Cost-Based Optimization of Integration Flows - Datenbanken ...

2.4 Use Cases
Dispositive Systems
(analytical)
Strategical Systems
(analytical)
DSS
s7
Data Warehouse
s6
Use Case 2:
Vertical Integration
Operational Systems
SCM
System
s1
Material
Mgmt
s2
ERP
System
s3
CRM
System
s4
eCommerce
eCommerce
s5
Use Case 1: Horizontal Integration
Figure 2.8: Use Cases of the Example Scenario w.r.t. the Information System Pyramid
test cases for our experimental evaluation throughout the whole thesis. Note that parts
of this scenario are adapted from our DIPBench specification (Data-Intensive Integration
Process Benchmark) [BHLW08b, BHLW08c]. While these flows and related workloads
adhere to common characteristics of real-world integration flows, we explicitly do not use
real-world data sets and workload characteristics because for evaluation purposes we want
to generate arbitrary selectivities, cardinalities and temporal variations in order to cover
a broad spectrum of application scenarios. The context of this example scenario is supply
chain management (SCM) [MDK + 01] within an enterprise. This includes the planning,
execution, control, and monitoring of all supply chain activities in order to automatically
synchronize customer demands with supply. Figure 2.8 illustrates an information system
pyramid including all information systems affected by our simplified SCM scenario.
In this scenario, several operational, dispositive and strategical information systems
exist. At the level of operational systems, various systems have to be distinguished. First,
an eCommerce Web shop s 5 is used by the customers in order to submit orders. Second,
the master data of all customers is maintained by a specific CRM system (Customer
Relationship Management) s 4 . Third, the ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning)
s 3 is the leading information system that is used for all core business activities. Fourth,
all materials in terms of basic material as well as created products are managed using a
material management system s 2 . Fifth, and finally, there is a specific SCM system s 1 ,
which is used to automatically submit orders to suppliers of the required basic material.
At the level of dispositive systems, a global data warehouse s 6 and context-specific data
marts are used in order to consolidate data from the operational systems and to enable
arbitrary, analytical ad-hoc queries. Finally, at the strategical level, a DSS (Decision
Support System) s 7 is used for long-term planning.
There are strong dependencies between the different heterogeneous systems and applications.
Thus, integration is crucial for the automatic supply chain management, where
all those systems and applications need to interact with each other. In this scenario, we
distinguish two types of integration use cases. First, horizontal integration refers to the
integration of operational systems, where data must be synchronized immediately based
on business events such as a submitted order in the eCommerce Web shop. Second, vertical
integration refers to the physical consolidation of data of all operational systems into
the data warehouse infrastructure. Then, the strategical systems can be used in order to
monitor, analyze, and plan all supply chain activities. In the following, we describe the
two use cases in more detail and introduce example integration flows for both.
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