?ned
as a Value Network (VN): an organizational structure by ?uid boundaries and
the complex relational dynamics in which individuals, groups and organizations
thrive through complex processes of interchange and integration of value, based
104
Fig. 1. KITE.it end to end methodology
on the network paradigm[2]. In this context, the competitiveness of the Made in
Italy must be defended and enhanced rede?ning business models and business
processes according to the VM Paradigm. We de?ne VN as the integration of
a Business Network (or network of enterprises) and the corresponding Social
Network: the ?rst characterized by the mediation of the economic value, while
the second by the mediation of knowledge and intellectual capital of knowledge
workers. In an increasingly, uncertain and changeable market, business agility
is the mantra of knowledge driven organization [1]. A variety of tools and tech-
nologies were developed to simplify the communication among organizations and
people across the VN. These tools are focused on information sharing and are
characterized by the ability to integrate information systems, to connect the
processes of an organization to those of suppliers and make the process acces-
sible to the customers. Exhortation to collaboration, sharing, cooperation and
the ability to rapidly set up their business and the value network in which an
organization operates, is hampered by several kinds of issues, such as the dis-
semination of know-how, and this could damage the company. KITE.it project,
is aimed at providing the conceptual, methodological and technological tool to
maximize the ability to obtain agile, collaborative and social business in a se-
cure manner, that is minimizing the risk. Therefore the fundamental ambition
is the safe business agility; which means that both the process and the entire
organization needs to be ?exible.
2 KITE.it Methodology
An agile organization is expected to adapt itself to a changing environment
proactively. Such adjustment should be done quickly at the level of modeling and
implementation: a modi?ed model is to be transferred seamlessly and quickly to
the computer systems supporting the organization.
KITE.it “End to End” Methodology manages iteratively the entire business
life cycle both at strategic and operational level. At the strategic level the ex-
ogenous variables and the value network in which the organization operate are
105
Fig. 2. Elements of the Strategy phase
analyzed. At the operational level, the strategy and the corporate policies are
realized by an architecture of core processes supported by support processes.
The big picture of KITE.it methodology is very simple. As described in Fig.1,
it consists of two main iterative phases, which correspond to the two levels of
analysis the methodology is based on: Strategy and Operations, preceded by a
initial bootstrap phase in which teams are set up and the methodology imple-
mentation plan is established. As described in Fig.2, in the Strategy phase we
identify four iterative steps:
– Strategic Analysis S.
– Goal Setting S2.
– KPI and Target S3.
– Risk and Policies S4.
2.1 Strategical Analysis S1
After an analysis of the value network environment (socio-economic-political),
it is necessary:
– to establish the vision,
– to analyze the value networks in which the company operates by identifying
roles and value ?ows,
– and ?nally to de?ne the value proposition.
The E3Value method [3] is indicated by KITE.it methodology as the preferred
notation to model Value Networks. In addition, services to be implemented or
modi?ed are identi?ed. The last step of this phase is to establish the value chain,
that is the core processes that will be linked with the goals identi?ed in step S2.
106
2.2 Goal Setting S2
At this stage strategic goals, that the organization wants to achieve, are identi-
?ed. This analysis is done according to four di?erent perspectives:
– Financial.
– Value Network.
– Processes.
– Learning and growth.
These perspectives are borrowed from the BSC methodology [4] (balanced
scorecards) in which the Customer perspective is extended to the Value Network
and the Internal Process perspective is extended to cover collaborative processes.
2.3 KPI and Target S3
All goals previously identi?ed are mapped to key performance indicators and
target values, that give the possibility to check the distance from each goal
achievement. Trough the objective identi?ed in the scorecard perspectives, at this
stage we establish all the measures with a low level of detail. In the operational
phase methodology such measures will become detailed process metrics.
2.4 Risk and Policies S4
The ?nal step in this phase gathers business requirements for the operational
phase, policies that will support the objectives are established and the business
risks associated with the objectives and any policies to mitigate them are identi-
?ed. The Strategy phase is iterative by nature and therefore the steps described
are repeated until a stable and shared strategic model is obtained. These itera-
tions may a?ect structural changes: once a risk is identi?ed and its probability
and impact is assessed, it may be necessary not only to review the objectives
and the policies, but sometimes even the value proposition with profound e?ects
on the organization. In order to carry out this phase in a truly e?ective way, it
is needed the active involvement of the top management. As described in Fig.2,
in the Operation phase we identify four iterative steps:
– Business modeling - O1.
– De?ne Metrics - O2.
– Enacts - O3.
– Monitoring - O4.
2.5 Business Modeling - O1
This is the stage where the requirements of the strategic analysis become business
models or diagrams; di?erent models will be de?ned to establish the process
architecture, the organizational structure, processes at various levels of detail,
the business decisions and the operational risks associated with the processes.
107
Fig. 3. Elements of the Operation phase
2.6 De?ne Metrics - O2
Starting from performance indicators, identi?ed in the step S3 of the Strategy
phase, the measures to be carried out on individual processes and methods for
the recovery of the necessary information are set out in detail. The KITE.it
methodology provides a model for the metrics speci?cally de?ned by the project.
2.7 Enacts - O3
At this stage the models are ingrained into the organization’s operations. The
necessary components will be developed and put into production with the pro-
cesses by integrating all in an environment of social cooperation.
2.8 Monitoring - O4
The Monitoring stage is critical to ensure the ability:
– to continuously improve the performance of the organization,
– to verify the achievement of strategic objectives,
– and to control risks.
Using the information about the process, and the security and SNA measures,
we will be able to close the loop and to reiterate the end-to-end methodology
by restarting from the Strategic analysis (S1) or from Business modeling (O1)
to make ever more e?ective the action of the business.
108
Fig. 4. Kite.it integrated BPM approach
3 Data Loss Prevention Scenario
Our ?rst investigations was related to a Data Loss Prevention Scenario. The loss
of sensitive information are critical for organization, solutions for preventing data
leakage incidents are based on systems designed to detect potential data breach
transmissions and prevent them by blocking data while in-use (endpoint actions),
in-motion (network tra?c), and at-rest (data storage)[5]. These systems provides
logs describing the interactions among the organization and are typically able
to track the originator and addressee of a data transmission, together with the
action operated on data. Using this information KITE.it tacks the dynamics
on the exchange of intellectual capital within the VN. In fact, the DLP system
allows to extract information about the manufacturing process, the collaboration
process and the social network of the interactions. The objective of KITE.it is
to provide an uni?ed view on these dimensions providing integrated metrics to
enhance Business Process Monitoring, as illustrated in Fig.4.
Acknowledgements
This work was partly funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development
under the Industria 2015 contract -KITE.it project.
109
References
[1] Allee, V.: The future of knowledge: Increasing prosperity through value
networks. Routledge (2003)
[2] Prahalad, C.K., Ramaswamy, V.: The future of competition. Harvard Busi-
ness School Press, Boston, MA (2004)
[3] Gordijn, J., Akkermans, H., Van Vliet, J.: Designing and evaluating e-
business models. IEEE intelligent Systems 16(4) (2001) 11–17
[4] Kaplan, R., Kaplan, R.S., Norton, D.P.: The balanced scorecard: translating
strategy into action. Harvard Business Press (1996)
[5] Shabtai, A., Elovici, Y., Rokach, L.: A taxonomy of data leakage prevention
solutions. In: A Survey of Data Leakage Detection and Prevention Solutions.
Springer (2012) 11–15
110
doc_790383159.pdf