Project No.: 5003-045327 01.06.96 - 31.05.98

Project leader: Prof. Beat Schmid, Institut für Medien- und Kommunikationsmanagement, University of St. Gallen
e-mail: beat.schmid@mcm.unisg.ch

Name of project: ESM: Electronic Software Marketing

Partners: Dr. Werner Lange, IKI Informationsberatungs AG, St. Gallen

Funding: Sfr 182,084.-

Summary:
"Electronic Software Marketing (ESM)" is part of the "Virtual Software House (VSH)" project package and aims to identify and design the associated generic services from a business perspective. From an organizational viewpoint, the Virtual Software House is a commercial entity that acts and cooperates in an open environment. It offers a certain set of services to coordinate the development of and trade in software worldwide. The business-relevant services (financial transactions, controlling, information service, etc.) are implemented on the VSH demonstrator.

The technological infrastructure of an open system environment offers the possibility of novel software services based on new billing strategies. Present systems like the Internet or Compuserve do not offer the necessary open service facilities the VSH builds on. However, open system architectures bring problems of their own which this project will deal with. Thus the project aims to address the design and development of an intelligent electronic product catalogue to enable customers to search for specific software products on the network. This is the main thrust of the activities in connection with this project.

Cooperation:
This partial project is a cooperative effort by the University of St. Gallen institute of business information technology and the company IKI Informationsberatungs AG, also of St. Gallen. The University representatives bring to the project experience in the field of electronic markets. Close coordination with the "Electronic Mall Bodensee" project is also envisioned. IKI will support the practical application of the results with its know-how in the design and implementation of commercial organizations in the telecoms sector.