The Transverse Information System E-Book

Francois Rivard

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 387

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Information systems have an enormous potential for improving business performance. With this in mind, companies must set out to exploit and optimize this potential without delay in order to improve their efficiency and continue to set themselves apart from the competition. This comprehensive text provides the information needed to understand and implement these systems at a practical level.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Innovation for Business Value and Cost-killing

1.1. Supporting profit andgrowth

1.2. Assessing innovation

1.3. Agility and alignment

1.4. Sustainable development and information assets

Chapter 2. The Transverse Information System

2.1. A regular increase in power

2.2. Optimizing business unit assets

2.3. The impact on the IT department agenda

Chapter 3. Master Data

3.1. Anunclaimed asset

3.2. Master datamanagement: centralization

3.3. Enterprise information integration: federation

3.4. Between centralization and federation

3.5. Data governance

3.6. Towards information management

3.7. Bibliography

Chapter 4. Service-Oriented Architectures

4.1. Basic impacts

4.2. A major lever for a change in progress

4.3. A new experiment in the finance bank

4.4. Technologies and architecture . 106

4.5. Flexibility is an event? Yes, agent!

Chapter 5. Business Process Management

5.1. From managing business processes to BPM

5.2. Understanding BPM

5.3. The business process from the IS perspective

5.4. BPM promises and prospects

5.5. Conclusion: the place of BPM in the company and in the IS

Chapter 6. Exchange Platforms

6.1. The development of data exchanges

6.2. Technologies and architectures

6.3. Project typology

6.4. A common foundation

Chapter 7. Complex, Innovative Business Architectures

7.1. Natural connections

7.2. An investigation into the distribution sector

7.3. A project in the energy sector

7.4. A program in retail banking

Chapter 8. The Impact of NISS on Software Implementation

8.1. The process standard

8.2. Towards assembly and beyond

8.3. Model-driven architecture and docking

8.4. A “sourcing” process to be defined

Chapter 9. From Implementation to Measurment

9.1. Towards operational excellence

9.2. Business activity monitoring

9.3. SOA management

9.4. The loopis completed

Chapter 10. Contribution and Impact of NISS on Organization

10.1. From the business unit to IT: a new fluency

10.2. Governance of information assets

10.3. Organization methods

10.4. Managing change and maturity stages

Chapter 11. How to Get the Best Out of NISS

11.1. The initial phases

11.2. The foundations: creating platforms

11.3. From the process angle

11.4. Here and now

11.5. Bibliography

Index

First published in France in 2008 by Hermes Science/Lavoisier entitled: Le systeme d'information

transverse : nouvelles solutions du SI & performance metier © LAVOISIER, 2008

First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2009 by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

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© ISTE Ltd, 2009

The rights of Francois Rivard, Georges Abou Harb and Philippe Meret to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rivard, Francois, 1971-

[Systeme d'information transverse. English]

The transverse information system : new solutions for IS and business performance / Francois Rivard, Georges Abou Harb, Philippe Meret.

   p. cm.

“First published in France in 2008 by Hermes Science/Lavoisier entitled: Le systeme d'information transverse : nouvelles solutions du SI & performance metier.”

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84821-108-7

1. Management information systems. 2. Information technology--Management. I. Abou-Harb, Georges. II. Meret, Philippe. III. Title.

HD30.213.R58 2009

658.4'038011--dc22

2009001027

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-84821-108-7

Preface

The transverse information system is gradually taking shape in the business information systems environment. Whatever you call it, and even if some people continue to reduce it to the level of middleware, it is time to take notice of the predominant, central role played by this domain, as well as its impact, firstly on information system architectures and secondly on the implementation of new business applications. Inbetween applications there are parts of the information system which businesses must undertake to build and optimize without delay, that is unless they intend to miss out on opportunities and lag behind their competitors, just at a time when IS managers have to justify how they actively contribute to creating value.

This information system is based on major architecture and technology systems combined under the name of new information system solutions (NISS), some of which will probably be familiar to many readers:

– master data management (MDM), for data which is the basis of the information system;

– service-oriented architecture (SOA), a dominant architecture paradigm, perfect for transformation, modernization and enterprise architecture; and

– business process management (BPM), the driving force for value creation and business innovation intermediaries.

Figure 1. The new information system solutions

Each at their own level, these domains respond to the issues that IT managers are exposed to: contributing to the company’s growth, increasing the alignment capabilities between the business and the available IT resources, and safeguarding investments whilst managing innovation. Together, these technologies form a new information system, the transverse information system, which is the subject of this book.

These technologies do not compete with each other. They are complementary resources that help to make up this integrated whole. To achieve this, other resources may be called upon:

– modeling systems and systems for managing information assets;

– solutions for measuring operational performance, which ensure that the transverse information system is working properly; and

– dedicated integration layers (EAI/ESB), to facilitate transversal exchanges between the application systems.

In other words, whatever the quality of the technologies involved, they cannot function on their own. It is necessary to think about the method and organization systems which will genuinely ensure the success of the technologies concerned, in addition to showing how all of these factors will interconnect to provide an integrated, organized system in the long term.

Figure 2. Organization-method-technology triptych

How to use this book

This book is divided into three parts which are aimed at all business professionals such as IT personnel, decision-makers and managers who are anxious to gain a better understanding about how to optimize the services provided by the information system.

1st part – Issues

About the business: the new issues facing IT managers

Chapter 1 - Innovation for Business Value and Cost-killing Chapter 2 - The Transverse Information System

2nd part – Solutions

New Information System Solutions

Chapter 3 - Master Data Chapter 4 - Service-Oriented Architectures Chapter 5 - Business Process Management Chapter 6 - Exchange Platforms Chapter 7 - Complex, Innovative Business Architectures

3rd part – Methods and organization

Managing new information system solutions

Chapter 8 - The Impact of NISS on Software Implementation Chapter 9 - From Implementation to Measurement Chapter 10 - Contribution and Impact of NISS on Organization Chapter 11 - How to Get the Best Out of NISS

Throughout this book we shall use the acronym IT to indicate what happens on the information systems management side. The initials CIO will also be used, depending on the context, to indicate either the information systems manager or the unit for which he is responsible, the information systems department.

The transverse information system and the new information system solutions are an innovative, exciting subject and an opportunity to create value by means of safeguarded investments. Be the first to break the rules and venture into this new territory.

Acknowledgements

Considering the diversity of subjects tackled, a book such as this can only be representative. The authors would like to thank the EI²S team at Logica Management Consulting for its expertise and constant involvement, as well as the entire MIG business unit (information system consulting) for its quality. It is a real pleasure to be involved with them on a daily basis.

We would also particularly like to thank:

– Sébastien Durand, partner in charge of IT Governance at Unilog Management, who provided valuable assistance for Chapter 2;

– Franck Régnier-Pécastaing, MDM manager, whose generous contribution is widely used in Chapter 3;

– Eric Vendeville, a mine of information on service directories and reference systems, whose work is used in Chapter 4; and

– Olivier Lallement and Iarantsoa Rafitosoa, who provided a valuable contribution to Chapter 4, which deals with SOA management.

We would like to express our admiration for the managers of projects described in this book for having the intuition to promote innovative architectures and technologies and for convincing their clients to have faith in them:

– Hugues Lorez and Nicolas Pétain, the architects of the energy project described in Chapter 7; and

– Olivier Hochon, Sadaq Boutrif, Mohamed-Ali Razgallah and Clément Dhamelincourt, designers, architects and developers of the bank project described in Chapter 7.

We will inevitably leave out lots of people, but before doing so we would also like to thank the following for their daily contribution: Stéphane Breton, François-Xavier Brun, Youen Chené, Pierre Chiandusso, Eric Cohen, Marc Cortial, Sébastien Delayre, Thierry Desforges, Christophe Dewaele, Vincent Dorlhiac, Céline Falque, Gwladys Frémand, Thierry Hehunstre, Stéphane Jaubert, Chantal Legrand, Sanaà and Séverin Legras, Jean-Michel Lemaire, Thomas Lepere, Grégory Le Henry, Fabrice Losson, Agnès Lucot, Emmanuel Manceau, Olivier Roubertie, Patrick Saint-Jean, Benoît Tournel, Stéphane Toutlouyan, Raphaël Troude, Nicolas Ullmo, Pierre Verger, Andreea Vuta and Ali Zlaoui.

We would also like to thank our boldest, most visionary clients, whose innovative projects are described in this book. Since we are not allowed to name them all, we hope that they will recognize themselves.

Guillain Issartel’s contribution on skill centers was invaluable. Pierre-Dominique Martin and Benoît Leboucher brought the authors up to speed on good sourcing practices and the eSCM framework. In this capacity they must be duly gratified.

Thanks to Jean-Louis Bénard, Cyril Dhénin, Christophe Berly, Leda Pavlouchenko and the whole Brainsonic team for their contribution and proofreading.

Very special thanks to Patrick Guimbal, Philippe Bouron, René Napoli, Jean-François Bodin, Vincent Colombani, Jean-Pascal Boutier and to Jean-Jacques Maillard – so long, JJ.

François Rivard would like to thank Cécile and Joséphine for their support and patience during the long evenings spent writing this book.

Chapter 1

Innovation for Business Value and Cost-killing

It is February 2000. A top-selling European daily paper is starting to enter all the days sports results into its database. The aim is to make the process of retrieving results from its website more reliable, as well as to make it easier to produce the statistics that its readers are so fond of. Until now, individual journalists recorded the results themselves, on media and in formats of their own choosing: notebooks, Excel sheets, sometimes their own memory, etc.

Fast forward to the year 2004. A large French mutual insurance company is taking a fresh look at the tools it uses to monitor the exchange of company data at its processing center. Staff must always know what is happening with transactions between departmental funds, trust funds and parent organizations, so that they can identify those that are late without needing to chase them up urgently through the system. These five brave people have had enough of manually ticking off miles of lists giving the names of prompt payers, deducing the stragglers for themselves.

In August 2007, a break in the chain processing remittances and transactions between customers of a large German bank and the clearing houses held up 1 billion in the payment facilities chain, all in a single day. The penalties incurred were in keeping with the amount held up. As a result, this bank is now thinking about rolling out a system to monitor this process in real-time, a system they do not have at the moment, surprising as this may seem.

What is particularly significant is that examples like these occur again and again in every country in the world, in all business sectors, year after year. They perfectly illustrate the main areas for improvement of information systems, as well as the enormous scope for further enhancing their performance. When we teach our discipline in management or engineering schools, we amaze the students with cases like these. What? they exclaim incredulously How can we possibly still be running into this type of problem, even in 2009? However, is it so difficult to believe? There are still a great number of value and performance improvements that can be achieved by intelligent, competent computerization of the information system. A company can end up losing vast amounts of energy and money as a result of its information system not being sufficiently robust to meet the requirements of the business.