Value proposition for Enterprise Interoperability / Enterprise Collaboration first research results

First results from the research on Interoperability Service Utility (ISU) that address the theme of the value proposition for Enterprise Interoperability / Enterprise Collaboration in the forthcoming decade.

The research is motivated by the first Grand Challenge of the Enterprise Interoperability Research Roadmap [European Commission, 2006/2008] – the Interoperability Service Utility (ISU). In COIN, the specification and substantiation of the business aspect of the ISU is captured by the concept of “SaaS-U” as specific business models.

The starting point of the research are the findings of the Value Proposition for Enterprise Interoperability [European Commission, 2008], which demonstrates that interoperability as a utility-like capability is essential for enabling business innovation and value creation. Moreover, Future Internet technologies will re-shape interoperability as a capability, leading to the need to reappraise interoperability between enterprises.

The main objective of this interim document is to establish whether there is a business case for ISU by exploring a number of possible business scenarios and models for the implementation of the SaaS-U concept.

The document sketches the business context and business propositions in the future of the Internet economy. It then presents the current research results pertaining to the business case and models for the ISU, and the application of SaaS-U for business modelling in energy, health, as well as enterprise software and application

Among the main conclusion of this research

• The business opportunity of the ISU is not so much about the business opportunity of utility services per se; rather, it is about the business opportunity of value added services that exploit and build upon the ISU as a utility service infrastructure.
• In order to develop a meaningful investment profile for the ISU, there is a strong argument for a new economic model to define the cost and price schemes of utility services. This economic model/argument needs to be aligned with a public interest model/argument and a competition model/argument. Specifically, the ROI for the ISU based on the supply-demand model of conventional economics is not compelling for market actors in purely commercial terms, within the study timeframe of 2020.
• SaaS-U however offers viable commercial business propositions for new services in the energy and health sectors, as well as for the development of enterprise software and applications, within the study timeframe of 2020. There is in principle business (and money) to be made for implementing sector or application specific utility services for encouraging and catalysing the development of value added services within individual and well defined industrial settings.
• However, even within such more narrowly scoped settings with a potentially compelling business case for SaaS-U, collaboration between the relevant actors, which is essential for bringing and implementing utility services to the market, can easily be eroded by competitive pressures and the general trend towards ICT consolidation.

http://www.coin-ip.eu/research/coin-results/saas-u-and-business-models-research