Introducing her work, she says, `Business transactions are part of our everyday life: buying a book from the bookstore or a CD from the music shop. Companies in turn constantly enter into business transactions with each other in order to be able to perform their daily activities.' Boriana elaborates, `When a problem crops up - for instance, the invoice received shows a product different than the one that was ordered - we know whom to contact and how to react. But research has shown that automation of parts of a business transaction is a source of tremendous savings, in terms of both time and money. It also improves coordination in a business network where the parties are interdependent. Automating a business transaction, however, requires that the knowledge about its functioning be made explicit and then formalized and embedded in a computer system. Thus the information to be exchanged needs to be available in a `standard' format to facilitate readability and comprehension on both sides of the transaction.'
This is easier said than done, however, according to Boriana. It is not sufficient to have systems that can simply exchange messages. The systems must be able to `understand' and `interpret' the message, act upon it in an agreed-upon manner and provide meaningful information to the other participants in the transaction. Thus before implementing a standard, it is important to evaluate to what extent it can cover the requirements of the specific business transaction. `Failure to do so can lead to high implementation costs, longer implementation time and, worst of all, the resulting solution might not be able to support the particular of doing business. In my research I am trying to create a model, which would help to evaluate the extent of a standard's capability in covering the requirements of a specific business transaction,' says Boriana.
An appropriate example of a standard that Boriana cites is Health Level 7 or HL7 founded by a group of American hospitals in 1987 which facilitates the exchange, management and integration of data that support clinical patient care and the management and evaluation of health care services. It defines the protocol for exchanging information between various healthcare information systems like patient administration, laboratories and billing.
When Boriana is not working on her model, she likes to hike. `I went to Peru with my boyfriend and it was an amazing trip. We hiked for five days and spent the weekend in the jungle!' she says excitedly. She used to hike almost every weekend back home. Looking at the Dutch landscape, it's no wonder she misses the mountains. `Well, there are no mountains here but, hey, there is abundant water, so I have started rowing and sailing,' she says with a disarming smile.
Hometown: Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Languages known: Bulgarian, Russian, English, French, Dutch
Favorite food: Shopsua Salad (salad of tomatoes, white cheese, pepper) with the
traditional drink Rakia
Favorite musician: Jan Garbarek
Favorite movie: `Sacrifice' by Andrei Tarkovski
Favorite book: `A portrait of the artist as a young man' by James Joyce
Best part of living
in NL: Visiting islands in the north
Worst part of living
in NL: The short, dark winter days
