The COIN Integrated Project:
A flagship project of the Future Internet Enterprise Systems domain The Future Internet Enterprise Systems (FInES) Cluster1 was launched in 2009 by the Networked Enterprise and RFID unit of the Information Society and Media Directorate-General as a follow-up to the work already accomplished in the domain of networked businesses. This innovative domain was considered necessary given the upcoming challenges for our European enterprises in the Future Internet era, in a context of increased globalization and competition. The Cluster inherited the very rich advancements of three research domains previously supported by the unit: Enterprise Interoperability, Enterprise Collaboration and Digital Ecosystems, but the domain has never lost its scope on the usage and integration of ICT by enterprises. Encouraging disruptive innovation, its mission remains to orient research priorities towards new business approaches and business values supported by Information and Communication Technology, where the Internet is the business ecosystem. After the first FP7 call for proposals, COIN became the flagship project of the FInES Cluster and one of its most ambitious, complex and wide-ranging projects. As the full name of the project Collaboration and Interoperability for Network Enterprise may suggest, its primary objective was to aggregate two separated areas – Enterprise Collaboration and Enterprise Interoperability – developed by the precursors of the FInES Cluster. COIN rightfully observed that the two must be put together in order to have a coherent and efficient approach on the technology needed by our businesses. In this endeavour, the COIN partners gathered valuable research results from several EU funded projects that focused, however, solely on one of the two domains (see, for instance, the European ATHENA, INTEROP, ABILITIES, SATINE and TRUSTCOM projects on Enterprise Interoperability and the ECOLEAD, DBE, E4 or ECOSPACE projects on Enterprise Collaboration).
