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UMM is based in UML, which means it's about modeling the information aspects of businesses. This Wikipedia entry seems underdeveloped, so the description should taken with a grain of salt. It does point out that UMM attempts to decouple from implementation technologies such as Web Services and ebXML.

UN/CEFACT's Modeling Methodology, commonly known as UMM is a modeling methodology which is developed by UN/CEFACT - United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business. Goal of UMM The primary goal of UMM is to caputure business requirements of inter-organizational business processes. These requirements result in a platform independent UMM model. The UMM model can then be used to derive deployment artifacts for the IT systems of the participating business partners. UMM at a glance UMM enables to capture business knowledge independent of the underlying implementation technology, like Web Services or ebXML. The goal is to specify a global choreography of a business collaboration serving as an "agreement" between the participating partners in the respective collaboration. Each business partner derives in turn its local choreography, enabling the configuration of the business partner's system for the use within a service oriented architecture ( SOA).

Building on the success of the original INNOV8 in the academic community, INNOV8 v.2 will be available at no cost to businesses and academic institutions for simulations and training. The new version features puzzles and tasks that challenge players to tackle real-world challenges. INNOV8 v.2 delivers a complete redesign of the game, with a new global collaboration feature for players to work with virtual teammates to progress to the next level of the game. In addition, three new game scenarios reflect a new level of intelligence required for future, high-value job opportunities: * 'Green' Supply Chain: Players evaluate a traditional supply chain model and are tasked with reducing a fictional company's carbon footprint. * Efficient Traffic Flow: Players evaluate existing traffic patterns and re-route traffic based on sensors that alert the player to disruptions such as accidents and roadway congestion. * Call Center Customer Service: Using a call center environment, players develop more efficient ways to respond to customers. [....] Most MBA programs are already heavily based on projects that reflect how individuals and teams need to interact in the real world. INNOV8 v.2 takes that a step further by actually allowing students to step into a dynamic business environment. Based on advanced commercial gaming technologies, it allows players to visualize how technology and related business strategies affect an organization's performance. Together, players can map out business processes, identify bottlenecks and explore 'what if' scenarios in an experiential learning environment. [....] INNOV8 v.2 will be available in May 2009. For more information on INNOV8, IBM's Academic Initiative or to access the virtual press kit, pleas visit www.ibm.com/innov8.

daviding says: The main page is at http://www-01.ibm.com/software/solutions/soa/innov8/index.html . I haven't played the game -- I'm not a fan of video games -- so if you want to try 5 to 10 minutes online, I'd be interested in your experience.

We introduce the concept of structural analysis of a business enterprise. The practice of enterprise structural analysis amounts to the construction of an enterprise model using business entities defined in an enterprise ontology or enterprise architecture and creating specific views of the enterprise based on relationships among the entities. As we demonstrate through a simple yet illustrative example of a hypothetical coffee shop business, these views can provide many insights and points of analysis. Structural analysis provides an interactive, analytical environment for a user to view an enterprise from multiple perspectives, an approach not unlike On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) but for analyzing the qualitative or structural aspects of the enterprise.

daviding says: This article describes business entities, and works concretely through an example with activities, resources and organization in a coffee shop.

In an age in which consumers, businesses and governments are increasingly focused on socially responsible actions, much of our planet's natural and financial resources are being squandered simply by conducting business as usual: Much of the world's food supply never makes it to consumers. A considerable portion of the water used each year is frivoled away by poor agricultural water management. And road congestion, poor routing and other traffic issues around the globe contribute to substantial crude oil waste. Much - if not most - of this inefficiency can be attributed to the fact that we have optimized the way the world works within silos, with little regard for how the processes and systems that drive our planet interrelate. We've tuned these processes to generate specific outcomes for individual communities, nations, enterprises and value chains. To root out inefficiencies and reclaim a substantial portion of that which is lost, businesses, industries, governments and cities will need to think in terms of systems, or more accurately, a system of systems. We'll also need to collaborate at unprecedented levels. Certainly, no single organization owns the world's food system, and no single entity can fix the world's healthcare system. Success will depend upon understanding the full set of cause-and-effect relationships that link systems and using this knowledge to create greater synergy. The chief obstacle that remains is mindset - moving from short-sighted to long-term perspectives, from siloed to system-of-systems decision making. Download the IBM Institute for Business Value executive report, "The world's trillion-dollar challenge: Using a system-of-systems approach to build a smarter planet," to discover a framework for helping solve real-world problems using a system-of-systems approach.

daviding says: The use of the phrase "systems of systems" in a report from IBM Global Business Services (i.e. the management consulting arm) is interesting.

daviding says: This is the first version of a quantitative study that could become an annual study. Note the 25 metrics in nine categories over three sets of main indicators (foundations, flows of resources, impacts).

... today we're publishing as The 2009 Shift Index, a new set of economic indicators built for the digital world. Because it focuses on longer-term, "secular" changes to the business environment, the Shift Index is designed as a complement to the overwhelmingly short-term, cyclical measures that comprise most of today's economic indices. The full report and findings are available here. And a summary version of the framework, index, and findings is now out in the July/August Harvard Business Review. In the months and years to come, this inaugural index, which focuses exclusively on the U.S. economy, will be regularly updated to track changes over time and expand the ability to compare performance trends across industries, countries, and firms. The Shift Index tracks 25 metrics in nine categories across three sets of main indicators: Foundations, which set the stage for major change; Flows of resources, such as knowledge, which allow businesses to enhance productivity; and Impacts, which help gauge progress at an economy-wide level. Together these indicators represent phases of transformation in the Big Shift taking place in the global business environment. What do the findings show? The 2009 Shift Index reveals a disquieting performance paradox in the US corporate sector. On the one hand, labor productivity has nearly doubled since 1965. During those same years, however, US companies' Return on Assets (ROA) progressively dropped 75 percent from their 1965 level.

The original pointer to this report summary is from Jim Spohrer at http://forums.thesrii.org/srii/blog/article?blog.id=main_blog&message.id=191#M191 .

Key messages * There are three primary stakeholder groups that can guide the development of services science: academia, government and industry. Only by investing and working together in a coordinated manner can the maximum promise of services science be realised. * The global recession should sharpen government and industry's focus on services science as they seek solutions to invigorate the western economy, to make business more competitive and to learn from this latest setback. * Services science has the potential to establish a new industry of professionals (compare engineers, lawyers and computer scientists) whose expertise can be drawn upon to benefit the broader services-led economy. * The degree of human intervention required during the lifetime of an IT services contract is too high and is consequently both too expensive to be efficient and too error-prone to be effective. These shortcomings are directly related to the absence of scientific rigour in the design and delivery of these services. * IT is integral to services science, since modern service systems often have IT enablement heavily involved in service delivery. * IT service providers have the potential to benefit from services science by making their offerings more meaningful and resilient in a market that will increasingly demand more efficient service delivery. * Innovation in services delivery is at the heart of the vision for services science. The end goal should be a virtuous circle of innovation that can encourage new business opportunities and, in turn, create further innovation in the delivery of services. * Collaboration, investment and sharing of knowledge are vital to progressing services science research and development. * Significant challenges still need to be overcome to drive adoption of services science, not least of which is the complexity of aligning academic, business and governmental interests at a given moment in time. * Gove

About this site The site http://www.umm-dev.org serves as a central access point for all information related to UN/CEFACT's Modeling Methodology (UMM) and the UML Profile for Core Components (UPCC). It provides information about the UMM and UPCC standard per se, academic work in the field of inter-organizational business process modeling and business document as well as tools and other important resources.

This site is a Wordpress blog, so it's possible/practical to receive a feed about ongoing development of the UMM. (The alternative may be the e-mail list). The work appears to be largely centered at universities in Austria.

The volume of auctions described at Google reflect a change made possible through advances in information technology. The only way that these auctions could be conducted is through the use of information technologies and establishment of business rules.

[....] Googlenomics actually comes in two flavors: macro and micro. The macroeconomic side involves some of the company's seemingly altruistic behavior, which often baffles observers. Why does Google give away products like its browser, its apps, and the Android operating system for mobile phones? Anything that increases Internet use ultimately enriches Google, Varian says. And since using the Web without using Google is like dining at In-N-Out without ordering a hamburger, more eyeballs on the Web lead inexorably to more ad sales for Google. The microeconomics of Google is more complicated. Selling ads doesn't generate only profits; it also generates torrents of data about users' tastes and habits, data that Google then sifts and processes in order to predict future consumer behavior, find ways to improve its products, and sell more ads. This is the heart and soul of Googlenomics. It's a system of constant self-analysis: a data-fueled feedback loop that defines not only Google's future but the future of anyone who does business online. [....] Kamangar and Veach decided to price the slots on the side of the page by means of an auction. Not an eBay-style auction that unfolds over days or minutes as bids are raised or abandoned, but a huge marketplace of virtual auctions in which sealed bids are submitted in advance and winners are determined algorithmically in fractions of a second. Google hoped that millions of small and medium companies would take part in the market, so it was essential that the process be self-service. Advertisers bid on search terms, or keywords, but instead of bidding on the price per impression, they were bidding on a price they were willing to pay each time a user clicked on the ad. (The bid would be accompanied by a budget of how many clicks the advertiser was willing to pay for.) The new system was called AdWords Select, while the ads at the top of the page, with prices still set by humans, was renamed AdWords Premium.

daviding says: Here's an interesting tidbit on how the social media could be changing the way musical performances are being done. Major concert tours (since the Beatles played Shea Stadium) have taken an industrial approach of mounting the production, and then playing the same thing over and over again. Most jazz players have the facility to drop into different combos, and changing the lineup at each performance makes that date unique. Having a wide variety of performances show up on the Internet drives additional interest, as opposed to hearing exactly the same performance every time. (Antonio Sanchez is a well-respected drummer, who doesn't just play with Pat Metheny).

"I would be committed to one band (usually guitarist Pat Metheny's) most of the time, out of musical preference, or whoever had more work. Now I have to play with four or five different bands in order to keep busy. Before, people toured longer, because the market was different. Now, even big names like Chick Corea, or Pat, or Herbie Hancock, every time they go out, they go out with a different band, because promoters want a different project every single time. Because of YouTube and the Internet, people see so much stuff that when they want to see something live, they want something special."

daviding says: This is an interesting example of decomplexification (in the vocabulary of Tim Allen). Instead of integrating health services into a centralized facilities (i.e. complexifying), having doctors distributed nearer to the homes of patients can reduce costs. The difference between the era of Marcus Welby MD and today is that the Internet enables easy electronic sharing of patient records ... if the physicians and patients are willing to allow that free flow of information.

The primary-care doctor is gaining new respect in Washington. Battles may be breaking out left and right over the various health-care bills emerging from Congress, but reformers on both sides agree that general practitioners should be given a central role in uniting the fragmented U.S. medical system. This vision has a name: the "patient-centered medical home." The "home" is the office of a primary-care doctor where patients would go for most of their medical needs. The general practitioner would oversee everything from flu shots to chronic disease management to weight loss, and coordinate care with nurses, pharmacists, and specialists. A 2004 study estimated that if every patient had such a home, the resulting efficiencies might reduce U.S. health-care costs by 5.6%, a savings of $67 billion a year. [...] advocates say the new concept is designed to help patients, not insurers. It's more like doctoring 1950s-style, when a Marcus Welby figure handled all the family's medical needs. This time it's juiced up with digital technology. It also represents a politically painless way to streamline a disorganized and wasteful system that chews up a crippling 18% of the U.S. gross domestic product. That burden is felt particularly by private industry, which covers 60% of the nation's insured. Since most businesses try to ferret out waste and disorganization in their own operations, the medical home is a concept they can embrace in good conscience. One of the biggest advocates is IBM (IBM), which shelled out $1.3 billion last year on health benefits for its U.S. employees and retirees, equal to one month of the company's net income. Dr. Paul H. Grundy, 57, who holds the unusual title of director of health-care transformation for IBM, is a medical-home evangelist who led the company to start the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, a coalition of some 500 large employers, insurers, consumer groups, and doctors. Part of his goal, he says, is to show that "emp

daviding says: The article recognizes the limitation of government statistics on services. The industry segment isn't exactly the focus of researchers interested in the creative class economy, but it does demonstrate how surrogate measures may be collected.

The Sapporo findings, published in a dry report on changing shopping trends and urban land use this week, show the number of brothels in the Susukino district, one of the three largest red-light areas in the country, has soared more than fourfold to 264 in the past two decades. [....] This makes the sex trade a rare success story in an economy devastated by the steep decline in global demand for Japanese autos and electronics, drivers of the country's exports, and eroding domestic consumption, which supports a vast service sector. Services account for the overwhelming part of economic activity in Japan and other modern countries, and they are notoriously difficult to measure precisely. In Canada, Statistics Canada frequently examines and overhauls the way it measures services in the search for greater accuracy. But Statscan would have a hard time gauging the true economic impact of the sex trade. It's much easier to measure in Japan, where several sexual acts are allowed in licensed outlets in designated areas, although actual intercourse in those establishments is outlawed.

daviding says: Categorizing problems as P-type, N-type and NP-type (i.e. NP-hard) provides a way for appreciating why managers avoid taking on some challenges. It's better to succeed on an easy problem, than fail on a hard one. (There's a easier-reading version of this article in Rotman Magazine Winter 2009 that seems to have been evolved for publication into Harvard Business Review in January 2009).

[from the introduction] We develop a model of cognitive choices managers implicitly make among and within problem complexity classes and argue that strategic managers use problem statements from one complexity class with greater regularity than those from other complexity classes to make sense of their predicaments (i.e. to transform 'situations' or 'raw feels' into 'problems' or 'puzzles'). We examine the marginal value to strategic managers of greater 'logical complexity' - parametrized by the marginal value of greater precision of an answer and the computational sophistication of competitors schema - to come up with a computationally precise formulation of 'ecological rationality'.

daviding says: "A manifesto" isn't what I would usually expect from an academic institution.

The need for a fresh approach to U.S. communities is more urgent than ever because of the biggest global economic crisis since the Great Depression. Through examination of the barriers to solving urban problems (and the ways they reinforce each other), this paper offers a new approach to community transformation which calls for leaders to use technology to inform and connect people. We need to convert the social safety net into a social safety network through the creation of smarter communities that are information-rich, interconnected, and able to provide opportunities to all citizens. This process has already begun through such programs as Harlem Children's Zone, Baltimore's CitiStat, Elevate Miami, and others. And they can be replicated. But technology alone is not the answer. Realization of the vision requires leaders to invest in the tools, guide their use, and pave the way for transformation. Perhaps the urgency of the current economic crisis can provide the impetus to overcome resistance to change and turn problems into an opportunity to reduce costs, improve services to communities, and make our cities smarter.

daviding says: I was thinking about (output) coproduction and (value) cocreation, and came across these proceedings, which includes a short article by Rafael Ramirez and Ulf Mannervick on "Designing value-creating systems".

Essay Archive Edited by Lucy Kimbell and Victor P. Seidel, collected in this innovative and highly illustrated volume are findings from the designing for services project. Particular focus is on the practices of an emerging discipline of service design grounded in the arts and humanities. Three case studies in which service design companies worked with science and technology-based enterprises are discussed, from a range of academic perspectives.

At the UN -- actually the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe -- ther version 1 models and metamodels dated 2006 are published.

UMM User Guide (UMM in a nutshell) UMM Foundation Module V1.0 (2006) UMM Base Module V1.0 (2006) UMM User Guide UMM Metamodel - Revision 12 (2003) UMM Revision 10 (2001)

Customers introduce tremendous variability to that process, but they also complain about any lack of consistency and don't care about the company's profit agenda. Managing customer-introduced variability, the author argues, is a central challenge for service companies. The first step is to diagnose which type of variability is causing mischief: Customers may arrive at different times, request different kinds of service, possess different capabilities, make varying degrees of effort, and have different personal preferences. Should companies accommodate variability or reduce it? Accommodation often involves asking employees to compensate for the variations among customers--a potentially costly solution. Reduction often means offering a limited menu of options, which may drive customers away. Some companies have learned to deal with customer-introduced variability without damaging either their operating environments or customers' service experiences.

The key table ... Y-axis: (1) Arrival variability, (2) Request variability, (3) Capability variability, (4) Effort variability, (5) Subject Preference variability; Y-axis: (a) Classic accommodation, (b) Low-Cost Accommodation, (c) Classic Reduction, (d) Uncompromised Reduction