Mobile agent technology in support of sales order processing in the virtual enterprise

The flexible integration of a range of disparate IT applications is a key requirement for today's global enterprises. The virtual enterprise, formed by a collection of collaborating companies for short term, high return, one off projects provides perhaps the most extreme example of this need. It is unlikely that any collaborators in a virtual enterprise will have similar networks or software, but the requirement exists for them to inter-operate. This paper proposes the notion that Mobile Agent Technology can be a significant aid to enterprise agility, particularly where distribution of information is a feature, as in virtual enterprises. The implications of using Java and its facilities for database connectivity (JDBC) together with mobile agent environments are discussed before a model to fulfil the requirements of the manufacturing Sales/Order process is proposed. The model used in the process has been produced with data collected from an industrial case study. equent decomposi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: IFIP
• Authors: Todd Papaioannou, John Edwards
• Keywords: Agent Technology, IFIP 1998, Mobile Agents, Programming Languages, Virtual Enterprise