1. Looking at Future of
Research Challenges in
Enterprise Information
Systems
Michele Missikoff (CNR)
FInES Research Roadmap 2025 Rapporteur
Unit D4, DG Information Society and Media
CAiSE 2012 Conference, Gdansz
missikoff@iasi.cnr.it

2. Predicting the Future
“Our future is no more
as it used to be”
(Sir Arthur C. Clarke)
I agree with the physicist Neils Bohr
“Prediction is very difficult,
especially about the future”
••• 2

3. Examples of fallacious
prophecies
Prophecy, forecast, outlook, ...
always the risk of missing the point
Three ‘historical’ examples in:
• Media development
• Telecommunication
• Mass transportation
••• 3

4. Media development
Six centuries ago: invention of movable type printing
Prophecy: this invention is irrelevant, since less
than 1% of the population can read.
••• 4

5. Telecommunications
One+ century ago: about the development of the
telephone system.
Prophecy: soon the expansion will be slowed down
because of problems in finding girls to operate at the
manual switchboards. ••• 5

6. Mass transportation
One+ century ago: about the development of public
transportation in Manhattan.
Prophecy: soon the expansion will be slowed down
because of problems in the disposal of horse
excrement.
••• 6

7. FInES Research Roadmap
• A Task Force of the FInES (Future
Internet Enterprise Systems) Cluster,
DG InfSo, Unit D4
• To drawing the main lines for future
research in the domain of FInES
• With a long-term, highly innovative vision,
2025 as time horizon.
• Assuming a socio-economic marked
discontinuity in the next decade (… forget
‘business as usual’!)
••• 7

8. • Editorial Board (EB ): restricted team of 4
people (Ensemble CSA Project)
• Scientific Advisory Group (SAG): a group of 15
invited members
• Expert Scientific Committee (ESC): committee
of 15 selected members (after a call)
• FInES Cluster RR Coordination (CRRC): a
restricted informal group, coordinated by the
FInES Cluster Chair Cristina Martinez, Co-chair
Man-Sze Li, and the EB, with the support of EC
staff
• FInES Cluster Projects and Domain Experts
(more info at: www.fines-cluster.eu)

9. Objectives of the FInES
Research Roadmap
• To draw the main lines for future
research in the domain of FInES: Future
Internet Enterprise Systems
• Such research lines are positioned in a
long-term, highly innovative vision, with
2025 as time horizon.
• This activity follows, and is based, on the
previous FInES RR published in 2010
• It has been an input to the Commission
for the Horizon 2020 Work Programme
••• 9

10. Roadmapping Philosophy
• Roadmapping, seen essentially as a
Knowledge Management
endeavour
• Activities started with the definition of
the overall knowledge organization
• 4 FInES Knowledge Spaces:
(i) Socio-technical (ii) Enterprises
(iii) Enterprise Systems (iv) Enabling
Technologies
••• 10

11. The positioning of FInES Spaces
Socio-economic
Enterprise
FInES
Technology
••• 11

12. The 4 FInES Knowledge Spaces
1. Socio-economic Space
the larger context in which enterprises operate. It
includes topics such as:
the social responsibility of enterprises, the impact
on the environment and their carbon footprint, until
the system of values goes beyond the pure financial
dimension.
2. Enterprise Space
the key traits of future enterprises, the emerging
business and production models, new governance
and organization paradigms, new forms of
cooperation, all geared towards the continuous
innovation paradigm
••• 12

13. The 4 FInES Knowledge Spaces
(cont’)
3. Future Enterprise Systems
ICT solutions and socio-technical systems aimed
at supporting the emerging future enterprises. In
essence: FInES, aligned with business needs and
rationale identified for the future enterprises.
4. Enabling Technology Space
ICT solutions, including knowledge
representation, cooperation and
interoperability, trust and security advanced
services, etc., necessary for the development of
FInES. In general, ICT enabling solutions that be
needed for the purpose of FInES.
••• 13

14. 4 FInES Spaces
Synoptic view the
Socio-economic
Space
Social requirements,
Impacts
Drivers
Enterprise
Inventive Cognitive Sensing Sustainable
Space
Humanistic Agile Community - Liquid Glocal
Operational oriented
Enterprise Quality
Dimension Business Functions
requirements
RC1 RC2 RC3 RC4 RC5 RC6 RC7 RC8 RC9 FInES
Space
Enterprise Knowledge Application Systems FInES Engineering
Technical Enablers
requirements
Knowledge App Computing Natural Technology
Tech Software & Storage Interaction Space
Networking ••• 14

15. 1. A Vision on the Socio-economic
Space in 2025
1. The need for a socio-economic
discontinuity, current growth model is
not sustainable (for 7 bln of people)
2. Different growths for wealth and well-
being in reduced economic expansion
3. Disconnecting the Quantity of
production from the Quality of Life
(use better and longer what we have)
4. New model needs social cohesion
••• 15

16. Towards a new Development
Model
• The current development model has reached an
end
• Continuous growth of production and
consumption (and waste disposal) is unbearable
• New value systems are emerging (ref. Stiglitz,
Sen, Fitoussi report; S.Latouche and the ‘graceful
degrowth’)
• Towards a development model where the quality
of life is loosely connected to the possession of
goods (see: Servitization)
• Innovation need to be re-considered in light of
the above concerns
••• 16

17. 4 FInES Spaces
Synoptic view the
Socio-economic
Space
Social requirements,
Impacts
Drivers
Inventive
Cognitive Sensing
Sustainable
Enterprise
Operational Humanistic Agile Glocal Space
Dimension Community Liquid
- oriented Enterprise Quality
Business Functions
requirements
FInES
Space
Technical
requirements Enablers
Technology
Space
••• 17

18. 2. The Future Internet-based
Enterprise
2a. Quality of Being
2b. The Operational Dimension
2c. New approaches to Future
Enterprises Governance
••• 18

19. 2a. Quality of Being: a first
characterization
1. Humanistic Enterprise.
Putting human beings in the center
2. Inventive Enterprise.
Beyond R&D, nurturing creativity and continuous
innovation
3. Agile Enterprise.
Continuous alignment with business needs and market
requirements
4. Cognisant Enterprise
Beyond KM, promoting K at work, Learning
Organizations, HR valorization
••• 19

20. QoB (cont’d)
5. Sensing Enterprise
Like a ‘living entity’, with sensors, smart objects,
decentralised sensing, decision, (re)action
6. Community-oriented Enterprise
New forms of collaboration, community spirit,
informal interaction, Working Social Networs
7. Liquid Enterprise
Fading boundaries (wrt customers, partners,
competitors), new professional roles/positions
8. Glocal Enterprise
Enterprise capable of thinking globally acting locally
9. Sustainable Enterprise
Economical, social and environmental aware
••• 20

21. 2b. The Operational
Dimension
The following operational areas are
connected in a spiral/fractal fashion
• Invent
• Plan
• Build
• Operate
• Monitor&Manage
• Dismiss
••• 21

22. 2c. New approaches for Future
Enterprises Governance
• Enterprise as a complex artefact
• Enterprise Engineering: need for a
systematic approach
• Current Engineering methods are not
suited for Enterprise Engineering
• Accepting the limits of Engineering
approach (artefacts escaping our control...)
• Surviving with partial models, here
Complexity Theory is a reference area
• E.g., from BPM to Complex Event Proc
••• 22

23. 4 FInES Spaces
Synoptic view the
Socio-economic
Space
Social requirements,
Impacts
Drivers
Enterprise
Space
Enterprise Quality
Business Functions
requirements
RC1 RC2 RC3 RC4 RC5 RC6 RC7 RC8 RC9
FInES
Space
Enterprise Knowledge Application Systems FInES Engineering
Technical Enablers
requirements
Technology
Space••• 23

24. 3. The Future Internet-based
Enterprise Systems
This the Core Space, organised in three
dimensions:
1. Knowledge Dimension, since before
acting it is necessary to know
2. Functional Dimension, to see what
will be the main functions of a FInES
3. Engineering Dimension investigate
new development techniques, with a
specific focus on software applications.
Each dimension will be articulated with its
Research Challenges ••• 24

25. 3.1 The Knowledge Dimension
RC1. Unified Digital Enterprise
full digital image of the enterprise (Enterprise
Architecture Fwk), with conceptual and factual
(data) knowledge, behavioural and structural
aspects, at various levels of details
RC2. Linked Open Knowledge
to connect and integrate actual knowledge/ data,
in/outside of the enterprise (Web of Knowledge)
RC3. Complex Systems Modelling
with sections fully specified and sections
characterised by non deterministic behaviour
••• 25

26. 3.2 The Functional Dimension of a
FInES
RC4. Innovation-oriented enterprise
production platforms
Invent – Plan – Build – Operate –
Manage&Monitor – Dismiss
RC5. Unified Digital Enterprise (UDE)
Management System
Constantly evolving the UDE to guarantee a
digital reality mirroring the analogical reality
RC6. Cooperation and collaboration
platforms
Smart Objects, Apps, people: all seamlessly Intp
••• 26

27. 3.3 The Engineering Dimension of
FInES
RC7. Proactive FInES Mashup (Design)
combined top-down (goal- and human-driven) and
bottom-up (event- and object-driven) design
RC8. Autonomic Computing Components
and Subsystems (Build)
Dynamic (re)organization of computational business
resources resources mirroring (collective
intelligence).
RC9. Flexible Execution platforms (Exec)
Different integrated paradigms, Agents, Smart
Objects, Utility and Commodity Clouds
••• 27

28. The Science Base of FInES
• Much of the above Research Challenges need
rigorous, well-founded approaches
• In the future FInES researches it is highly
advisable to include activities related to
Science Base
• E.g.:
– Design Science
– Complexity Theory
– Fuzzy self-organising systems
– Semantics
– Enterprise Engineering
••• 28

29. 4 FInES Spaces
Synoptic view the
Socio-economic
Space
Enterprise
Space
FInES
Space
Technical Enablers
requirements
Knowledge App Computing Natural
& Storage Interaction
Tech Software Technology
Space
Networking ••• 29

30. 4. Future Technologies for
FInES
ICTs are not our core research
interest, but we rely on to
achieve the sought FInES
• Networking
• Knowledge
• Application
• Computation and Storage
• Natural interaction
••• 30

31. 4. Future Technologies for
FInES
4.1 Future Networking technologies
Converging, seamless scaling networking
infrastructures
4.2 Future Knowledge technologies
a – Diffused Knowledge Base Technology and
Smart Objects
b – From raw data to knowledge
assets
c – Innovation-oriented knowledge
assets ••• 31

32. (4. Future Technologies for
FInES)
4.3 Future Application Technologies
a - Proactive and autonomic computing
b - From deterministic to fuzzy
computing
c - Beyond system consistency
d - Governance application technologies
e - Top-down problems definition and
bottom-up systems aggregation
••• 32

33. (4. Future Technologies for
FInES)
4.4 Future computation and storage
technologies
From Cloud to Ground Computing (IoT).
Glocal computing. Interoperability,
trust&security, ...will be largely
achieved. New computational models
4.5 Future Natural Interaction
• Disappearance of keyboard, mouse,
HCI.
• Evolution of Natural User Interface
(MS) ••• 33

34. From Cloud Computing for a
Computing Enterprise
In the 90s: the Network is the Computer...
In 2020: the Enterprise is the Computer
••• 34

35. The Future of FInES RR
• Research Roadmapping as a
Knowledge Management
socio-cultural venture
• Open venture, leveraging on a
constituency and collective
intelligence
• Following the model of
Wikipedia
••• 35

36. Future Perspectives
• FInES Research Roadmap as a
‘territory’ to continue to explore
• Organise the future along 3 dimensions
Content
Governance
Technology
••• 36

37. FInES Knowledge Flow
FInES RR/Txt
Contributors
Editors Folksonomy
Instances
Docs
FInES RR/Web Web
Community
••• 37

38. The story is not over ...
• Questions?
• Comments?
• Proposals?
• Are you ready to be part of
the team?
Thank you fo your attention!
••• 38