Enterprise Innovation

7The BIVEE Environment: Description of the Overall Software Architecture

The BIVEE acronym stands for business innovation and virtual enterprise (VE) environment. The main tangible outcome of the BIVEE project is the ICT implementation of such an environment: a cloud-oriented software architecture, a cloud-ready platform providing a base layer of services, an integrated collection of end user applications and tools which enable business innovation and support value production. This chapter is an introduction to the BIVEE environment’s architecture and a primer of the BIVEE platform from a technical perspective.

7.1. Introduction

The BIVEE project’s spotlight is on two areas: production space and innovation space. Production space is where all activities related to the core business take place, and where business models and processes are designed, deployed, monitored and adjusted over time. At the same time, to counter the natural tendency of models and processes to become obsolete in a rapidly changing scenario, continuous open innovation is promoted and fostered in its own separate – but tightly connected – space. There is a continuous, bidirectional information flow between these two spaces: production feeds innovation with new challenges and innovation feeds production with new ideas.

In the BIVEE environment’s architecture, each space is covered by a dedicated web application targeted at end users: the mission control room (MCR) tackles production, while innovation is addressed ...