Collaboration platforms
These provide a set of tools and an information
environment for collaboration between
enterprises. This can focus on specific
functions, such as collaborative
design and engineering, or in providing
project support with a virtual team of consultants.
Business opportunities are in
managing the platform (membership/usage
fees), and in selling the specialist tools
(e.g. for design, workflow, document management).
Examples are in the products
and projects spun off from the GlobalEngineering Network concept (Rethfeldt
1994) such as Deutsche Telekom/Globana’s
ICS and the ESPRIT GENIAL project and
in experimental projects for 3D collaborative
design and simulation2.