Samenvatting

Enterprise 2.0, deconstructed firms, organisational ecosystems: all of these buzzwords are used to identify operating concepts behind today's companies. They are driven by the need to be agile, flexible, distributed, open, transparent, simple, on demand and with a short time to market.
In order to be all this, we have decided to break down our organisations, outsource non-core activities and create relationships with vendors, clients, resellers, producers and other parties. Many of these relationships extend company boundaries. We have globalised our network in order to survive and thrive on the international markets. We try to collaborate with those that will provide us the greatest benefits for the smallest risk and price. We are not the only ones. Our competitors do it as well. We all have created vast networks in which we can often find our own competitors as a part of it. In fact, some of us will even directly work together with them.

Relationships provide both the key as well as certain issues
These relationships are based on collaboration, which automatically implicates sharing information and sometimes even services, products and processes. Such activities allow the business ecosystems to obtain many benefits in terms of scale, lower costs, better innovative capacities, knowledge channels, reduction of uncertainty, et cetera.
Yet, those benefit-providing relationships create many issues that will trouble the collaborating firms and their management on both ends of the deal. Whenever we want to collaborate across a national border, we have to take legislation of at least two countries in mind. For instance, if you are a European company, you have to take "Code Tabaksblat" in mind. If American, there is "SOX" to consider. Now if you want to collaborate with both an American and a European enterprise, then both laws must be followed. So, what about security and compliance? How can we be sure that our collaborative partners will be trustworthy and treat our information with the same policies as we do? How can we be sure that we follow the right directions in such relations? No one wants to be sued because of violating such agreements.
Then there is the demand for connectivity: we need to communicate with our partners. How can we do this safely and securely? How can we make sure that these parties will be able to see important information, while others should not have that ability?

Today's solution:
To face these issues, many came up with different solutions. SOA-based frameworks for collaboration, SLA's, Enterprise 2.0, automated distributed compliancy systems, ideas for a de-perimeterised environment. Most of these answers proved to be quite a step forward to a secured dynamic collaborative relationship. Yet all of them lack a fully integrated set of mechanisms to tackle the sum of all problems.

Tomorrow's solution:
Luckily, progression does not stop here. One of the biggest breakthroughs is nearby: the creation of the Collaboration Oriented Architectures (COA). At this moment, many details around the concept of the COA are unknown or not yet fully developed.
In order to accelerate these developments and reveal many details around the concept, a research project is created around the question:

"What is the Collaboration Oriented Architecture and how can it be used?"


The project is executed by the Security and Innovation Research Centre in Capgemini NL, in collaboration with Windesheim , Eli Lilly and the Jericho Forum , in order to create the first information architecture that is based on SOA and the concept of de-perimeterisation, which will allow us to work together dynamically and safely with whoever we choose.