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Read the 25 BEinGRID Case Studies



Information Society Technologies
European Commission
 Please select:

Industrial Sectors

Advanced Manufacturing


Media


Financial


Retail & Logistics


Environment & eScience


Telecom


Tourism


Agriculture


Medical




Advanced Manufacturing


Looking at business modelling from a vertical perspective, the products offered in the advanced manufacturing sector have the main mission of being profitable through the higher utilisation of resources, the collaboration between partners and the new range of products offered due to this new and promising technology. Products range from demanding simulations on a request basis to pay-per-use services. Computational power is the key element for most of these products. There is a standard customer-base that can benefit from these products but can also expand due to the new capabilities offered on the end-user side. The companies involved in the value chain regarding the sector usually are SMEs or Large Enterprises, due to the fact that this is a very dynamic and competitive area producing products of small (components) or large range (ships!). There are many types of providers involved from application to resources and software ones with many tangible and intangible interactions between them.


Media


The media sector is defined in this project quite broadly and includes basically Grid applications that are suitable for processing and visualisation of multi-media assets and various entertainment products. Given this, user companies involved in the value chain are usually SMEs and Large Enterprises. Other participants in the value chain are existing application providers that already provide centralised solutions for the media sectors. An enhancement towards a Grid-enabled application provides them with the opportunity to provide, in addition to centralised applications, support for computing and data-intensive part of the work with service-provisioning, i.e. based on a SaaS solution for their application. Application providers get, therefore, the opportunity to provide additional services to existing customers and to differentiate from competitors in the same sector. However, application providers in the media sector do not have the know-how or the resources to build up their own service provisioning. Therefore, another important player in the vale chain is a partner providing computing, data storage and similar functionality based on the SaaS paradigm. The Grid service provider provides infrastructure and bundles Grid middleware and the application and offers it either directly or through the ASP to the end customer.



Financial


In the financial sector, the companies involved in the value chain are usually medium and large enterprises, due to the investment needed to settle the business. Each company is focused in just one role, rather than participating in several. In particular, there are two new market players emerging in this sector: the Financial Service Provider and the Trusted Third Party. In this market, authenticity, confidence and loyalty are qualities very much required; as here we are dealing with very sensitive information that can affect big economic gains or losses. The main products to be offered would be realised in a SaaS manner. Market positioning would be focused on reliability instead of the price charged for the service. Customer demand is quite stable, and requires speed while handling extremely complex scenarios in the offered service. Efficiency and effectiveness are key elements.



Retail & Logistics


The retail/logistics sector comprises a few very large companies, a larger number of medium sized companies and a very large number of small ones.  All of these companies rely on a collection of suppliers, both large and small to deliver the stock they need, when they need it. This market is still largely concerned with the physical movement of goods, some of which may be perishable or have a limited shelf life for other reasons (e.g. fashion, seasonal items).  Therefore, the movement of goods in a prompt and efficient manner is essential.  This should also minimise stock holding and wastage. The main products to be offered in this sector are services to improve the efficiency of the supply chain.



Environment & eScience


The value chain in the environment and e-science sector is composed by SMEs, large companies and public entities. Because of the need of high investments, in some cases, public entities such as governments act as relevant investors and also as customers of the service offered. SMEs play the roles of systems integrator and end-users. The new service underpinned by the Grid allows smaller users (individuals and SMEs) to have access to information/knowledge that was not available or could not afford before. There is a low level or lack of commercial competition in this environment. The current environmental disorder has considerable consequences when seeing at the environmental disasters.  It is the reason why improving time responding and accessing more accurate information have become a focus for the scientific and industrial community.


Telecom


The companies in the telcom sector provide telecommunications and related services, such as transmitting data, sound, text, voice and video using different channels. They can be classified into network operators or carriers and service providers or both (often the larger companies). Competition in the sector is intense. Companies are under strong pressure because of the reduction in the pricing of core transmission services and the arrival of new competitors due to the convergence of telecommunications, IT and media. Many of the older companies in the sector have legacy systems and they may not have the speed and flexibility to compete head on with the new entrants in niche markets. The telcommunications industry has a double role with ICT, as both a user and a supplier.



Tourism


The tourism sector has been one of the first to make large-scale use of ICT to reduce costs and generate value. Its application has been focused on reservation and distribution systems to create, develop and globalise the availability of basic tourist services. In the tourism sector the Internet has had two effects. It has enabled service providers to interact directly with consumers, bypassing traditional intermediaries, such as travel agencies and brokers. On the other way, it has also provided new opportunities for traditional players to offer value-added services and foster new intermediaries that operate exclusively on-line. The tourism industry contains a large number of SMEs who need a wide range of local support services (entertainment, leisure, restaurants, sport, etc.), usually provided by other SMEs.


Agriculture


e-Agriculture is an emerging field that ficuses on the improvment of agriculture processes through the applicationof ICT in an innovative way. It faces the problem of distributed systems, high data asymetry and non existing standards. The goal is supporting the stakeholders to perform their activities more efficiently by providing them with the tools to manage, process and exchange information and knowledge in a cost effective way. The main areas of application of ICT in the agriculture sector are targeted to the automation of internal processes, the availability of information systems and the creation of decision making tools.


Medical


The health or medical sector deals with the detection and treatment of illness. Due to the demographics and the ageing of the population, the cost of health care is expected to significantly increase in the next years. ICT must play a key role to reduce delays in treatments, improve the quality of the services and make affordable the provision of the required services. E-Health services are cost-effective solutions for prevention and continuity of care, supporting mobility and patient autonomy. In the medical and health sector, the most important areas of application of ICT are the information system, the imaging systems and the planning of treatments and biomedical research.


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