How ICT research supports Innovation Ecosystems and SMEs

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How ICT researchsupports Innovation Ecosystems
and SMEs
Brussels, 1 . 6 . 2006UEAPME workshop The place
of the SME in the ICT eBusiness developments

• Francesco Nachira
• European CommissionDG Information Society and
  Media
• Head of Sector Technologies for Digital
  Ecosystems
• http//www.digital-ecosystems.org

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SMEs a weakness or a potential for Europe ?

• Knowledge-base economy migrating towards
  digital economies mediated by ICT
• More interrelations
• More knowledge
• More innovation
• More specialised resources
• Small companies have limited specialised
  resources and difficulties
• To access to global value chains
• To access to knowledge
• To access to specific services (e.g. legal)
• To adopt new technologies (ICT)
• To adopt new business models
• Threshold and Digital Divides (geogr.. SMEs vs.
  LEs)

SMEs
But the only hope for a SMEs is to become BIG?
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SMEs in a Dynamic knowledge-based global economy

• How to reach the critical mass of resources ?
• How to cope with the increased complexity ?

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Peculiaritiesof EU economical structure

• Cultural diversity (model of business,
  approaches, practices, )
• Dimensions of enterprises (SMEs vs. LE)
• Historical presence of clusters with diffused
  tacit unstructured knowledge, skills and
  infrastructure

• How to turn peculiarities and diversity into
  competitive advantages
• How to foster innovation, creativity and
  autonomy of SMEs ?
• Which policies, which paradigms ?
• Which infrastructures ?

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The Business Ecosystem

• Create a climate conductive to investments,
  innovation and enterpreneurship the conditions
  for
• Attracting biz and entr. direct investments
• Attracting enterprises
• Attracting skilled and qualified workforce

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Which Paradigms forInnovation Ecosystems ?
To create favourable environmentEngineers
problem solving approach isolate problem,
identify variables, make a plan
Economy as machine
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The Innovation Ecosystems An integrated
approach for development

• to reduce the digital divides
• among regions
• - among SME and LE
• to foster local economic growth and innovation
  new forms of dynamic businessinteractions,
• enabled bynew paradigms anddigitalecosystemt
  echnologies

Derivative work from P.Dini - London School of
Economics
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Which ICT technology for innovation ecosystems ?

• the actual slowly changing network of
  organizations will be replaced by more fluid,
  amorphous and often transitory structures based
  in alliances, partnership and collaborations...
• building a community that share business,
  knowledge and infrastructure, develop creativity

The support to SMEs and innovation requires a
further stage in ITC technology adoptions and an
infrastructure which exploits the dynamic
interaction (cooperation and competition) of
several players in order to produce
systemic results innovation and
economic development. Towards a Network
of digital business ecosystems fostering the
local development (EC, Discussion
paper, 2002)
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The Digital Ecosystem, the carrier for services
and ideas ( their
integration)
Courtesy from DBE project
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The digital ecosystem
Which ICT infrastructure for this new paradigm
? How could ICT support the transition from
industrial district to knowledge-based business
ecosystem ?
Integrated scalable approachwith intermediate
results
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What is a Digital Ecosystem ?

• THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM
• is a pervasive digital environment
• that supports the business ecosystems
• that is populated by digital components
• that evolves / adapts to local conditions with
  the evolution of its components

THE SOFT SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE, WHICH
MEDIATES SERVICES INFORMATION
(knowledge) EMPOWERING THE NETWORKINGAND THEIR
SHARING
architecture / structure
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What is a Digital Component ?

• DIGITAL COMPONENTS
• could be software components, applications,
  services, knowledge, business processes and
  models, training modules, contractual
  frameworks, laws ....... and hopefully a mixture
  of all these

ANY USEFUL IDEA, EXPRESSED IN A LANGUAGE
(formal or natural), DIGITALISED AND LAUNCHED ON
THE NET, WHICH CAN BE PROCESSED
(by computers and/or humans)
formalised knowledge
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The innovation ecosystem
Derivative work from Salzburg Technical University

• Digital ecosystem an o-s, public, distributed,
  pervasive environm.
• transport, identification, match (services,
  knowledge)
• - spontaneous evolution, adaptation and
  composition of services, digital content
  and sw components
• - embedding knowledge, biz rules, revenue models,
  ontology...

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Economy changesneeded infrastructures too
Hamburg, Harbour in 1900
Hamburg, Harbour in 2006
The Digital Ecosystem is the transport
infrastructure for the services and knowledge
Courtesy from DBE project
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Conceptual Layers of ecosystems
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Conceptual Layers of ecosystems
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Conceptual Layers of ecosystems
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Conceptual Layers of ecosystems
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Conceptual Layers of ecosystems
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The innovation ecosystem
Derivative work from Salzburg Technical University
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Digital Ecosystem Dynamic aggregation of
ICT-services
Digital(ICT) Services
Aggregated Complex, personalised, ICT-services
ICT-SME Inputs
DE structural services
Rules,models, context

• DE structural services, e.g.
• Accounting
• Billing
• Authentication
• Reputation
• Decentralized Data Storage
• Fitness data

Needs of ICT solutions, Profile of users, of ICT
needs
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Digital Ecosystem Dynamic aggregation of final
services (and SMEs)
SME Offers
1. Networks of SMEs
Digital Services, applications
2. Final Services
Aggregated Complex, personalised, Services
/Solutions
Rules,models, context
DEstructural services
Digital Ecosystem infrastructure
Needs of ICT services, solutions, profile of
providers, profile of users
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DE Roadmap - past events

• Sep 2002 - Discussion Paper
• End 2002 - Cycle of Workshops
• Nov 2003 - Start 1st integrated project DBE
• Apr 2005 - Cycle of Workshops - re-tuning DE
  concept
• June 2005 - Position paper - Research vision 2010
• July 2005 - Intl Summer School - EU bisness
  ecosystems
• Nov 2005 - WSIS - Intl interest for EU models
• Feb 2006 - 2nd digital ecosystem cluster meting -
  Launch of Innovation
  Ecosystem Initiative

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DE Roadmap - Consultation Process

• Feb-June Multi-stakeholder open consultation
  processfor the Innovation Ecosystem Initiative.
• Defining
• future innovation and research initiatives in
  digital ecosystems and priorities (FP7)
• strategy and instruments for a pan-European
  deployment and mechanisms for local
  self-sustainability (CIP structural funds, natl
  initiatives)
• roadmap for technical development (needs , )
• structures and the bodies needed for
• the sustainability of the
  local/regional digital business ecosystems,
• the global technical interoperability of the
  technical infrastructure,
• the definition of a bill of rights the
  constitutional ethical rules and
  the obligations, of the digital
  ecosystems
• the legal framework

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The cluster of EU FP7 projects
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The Deployment - The International network
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DE Roadmap - future

• June 2006 - Start of 1st NoE on Ecosystems
• July 2006 - Stakeholder position paper
• Sept 2006 - Staff working paper on Innovation
  Ecosystems
• Nov 2006 - DBE conference
• Dec 2006 - Initial governance structures
• End 2006 - 15 Digital Ecosystem Pilot regions,
  1st national charter

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