Overview
The European Commission “Transport 2050 Roadmap to a Single Transport Area” asserts that effective transport systems are a key pre-requisite for companies to compete in the world economy because logistics account for 10–15% of the finished product cost. This calls for a significant advance in capacity. Companies will have to adopt a more efficient network coordination model to easily access a wider knowledge base and proper eServices.
In other words, in spite of companies’ ability to realise and export high quality products and their flexibility of adapting to ever changing market conditions, they risk their position in the global market unless they undertake a continuous innovation process that lets them increase profitability by removing bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
The ESSENCE project intends to tackle these critical problems by developing and deploying to users a solution based on the easy and free access of companies to knowledge, new organisational models and intelligent eServices. The proposed solution will help companies to shape their own supply network, to coordinate and operate it, to optimise the generated transports, and to evaluate behaviours to find out inefficiencies.
Funding
Results
The aim of the project is to increase access of enterprises in the area of Central Europe to the package of e-services and knowledge base that can be useful in a variety of business. The proposed solutions are designed to help in the best formation and use their own supply networks, optimize the transport and overcome the lack of effectiveness in this respect, and thus help reduce costs and improve efficiency, both internally and relative to trading partners.
In 2nd Semester of the ESSENCE project implementation (Jan-Jun 2013) project partners dealt with one of the crucial tasks for the whole project lifetime - mainly how to involve regional stakeholders into project activities. Therefore a common methodology was elaborated containing guidelines for the partners how they should identify, select and engage potential actors who would assist project partners in the ESSENCE platform creation process.
In the next step, direct meetings and interviews with selected stakeholders from Wielkopolska, Emilia-Romagna, Leipzig-Halle and Pomurje Region took place, during which 5 functional areas of the future ESSENCE platform were consulted: buying, transport and logistics, commercial, administration and strategic planning. The results of the interviews, together with best practices identified, are to show real needs of SME's to knowledge and eServices.
ESSENCE eService platform is offering solutions for SMEs in reaching their transport effectiveness, reduction of environmental burden and thereby for overcoming their present deficits and increasing their competitiveness. In parallel, intensified works on the ESSENCE ICT platform construction were performed, which resulted in producing 1st half suite containing 5 eServices in form software functions accessible via Internet(communication, eCatalogue, process modelling, network shaping and simulation, performance evaluation). By the end of 2nd Semester 2nd half suite of the platform was also in advanced stage, covering further 5 eServices: process planning, process execution, monitoring, exception handling and document transformation). Finally, the KASSETTS (project aim was to establish European ICT network to optimize and improve transnational logistic traffics of manufacturing companies).
In the reporting period partners in Emilia-Romagna, Leipzig-Halle, West-Transdanubia and Pomurje Region also held their regional launching events, aiming to introduce the projects and its objectives.