(IST-1999-20553) - (November 2000 to November 2002)
OCTANE addresses the needs of European/international SMEs that face prohibitive cost of establishing trustworthy trade and collaboration with international business partners. The project aims to provide a solution for improving the "Time to Contract" by leveraging unproven new ICT technology into user-friendly applications and developing business models for encouraging access to low cost and reliable business information.
OCTANE deployed and validated an Open Contracting process composed of three components:
Existing software solutions were contributed by OCTANE partners such that the project was able to put the main emphasis on integration, validation and evaluation of functions / results for 3 sector-specific trials.
NetUnion focused on the development of business to business E-commerce applications for supporting supply chain optimization within a collaborative network for architects and engineers in Switzerland. This implies the development of a web based platform enabling the creation of ad-hoc consortiums to submit competitive bids for large scale projects.
For Switzerland, the project has a double impact: allowing significant technology transfer and integration of leading edge E-commerce technology as a project result, providing an opportunity for a group of SMEs in the planning and architecture sector to deploy innovative technology in support of new model of inter-regional cooperation.