Preface of the Series The Bremen Institute of Industrial Technology and Applied Work Science at the University of Bremen (BIBA) works as an inter-disciplinary research institute in the development of technical and organisational innovations and their implementation in small, medium and large enterprises. BIBA is also involved in the development of training activities encompassing all levels of the company hierarchy for best design and implementation of innovative solutions. Innovation in this context is meant to represent only those alternatives that provide a decisive contribution for finding a solution for each individual problem-cause complex. For designing these innovations, BIBA co-operates with a variety of partners from industry and academia on a regional, national, European and transatlantic level. The technical infrastructure of the Institute is supplied by the Production- Integration-Centre (PIZ). Its production and information technology facilities as well as the integration into communication networks form the basis for fundamental scientific work and applied research with a primary focus on
• production systems, communication and telematics
• logistics and globally distributed production
• computer-aided design, planning and manufacturing
• organisation modelling and simulation
• industrial engineering
• human resources development and qualification
• quality management
• work and technology
The business of travelling is based on the co-operation of commercial organisations building the tourism value chain. The economy of tourist services depends on the ability of these companies to adapt their service offers to market changes on extremely short notice. Therefore, the capability of bringing up-to-date short-lived information to the interested parties in the tourism market is an essential requirement for the entire value chain. The Open Network for Tourism (OnTour) project aimed to develop and validate new ways of workflow in the business between service providers, destination agencies, tour operators, and travel agencies. Therefore, an open network of electronic commerce has been developed offering new access to and distribution of information for the partners of the tourism value chain as well as the travellers. The scaleable OnTour marketplace and the supportive tools allow all kinds of companies in the tourist business to offer and request services, enabling especially smaller and medium sized organisations to participate in the business as equal partners. This report summarises the approach taken and presents the results which were achieved. It provides a useful insight into the overall network concept as well as the implemented software tools. Being written in co-operation by the industrial, software and academic partners, the book aims to cover both the practical and theoretical viewpoint of the project.
