Synthesis

This synthesis also gathers some comments delivered while interviewing and not registered in the previous tables.

Existence of a Market

Up ! Application System is a promising project since it attracts 54% of the participants. 76% of interviewed actors claim a favorable opinion for the following reasons:

Modularity, suppleness and interoperability.
Business modeling and standardization.

Albeit the defaults of each young and innovative solutions - lack of trust for the feasibility, reliability and stability of the first versions, etc. -, it exists some others exceptions that we must raise:

To make the use of Up ! Application System more real.
It is only a concept at this time even if a technical prototype is available in alpha version.
To communicate more clearly the positioning.
Especially to be distinguished from the generic vertical software to be integrated like an Enterprise Resource Planer (ERP) and from J2EE platform by showing specificities that meet the needs of the market.
To defend the business model.
By demonstrating to the client it is his advantage on the short, the middle and the long term.
To show a prototype.
It would allow touching the concept, the size the productivity it could bring and the quality of its tools.

The potential of the functional application of Up ! Application System would be large since it includes the support activities, the core business ones and the ones in touch with the suppliers or the clients. Some participants would foresee a technical application, out of the perimeter of this survey since it is dedicated to Up ! Virtual Technical Machine and not to Up ! Virtual Business Machine.

Segmenting and Sizing the Market

Up ! Application System is targeting the firms for which the IT staff is upper than 50 employees. There are two large macro-segments for which the promise of value is different:

The large private firms - More than 2 000 employees.
"To contribute to the raising of competitive advantages."
By easing the differentiation, by a better reactivity or by developing the specificity of the firm.
The large public services - More than 1 000 employees.
"To allow offering the best service at the lowest cost."
By lasting the investments or by easing the support functions.

A promise of value is also common to the two segments: "To be a source of operational efficiency." By easing the communication of information ou by enabling a better economical piloting.

Targeting the Market

A first possible application, which would be generic whatever the business lines we studied, is Micro-marketing:

Knowing the client.
To segment sharply the point of sales and the buying behavior of the client to deliver him offers matching much more his needs.
Evaluating the client risk.
To segment sharply the consuming and paying behavior of the client to be aware of his capacities of settlement. To practice an adapted recovering of the due payments.

This application is crossing:

The Research & Development, strategic marketing and sales activities.
Information system for the Customer Relationship Management (CRM), the reporting and the Business Intelligence (BI).

A second possible application is the optimization of the use of the industrial assets through the offers, which is also called Yield Management. It is crossing the sales, production and reporting activities.

The first business modeling will have to include these five mandatory pillars:

The client.
The offers.
The inventories.
The production.
The accounting.