Community-based Interoperability Utility for SMEs

Acronym of the case:

Commius

Web address of the case:

http://www.commius.eu

Country of the case:

Greece , Italy , Spain

City/region:

Athens Genoa Madrid

Posting Date:

10 May 2009

Last Edited Date:

10 May 2009

Author:

enrico morten (softeco sismat)

community | SME | cooperation

Type of initiative

Project or service

Case Abstract

Commius aims to develop an innovative interoperability technology supporting new business models for the European SMEs.

Commius is planning to develop a flexible interoperability platform adaptable and customisable to the user needs, based on email message exchange for sending and receiving business documents.

Commius platform will allow building interoperability solutions above existing simple ICT. providing SMEs with zero-cost of entry into interoperability.

Commius platform will support new business models and allow the growth of new bottom-up models based on the aggregation of specialised SMEs. These SMEs will be able to address the present global market and exploit the new business opportunities created leveraging the typical points of strength of SMEs: flexibility and adaptability.

According with this Commius vision of the interoperability the SMEs will:
- need a very small initial investment, in terms of effort and budget;
- be able to gradually configure and deploy the Commius platform;

Moreover Commius will:
- do not impose any modification to the way SMEs are conducting their business;
- foster the collaboration among SMEs and stimulate the exploitation and the growth of new business opportunities by groups of SMEs;
- support the creation of an entire new set of business possibilities deriving from the deployment of Commius services and the development of new Commius software modules.

Description of the case

Domain

eInclusion

Topic

eAccessibility

Sector

Communication (infrastructure)

Start date - End date

February 2008 (Ongoing)

Date operational

January 2009

Target Users

SMEs, associations and intermediaries

Target Users Description

More than 99% of European enterprises are SMEs. While collaboration with other enterprises provides potential for improving business performance, enterprise interoperability research is yet to produce results which can be used by SMEs without the need for high start-up costs (learning costs as well as system purchasing and installation costs). For a solution to be taken up by SMEs it must offer both "zero costs of entry" and "zero time for set-up" to the SMEs; its initial interaction with the system should follow familiar interaction patterns based on existing tools such as email or a web browser

Scope

International

Status

Research

Language(s)

English

Policy Context and Legal Framework

Project Size and Implementation

Type of initiative

IT infrastructures and products

Overall Implementation approach

Private sector

Technology choice

Standards-based technology

Funding source

Public funding EU

Project size

Implementation: €1,000,000-5,000,000

Yearly cost:

€1,000,000-5,000,000

Implementation and Management Approach

The project will adopts proven, effective project management procedures, and follow standards adopted in EC funded projects.

The management structure of the Consortium will comprise the following:
- A Project Coordination Committee as the supervisory body for the project execution and decision-making body in all relevant project matters.
- A Technical Board established by the Project Coordination Committee to deal with specific technical issues or problems. The TB will be composed of the Project Coordinator and the Work Package Leaders.
- A Project Coordinator as the intermediary to the European Commission, which is authorised to execute the project management, shall report and be accountable to the Project Coordination Committee.

Quality of project output is a very important concern of both the PCC and the TB. The TB will guarantee a consistent quality for all project results by evaluating them following a procedure that will be outlined in a reference document for the project (Quality Assurance Plan).

All the technical tasks of Commius are coupled and they form one logical structure, dividing the whole Project into a number of individual tasks, each of which has one or several institutions attached to it.

Technology solution

Commius addresses a number of challenges in the interoperability among SME; focused on three layers:

- Systems Interoperability

It will be addressed using email for sending and receiving business documents, thus building interoperability solutions above existing simple ICT. Existing useful properties of email, such as action-oriented and asynchronous communication will be inherited.
Messages and attachments will be analysed and information extracted.
Messages will be modified to include both relevant information and active information elements (links, buttons) linking email message with relevant enterprise resources needed to fulfil interoperability tasks related to the messages.
Interface to legacy systems and existing infrastructures will be designed using an SOA approach and other standard access protocols.

- Semantic Interoperability

It will assure quick and painless alignment using an extensible core of semantic descriptors which characterize relevant business document types.
Based on text analysis techniques semi-automatic semantic annotation of documents will be performed.
Protocols will be developed to support automatic negotiated semantic alignment.

- Process Interoperability

It will address seamless entry into a community of interoperable companies not only at the document but also on the process level. Here, appropriate coordination of activities within and among partners will be supported by the Commius interoperability modules.

Impact, innovation and results

Impact

Main impacts are:

Improving the competitiveness of enterprises in Europe, by

1) Creating â€œeasy to useâ€ interoperability solution dedicated to SME
- Exploiting existing ICT infrastructure (email, web) for interoperability service utility
- Delivering interoperability solutions which require â€œzero cost of entryâ€ and â€œzero time for set-up
2) Addressing the wide variety of interoperability tasks and types of organisations typical of the SME, by:
- Building ISU on emails used for interoperability and collaboration tasks
- Avoiding change in working practice
- Delivering an interoperability solution as components, i.e. creating a modular architecture consisting of system, semantic and process building blocks.

Reinforcing Europeâ€™s technology and industry strengths, by

1) Delivering an Open Source and modular platform which the partners as well as 3rd parties in Europe will be able to exploit and extend to produce application and business specific software and strength Europe position in interoperability industry and science.
2) Commius success will influence new software services and application development, thus should encourage further exploitation.
3) Commius can be integrated with existing interoperability solution, thus rather than replacing it should influence and promote innovation and adaptability of ICT in Europe.

Lessons learnt

What the SME are expecting form an Interoperability tool?

- Very small initial investment, in terms of effort (easy to install â€“ such as subscribe a service; easy to use â€“ such as sending emails), and budget (free entry, more costs for more services and customisation when the advantage of enabling Interoperability is demonstrated).
- Be able to gradually configure and deploy the tool (growing with the business of the enterprise).
- Do not impose any modification to the way SMEs are conducting their business.

How to support, suggest and encourage new business models within SMEs?

- Allow the growth of new bottom-up models, based on the aggregation of specialised SMEs, enabled by interoperability technology.
- Enable open collaboration among SMEs based on a community approach.
- Stimulate the exploitation and the growth of new business opportunities by groups of SMEs through specific services (such as legal information and support, market opportunities...).

Which Technology to be adopted?

- Exploiting existing simple ICT infrastructures (email, web) for interoperability service utilities.
- Use of web application, with easy-to-use interface accessible trough a common browser.
- To be integrated with existing Interoperability solution rather than replacing it.
- Able to interface common Interoperability products used by large enterprises.

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