Easy eServices to Shape and Empower SME Networks in Central Europe

The European Commission “Transport 2050 Roadmap to a Single Transport Area” asserts that effective transport systems are a key pre-requisite for companies to compete in the world economy because logistics account for 10–15% of the finished product cost. This calls for a significant advance in capacity. Companies will have to adopt a more efficient network coordination model to easily access a wider knowledge base and proper eServices. In other words, in spite of companies’ ability to realise and export high quality products and their flexibility of adapting to ever changing market conditions, they risk their position in the global market unless they undertake a continuous innovation process that lets them increase profitability by removing bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

The ESSENCE project intends to tackle these critical problems by developing and deploying to users a solution based on the easy and free access of companies to knowledge, new organisational models and intelligent eServices. The proposed solution will help companies to shape their own supply network, to coordinate and operate it, to optimise the generated transports, and to evaluate behaviours to find out inefficiencies.