A Service Oriented Architecture for Managing Operational Strategies

Abstract

In this paper we present a case study where an e-business platform (OPERATIONS) has to be built in order to manage the operational strategies of a high volume coastal company. The platform is intended to support multiple operational scenarios that have to be executed when emergency situations or sudden changes of scheduled events unfold. In order to properly integrate all the involved parties that may take part in such a scenario, the system must support multiple interaction patterns according to the communication channel and the device that is used. Thus, its design must take into account multi-channel delivery of functionality and information. The design of the system follows a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in order to properly integrate back-office data sources and legacy systems with new required application extensions providing a complete e-business platform. The core business logic tier of the system is a Process Oriented Platform (POP) that is able to dynamically generate the appropriate workflows, to orchestrate the constituent services and to execute complex operational scenarios interacting with involved users and systems in a multi-channel fashion. Finally, appropriate knowledge bases have been defined to support the storage, evaluation, and evolution of the executed scenarios and to provide valuable Business Activity Monitoring information to the company’s administration.