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information integration. This will allow the ministries and agencies to better manage information and share good practices. The landscape of enterprise information management, access, and integration has been steadily evolving in both the public sector and the industry. In the public sector, such integrated implementation approaches have been reflected in frameworks such as the European Interoperability Frameworks( EIF), which are the conceptual models for delivering public services. In the private sector or industry, the latest trend is referred to as the Enterprise Information Management( EIM) reference architecture.
The EIM reference architectures and the EIF conceptual reference architecture for European public services refer to the semantic and technical aspects of integration. These reference architectures aim to integrate enterprise data, both structured and non‐structured information, and the technical domains such as information management, enterprise information and application integration into one framework.
These are multi‐layered architectures consisting of a common set of enterprise information services that can address data source heterogeneity, metadata mapping, master data and reference data identification, and information governance based on understanding the information models and usage patterns across the various government and user community domains.
An EIM Reference Architecture is presented in Figure 1 and its domains and components are briefly described below:
• Information Strategy and Governance domain focuses on overall information strategy, information management policy, principles and architecture, specific processes that deliver information governance and staff competency framework.
• Common Information Model & Taxonomies domain focuses on establishing a common, standard nomenclature to facilitate communication between different entities. Key functions in this domain Corporate Information Model, Enterprise Taxonomies, Code Lists, and Enterprise Data Dictionary.
• Common Metadata Management domain focuses on definition and implementation of a common metadata standard and the implementation of Metadata Repository that can assist in providing standardized, single‐source semantic definitions for an enterprise.
• Common Master Data domain focuses on the methods used to consolidate and synchronize the master data across an enterprise.
• Information Access and Presentation domain focuses on the common methods used to ensure secure access to information across business capabilities and functions. Key functions in this domain include delivery devices( e. g. mobile devices, desktops), delivery environments( internet and intranet) and delivery mechanisms( dashboards, portals, alerts / notifications, application GUI’ s and feeds and subscriptions).
• Security & Identity Access Management domain focuses on the processes, policies, and technologies that protect an organization’ s data and allows access to only those users authorized to view / edit the data. Key functions in this domain include access & authorization management, identity store, authentication / authorization, remote access.
• Enterprise Application / Information Integration domain focuses on platforms and other software for integrating information, applications and systems within and outside an organization. Key functions in this domain include messaging, APIs, web services, enterprise service bus( ESB).
• Business Information Analytics domain focuses the processes and solutions required to support internal and external business information analytics. Key functions in this domain include Integrated Reporting, Text & Social Media Analytics, Structured & Unstructured Data Analytics.
To implement enterprise information integration, it is commonly recommended to start by defining and adopting a formal enterprise information management( IM) practice at the whole of government level. Pardo et al( 2012) identified information management as a core e‐government interoperability capability, where IM refers to the application of disciplined and consistent practices related to planning, creation, capture or collection, organization, use, accessibility, dissemination, storage, protection and disposition of information. Establishing enterprise wide information management processes is a process whereby organizations evolve and develop competencies over time. Table 1 presents the functional building blocks to establish an Enterprise
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