The 4 x 4 Semantic Model: Exploiting Data, Functional, Non-functional and Execution Semantics Across Business Process, Workflow, Partner Services and Middleware Services Tiers

Globalization and outsourcing provide businesses with new means to cost-effective solutions. At the same time, however, they greatly increase the complexity of managing business processes. This complexity can be attributed largely to the dynamic and distributed nature of the business environment ushered in by globalization. Businesses find themselves involved in complex inter- and intra-organizational transactions, when they make a decision such as outsourcing. In this globalized environment, there is a need for organizations to recognize a variety of factors (such as the socio-economic climate of the partners, the shipping resources and capabilities etc.), which can have an impact on its business objectives. Lack of awareness to changes related to partners can prove catastrophic for organizations, as demonstrated by how Ericsson lost significant market share and incurred negative business transformation through its inability to adapt to events [1]. Another dimension brought forth by globalization is the manifold increase in the number of options that organizations have when it comes to choosing partners. While on one hand, the aggressive and competitive nature of the global market place helps organizations to reduce costs, the challenges on the other hand lie in selecting those partners that maximize the profitability and minimize the risk. To address these challenges, organizations need to create and enact business process that are very flexible and at the same time, also be able to adapt to the various factors mentioned earlier. Organizations are increasingly trying to leverage the XML driven and loosely couple nature of Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) to realize these objectives.