Title: Towards a semantically enhanced interoperability service utility to support small-medium enterprises

Authors: Irene Matzakou; João Sarraipa; Dimitris Askounis; Ricardo Jardim-Goncalves; Yannis Charalabidis

Addresses: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Decision Support Systems Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens, 9, Iroon Polytechniou Str., 157 80, Athens, Greece ' CTS, Uninova, Dep.º de Eng.ª Electrotécnica, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal ' School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Decision Support Systems Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens, 9, Iroon Polytechniou Str., 157 80, Athens, Greece ' CTS, Uninova, Dep.º de Eng.ª Electrotécnica, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal ' School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Decision Support Systems Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens, 9, Iroon Polytechniou Str., 157 80, Athens, Greece

Abstract: The interoperability service utility (ISU) concept aims to support mainly small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to seamlessly adapt, collaborate and interoperate with each other within today's competitive business environment. In this paper, we propose a complete implementation of an ISU, its architecture, knowledge management and services' provision mechanisms. We have especially enhanced its knowledge management ability by integrating MENTOR, a methodology based on the development of a common, top-level 'reference ontology', serving as an intermediary in the communications between SMEs, harmonising not semantically coincident ontologies that represent the same segment of reality. The result of our work is the development of an intelligent system that serves as a utility software component that establishes interoperability among communicating enterprises. It is verified through the application of the proposed ISU in the everyday transactions of two enterprises in the furniture manufacturing sector.

Keywords: interoperability service utility; ISU; intelligent systems; knowledge management; reference ontology; semantics; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; service provision; furniture manufacturing; collaboration; communication.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCISTUDIES.2013.057641

International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies, 2013 Vol.2 No.3/4, pp.241 - 263

Received: 11 Feb 2013
Accepted: 14 Feb 2013
Published online: 19 Jul 2014 *

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