Semantics of Agent-Based Service Delegation and Alignment

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper we will concentrate on the conceptual modeling and semantics of service delegation and alignment in information systems. In delegation, one typically has the situation that a source company wishes to hand over parts of its functionality together with related responsibilities to a supplying party. From the side of the outsourcer the search for a suitable supplier mostly will be a manual process with all the consequences of a long time to market, as well as trial and error before a good fit is obtained between both related parties. This paper addresses an agent-based solution for improving this match-making process in B2B markets. Part of the match-making process will be the alignment of business processes on the side of the outsourcer as well on the side of the supplier. Here we will provide a formal means to ensure that the delegation relationship between both related parties, determined by a ruling service level agreement (SLA), satisfies specific correctness criteria. These correctness criteria are defined in terms of consistency and completeness between the delegated operation and the associated operation offered by the supplier. Our correctness criterion will concern mappings between an existing delegator schema and an existing supplier schema, and will address both semantical and ontological aspects pertaining to delegation and alignment. Agent-based delegation together with formal specifications can prove their value in the process of constructing delegation contracts. Our analysis will be performed within the modeling framework based on the UML/OCL formalism. The concepts we discussed in this paper are illustrated by an example of companies delegating billing services to Billing Service Providers.Keywords. Agents, Recommendor Systems, model/schema matching, data and ontology integration, requirements modeling, operations/services delegation, alignment, UML/OCL IntroductionToday many companies consider delegation of services or functionality outsourcing as a key element in their business strategy [18]. Main reasons are that the cost of internal business processes involves too much resources, that these processes do not keep up with current technologies, and also -in general-do not contribute to the overall mission of the company. By delegating. many organizations will have a better focus on their core operations and can deal with variable operational costs in stead of fixed costs. The choice of a capable outside supplier is critical, however, since such outside suppliers result in serious formal commitments based on contractual agreement. Delegation of services can be divided in two main phases: the pre-contracting phase up to the moment a preferred supplier is found (i.e., till the contract is drawn up), and the execution phase thereafter. The pre-contracting phase is often a more-or-less a vague (and unsatisfactory) process in the B2B market where customers obtain their information about suppliers either from past experiences, verbal transfer, or from industry analysts. Moreover, ...