Saas-U and Business Models Research - Public document available for consultation

Interoperability - realised as a commoditised technical functionality, delivered as services, and independent of particular IT deployment - is key to the infrastructure of a new generation of software-based services and applications. That infrastructure potentially constitutes a new level of functionality that forms part of the Future Internet architecture. It is expected to enable new forms and mechanisms of innovation, giving rising to new relationships between supply and demand in the application domain. The above vision underlines the first Grand Challenge of the Enterprise Interoperability Research Roadmap – the Interoperability Service Utility (ISU), which specifically focuses on Enterprise Interoperability and Enterprise Collaboration services [European Commission, 2006/2008].  

The FP7/ICT COIN Project has published its interim results on answering the research question: What is the value proposition for Enterprise Interoperability / Enterprise Collaboration in the forthcoming decade? The answer is a crucial step for establishing whether there is a business case for offering utility services in ICT, and specifically whether there is a business case for the ISU. The interim results draw 7 main conclusions.