Concept integration precedes enterprise integration

Abstract

The integration of enterprises in a vertical market is not solved but rather facilitated by information technology. One aspect is the coupling of heterogeneous information systems from the participating enterprises. However, before this integration can be tackled, the enterprises have to create a common set of concepts to discuss their cooperation. We call this the inter-organizational concept base and present a proposal on how to structure such a concept base and how to co-develop it by participants from various enterprises. Product ontologies are bundled into reference models for certain industry sectors and serve as a starting point for the discussion about concepts. The second ingredient are explicit representations of norms that describe who is supposed to participate in which part of the discussion process. The end result, the inter-organizational concept base, is the input for an inter-organizational workflow modeling to specify precisely the enterprise integration.

Ontology‐based information and knowledge management in construction

“…One approach that tackles the aforementioned constituents of the information and knowledge exchange process is that of executing agreements, in partnering or alliance models, between actors. New explorations in this area of work are aimed at the development of ontology products ( Jeusfeld and Moor, 2001). In this approach, the actors have to develop mechanisms to ensure that the elements of the information in their data representations have the same meaning for them.…”