Affiliations: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY
10598, USA
Abstract: We propose the concept of a "smart distance" for complex enterprise
systems and illustrate how to use it to adaptively connect dynamic and
heterogeneous business objects, intelligent agents, and most importantly, human
beings within enterprises. We illustrate the design of a generic agent
architecture BESA, a Business Entity enabled, Smart distance oriented Agent
architecture, and its application to a "sense and respond" system. With "smart
distance" infrastructure operating within an enterprise system, the system can
eliminate inefficiencies that are due to lags and latencies that exist in the
traditional environment. With various entities at different layers, the
enterprise system is expected to be able to sense and respond to market
conditions quickly and effectively through a closed-loop hierarchical
control.