E4 — Web services interoperability

The objective of E⁴ is the development of an innovative web-based integrated engineering environment specifically tailored to the needs of the SMEs operating in a design-network which involves companies from all over Europe. Cost reduction and collaboration between enterprises in a common business environment have propped the network enterprise model. The typical network includes many actors operating at different tiers and SMEs are usually placed at the lowest levels. The project will rely upon service oriented architecture concepts to provide transparent interoperability that, starting from a basic framework, will develop and integrate services to support program management, KPI management, CAE integration, quality monitoring, knowledge management to leverage past experience. The innovation will be in the platform concept and underlying business model and in the service oriented architecture, based on web services.