Cloud Advice for SMEs

As part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg’s business software initiative, Fraunhofer IAO’s Business-Software-as-a-Service living lab offers small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) the opportunity to experience and try out a wide range of Software-as-a-Service products live, enabling them to quickly work up new ideas for creating their own solutions.

Amid the current hype surrounding cloud services, blown out of all proportion by the media, the living lab aims to offer small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) the chance to make a realistic assessment of their own individual situations and become familiar with the technical potential on offer. Working together with Fraunhofer IAO’s cloud experts in individual or group seminars, SMEs can test existing solutions and develop their own tailored approaches. The living lab is aimed both at end users and also at prospective operators of cloud solutions.

Alongside the reliability and operability of cloud solutions, one pressing concern is how to choose suitable deployment and service models, and another is the question of how easily solutions can be integrated into existing IT environments. The Business-Software-as-a-Service living lab offers a practical overview of the various possibilities currently available and provides a venue to try out both commercial and free products. Collaborating with our experts helps companies generate tailored usage scenarios that in turn provide a basis for mapping out cloud products’ added value, as well as their risks.

Fraunhofer IAO is providing three labs – Usability of Business Software; Dynamic Process Management – Monitoring and Optimizing Processes; and Business-Software-as-a-Service – to companies wishing to experience and try out available software live, and work up new ideas to create their own solutions.

Living Labs BW is a new line of funding within “smart businessIT”, an initiative that aims to further strengthen Baden-Württemberg’s position as an IT location with particular emphasis on business software. To find out more about Living Labs BW visit http://www.smartbusiness-it.de/aktuelles (downloads).