Objectives

The new information economy is driven by the economics of networks, where positive feedback and network effects are increasingly crucial. The value proposition is fundamentally evolving: companies must leverage the competencies of an entire business network in order to acquire a competitive advantage. In other words, companies must look for and implement new approaches to manage assets beyond the company boundaries that are critical to its success by adjusting strategies, processes, and tools[1]. Thus, it becomes more essential for stakeholders in any business domain to understand the ecosystem in which they are operating as well as the characteristics that successfully affect the creation and management of the ecosystem.

The application of a business ecosystem’s concept for C-ITS intends to acknowledge this context by introducing a higher conceptual level than that of individual organisations, focusing at how organisations create value within the context of the networks in which they interoperate. In NEWBITS, this conceptualization pivots upon 3 inter-related elements:

• 4 case studies pre-selected at proposal stage as representative of key ITS and C-ITS business area and linked to implemented or on-going projects and initiatives.
• Communities of Interest (CoI), involving actors of the business ecosystem of each case study.
• NEWBITS Networking Platform (NNP) set to deliver project outcomes and support CoI operation according to the project method.

NEWBITS will deploy a significant effort in analysing the case studies at several levels in order to come up with relevant information about their taxonomy, business ecosystem aspects (actors, relations between actors, performance, dynamics and strategies) and detection of core processes that support value creation and distribution. This business ecosystem oriented approach is envisaged to facilitate and maximize the proposed methodology for business modelling.
[1] Iansiti, Marco (2005). Managing the Ecosystem. Optimizemag; Business Leadership ABI/INFORM, February 2005.

ITS and C-ITS are affected by the effects of a rapidly evolving context, strongly conditioned by the accelerated emergence of innovations and constant reshape of societal needs and organisational forms. This challenging framework requires a sound analysis which effectively measures and assesses demand (Conjoint analysis), ITS production and market sizing, while considering project feasibility, financial returns and even security aspects of mobility services if relevant.

In the framework of the case studies, NEWBITS will implement a holistic market-demand-supply intelligence process which will prioritize the identification of C-ITS enablers and barriers (i.e. infrastructure investment, data access), while mapping the C-ITS ecosystem and identifying the needs and inter-relations of its actors. NEWBITS project will investigate existing KPIs as well as solutions addressing the effectiveness of C-ITS and recommend as necessary new ones for an enhanced deployment.  NEWBITS will take inspiration from existing approaches to mitigate the last mover advantage tendency and innovative business models in business ecosystems other than C-ITS. The consortium will also deploy a collective intelligence framework that will focus on generating innovative approaches by involving key stakeholders and users relevant in the C-ITS sector. Though primarily focused at EU context, the mapping and assessment activity will also gather information from the US.

Following the business ecosystem conceptualization, the project will adapt the Value Network Analysis (VNA) as a highly dynamic and networked based business modelling method. VNA aims at generating a comprehensive description of where value lies in a network, and how value is created in order to address the key issues when designing a strategy. This description includes: actors benefitting in the business ecosystem configuration, different business logics of the diverse actors, new business models to leverage the new value creation.

VNA will pivot upon the pre-selected case studies to canalize the process of business modelling. Furthermore, the NEWBITS Network Platform (NNP) will be configured and operated, supported by the concept of Communities of Interest to market (CoI) so to support the diverse stages of VNA such as: defining the network objectives, identifying and defining network participants and value dimensions of the network participants. The critical process of Value flow definition and crafting value propositions will be particularly implemented in a specific project task. The application of the VNA method will generate two key outcomes: new business models developed from a network perspective; and valuable information regarding value creating interactions within C-ITS business ecosystems.

The combination of the holistic intelligence process, tailored VNA and business model assessment throughout NEWBITS project expects to support an increased effectiveness of the generation of new business models, facilitating the connection amongst actors and visualizing specific interactions within the network while providing a practice-based perspective for understanding value-creating roles.

NEWBITS will generate valuable know-how about (C-) ITS deployment pathways, innovation diffusion and C-ITS value networks that should reach private and public stakeholders at operative and policy making level. The results extracted from the case studies will be generalized following NEWBITS method in order to present a more general conclusion on C-ITS business ecosystems.