INTEROPERABLE ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS: ARCHITECTURES AND METHODS

Interoperable enterprise systems (be they supply chains, extended enterprises, or any forms of virtual organization) must be designed, controlled, and appraised from a holistic and systemic point of view. Systems interoperability is key to Enterprise Integration, which recommends that the IT architecture and infrastructure be aligned with business process organization and control, themselves designed according to a strategic view expressed in an Enterprise Architecture. The paper discusses architectures and methods to build interoperable enterprise systems, advocating a mixed service and process orientation, to support synchronous and asynchronous operations, both at the business level (business events, business services, business processes) and at the application level (workflow, IT and Web services, application programs).