PRODNET-II aims to design and develop an open platform and the adequate IT protocols and mechanisms to support Virtual Industrial Enterprises. PRODNET is focused mainly on Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) in order to support them with means to inter-operate with several value chain networks. The architecture will employ the new emerging standards and advanced technologies in communication, cooperative information management, and distributed decision making.

PRODNET will deal with a number of Virtual Enterprise environment requirements and necessary steps, which are the results of an ESPRIT exploratoy award (award number 20568), showed below:

(1) to improve the understanding of the nature and structure of the business data and the information that needs to be communicated between partners in a Virtual Industrial Enterprise, with a particular emphasis on business flexibility and evolution for SMEs;

(2) to design and develop a software infrastructure to provide an environment for this data and information to be exchanged, shared and managed in the virtual industrial network, unlike the present integration mechanisms that are typically closed and proprietary;

(3) to promote the utilization of international standards such STEP, EDIFACT, Internet WWW / Java, ISO 9000, etc. to assist SMEs to maintain and improve their competitiveness in the European and world-wide market;

(4) to speed up and support the implementation of open, standards-based software components, that are easy to use, low in cost and provide a high value-added benefit, which are required by SMEs; and

(5) to provide opportunity for the IT vendors to support many requirements set by the SMEs, and to implement new products taking advantage of an emerging market which will be global in its nature by the year 2000.

In addition to supporting these requirements, a number of specific functionalities are supported by PRODNET project, which includes: