Governing the contract lifecycle: a framework for sequential configuration of loosely-coupled systems

In the changing digital environment, universities face the necessity of integrating heterogeneous information systems. This study focuses on a set-theoretic approach to modeling the integration of these systems. It considers the construction of a model that will effectively facilitate interaction among various information resources within the university, belonging to different platforms and formats. Special attention is paid to optimizing data exchange processes and ensuring information integrity within the common digital space of the university. This work proposes a formal integration model that allows minimizing architectural coupling and ensuring the evolutionary development of the university's digital platform. The set-theoretic apparatus is used to formalize the IT landscape. A decomposition method based on the concept of "architectural quanta" (Architectural Quantum) is applied. Metrics of structural autonomy are proposed to assess effectiveness. A formal model describing the university's information system as a collection of loosely coupled quanta is introduced. An architectural integrity condition is established, prohibiting integration through shared databases. A structural autonomy coefficient (K_sa) is developed to quantitatively assess architectural quality. The model serves as a theoretical basis for implementing automated architecture control systems based on specialized metrics (Fitness Functions) in CI/CD pipelines, which helps reduce technical debt and accelerate the launch of new educational services (Time-to-Market). The main research method employed is a set-theoretic approach to modeling the integration of heterogeneous information systems in the context of digitalization. The scientific novelty lies in applying the set-theoretic apparatus to describe and model the processes of data integration from various sources with differing structures and formats. The developed model provides a formalized representation of the integration relationships between information systems, allowing for the optimization of data exchange processes and enhancing the efficiency of the university's information resources. The research results indicate the high effectiveness of the proposed approach for creating a unified information space within the university, contributing to improved quality of education, scientific research, and managerial processes. Practical implementation of the model will enhance the university’s competitiveness in the digital economy. The feasibility of building a flexible and scalable system capable of adapting to new requirements and changes in the university's information environment is proven.

Intense competition drives the need for dynamic and flexible integration of dispersed and heterogeneous information systems. This paper proposes a semantic gateway architecture for system integration in networked manufacturing to solve the semantic heterogeneity problems. The system integration mode based on semantic gateway is set up to enable unified expression and analysis of the information to be integrated, so that the flexibility and transparency of integration between heterogeneous systems are significantly improved.

The logistics industry currently faces a prevalent "data silo" issue. This leads to information isolation and system fragmentation and severely restricts the ability of cross-platform business collaboration and intelligent decision-making. To address this problem, this paper proposes a non-intrusive logistics system architecture design for data silo integration. The architecture is based on key mechanisms such as edge access, protocol abstraction, and a unified data bus. It realizes lightweight integration of heterogeneous logistics information systems, and features low coupling, high compatibility, and strong adaptability. The designed system includes acquisition layer protocol adaptation components, transport layer edge routing mechanisms, and platform layer intelligent processing engines. It supports multi-protocol concurrent access and fault self-recovery capabilities. Deployment and testing in enterprise scenarios show that the system outperforms traditional solutions in data acquisition delay control, stability maintenance, and multi-protocol adaptation. The non-intrusive system not only leads significantly in throughput, reaching 12,000 entries per second. This is much higher than the 7,500 entries per second of traditional Application Programming Interface (API) integration and the 9,200 entries per second of the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) architecture. It also performs excellently in average response time, which is only 45 milliseconds, significantly lower than the other two solutions. In particular, this system achieves efficient integration without modifying the original systems and effectively solves the problem of coexisting multi-systems and non-interoperable data in enterprises. This paper provides a promotable reference architecture for the informatization transformation of logistics.

The picture archiving and communication system (PACS) originated as an image management system for improving the efficiency of radiologic practices. It has evolved into a hospital-integrated system that stores information media in many forms, including voice, text, medical records, waveform images, and video recordings. The integration of these various types of information requires the technology of multimedia, including hardware platforms, information systems and databases, communication protocols, display technology, and system interfacing and integration. The purpose of this book is to discuss the conceptual and technologic advances in PACS development for all of these previously mentioned technologies. The book also emphasizes the growing field of PACS-based imaging informatics, where existing PACS resources are used for largescale horizontal and longitudinal clinical service, research, and education applications. The book is intended for those who are involved in a health care environment that manages the everyday practical realities of PACS planning, operation, and maintenance. The book will also serve as excellent curriculum material for the training of PACS information technology personnel because the author provides comprehensive concepts that tie medical imaging, medical physics, information technology, and clinical workflow with enterprise PACS (multiple, hospital-wide PACS). The author, H. K. Huang, has been involved in PACS development since the 1980s and is a leading scientist in the field. The book is divided into five parts and 23 chapters. Part 1, titled “Medical Imaging Principles,” summarizes the history of PACS, the fundamental concepts of digital medical imaging, and the different types of modalities integrated into PACS. Part 2, titled “PACS Fundamentals,” describes in detail the PACS subsystems and industry standards (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine and Health Level 7) that are used to integrate PACS with the hospital information system and radiology information system. Part 3, titled “PACS Operation,” describes the practical problems encountered by PACS administrators and users and discusses different techniques to solve these problems, with many examples from installed PACS sites around the world. Because the author developed PACS at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1991 and the University of California, San Francisco, in 1995, he is able to draw from his expertise on the subject. The author also uses his experience from developing many state-of-theart prototypes (eg, fault tolerant storage system) funded by research grants. Part 4, titled “PACS-based Imaging Informatics,” presents image-processing techniques that can be used to mine the huge image and clinical data resources stored in the PACS archive. The analysis of lung nodules by using temporal computed tomographic and contentbased image indexing are some of the examples of advanced processing applications applied to PACS data mining. Part 5, titled “Enterprise PACS,” describes different models for implementing an enterprise PACS in terms of the architectural design of the system and financial and business models. This new book builds on two previous volumes on PACS that were written by the author. The text, image collections, and schematic diagrams in this current work achieve the author’s goal of providing up-to-date material concerning the technologic advances in PACS and imaging informatics. The text serves as a guide for those who are planning an enterprise PACS and provides teaching material for training PACS developers in industry and health care. The author has used portions of this book as lecture material for graduate courses at leading universities in the United States and abroad. The author also uses many examples to emphasize that the integration of heterogeneous health care information systems is becoming more complex and that, as more radiologists and clinicians expect higher standards in the reliability of the data, a systemic understanding of Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, Health Level 7, and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise becomes ever more important to optimize enterprise workflow. The strength of the book lies in the vast experience that the author, who has implemented PACS at numerous institutions in the United States and abroad, has transmitted into this new book. Huang has conducted first-hand analysis of the various systems from PACS manufacturers that are used in clinical operation at large medical institutions and has performed up-to-date research in data mining of the huge image and data resources stored in the PACS repository.

Each person interacts with multiple health institution’s systems along their life. These systems are usually developed to fulfill the specific needs of sanitary organizations or Web of Medical Things manufacturers. However, most of the times these information systems aren’t interconnected, making it very difficult to put in common the information of a patient scattered in various systems. Thus, it’s necessary to develop solutions that allow health information systems developers to consult all the information of an user across the multiple health’s information systems it is scattered and to offer this information organized as the Personal Health Trajectory of the user (a succession of Personal Health Records ordered by time). This paper proposes a solution for the integration of heterogeneous health information systems, the processing of their data and its provisioning in a health trajectory perspective through an API. Thus, software developers of healthcare solutions can leverage this API to develop a new generation of person-oriented solutions.

In this paper we sketch an approach to the integration of heterogeneous tourist information systems into database federations. Since many tourist information systems offer WWW-interfaces based on HTML-files and furthermore, many local information systems are based on specific file formats, we have to consider such file associations. For the integration of these file associations, the main problem is the lack of meta-information. Therefore, we have to derive an appropriate local conceptual schema. The derived conceptual schemata and the schemata of other tourist database systems will be integrated into a federated schema. Moreover, we briefly discuss the benefits of a federated tourist information system.

The success of mass spectrometry-based proteomics in emerging applications such as biomarker discovery and clinical diagnostics, is predicated substantially on its ability to achieve growing demands for throughput. Support for high throughput implies sophisticated tracking of experiments and the experimental steps, larger amounts of data to be organized and summarized, more complex algorithms for inferring and tracking protein expression across multiple experiments, statistical methods to access data quality, and a streamlined proteomics-centric bioinformatics environment to establish the biological context and relevance of the experimental measurements. This paper presents a bioinformatics platform that was built for an industrial mass spectrometry-based proteomics laboratory focusing on biomarker discovery. The basis of the platform is a robust and scalable information management environment supported by database and workflow management technology that is employed for the integration of heterogeneous data, applications and processes across the entire laboratory workflow. This paper focuses on selected features of the platform which include: (a) a method for improving the accuracy of protein assignment, (b) novel software tools for protein expression analysis that combine differential MS quantitation with tandem MS for peptide identification, and (c) integration of methods to aid the biological relevance and statistical significance of differentially expressed proteins.

Production planning and controls usually involve numerous business application systems, including manufacturing execution systems (MES), enterprise resource planning (ERP), advanced planning and scheduling (APS) and other information systems. Implementing each of these systems is a complex, costly and time-consuming project. Moreover, due to the fierce competition in the global market, mass customization has become the mainstream in the demand-driven environment which increases the difficulties in the integration of heterogeneous information systems. This research adopts a case study approach to examine the business application integration processes in the demand-driven environment and to identify potential solution in the project. Specifically, this study proposes a reference framework of integrated application systems for production planning and shop-floor control, and discusses several implications of such large-project implementation.

In this paper, a methodology for integrating heterogeneous industrial information systems is presented. The methodology is strongly based on the extensive reuse of already-made components and is conceptually divided in three levels, one for each kind of designer that is typically involved in this type of projects. To accomplish a better integration of the activities and tools necessary to develop industrial information systems with the proposed methodology, three appropriate organizational configurations are adopted.

Coexistence of a great number of various heterogeneous-configured information systems due to characteristics of trans-regional and grouping enterprises has resulted in great difficulty in information interaction and interoperability among the enterprises' systems. So it is an urgent challenge that a breakthrough should be made with the regional constraint on the enterprise's information system for seamless integration and information resources sharing. This paper first describes the traditional application integration solution based on Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) which has the shortcomings of close coupling and constrains imposed by the developer firms, then proposes an operation mode of the printing factory-centered virtual printing-enterprise based on the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web service technologies. With the detail analysis of the application integration framework building of the virtual printing-enterprise, the corresponding realization methods are presented. Finally, a case of application integration is presented to demonstrate the methods' feasibility and effectiveness in accomplishing application integration of virtual printing-enterprise.

Many companies have been forced to quickly respond to changing user needs. To provide more convenient services to consumers, the cooperation within a company or across companies have been requested. As a result, the heterogeneous information systems are also requested to be integrated together. By utilizing the heterogeneity among systems and by cooperating between systems, it becomes possible to draw out new values from them without violating each system's characteristic. In the heterogeneous systems, such as the data generation timings or frequencies are different, the data synchronization itself should be done by each system without relying on the single coordinator, because the system configurations are always changing, and members of application group which use synchronous data combination are also changing. In this paper we propose the autonomous data synchronization technique in the heterogeneous systems. The application objects which requires the synchronous combination of the data in each system can locally judge which combination of data is most adequate as the synchronous combination by comparing the synchronous information with others. Thus all systems can use the consistent combination as the synchronous data only by collecting the data locally and exchanging the synchronous information. In addition, the cost of synchronization in each system, which is measured by the synchronization waiting time (SWT) and backward data utilization (BDU) becomes even. As this proposed method is not relying on the single coordinator, it works correctly even if the system configuration is dynamically changed, or even if members of SyncApps are changed. The simulation results show the cost fairness when three systems are interconnected in straight line.

It is generally acknowledged that integration of large-scale information systems is a challenging problem. A domain that particularly encounters this problem currently is healthcare, where information systems tend to be heterogeneous and in constant evolution. A particular need for health professionals is the ability to ask medical questions across a heterogeneous information system, then visualise and analyse the results in a synthetic and coherent manner. In this paper, we present a case study of a heterogeneous data source search meta-engine framework, based on category theory. This framework addresses the problem of cross-interrogation of heterogeneous data sources, such as relational database management systems, documentary database systems, or collections of documents. It additionally attempts to address the problem of constant evolution of such information systems. The framework has been successfully applied to the biomedical data of the medical information system at the Institut Curie, a major French cancer care centre. Different aspects of this work are illustrated, such as the mathematical foundations of the Prométhée framework, the methodology used for its implementation, and the impact that Prométhée has encountered since its deployment in a hospital environment.KeywordsCategory TheoryMedical Information SystemConstant EvolutionRelational Database Management SystemHeterogeneous Data SourceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Throughout the present article , we will examine, on the one hand, systems integration approaches of e-Learning applications in university’s information systems. On the other hand, we will establish a study about the integration of applications between the internal information systems and the Cloud. Then between the applications on the private cloud and the public cloud.

Acknowledgements. Foreword. Chapter 1. Introduction. Chapter 2. What is Application Integration? 2.1. The economy: the engine of integration. 2.2. The history and the issues of application integration. 2.3. Consequences for IT. 2.4. Integration typologies. 2.4.1. Classifying the integration problem types. 2.4.2. Classifying the applications. 2.5. EAI: Integrating enterprise applications (A2A). 2.5.1. Accounting interpretation: EAI precursor. 2.5.2. EAI today. 2.6. Integrating inter-enterprise exchanges (B2B). 2.7. Coupling A2A and B2B: A2B (or Business Collaboration). 2.8. Managing business processes (BPM). 2.9. Service-oriented architectures (SOA). Chapter 3. Levels in Integration Services. 3.1. Transport and connectivity. 3.1.1. Defining partners. 3.1.2. Data transport. 3.1.3. Connectivity. 3.1.4. Supervising transport. 3.2. Adapting the information. 3.2.1. Transformation. 3.2.2. Routing. 3.2.3. Storage. 3.2.4. Defining the rules. 3.2.5. Supervising exchanges. 3.3. Automating business processes. 3.3.1. Modeling business processes. 3.3.2. Executing business processes. 3.3.3. Supervising business processes. 3.4. Business process and integration: mediation and exchange. 3.4.1. Business process level and integration level. 3.4.2. Mediation process sub-level. 3.4.3. Exchange process sub-level. 3.4.4. Interaction between the sub-levels. 3.4.5. Interaction between integration and business process (BPM). 3.5. Choosing the exchange architecture. 3.5.1. Synchronous/asynchronous communication. 3.5.2. Architecture: centralized or distributed? Chapter 4. Types of Integration Projects. 4.1. Integrating a single application. 4.1.1. Exchange cartography. 4.1.2. The integration platform. 4.2. IT infrastructure projects. 4.2.1. Urbanization of information systems. 4.2.2. IT exchange infrastructure. 4.3. Integrating inter-enterprise exchanges. 4.3.1. Exchanging electronic documents (EDI). 4.3.2. XML standards. 4.3.3. Inter-enterprise spaghetti system. 4.3.4. Inter-enterprise exchange platforms. 4.3.5. Single Window initiatives. 4.4. Managing business processes. 4.4.1. Points of departure. 4.4.2. BPM project opportunity: choosing the processes. 4.4.3. The approach. 4.4.4. Expected results. 4.5. Implementing a service architecture. 4.5.1. Characteristics of an SOA. 4.5.2. Elements of an SOA infrastructure. 4.5.3. Applicable norms and standards. Chapter 5. Application Integration Tools. 5.1. Brokers. 5.2. Application servers. 5.3. Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). 5.4. BPM tools. Chapter 6. Understanding Integration Failures. 6.1. High failure rates. 6.2. The technological approach. 6.2.1. New technology or new packaging? 6.2.2. Technology confronts reality. Chapter 7. Integration Myths. 7.1. The mirage of the single tool. 7.1.1. A conservative choice: example and consequences. 7.1.2. Modern architectural choice: example and consequences. 7.2. XML: miracle format. 7.3. Business adapters: simplifying the implementation. 7.3.1. Business adapter: implementation - maintenance - problem. 7.3.2. By way of a conclusion on business adapters. 7.4. Java: the proof of a modern solution. 7.4.1. The real reason for Java. 7.4.2. Limitations of an all-Java integration solution. 7.5. Files: the poor cousins of application integration. 7.6. Process and services are everything. 7.6.1. BPM and SOA: top-down approach - from business to IT. 7.6.2. EAI and B2B: bottom-up approach - from IT to business. 7.6.3. Complementary approaches. Chapter 8. Integration and IT Urbanization. 8.1. IT urbanization review. 8.2. Limits of urbanization without an integration solution. 8.3. How do integration solutions support IT urbanization? 8.4. Limits of integration solutions without IT urbanization. 8.5. How does IT urbanization support integration solutions? 8.6. The need to correlate integration solutions and urbanization. Chapter 9. Choosing an Application Integration Solution . 9.1. General approach. 9.2. Methodology for calculating return on investment (ROI). 9.2.1. Introduction to the method. 9.2.2. Equations: maintaining the language of integration. 9.2.3. Operational workload gains through centralized supervision. 9.2.4. Quality of service improvements. 9.3. Opportunity study. 9.3.1. Analyzing the real needs of the enterprise. 9.3.2. Real needs and the state of the art. 9.3.3. Identifying possible business benefits. 9.4. Go/NoGo from General Management. 9.5. The search for a candidate: Request for Information (RFI). 9.5.1. Why issue an RFI? 9.5.2. Key points in an integration RFI. 9.6. Request for Proposal (RFP) or specifications document. 9.6.1. Interest and spirit of an RFP. 9.6.2. Myths: standard questionnaire + one-stop supplier. 9.6.3. Key points in an RFP for application integration. 9.7. Presentations from the candidates. Chapter 10. Deployment Methodology. 10.1. Introduction to the method. 10.2. Deployment methodology: general principles. 10.3. Special case: deploying BPM and SOA. 10.4. Economic models of cost allocation. 10.4.1. Cost allocation linked to usage. 10.4.2. Cost allocation linked to usage and services (developed model). Chapter 11. Operational Examples of Implementation . 11.1. Rationalizing bonds purchase order management (banking). 11.1.1. The context. 11.1.2. The choices. 11.1.3. The solution. 11.1.4. The results. 11.2. An EAI hub (telecommunications). 11.2.1. The context. 11.2.2. The choice. 11.2.3. Implementing the pilot: first difficulties. 11.2.4. Integration tests: disturbing results. 11.2.5. How did we end up here? Consequences of architectural choices. 11.2.6. Performance tests: catastrophic results. 11.2.7. Report card: final decision. 11.2.8. The lesson: what we could have done. 11.3. A2A and B2B (retail). 11.3.1. The context. 11.3.2. The choice. 11.3.3. The solution. 11.3.4. The results. 11.4. BPM and SOA in service delivery. 11.4.1. The context. 11.4.2. The choice. 11.4.3. The solutions. 11.4.4. The results. 11.4.5. Points to watch for this type of solution. Conclusion . Bibliography. Index.

In system-family approaches, product configuration is the activity of selecting the features desired for a software product. Although this process is typically collaborative this aspect has long been neglected. On the other hand, enabling collaborative product configuration brings new and challenging problems such as the proper coordination of configuration decisions. This paper introduces a framework for collaborative configuration that addresses the major issues that arise in this context. Some aspects of the framework can be customized to accommodate specific collaboration goals.