Innovation will be achieved in the technical implementation of an IT solution that supports project coordination in the virtual enterprise. This necessity includes the appropriate internal and external workflow and its coordination.

ECC’s View on Business Processes
In general, ECC is able to support the following relevant business processes.

Information needs to be accessed and possibly exchanged at various stages of the purchasing, marketing, sales, execution and after-sales processes.

Core Processes
Potential ranges of functions comprised in these processes include:

• Support for Marketing
• Support for Sales
• Monitoring Project Execution
• Support for After Sales Activities
• Support for Purchasing and Management

It is assumed that information already resides at each networked company. Appropriate interchange is needed.

The data that needs to be considered is shown in the following figure.

Collaboration of Applications
Applications at the companies need to have interfaces that allow the exchange of information. This clearly goes beyond the scope of information as it is interchanged through interface standards like EDI. ECC may use these standards where appropriate. However, standardization is not on the agenda for the project itself.

ECC’s Functional Components
In terms of interfaces, an ECC system will have to serve the following target groups:

Functionally, ECC will be segmented into the following components.

ECC specifically addresses network related issues. These specific issues together with ECC’s solution approach are listed in the following table.