Partners

The BIDSAVER Project aims at the assessment and development of a framework for the constitution and operation of Virtual Enterprises, with the participation of SMEs searched through web based information agents, dynamically organised according to best fit criteria.

The BIDSAVER Project will deliver:

• a methodology, reference process and data models, and relevant ICT infrastructure tools, to allow for standardised co-operative project conduction and for dynamic search of Partners through the Web, which best suit with the contingent needs of the Virtual Enterprise, according to a "plug and play" philosophy;
• a legal framework for the management of relationships among the Virtual Enterprise's Partner and between the Market and the Virtual Enterprise, suitable to support both the fast constitution and the dynamic upgrade and the operations of the Virtual Enterprise.

BIDSAVER will develop a methodological,technological and legal frame to support SMEs’ competitive potential through the constitution and operation of Virtual Enterprises (VE), joining geographically dispersed SMEs to catch business opportunities, and managed on the basis of competitiveness-oriented criteria by a new entity, the Business Integrator.

BIDSAVER covers the dynamic connotation of VE,with the selection of optimised Partners’ sets through Internet-based search, and will develop and validate through two pilot projects:

• a legal frame for the VE,to regulate co-operation and to provide general contractual terms and conditions
• a code of practice and technological frame, in view of a "Plug and Play" search for cooperation-ready partners and of rapid customisation of commercial solutions for functions like project management
• a prototype management system,leveraging on e-Commerce and Internet technology,based on the concept of integrated product,project and organisation views.

BIDSAVER will deliver technologies and methodologies for the creation and operation of Virtual Enterprises among SMEs in different business sectors.

The project is organised in the following logic steps:

1. Define market based requirements on VEs;this through a bottom-up approach,starting from the space satellites and the mechanical equipment market sectors,and from two VE types,the value network oriented and the supply chain based VE
2. Define operational concept for VEs and associated methodology,allowing for the definition of the required legal framework and for the identification of the conceptual structure of supporting functions and methods
3. Develop reference system prototype according to an incremental methodology,to exploit feedback from pilot operations. System is composed of a set of commercial solutions for VE operation (Project management,active cycle,...),plus three management modules:
   1. a Business Breakdown Structure (BBS) management module, allowing the management of evolution of VE through a model (BBS) that accommodates cross mapping of product physical/functional items,tasks and associated resources/risks/timing,and responsible entities/organisations with associated contractual elements
   2. an information capturing agent,responsible for the actual search on the web of potential partners and for providing updated information on co-operation opportunities
   3. the Business information integration module,integrating operational functions, that leverage on e-Commerce and Internet technology, and on pre-selected commercial solutions to be configured according to VE requirements
4. Conduct pilot application of methodology and ICT solution,applied to actual industrial cases:
   1. a the value network pilot focusing on the development of micro-satellites;
   2. a supply chain pilot, to cover a Virtual Enterprise for mechanical equipment.

   Results from pilot operations are used to upgrade both the methodology and the work environment concept and implementation.

    

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