Semantic model for knowledge representation in e-business

Semantic knowledge representation is the key for the development of present intelligent systems. Furthermore, the Semantic Web provide a formal representation and knowledge-driven set of technologies to enable automation of business processes. Despite the new trends on business process automation based on semantic technologies and Web Services, a number of business processes still require human intervention. In this paper we address the problem of ontology-based process representation based on expert's knowledge, considering both tasks executed by means of web services and tasks executed by persons. In this way, fully-automated and semi-automated processes (guided by a person) could be represented and executed. The proposed model is based on the set of situations that can be identified by an expert in a given process and the actions required in each situation. For validating our approach, a sales supporting system based on the proposed architecture has been developed. The proof-of concept system has been running for a remarkably time, supporting the sales process for non-expert sellers. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.