Multi-Level Language Architectures as a Foundation for Advanced Enterprise Systems

Enterprise systems are the backbone of many companies. Most operational activities are usually not feasible without them. In addition, enterprise systems may also constitute remarkable competitive advantage – or turn out to be a threat to competitiveness, depending on their quality. Enterprise systems in general, ERP systems in particular, have been around for some decades. During this time, they have undoubtedly undergone a maturing process. However, hardly any significant progress has been made regarding foundational architectures and corresponding functions. Based on an analysis of widely undisputed objectives and corresponding shortcomings of current enterprise systems, this paper presents an advanced architecture that enables the construction of self-referential enterprise systems (SRES). SRES promise substantial progress with respect to various essential objectives of enterprise systems. The proposed architecture is based on a multi-level language architecture. Among other things, it allows for the integration of enterprise models and corresponding software at run-time. Thus, it does not only boost reuse and adaptability, but substantially fosters user empowerment, too.