Objective 10 SMEs from 4 countries (Greece, Portugal, Germany, Norway) have identified a common business problem: in order to improve their competitiveness on the market they need to establish new smart forms of strategical cooperation. Three typical partnerships have been identified as being of the highest relevance to be examined in the pilots. SMEs have detected that they have to considerably improve the coordinated planning and monitoring of their collaborative work. Therefore, they have to introduce proven IST solutions supporting, planning and monitoring across virtual enterprises based on information/knowledge sharing. The project will be based on the common methodology successfully applied by 3 catalysts in the scope of previous projects. It is likely that the solutions identified in the project will be replicable by a large number of SMEs in Europe. One of the objectives is to disseminate the results obtained to both regional and European audiences.Objectives:The main common business objectives of the 10 SMEs in the consortium are:(a) to maintain and further improve their competitiveness on the market based on innovative collaborative work within an inter-networked organisation;(b) to identify and eliminate bottlenecks in the current, traditional forms of mutual cooperation and find ways to resolve problems related to resistance to a stronger, active partnership(c) to identify the appropriate forms of collaborative work(d) to improve their ability to exploit the opportunities offered by the digital economy by improvement of skills and to prepare themselves for further networking with other companies.For the 3 catalysts the objectives are to further enhance the existing BEP methodology especially in reference to best practices in the collaborative work of inter-networked organisations, based on the experience to be gained within the project and on the experience exchange with other catalysts.Work description:Three typical partnerships have been identified as being of the highest relevance for the 10 SMEs.The new forms of collaboration to be introduced concern active partnerships among(a) companies in the supply chain,(b) companies dynamically sharing the manufacturing of common products (distributed manufacturing chain) and(c) companies producing complementary products, all with the common business objective to improve services to their customers by offering a wider spectrum of products and better costs/quality/time conditions.In order to achieve the stated business objectives, SMEs have identified that they have to considerably improve their co-ordinated planning and scheduling of resources as well as the monitoring of their collaborative work. The project will be based on the common BEP-methodology successfully applied by three catalysts in the scope of previous projects.The main phases of the project will be:(a) analysis of the current practices in SMEs and development models for dynamic networked organisations which best suit the specific needs of the SMEs;(b) identification of the optimal organisation of co-ordinated planning and monitoring of work in progress;(c) selection of proven, easy-to use IST solutions supporting co-operation and flexible co-ordinated planning and monitoring across virtual enterprises based on information/knowledge sharing, taking into account language/cultural diversity,(d) pilot implementations of the open, interoperable IST solutions and platforms for flexible working between organisations and testing the selected co-operation models; this will include measurement of the success of the selected solutions, which will serve as a basis for further elaboration of the co-operation strategy.It is likely that the solutions identified in the scope of the project will be replicable by a large number of SMEs in Europe. One of the objectives is to disseminate the results obtained to both regional and European audiences.Milestones:M1 (Month 3): Analysis and definition of conceptual models for collaboration.M2 (Month 9): Implementation planning: definition of improved organisation of collaborative work, specification and selection of IST solutions; initial versions of exploitation plans.M3 (Month 18): Implementation of pilots and results of initial measurements of success; elaborated strategies for further collaboration; enhancement of methodology; final version of exploitation plans; dissemination activities. Fields of science natural scienceschemical sciencescatalysis Programme(s) FP5-IST - Programme for research, technological development and demonstration on a "User-friendly information society, 1998-2002" Topic(s) 1.1.2.-2.2.3 - Dynamic networked organisations Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme ACM - Preparatory, accompanying and support measures Coordinator UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS EU contribution No data Address RION PATRAS 26500 PATRAS Greece See on map Total cost No data Participants (12) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all A/S TIMMS RERBANE Norway EU contribution No data Address STROMSVEIEN 125 0604 OSLO See on map Total cost No data COMPANHIA PORTUGUESA DE TEXTEIS, LDA Portugal EU contribution No data Address RUA DO PROGRESSO 330 4450 530 MATOSINHOS See on map Total cost No data DRAHTSEILWERK GMBH Germany EU contribution No data Address AUF DER BULT 14 - 16 27574 BREMERHAVEN See on map Total cost No data EMPRESA INDUSTRIAL SAMPEDRO, LDA Portugal EU contribution No data Address LORDELO GMR 4815-176 CALDAS DE VIZELA See on map Total cost No data INESC PORTO - INSTITUTO DE ENGENHARIA DE SISTEMAS E COMPUTADORES DO PORTO Portugal EU contribution No data Address CAMPUS DA FEUP, RUA DR. ROBERTO FRIAS 378 4200-465 PORTO See on map Total cost No data INSTITUT FÜR ANGEWANDTE SYSTEMTECHNIK BREMEN GMBH Germany EU contribution No data Address Wiener Strasse 1 BREMEN See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data IPF - INDUSTRIA PRODUTORA DE FIOS, S.A. Portugal EU contribution No data Address LUGAR DE FELGUEIRAS, MOURE 4610 FELGUEIRAS See on map Total cost No data LASKARIS Greece EU contribution No data Address 26TH KM OLD NATIONAL ROAD ATHENS - MANDRA 19200 MANDRA - ATTIKIS See on map Total cost No data PERUMA TEXTEIS - IMPORTACAO E EXPORTACAO DE ARTIGOS TEXTEIS, LDA Portugal EU contribution No data Address LUGAR DE PARADA 4471-908 SANTA MARIA DE AVIOSO - VILA DO CONDE See on map Total cost No data RUDOLF SELDIS (GMBH & CO.) KG Germany EU contribution No data Address MARTIN LUTHER STRASSE 20 20405 HAMBURG See on map Total cost No data TECHNIKA PLASTIKA S.A. Greece EU contribution No data Address PIRI 32200 THIVA See on map Total cost No data VIORAL S.A. ALLUMINIUM-ZINC HIGH PRESSURE DIE CASTING Greece EU contribution No data Address NATO AVENUE, NEA ZOI 19300 ASPROPYRGOS ATTIKI See on map Total cost No data