National Technical University of Athens

From people to systems Interoperability:The ISU Concept

Yannis Charalabidis

eChallenges Conference26th October 2007, The Hague

What is an ISU ?What is an ISU ?

An ISU is or should be:• An infrastructure providing complete, interoperable, end-

to-end business services to enterprises

• Composing and orchestrating services coming from diverse sources and stakeholders

• Supporting new business models

• Targeting SMEs, so having low organisational and IT support needs

• Available at low cost

• Not controlled or owned by a single private entity

ISU Model ISU Model

Core Business Services• Enterprise Software as a Service• Open Source Components• Connectivity to ISU

Extended Services• eInvoicing / eOrdering

/ eFullfilment• eVAT, eTaxation (i2010

G2B services)

Business Orchestration • New Business Models • Supply-Chain Collaboration• Collaboration propositions

Knowledge Services• Horizontal knowledge • Industry-specific knowledge• Content Provision Services

ServiceAggregation

Service Orchestration

ServiceProvision

SME’s & VSE’s• Horizontal services• Vertical (supply chain specific)

services

Enterprises & Industrial Consortia • Supply chain Services

Other / Cross Country ISU’s

Governments & Other Services eMarkets• eProcurement• eMarketPlaces

Service Creation

Service Consumption

ISU ISU vsvs Electricity: some basic rulesElectricity: some basic rules

Ubiquitous nature: electricity is available everywhere, if you have a proper line and money to cover the cost .

Simplicity: it is simple to connect to electricity network, provided you have an electric device with a plug.

Federation: you don’t really know where / how energy is created within a complex network that cross borders

Co-generation: you can be a customer and a provider, at the same time

De-regulation: although Governments pose the regulations and may own some utilities, the market is competitive

See also “6 common characteristics of service utilities (Rappa, 2004)”: Necessity, Reliability, Usability, Utilisation, Scalability and Exclusivity.

Other issuesOther issues

How to develop an ISU

How to create value and be paid for an ISU

How to provide a framework for ISU operation

Who owns an ISU ?