Semantics enactment for interoperability assessment in enterprise information systems

The grown complexity of the modern enterprise poses a series of challenges, among them keeping competitiveness in the fast changing environment in which the enterprise evolves. Addressing enterprise integration is considered as a key to achieve the goal of any enterprise either it is a single or a networked enterprise. Enterprise modelling is a prerequisite to enable the common understanding of the enterprises and its various interactions in order to “provide the right information, at the right time, at the right place”. However, problems often emerge from a lack of understanding of the semantics of the elaborated models resulting from various modelling experience based on different methods and tools. This paper describes the challenges associated to semantics enactment in information systems models. To facilitate this enactment, it proposes an approach based on a fact-oriented modelling perspective. Then, it also provides an algorithm to automatically build semantic aggregates that help in highlighting enterprise models core embedded semantics. A case study on the field of B2M interoperability is performed in order to illustrate the application of the presented approach.