Is a set of operations (software artifact) provided by different enterprise/service-provider found at a certain location on the Internet to interact with its client[1] and possible other e-services in order to achieve an e-business goal. Examples include simple calculations and retrievals to complex e-business applications. e-Services are autonomous, modular applications that can be depicted, distributed, discovered and dynamically invoked.
This intelligent e-Service will operate and interact in an enterprise in order to equip each enterprise with the necessary intelligence and ability to comprehend other enterprises/e-Services.
[1] A client can be either a human or a software application.
Enterprises that are geographically distributed and are able to export services via Information Technology (IT) tools.
Electronic Services (e-Services), referred to as a set of automated enterprise services using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to achieve business goals, have significantly contributed to the growth of e-commerce, science, and telecommunications. However, applications that use e-services seldom interoperate effectively, and this restricts the benefits they offer. The main purpose of e-Services is to have an anthology of network-resident software services accessed via standardised protocols, of which meaning can be regularly discovered and integrated into applications. The study supplements the definition provided for e-Service by complementing it to an intelligent capability for the purpose of effective and efficient choreography of processes - hence the term “intelligent e-Service” (IeS). The aim of the study is to propose a composition of intelligent e-Services in a manner which encourages the interoperability of a range of services pertaining to various autonomous virtual enterprises.
The study will explore the existing literature in the frameworks of the composition of e-Services, Web Services and the Semantic Web Services. This will be followed by the identification of current drawbacks with regards to e-Services, Web Services and Semantic Web Services compositions. The above knowledge will then be used to propose a proper characterisation of an IeS as well as the choreography thereof. This will form the basis for the construction of a framework that will facilitate the choreography of IeS, while providing autonomy to each enterprise. The role of IeS will be to search, discover, select, and compose appropriate related content and open e-services. A specific business scenario, such as e-Mentoring[1], will be used to provide an application of the proposed framework, which will be evaluated in order to assess its dynamic efficiency and applicability. Hence, it is expected that the study, which will be qualitative, will play an important role in contributing to the formation of Dynamic Virtual Enterprises and/or Virtual Enterprises as an application business scenario.
[1] e-Mentoring can be explained as a process where a mentee and a mentor communicate via ICT technologies in order to solve certain problems.
The study will present a theoretical sound and complete study on the choreography of intelligent e-Services that will enable the interactions among enterprises/services to realise their goal. The study will build upon on ideas developed by others with regards to interoperability among multiple enterprises, namely the composition of Web Services and the Semantic Web.
Practically, the research will contribute towards the formation of a Dynamic Virtual Enterprise (DVE) which makes use of information and communication technologies to take full advantage of the open, global opportunities offered by the Internet and the global economy. The study will further make a practical contribution concerning ICT application/components that could be employed by South African companies to achieve dynamic business networks. This will enable taking advantage of technologies / components with a successful story and also to concentrate on closing the technology gap.The emphasis will be on Small Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMMEs) in South Africa (SA) and more precisely amongst small contractors in the construction industry.