**3. Challenging the interoperability between systems**

**2. Importance of applying ontology in industrial sector**

between both factors ontologies and expert systems.

124 Knowledge Management Strategies and Applications

engines just with one search query [15].

ogies can provide:

among agents and application systems.

Our objective here is thus to contribute to a better knowledge retrieval in the industry repositories field. Ontologies are being developed to facilitate knowledge sharing and reuse. In this section, we explain more formally what ontologies are and what problems can arise from knowledge sharing in industrial area. We have proposed a method to efficiently search the target information on a digital repository network with multiple independent information sources [13]. The use of AI and ontologies as a knowledge representation formalism offers many advantages in information retrieval [14]. In this chapter we analyzed the relationship

Currently, the electronic search is based mainly on matching keywords introduced by the users with sought data Web pages containing those keywords. The ambiguity of word blends and phrases and the poor linguistic features of Web content indexing mechanisms greatly affect the results obtained from Web resource searches. The efficiency of the results search obtained can vary depending on the quality of the search query from a limited set of results to a too large number of irrelevant results. For certain cases specifying a couple of keywords can be enough, if they are really specific and no ambiguity is possible. In another way, many Web users search for information that cannot be described easily by a set of keywords, and this is due to the wideness of expected results, which cannot be retrieved from existing search

Industrial repositories contain a large volume of digital information, generally focusing on making their knowledge resources to improve associate decision-support systems. Within a pool of heterogeneous and distributed information resources, users take site-by-site searching. Thus, considerable effort is required in creating meaningful metadata, organizing and annotating digital documents, and making them accessible. The presentation of semanticenabled resources introduces some benefits of the Semantic Web technology as a possibility to perform a semantic search, integration of heterogeneous data, and use of semantically annotated search results by software. This work concerns applications of the Semantic Web technology for improving existing information search systems by adding semantically enabled

A recent comprehensive document covering the main aspects of ontologies in AI research is the technical roadmap of the ontology field in Europe and worldwide produced by the OntoWeb project [16]. In this chapter, we want to emphasize that the first step toward real portability between systems is ontologies. Ontologies can be effectively used to address the problem of global and general models construction between similar domains. Furthermore, it is possible to instantiate and adapt ontology with a specific configuration to automatically build and validate new models [17]. With respect to the research involved in this study, ontol-

• Share and common understanding of the knowledge domain that can be communicated

extensions that enhance information retrieval from information systems.

• Explicit conceptualization that describes the semantics of the data.

Industry and companies are seeking to gain maximum business value from their investments in information and communications technologies. The industry has recognized the everincreasing importance of systems and software interoperability to enable business process/ government service development and the integration of systems and business processes. In the business case, it expands to include the ability of two or more business processes, or services, to easily or automatically work together [19]. In order to reduce costs of industrial integration and inefficiencies, increase business agility, and allow the adoption of new and emerging technologies, the ability to interoperate between systems is key issue. For two systems to be interoperable, they must be able to exchange data and subsequently present that data such that a user can understand it. Interoperability describes the extent to which systems and devices can exchange data and interpret that shared data. Connectivity and interoperation among computers and entities and among software components can increase the flexibility and agility of industrial systems, thus reducing administrative and software costs for industry.

In June 2002, European heads of state adopted the Europe Action Plan 2005 at the Seville summit. It calls on the European Commission to issue an agreed interoperability framework to support the delivery of European digital services to enterprises [20].

This document recommends policies and technical specifications for linking public administration information systems across the EU. This research is based on open standards and the use of open source software. These are the pillars to support the European provision of digital services in the recently adopted European Framework of Interoperability (EIF) [21] and its Spanish equivalent [22]. This document is the reference for the interoperability of the new Interoperable Program of Digital PanEuropean Services Provision to Public Administrations, Companies, and Citizens (IDAbc). European institutions and bodies should use the EIF for their operations with each other and with the citizens, businesses, and administrations of the respective EU Member States (IEF, 2014). Member States' administrations should use the guidance provided by the EIF to complement its national interoperability frameworks with a pan-European dimension and thus enable pan-European interoperability.

In this context, interoperability is the ability of information and communication technology systems and the business processes they support to exchange data and enable the exchange of information and knowledge. The ISO/IEC 2382 Information Technology Vocabulary defines interoperability as the ability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data between several functional units in a way that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units. Interoperability can be considered on very different abstraction levels, and the distinctions to be made in this respect cut across all the other matrix dimensions. An interoperability framework can be described as a set of standards and guidelines, which describe the way in which organizations have agreed, or should agree, to interact with each other.

At the level of technical infrastructure, the industry is approaching interoperability through standards and in many cases conceptualizes those standards through stacks of technology. Technology stacks are conceptual layers of software and software functionality that interoperate between layers within stacks and between stacks in the same conceptual layer [23]. Within a continuum rank from a very concrete to a very abstract perspective, it is possible to distinguish three layers as shown in next **Figure 1**.

The main semantic interoperability objective is to improve communication on industrial knowledge related both between machines and between humans. To achieve this, a twofold approach is necessary to achieve a unified ontology and tackle specific and clearly delineated issues. Inside semantic interoperability, various dimensions, such as medial/ administrative or human/machines levels, can be distinguished. Organizational interoperability is defined as the state in which the organizational components of the industrial system are able to function perfectly together. The goal is an integrated industrial system, which provides efficient, effective, and holistic. The functional objective is to allow data to be exchanged between different platform in various corporations using different software, hardware, equipment, etc. from multiple manufacturers. Technical interoperability allows communication and iteration between systems from different manufacturers. Technical dimension of interoperability include uniform movement of industrial data, uniform presentation of data, uniform user controls, uniform safeguarding data security and integrity, uniform protection of industrial confidentiality, and uniform assurance of a common degree of service quality.

Numerous efforts are being leveraged by many standard efforts to address semantic and organizational interoperability and are proving to be a model for addressing semantic and organizational interoperability such as ebXML, RosettaNet, the new CEFACT/UN work to align their global work process standards with Web services, etc.

**Figure 1.** Conceptual interoperability layers.

of the new Interoperable Program of Digital PanEuropean Services Provision to Public Administrations, Companies, and Citizens (IDAbc). European institutions and bodies should use the EIF for their operations with each other and with the citizens, businesses, and administrations of the respective EU Member States (IEF, 2014). Member States' administrations should use the guidance provided by the EIF to complement its national interoperability frameworks with a pan-European dimension and thus enable pan-Euro-

In this context, interoperability is the ability of information and communication technology systems and the business processes they support to exchange data and enable the exchange of information and knowledge. The ISO/IEC 2382 Information Technology Vocabulary defines interoperability as the ability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data between several functional units in a way that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units. Interoperability can be considered on very different abstraction levels, and the distinctions to be made in this respect cut across all the other matrix dimensions. An interoperability framework can be described as a set of standards and guidelines, which describe the way in which organizations have agreed, or should agree, to

At the level of technical infrastructure, the industry is approaching interoperability through standards and in many cases conceptualizes those standards through stacks of technology. Technology stacks are conceptual layers of software and software functionality that interoperate between layers within stacks and between stacks in the same conceptual layer [23]. Within a continuum rank from a very concrete to a very abstract perspective, it is possible to

The main semantic interoperability objective is to improve communication on industrial knowledge related both between machines and between humans. To achieve this, a twofold approach is necessary to achieve a unified ontology and tackle specific and clearly delineated issues. Inside semantic interoperability, various dimensions, such as medial/ administrative or human/machines levels, can be distinguished. Organizational interoperability is defined as the state in which the organizational components of the industrial system are able to function perfectly together. The goal is an integrated industrial system, which provides efficient, effective, and holistic. The functional objective is to allow data to be exchanged between different platform in various corporations using different software, hardware, equipment, etc. from multiple manufacturers. Technical interoperability allows communication and iteration between systems from different manufacturers. Technical dimension of interoperability include uniform movement of industrial data, uniform presentation of data, uniform user controls, uniform safeguarding data security and integrity, uniform protection of industrial confidentiality, and uniform assurance of a common

Numerous efforts are being leveraged by many standard efforts to address semantic and organizational interoperability and are proving to be a model for addressing semantic and organizational interoperability such as ebXML, RosettaNet, the new CEFACT/UN work to

align their global work process standards with Web services, etc.

pean interoperability.

126 Knowledge Management Strategies and Applications

interact with each other.

degree of service quality.

distinguish three layers as shown in next **Figure 1**.

The achievement of semantic and organizational interoperability requires strictly agreeing on the meaning of information and aligning business processes between companies/governments. At one level, general interprofessional frameworks and software infrastructure approaches can and are being developed for semantics and business processes. For example, the general semantics of major business transactions, such as purchase orders and invoices, is described through standards such as Universal Business Language (UBL), CEFACT Core Components, and Open Applications Group Integration Standard.
