Fabrizio D’Ascenzo

Digital Service Platform for Networked Enterprises Collaboration: A Case Study of the NEMESYS Project

Enterprises’ networks (formal and informal) are an ever-growing economic phenomenon, especially in Europe, characterised by a large number of Small and Medium Enterprises. The new economic opportunities are making possible the creation of new types of organizations where the deployment of information technology into knowledge work will increase organizational productivity and effectiveness. The aim of the paper is to summarise the results of the NEMESYS research project funded under the Lazio Region Structural Funds, where a digital platform has been developed in order to deliver services to enterprise networks independently from the network shape and enabling efficiency and effectiveness of the business activities.

Legal Issues and Requirements for Cloud Computing in e-Science

Cloud technologies have increasingly gained momentum in recent years, primarily due to their promise of enhanced performance, such as elasticity, scalability, risk reduction and the easy deployment of end-user services. Despite the great interest and success achieved by the Cloud model, there are still some legal issues raised both in the scientific sector and the information society as a whole. The objective of this paper is to provide the needed starting points for a reflection aimed at the creation of a new governance and legislative model on data protection, privacy and security to develop an efficient strategy on Cloud Computing, notably for government and e-Science, promoting innovation and interoperability in Europe.

FabLabs as Platforms for Digital Fabrication Services: A Literature Analysis

Digital fabrication is contributing to the paradigm shift that is determining a new way to design, produce and consume goods and services. In order to understand the role of FabLabs, networked platforms for the dissemination of digital culture through the sharing of technological tools and knowledge, this paper explores the main research themes and methods associated with this new business model. Through a systematic literature analysis, it provides an assessment of the state of art of the past and current literature about FabLabs from a service perspective. Based on research papers published exclusively on scholarly journals, the study describes the emergence of this research area and characterize its current status. A critical analysis of the existing research as well as some recommendations for future studies in this field are also offered.

The Diffusion of ICT Across Italian Corporate Universities: An Exploratory Study

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are getting very widespread both in formal and informal learning. However the literature suggests that organizational features and culture may influence their current implementation. This study provides a preliminary understanding of the features which may influence the use and the diffusion of ICTs across Italian Corporate Universities. After a comprehensive review of the literature, we report and discuss the results of a survey involving 20 Italian Corporate Universities. Our findings reveal they do not make extensive use of ICTs. Compared to the dominant literature and common practice, these “deviant” behaviours require further investigations.

3-D Printing in the Spare Parts Supply Chain: An Explorative Study in the Automotive Industry

Additive manufacturing represents a disruptive technology in comparison to traditional manufacturing. 3-D printing technology discloses companies’ inner potential, enabling them to reconsider their strategic positioning, organization, production and distribution processes, offering the potential for new supply chain configurations. Tooling and design processes are greatly simplified, while new materials, shapes, more functional products and applications constantly emerge. More efficient processing methods are able to reduce manufacturing and logistics time and costs in such a way that significant economic and financial benefits can be spread along the entire value chain. The purpose of this research is to shed lights on the state of art of this technique, with a focus on the potential impact on the companies’ strategy for the management of spare parts. We considered different scenarios and supply chain configurations related to the Automotive sector, applying the AM to the production of discontinued car parts and evaluating its main benefits.

The Impact of e-Invoicing on Businesses Eco-Systems: Evidences from Italian Supply Chains and Suggestions for a Research Agenda

In 2007 the European Commission presented the Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens in the European Union, with the aim to work with Member States in order to cut 25 % of administrative burdens on businesses by 2012. In this framework, a set of interesting actions can be summarised into the so-called dematerialization, intended as the substitution of the physical business documentation with digital files and archives that are able to provide better performances in terms of efficiency, as well as the same legal requisites of the documents in the paper format. The aim of this chapter is to introduce the approaches adopted from some Italian Supply Chains and provide some hints for further research developments.

Innovation Support Strategies for Enhancing Business Competitiveness in the European Union: Programmes, Objectives and Economic Impact Assessment

The research, development and innovation programmes of the European Union play an important role for the development and competitiveness of the “old continent”. The aim of this paper is to briefly describe the policy that drives these programmes and give some insights on how they are assessed in order to measure the impact of public investment. In this work, we discuss the impacts on Gross Domestic Product and employment estimated by the European Commission for Framework Programme 7 with the results of a sample of 60 FP7 projects in three ICT domains. The exercise allows to raise some questions about the assumptions made by the EC experts and provides suggestions in order to implement a more effective system for monitoring the R&D investment.

How Digital Transformation is Reshaping the Manufacturing Industry Value Chain: The New Digital Manufacturing Ecosystem Applied to a Case Study from the Food Industry

The rapid development and adoption of Internet and digital technologies dramatically changed business processes, leading to a disruptive digital transformation of the whole industry value chain. The so-called Industry 4.0 refers to a complex evolution of the entire industrial sector that includes technological advances in production equipment (i.e. Additive Manufacturing), smart finished products (IoT), data tools and analytics, involving activities and stakeholders at all levels. Therefore, companies need to completely redesign their business processes and models in order to achieve the important benefits disclosed by these new settings. Even though actual and potential advantages are remarkable, only a limited number of companies has already made rapid advances by developing high digital capabilities necessary to obtain a competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to explore this emerging trend through a case study carried out with an Italian company world leader in the food industry, aiming to shed light on opportunities and threats connected to digital transition.

Internet Service Providers: The Italian Scenario

This paper shows the characteristics of the Italian Internet Providers’ market. The study is divided into three parts where different factors are analysed providing an observation of the targeted sector from different perspectives. After having identified the research objectives and the characteristics of the internet providers’ sector, the Italian Internet market is described through fundamental parameters such as the analysis of demand, global turnover and the analysis of different methods of access to the network. In the second part, we analyse the technical, economic and financial characteristics of the sector, through the study of fundamental elements such as technological readiness of ISPs and the structure of supply, taking into account operating areas and services provided by companies; the survey provides then a study of the companies’ size in order to have a clear market segmentation. The last part provides an analysis of the economic and financial structure exploring companies’ efficiency through performance indicators. The final result is a critical analysis of findings from which emerges that medium sized ISPs are more performing in terms of business indicators while policies still seem to be in favour of big operators.

Cards of the Agreements with American Universities

Italian Institution Sapienza Universit a di Roma, Faculty of Information Engineering, Computer Science and Statistics, Department of Information, Electronics and Telecommunication Eng. (DIET) U.S. Partner Institution(s) Boston University, Boston Agreement Scientific Cooperation Scientific responsible Prof. Mauro Biagi (Sapienza) Prof. Thomas D.C. Little (Boston) Subtopics Visible Light Communications