i2factory- Disrupting integration platform: secure and easy integration without any programming or component installation

Project Information

i2factory 2.0

Grant agreement ID: 762147

DOI

10.3030/762147

Project closed

EC signature date 29 January 2017

Start date 1 February 2017

End date 31 July 2017

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

INTELLIGENT INTEGRATION FACTORY SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - i2factory 2.0 (i2factory- Disrupting integration platform: secure and easy integration without any programming or component installation)

Reporting period: 2017-02-01 to 2017-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

• What is the problem/issue being addressed?
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the European economy. Today, SME companies are confronted with harsh market conditions, which along with the current economic crisis has weakened their financial health. In an increasingly global economy, both information and information technology are crucial to SMEs to increase their competitiveness, achieve their economic potential and internationalize.
With more and more applications and platforms, efficient communication and document exchange between clients and suppliers and the capability to share information between them rapidly and cheaply is a vital factor to minimize the loss of SMEs competitiveness and enhance their possibilities of success in the global marketplace. The transfer of this information between different platforms or applications is called integration and it’s a critical element for companies and organizations to survive.
• Why is it important for society?
The companies urgently need integration solutions that exploits the immediate exchange of information across technical and organizational boundaries. Not only do technologies need to be integrated, but they need to be integrated in such a way as to reduce the administrative and IT burden while keeping costs low and fostering internationalization. However, up to the date the scope of developing, monitoring and supporting a single integration is out of reach for most organizations because of its high cost and complexity.
• What are the overall objectives?
Businesses can no longer survive with software operating in a silo. Hence, to solve the problem of integration that companies face in the process of digital transformation, it is necessary to provide SMEs with integration solutions with an appropriate level of abstraction to allow connection of software applications in a secure and consistent in a cost-effective way

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Technical feasibility study: Determine the automation techniques for the new platform and maturity state of smart contract technologies. Design the platforms interface of i2Factory v2.0 to be used for easily design integration solutions for sharing information electronically and automatically between different business functions. In particular we have been focused on:
• Development of concept test implementation and mitigation of technological risk: Implementation of Etherum connector and Modulation of solutions and automatization of connectors.
• We have defined the software architecture, both to deal with the scalability of the project as to solve security issues.
To develop a business plan for our international expansion: This will include several activities: (1) Comprehensive analysis of market segments and sub-segments. (2) Better understanding of competitors and gaining more insights to strengthen i2Factory v2.0 market position and (3) the description of the commercial environment and opportunities with an up to date business plan.
IPR strategy: In order to protect our product at international level, we will perform a FTO analysis, as well as the forecast investment, profit and impact.
Forecast investment, profit and impact. Financial expectation; Such as best pricing and cost optimization, expected selling quantification from 2019 to 2023, risk assessment, bottlenecks and action plans.
Dissemination and communication activities: Communication and dissemination efforts were an important part of the project. Several actions were planned to ensure the commercialization and protection of our product:
1. Assistance to trade shows and expositions:
• 4YFN is the startup business platform of Mobile World Capital Barcelona (4YFN), 27 Feb-1 Mar 2017.
• DES2017, Madrid, 23-25 May 2017.
2. Dissemination events and Technical Workshops. This activity ran in parallel to all the previous ones creating the messages, awareness, liaison with key stakeholders in target markets.

• Land Rover Jaguar: Interes on Ethereum: 21 de June
• Everis: 12 of June, Sevilla
• Methodia: 6 of June, online. We meet in the DES2017.
• OdSuk (Didrik Skantze): 5 of June, online. We meet through our web. They have complex customers.
• Capside (Juan Carlos Canet): 2 of June. Colaboration in infraestrucutre. We meet in the DES2017.
• Balandra SW (Sylvia Diaz-Montenegro) 16 of May.
• Cap Gemini, presentation on-line to 150 system architecture. 15 of May.
• Netcracker (Gustavo Duarte), on-line presentation. 11 of May.
• GoSocket (Mario Fernández, Chile). Presentation on-line. 5 of May.
• SAP Forum startup meeting. 20 of April, Madrid
• Sage Forum, 19 of April, Madrid
• Trujay (Darren Trujay, USA), 31 March, online
• Microsoft Aceleradora (Philipp Limburg), 16 March, online.
• Talentier (Jordi Martinez), 14 Marzo, online. We meet in the 4YFN
• Sezion (Josias), 14 of March, online
• Unnax (Jordi Pérez), 10 of March, online
• Taksee (Jorge Muriel), 10 of March, online.
• Amdocs-ATT (Yariv ), 27 February, 4YFN.

i2factoy has exploited the coaching services offered by the Commission by getting support for the definition of a strategy and tactic plan to build the community of stakeholders and partners and go-tomarket strategy for the target markets. An IT expert who knows in depth the rules of the distribution in these markets, and the keys to introduce disruptive products, will be very valuable for the project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Nowadays, new generation iPaaS are now emerging as the next generation integration platforms for connect any combination of cloud and on-premise technologies within or across multiple organizations. Despite of iPaaS platforms represent the future of integration, existing solutions a have resulted not efficient because of its high cost and complexity, as a result SMEs continue to refuse embrace integration.
i2factory v2.0 is a disruptive integration platform- iPaaS - that has been designed and built from scratch to be able to give an answer to all integration needs. i2factory v2.0 incorporates novel capabilities which will multiply the implementation possibilities to readily and cheaply design integration solutions without recourse to expensive expert assistance.
Furthermore, the latest evolutions of iPaaS platforms require to be suited to many different types and sizes of businesses to achieve integration without a big investment in skills or licensed middleware software. Hence, if iPaaS was once oriented toward large companies, with i2factory v2.0 will promote the integration platforms into a type of service useful for small and medium business as well, and those organizations working with them.

Organisations are increasingly moving data and applications to the public cloud, running hybrid IT environments that enable them to cut infrastructure costs while speeding up the delivery of technology project. Integration is important not only from the point of view of business benefit to organizations but also the tool to be able to dramatically reduce dependency in companies and ecosystems built in other geographies out of Europe. i2factory reduces the cost of the introduction a iPaaS platform which will significantly improve the chances of startup and SME ecosystem in Europe to compete in the global market. i2factory v2.0 is the integration framework that can refocus the critical aspect of integration in Europe.
The new generation platform i2factory v2.0 which will provide a novel solution for integration problems for companies of all sizes but especially attractive for small and medium businesses and those organizations that interact with them. Our solution has a maximum level of abstraction which remove the need of a IT team to develop the integration solution, i2factory v2.0 will:
• Enable SME´s to undergo a fully integration of their applications at an approximately 50% of the ICT CAPEX, plus and estimate of 80% OPEX by the automation of manual processes.
• Native support for Smart Contracts, thereby enabling to provide verification and enforcement of contracts autonomously, verifiable by third parties, immutable.
• Regulate both technological and contractual relationships between enterprises, regardless of its size.
• It raises the level of abstraction and automates the development of integration solutions, technical skills are not necessary to build solutions

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