Enterprise Interoperability and ICT: An EU Perspective

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Enterprise Interoperability and ICT An EU
Perspective

• Gérald SANTUCCI

Directorate General Information Society and
MediaD5 ICT for Enterprise Networking
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INTEROP-ESA 05 A Milestone in a Time of Change

• EU Enlargement
• Dublin, 1 May 2004
• New Commission
• Brussels, 1 November
• EU Constitutional Treaty
• Rome, 29 October 2004
• IST Work Programme 2005-2006
• Investing 2 B
• Orientations for FP7

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Overview

• Rationale
• Lisbon Strategy and ICT
• Trends for the application of ICT in Business
• Towards Service Oriented Enterprises
• The Current Situation
• Barriers to Networked Business
• Role of Standardisation and Research
• Vision and Strategy of INFSO/D5 Unit
• From eBusiness to ICT for Business
• From ICT for Business to ICT for Enterprise
  Networking
• The position and role of Interoperability
• Enterprise Interoperability Cluster
• New Directions for IST in FP7
• Conclusion and Outlook

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Lisbon Objective ICT

• Large consensus on the significant contribution
  which ICTs make to productivity and growth
• ICTs play a role directly through the
  contribution of the ICT sector to GDP, and
  indirectly as other sectors throughout the
  economy take up and exploit ICTs
• ICTs also improve the quality of life of
  citizens, e.g. by promoting improved access to
  existing services or by providing completely new
  services
• ICT is one of the key ingredients of sustainable
  development
• The Lisbon targets cannot be met without a
  pro-active policy on ICT as a key component

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Business and ICT Transformations throughout
History
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Towards Service Oriented Enterprises and
Ecosystems

• Service-oriented Enterprise
• ERP systems found to be costly to implement, have
  high learning curves and serious scalability
  issues
• Today Web Services make SOA practical for
  knitting diverse applications and communities
• SOAs are essential to make business processes
  better, easier to change, cheaper to create
• Organisational issues and governance issues
• Digital Ecosystems for Businesses
• Consequence of consolidation of ICT industry
• A few software suppliers define frameworks,
  standards, and infrastructures for Service
  Oriented Architecture
• Other software suppliers will hook up to that
  basis
• Enterprises will maintain relationships with an
  ecosystem instead of with individual suppliers
  (danger of vendor lock-in)

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The Current Situation
(source Gartner)
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Standardisation and Individualisation

• Collaborating enterprises want local solutions
  suiting better their unique local conditions
• Tensions between
• the needs for co-operation among organisations
  (standardisation), and
• the suitability of proprietary solutions that can
  more readily meet local conditions
  (individualisation)

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Enterprise NetworkingAddressing the Barriers

• Standardisation
• consensus building - neutral recognition
• role of standardisation bodies CEN/ISSS, ISO,
  OASIS, OMG
• EC actor DG Enterprise
• Research
• new scientific foundations
• role of researchers
• EC actor DG Information Society and Media
• for DG INFSO ICT for Enterprise Networking
  Unit Enterprise Interoperability is a priority!

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From eBusiness to ICT for Enterprise
Networking

• To facilitate the emergence offuture business
  forms designed to exploit the opportunities and
  manage the challenges posed by the socio-economic
  and technical revolutions of the 21st century

Future business, more competitive, innovative,
agile and value creating, will require new
technologies, applications and services to enable
them to work as networked knowledge-based
businesses
Challenges stimulate collaboration manage
complexity innovate together
Orientations technology-driven industry-driven Mid
- to long-term structuring a fragmented
area platforms for future business
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Enterprise Interoperability Cluster

• Objective
• Enabling networked business by giving European
  enterprises the means to seamlessly and securely
  interoperate with each other
• Areas of research
• Frameworks, reference architectures
• Interoperability Infrastructure
• Enterprise Modelling
• Service-oriented architecture
• Trust management
• Contract management
• Projects in the Cluster (as of IST Call 1)
• 2 Integrated Projects ATHENA, TRUSTCOM
• 1 Network of Excellence INTEROP
• 1 Specific Targeted Research Project NO-REST

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Projects and Clusters
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Projects and Clusters
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Projects and Clusters
Business Networking Reference models Knowledge
Management Multi-agent systems Virtual
Organisations Breeding Environments Support
technologies
Enterprise Interoperability Frameworks, reference
architectures Interoperability Infrastructure Ente
rprise Modelling Service-oriented
architecture Trust management Contract management
Product Lifecycle Business models Smart objects
identification Wireless RF technologies Real-tim
e monitoring Middleware interfacing Agent-based
systems Knowledge discovery Self-configuring
networks Operations research
Digital Ecosystems Complex systems theory Formal
languages Business models Policy and growth
models Knowledge Sharing
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So What Now?

• FP6
• Calls 4 and 5 of the IST Thematic Priority
• FP7
• Preparatory Phase on-going
• Thematic Domains under construction
• Industrial Initiatives welcome
• Strategic Research Agendas in demand
• Articulation with Policy objectives is key
• eTEN programme
• WP2005
• Opportunities for validation and deployment
• Adapt to change where needed, create change where
  possible

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IST in FP7 Important Aspects

• Context Launching the new initiative i2010
• Information space
• Innovation and investment in ICT
• Inclusion and a better quality of life
• Challenge Balancing old and new elements
• Core of FP7 Collaborative research
• Continuity Thematic priorities, co-ordination of
  national research programmes (ERA-NETs, Art.
  169), international co-operation, instruments
• New elements Frontier Research, Joint Technology
  Initiatives (European Technology Platforms)
• Means Boosting the budget
• A doubling of the current EU resources for RTD by
  2013 without offsetting national contributions?

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IST in FP7 Management

• In line with the Marimon report (June 2004) and
  the Gago report (January 2005)
• Continuity, stability and predictability are
  valued highly by our customers ?
• Changes limited to address shortcomings
• Simplify Commission decision procedure and reduce
  time to contract (comitology)
• Cut the bureaucratic red tape (superfluous work
  and reporting requirements)
• Streamline the instruments
• Use one financial model for all instruments
• Premium for SME participation in research
• Hierarchy of participants (principal contractors,
  associated contractors)

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IST in FP7 Themes and Activities

• Technology Pillars
• e.g. Software, Grids, trust and dependability,
  Knowledge, learning and cognitive systems
• Multi-technology, Multi-disciplinary Integration
• e.g. Personal environments, Robotic systems, Home
  environments
• Application Poles
• e.g. ICT for organisations and work, ICT for
  manufacturing

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Conclusion and Outlook

• Future interoperability research in IST-FP6 and
  beyond will be based around the ongoing work
  within the Enterprise Interoperability Cluster
• Projects in the Cluster are open in nature to
• integrate all stakeholders
• get recognition both in industry and research
• improve interaction with standardisation bodies
• Other RTD projects will be built upon (Call 5)
• The i2010 initiative may provide further
  opportunities to enhance enterprise
  interoperability by creating leadership
  platforms and developing EU wide strategies in
  key areas

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For more information

• FP6/ERA
• http//www.cordis.lu/era/home.html
• http//www.cordis.lu/ist/
• http//europa.eu.int/comm/research/fp6/index_en.ht
  ml
• IST/eEurope
• http//europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope
• http//www.cordis.lu/ist
• ICT for Business Enterprise Interoperability
  projects
• http//www.athena-ip.org
• http//www.interop-noe.org
• http//www.no-rest.org
• http//www.eu-trustcom.com
• E-mail gerald.santucci_at_cec.eu.int
• E-mail arian.zwegers_at_cec.eu.int

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THANK YOU!