Int. Journal of Business Science and Applied Management, Volume 3, Issue 2, 2008

The emerging role of corporate information systems: An

example from the area of business process-oriented learning

Dimitra Pappa

National Centre for Scientific Research ―Demokritos‖

School of Information Systems, Computing & Mathematics

Brunel University, UB8 3PH, UK

Tel: + +44 (0)1895 266044

Fax: +44 (0)1895 251686

Email: lampros.stergioulas@brunel.ac.uk

Abstract

putting in place mechanisms for the effective management of business processes, organisational roles,

competencies and learning processes, to reduce the time to fill competency gaps and to build

proficiency according to evolving business needs. In this paper we outline the main characteristics of

this approach and provide insights regarding the changing role of the involved corporate information

systems and the multiple aspects of the integration work.

Keywords: information systems integration, service-oriented architectures

Acknowledgements: The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the European

Commission's Framework Programme Six (PROLIX project ―Process-oriented Learning and

1 INTEGRATION OF CORPORATE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Traditionally, corporate information systems (IS) were built to support specific business functions,

and had thus to be developed in complete alignment with the organisation’s functional breakdown. This

has resulted in a wide range of systems being deployed within a single organisation, each relying on

different technologies, serving a specific purpose within a specific functional area (e.g. logistics,

human resources, customer relationship management, supply chain management etc) and not

necessarily ―communicating‖ with neighbouring applications. Early systems were often difficult to

customise and/or extend, and it was practically impossible to replace or evolve parts of them. Their

platform- and technology-dependency resulted in committing organisations to long term technology

 reduction of the time-to-market of new products and services;

 containment of operational costs (e.g. for IS maintenance and operation) and operational

inefficiencies (e.g. through internal re-engineering);

 rapid responsiveness to the business’s strategic priorities. Adaptation of corporate structures

and work methods to a constantly changing business environment, including re-engineering in

response to large-scale strategic decisions (e.g. mergers and acquisitions).

Organisations have evolved from being vertical, isolated and business unit-centric during the early

years, to horizontal business-process-focused structures during the 1980’s and 1990’s, and towards a

new ecosystem business paradigm (Moore, 1993) that features componentised and distributed business

rising complexity and dynamism of the business environment calls for more robust IT infrastructures to

provide intelligent resource sharing and dynamic service creation and distribution.

Realising the full potential of corporate IS infrastructures is not merely about drilling down to add

new vertical services to existing systems, but more about cross-border integration, i.e. about

strengthening the interoperability of ―departmental‖ applications, so as to support business functions

that cut across traditional functional areas. This has given rise to a strong need for wider intra- and even

inter-organisational co-operation and over the years has led to the development and diffusion of

systems that view technical, business and administrative applications in a corporate wide perspective.

This approach favours open system architectures as opposed to closed monolithic systems.

Under the weight of emerging needs and with organisations increasingly striving to streamline and

development of direct software interfaces between collaborating legacy systems, department-specific

and/or business partner applications.

In the following sections we discuss critical aspects of integration, the advent of service-oriented

architectures and look into the new role Information Systems are called to play in the context of

business process-oriented learning, using the case of the PROLIX project (Process-oriented Learning

and Information Exchange [PROLIX], 2005). PROLIX is an EU-funded FP5 integrated project

addressing the needs of modern organisations for increased competitiveness, by aligning training with

business processes. The principal objective is to reduce the time needed to improve the competencies of

employees and build proficiency according to continuous changes in business requirements. We

present the building blocks of the architecture proposed by the PROLIX project and discuss some early

the joining-up of IS goes beyond the mere technical linking of disparate corporate applications and/or

networks to include the sharing of information, the establishment of joint workflows and the re-

organisation of administrative operations within the involved functional areas. Yet, while in a

component-based design, components are created to closely match business entities, service-oriented

design features services that go beyond administrative segmentations within the organisation (cross-

border services).

The need for integration translates into new requirements on related software applications and

their integration, including the incorporation of existing legacy applications and commercial off-the-

shelf products in the formation of new business processes. Overall, there are three critical aspects in

system integration (Albin, 2003; European Commission, 2003):

system that meets the user needs.

 organisational interoperability, which is concerned with adapting the corporate environment to

this new integrated model of work.

2.1 Technical interoperability: software integration

Primarily applications need to be interoperable, in order to provide complete, transparent and real-

time access to data and information and to allow for their seamless exchange and processing across IS

and/or functional areas.

The use of proprietary technologies can lead to the creation of information silos within

departmental borders, which in turn can obstruct the seamless exchange of data. During the early years

of systems development, integration was regarded as a mere technical issue, a ―manual‖ process of

number of interfaces grows exponentially related to the number of interconnected components.

Similarly middleware software can provide broker services between the different information

resources involved, using the message bus paradigm (Hohpe & Woolf, 2003). Middleware integration

is therefore an advanced form of interfacing, which uses a spoke-and-hub architecture instead of point-

to-point links to add an intermediary communication layer between interoperating units.

While efforts were being made in the direction of better systems integration, the idea of Enterprise

Resource Planning systems (ERP) emerged, as a way to overcome the problems created by application

segmentation. The objective was to develop organisation-wide ERP systems, which would integrate all

data and processes of an organisation into a unified system and realise concrete financial and

operational competitive advantages. Integration and interoperability would be guaranteed within these

their organisational structure, effectively introduce employees to new tasks, streamline business

operations etc.

Essentially, business process-oriented learning entails integrating learning into the daily working

tasks and putting in place mechanisms for the effective management of business processes,

organisational roles, competencies and learning processes. This calls for an integrated view over

3.1 The PROLIX approach

Learning management and business process management are two formerly isolated business areas

that are brought together in the context of business process–oriented learning. At present, several

applications are used for the purposes of either one of these functional areas (Learning Content

the organisation by training employees (e.g. in response to an identified market challenge) or by the

employee wishing to further qualify themselves, when faced with a new business task or when in

pursuit of a better work position (work advancement).

The PROLIX approach to business process-oriented learning covers the complete life cycle from

the business need that triggers learning to the assessment of the actual impact learning made on

business performance. PROLIX adopts a process-oriented approach to allow the translation of process

changes into adapted learning based on competency-matched mediation. Business processes define

organisational roles and associated functions, each with its own specific competencies requirements

(i.e. the competencies profiles of organisational roles). The competency refers to the ability of an

(employee-initiated learning process).

Under the term business process-oriented learning a new collection of business processes can be

found, each spanning a number of sectoral applications and traditional business processes. The typical

life-cycle of business process-oriented learning (the PROLIX Learning Life Cycle, PLLC) (PROLIX,

2006a) and the software tools required for each step of the process are depicted in Figure 2. Starting

point is a complex business situation, i.e. a situation that translates into significant competencies

deficiencies and creates the need to train employees.

 Business need analysis comprises the modelling or optimisation of business processes and the

identification of competencies or roles required to carry out the functions of a business process

(Business Process Cockpit) (Scheer, 2000).

suitable learning process template (Didactical Learning Modeller) and the assignment of

learning resources to this template to create a learning process (Learning Process

Configurator) (Britain, 2004; Milligan, Beauvoir & Sharples, 2005; Morrison, 2003).

 The execution of the learning process consists in employees being trained to fill the selected

competency gaps (Learning Process Execution Platform).

 Performance monitoring involves an evaluation of the impact of the learning process both on

learning outcomes and on business process performance (Performance Monitor) (Kaplan &

Norton, 1996; Symons, 2003; Kirkpatrick, 1959; Kirkpatrick, 1998).

 During business value analysis the business outcome of the competency improvements is

compared against the initial business need. Unless the results are satisfactory, business

In practice, the development of a corporate system like PROLIX implies that existing applications

have to be extended, and joined together (Learning Management Systems, Content Management

Systems, Skills Management Systems, Business Process Modelling systems, Business Performance

Management Systems etc) and that new tools have to be developed to fill out specific functional gaps

along the process (e.g. competence-oriented process simulation tool). This all adds up to a multilayer,

multidimensional integration scheme.

3.2.2 Semantic and functional interoperability

A common ―language‖ had to be agreed and adopted by components that deal with the same

concepts (e.g. competencies). Data specifications and standards that exist in areas addressed by the

system are the ideal candidates for this. In some cases the ones that were selected had to be enhanced

with additional parameters, in order to meet the specific needs of business process-oriented learning.

Overall, the PROLIX architecture features three system-wide data formats:

(a) the competency format, that is used to store competency-related information, namely the

competency profile format and the competency gap (actual profile, desired profile). The applied

3.2.3 Organisational interoperability

4 LESSONS LEARNED AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

internal design standards should be pursued to ensure consistency in design and proper interaction of

services. The PROLIX project is taking this principle a step further by developing an open reference

architecture with standardised data formats that will eventually facilitate the integration of solutions

from different providers.

Figure 3: One-stop service-oriented architectures

Another critical element is service management and particularly issues of federated identity

management and security policies. Enabling secure interactions between services and applications

implies role-based access to services, user data propagation and synchronisation etc.