Participants

The Current Situation
The IMS Enterprise Services v1.0 specification was released in 2004. This was followed in early 2006 by the IMS General Web Services v1.0 specification. Together these two specifications define how Enterprise systems can exchange information using a Web Service realisation of a service-oriented Architecture (SoA). During the intervening period that here has been a rationalization of the vendor market and an increased focus on integration using a services based approach.

This new work is the next stage in the evolution of Enterprise Services. We are taking a new look at the underlying business processes involved in Enterprise for Higher Education. Once the core business process model has been developed we can then identify how the current Enterprise Services need to be extended to support the next generation of Enterprise systems.

This work is being undertaken in conjunction with the eFramework activity supported by JISC and DEST. The set of services will be described using the eFramework documentation approach.

The Rationale
The creation of services that directly reflect the business processes for Higher Education Enterprise will have the following benefits:

• Systems integration will be easier due to the clear definition of a broader set of service interfaces;
• It will be easier to replace services as and when required. This will reduce the costs of migration ad will improve system reliability;
• The adoption of a common service architecture will make it easier to add new services when they are available.

Further Information
For information on IMS GLC and the benefits of being a Contributing Member, please contact:

Rob Abel
Chief Executive Officer
IMS Global Learning Consortium
rabel@imsglobal.org