OCTANE (Open Contracting TransActions in the New Economy)

(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 Contribution

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.

Partner list

  1. ComNet Media, Dortmund, Germany (Coordinator)
  2. NetUnion SARL, Lausanne, Switzerland
  3. Ponton, Hamburg, Germany
  4. Cefriel, Milan, Italy
  5. Edifice, Lausanne, Switzerland
  6. MacroFarma, Paredes, Portugal