Offers on IT, Telecommunications
Project Success Stories - Virtual business enters the real world
Work by EU-funded researchers will help make Europe a world leader in virtual organisations, the new, emerging business reality. It is a reality that will change how work gets done.
Take Mark Kwan's company in Frankfurt. It designs the logical functionality of video software and needs help from Soo Chen's company in Milan for audiovisual interfaces. They both need Jemish Patel's platform company in London. They put together software and hardware interfaces so a new type of video camera can work with Shutterstock editing software. They are in a hurry. They do not do anything so 20th century as a meeting. For this project the three firms become one joint venture, working as a fully integrated virtual organisation (VO). They will collaborate virtually. But this VO is much more than video-conferencing. Using a 'contract wizard' they are able to rapidly establish the legally binding terms of their cooperation. Their human resources systems link seamlessly, so the right people are assigned to the right job. The three SMEs work as a single company for the purposes of this one-time project. They can co-opt other SMEs or larger companies on the fly, if they need more expertise. At the end they can dissolve the VO, start on a new project, or another VO. This is a world where SMEs can self-organise into ad-hoc virtual corporations to tackle projects, take on markets and exploit opportunities that no single SME could do on its own. It is a big, big vision and it is a lot closer because of the work by 'European collaborative networked organisations leadership' (Ecolead) initiative, a major European effort to lead the world in networked collaboration. 'In ten years, in response to fast-changing market conditions, most enterprises and especially SMEs, will be part of some sustainable collaborative networks that will act as breeding environments for the formation of dynamic virtual organisations,' says Martin Ollus, coordinator of Ecolead and a researcher at Finland's VTT institute. 'Collaborative networks of organisations provide a basis for competitiveness, world-excellence, and agility in turbulent market conditions,' he adds. 'They can support SMEs to identify and exploit new business potential, boost innovation, and increase their knowledge. Networking of
SMEs with large-scale enterprises also contributes to the success of the big companies in the global market.' Far-ranging Ecolead project was far-reaching and consisted of many direct and indirect impacts. It had a large work programme involving 27 partners and a budget of EUR 15.22 million, with EUR 9.75 million provided by the EU. Using these resources the project developed dozens of important tools and many pieces of key infrastructure. In the process the partners helped to create a whole new market sector for Europe's ICT industry, a sector focused on collaborative networking, VOs and the even more complex community of networked organisations (CNOs). More importantly, software development for the European SME market is now a viable proposition. Few enterprise solutions target SMEs because it is a fragmented market of relatively small installations. But by creating a focus on the collaborative networking tools SMEs need, Ecolead helped to overcome this barrier. Ecolead's work had direct application too. Five key strands created the framework for a VOenabled world. First, there was an important, broad and very influential study of networking and collaboration theory. Second, Ecolead developed appropriate infrastructure and tools. Next the project developed three strategic processes to enable a sustainable VO ecosystem: VO breeding environments (VBE), dynamic VOs and professional virtual communities. VBEs are the key element to prepare SMEs, typically consisting of companies that could potentially form VOs. 'There are many groups and associations that have some of the characteristics of a VBE, but they are not particularly acting in this capacity. Industry associations and chambers of commerce offer a potential springboard for the development of VBEs. These potential VBEs have in their DNA the mission to support the overall well-being of their associated SMEs,' explains Mr Ollus. Here, software is the key enabler and Ecolead developed a series of tools and services that can be used together or separately. The assistance tool, for example, supports rapid creation of a virtual organisation which accommodates issues of trust, competency, and other factors to set it up. For performance, the project developed a measurement tool to record the efforts of each member. Over time this data becomes invaluable for matching SMEs in a VO. A contract negotiation wizard allows member to quickly establish the terms of cooperation. Meanwhile an application service provider (ASP) model offers management tools to run the VO, without clogging up the IT infrastructure of member companies with ad-hoc software. There is collaborative problem solving support for trouble-shooting when something goes wrong, and there is an advanced collaboration tool that can match individual competencies across the VO to specific tasks. Ecolead developed all this essential software infrastructure after an extensive theoretical study of the requirements. The work has become so influential that Springer has published two books about it.
These results are real enabling factors for the adoption of ICT solutions in SMEs; VBEs and ICT-vendor companies will be able to provide Ecolead-compatible solutions. 'The global market is pushing SMEs into cooperation with other SMEs and also with big companies in the collaborative network paradigm. But collaboration frequently requires a preparedness that usually is missing in actual SMEs,' stresses Mr Ollus. But however many tools, services and supports Ecolead develops, SMEs will always require help at some point. For this reason Ecolead developed models of professional virtual communities. These consist of consultancy companies relevant to VBEs and VOs. These consultants provide the key services that are not available within SMEs. It was an enormous work programme, and Ecolead achieved its overall aim to create strong foundations and mechanisms needed to establish the most advanced collaborative and networkbased industrial society in Europe. The project's work continues, moreover; the 'Collaboration and interoperability' (COIN) project carries on this work, further underlining Europe's commitment to be number one in this field. In the future business will be networked, it will be collaborative, it will be agile. Thanks to the work of the Ecolead project, that future is a lot closer than we thought, and Europe is leading the way. The Ecolead project received funding from the 'Networked business and governments' initiative of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme for research. Information Source: Project from the EU funded FP6-IST programme
Date: 2011-01-1
.R.C.H.E.S
Information Contact: [Link] Aurelian Mihai Stanescu ams@[Link] University Politehnica of Bucharest 313 Splaiul Independentei, Bucharest Romania
Effective member: No Country: Romania The intent of " Automatic control systems, Robotic systems, Computer science to support: eHealth care systems, higher Education & e-learning, energy and safe, e-transportation, emanufacturing System of systems" is to develop into a system for building future economy in which real-life user-centric research and innovation will be a co-creation technique for new products, services and societal infrastructure. The final goal is to offer services which enable the users, identified as citizens, to take active part in research and innovation. The main capabilities and attributes of the A.R.C.H.E.S LL are: 1. Enhance and stimulate Romanian and European cooperation and innovation in research and development activities with regard to user involvement in innovation processes, thus creating human-centric innovation system. 2. Focusing on research & development of regional or European projects to sustain the Romanian active role as a reliable partner being able to deliver holistic solutions that can be implemented on a global market. 3. Developing pilot implementations focused on gaining practically useful, high added-value solutions for additional and innovative businesses in Romania 4. Extending the collaboration & cooperation with the European Partners within the new EU paradigm of Collaborative Network Organizations and Living Lab Networks. 5. The involvement of end-users in the academic research, business innovation and development of citizen oriented political process modeling , for the accomplishment of the initiative, both where and when it is needed. 6. Developing pilot initiatives focused on local problems, within the country-wide Living Lab initiative. (Living Lab initiatives in other Romanian cities) Description The main principle driving the A.R.C.H.E.S LL is that innovation process should be as open as Possible The three main ideas behind the concept of openness as adopted by our LL are: -open mind defined as the capability of being receptive to user generated ideas and being able to integrate those ideas in the product/service lifecycle.- open process implemented as a dynamic collaborative interaction between the major LL actors - open results defined as the ability to keep the results public as much as possible in contrast with business secrecy policies. The LL adopts an open policy towards integrating new investors and partners but with regard to scalability principles and area of expertise. The scalability principles adopted by the LL are according to the LL Harmonization Cube and include issues regarding the organization, the context and the
technology. There can also be identified issues regarding the infrastructure. The IPR guiding principle is the one of joint ownership. In such case joint owners have to agree among themselves on the allocation and the terms of exercising the ownership of the foreground. This will be achieved by signing a consortium agreement regarding joint ownership. The idea providers will be encouraged to get their corresponding intellectual property rights from the innovation commercial use. The IPR agreement will guarantee the free access to information and technology as stated by the openness principle. The right for commercial use of information, knowledge and technology will be stipulated by the joint ownership agreement and protected by national and international lows. References and Track Record ICT industry development: Partnership with Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the development of a strategic plan and training of human resources for ITC industry in Romania. The partnership with the consortium of the IN-TECH-TRANSFER research initiative focused on developing and implementing methods for an efficient technology transfer. Business Incubation: Partnership HRTC-ITA Business Incubator created and founded with the help of the Romanian Government. Traffic management system: Partnership with the Mayor Office, and private companies for the development of a traffic management system for Bucharest, founded by Romanian GovernmentPartner and multiplier for the following FP7 EU founded projects: COIN is an integrated project in the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme EU FP7 Project 216256. The mission of the Coin IP is to study, design, develop and prototype an open, self-adaptive, generic ICT integrated solution to support the above 2020 vision, starting from notable existing research results in the field of Enterprise Interoperability and Enterprise Collaboration.
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