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Explication and semantic querying of enterprise information systems

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Abstract

Many researches show that the ability of independent, heterogeneous enterprises’ information systems to interoperate is related to the challenges of making their semantics explicit and formal, so that the messages are not merely exchanged, but interpreted, without ambiguity. In this paper, we present an approach to overcome those challenges by developing a method for explication of the systems’ implicit semantics. We define and implement the method for the generation of local ontologies, based on the databases of their systems. In addition, we describe an associated method for the translation between semantic and SQL queries, a process in which implicit semantics of the EIS’s databases and explicit semantics of the local ontologies become interrelated. Both methods are demonstrated in the case of creating the local ontology and the semantic querying of OpenERP Enterprise Resource Planning system, for the benefit of the collaborative supply chain planning.

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Acknowledgments

The work presented in this paper was supported by the program for scientific cooperation between Serbia and France PHC PAVLE SAVIC (Project No. 23494VF 2010/2011); and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia (Project No. III41017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Intelligent Production Systems, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Niš, Aleksandra Medvedeva 14, Niš, Serbia

    Milan Zdravković & Miroslav Trajanović

  2. CRAN, UMR 7039, CNRS, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy Cedex, France

    Hervé Panetto & Alexis Aubry

  3. Université de Lorraine, CRAN, UMR 7039, Campus sciences, B.P. 70239, 54506, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy Cedex, France

    Hervé Panetto & Alexis Aubry

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  1. Milan Zdravković
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  2. Hervé Panetto
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  4. Alexis Aubry
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Correspondence to Milan Zdravković.

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Zdravković, M., Panetto, H., Trajanović, M. et al. Explication and semantic querying of enterprise information systems. Knowl Inf Syst 40, 697–724 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10115-013-0650-x

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