一種以代理人為基礎支援客戶關係管理的即時整合方法設計

Abstract

本論文主要在研究如何利用企業內部已經存在的資訊系統，滿足企業在運行客戶關係管理時的需求。我們提出一個方法，運用軟體代理人的技術，整合存在於相關資訊系統內部的資訊與流程，快速提供即時、整合的資訊和服務給客戶，滿足客戶的需求。 我們的方法，包含三個主要的步驟，作為執行時的參考。首先，企業必須先定義哪些是客戶真正需要的服務，接著，要分析有哪些相關的資訊系統必須參與，如何參與，共同來支援這些服務，最後，需要制定資訊系統服務介面來做為資訊系統之間彼此整合的基礎。在執行上，我們提出以軟體代理人的方式來實踐資訊系統服務介面。 透過中華電信公司的案例，我們總共設計了六種不同類型的軟體代理人，來實現我們所提出的方法，包括(1)服務提供者代理人(Service-Provider Agent, SPA)，用來提供資訊服務或程序服務，(2)服務請求者代理人(Service-Request Agent, SRA)，用來請求資訊服務或程序服務，(3)資訊發佈代理人(Information Publish Agent, IPA)，提供即時資訊主動通知的服務，(4)資訊訂閱代理人(Information Subscribe Agent, ISA)，接受資訊發佈代理人的資訊服務，(5)資料整合代理人(Data Consolidation Agent, DCA)，用來整合不同來源的資訊服務，以及(6)流程控制代理人(Process Control Agent, PCA)，用來整合和控制不同來源的程序服務。代理人之間透過XML格式的訊息來相互溝通，只需花費些許的功夫和時間，就可以迅速達到整合資訊系統的目的。此外，我們還設計了資訊安全代理人來保護未授權資料的存取。 多數的企業都像中華電信一般，為了每天的運作，必須投入許多資源在設計、開發、以及維護眾多的資訊系統上。本論文提出了一個架構和方法，滿足企業實際的需要，引導企業充分利用企業內現有的資訊系統，來加強客戶服務。本論文所實作的案例，雖然以中華電信內部的應用為基礎，但我們所提出的架構和方法，也可以適用在其他企業的應用。

This thesis focuses on how to leverage the existing information systems to meet the needs for customer relationship management. The author proposes a method for integrating the existing business processes, which are identified according to the needs to satisfy the customer. The method utilizes a programming technique, known as software agent, to meet the needs for providing the desired information in a real-time manner. The method includes three main tasks: (1) defining the services to satisfy the customer, (2) identifying the business processes that can provide information to support the service, and (3) defining the interfaces for integrating the information systems associated with the identified processes. The interfaces are implemented with the technique of software agent. In one implementation at Chunghwa Telecommunication Co., six types of software agent have been designed: (1) Service Requestor, (2) Service Provider, (3) Information Subscriber, (4) Information Publisher, (5) Data Consolidator, and (6) Process Controller. The input/output data of these six types of software agent are defined according to the syntax of Extensible Markup Language (XML) such that the integration of the identified information systems can be achieved with less costly effort. In addition, an agent for information security is further included to prevent the information from unauthorized access. Like Chunghwa Telecommunication Co., most organizations have spent tremendous amount of resources on designing, developing and operating a variety of information systems for their daily businesses. It is a practical need to leverage the legacy systems for customer relationship management. This thesis has devised a method and framework for this purpose. The implementation described is exemplary; applications of the method and framework are not restricted to Chunghwa Telecommunication Co.