=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1675/paper9
|storemode=property
|title=ECIM: European Cloud Marketplace for Intelligent Mobility
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1675/paper9.pdf
|volume=Vol-1675
|authors=Gorazd Marinic,Wim Vanobberghen
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/staf/MarinicV16
}}
==ECIM: European Cloud Marketplace for Intelligent Mobility==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1675/paper9.pdf
ECIM: European Cloud Marketplace for Intelligent
Mobility
Gorazd Marinic and Wim Vanobberghen
iMinds-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
gorazd.marinic@iminds.be, wim.vanobberghen@vub.ac.be
Abstract. ECIM - European Cloud Marketplace for Intelligent Mobility brings
to cities a platform that integrates a variety of mobility-related services, such as
parking, shared bicycles and public transport, and allows developers to create
multi-modal apps with seamless login, payment, discovery and use of different
means of transport in the city. ECIM goes even further. It provides a base for
development of new business models, such as Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS).
Keywords: cloud platform; mobility; marketplace; parking; MaaS
1 Introduction
ECIM (European Cloud Marketplace for Intelligent Mobility) is a flexible, cloud-
based solution for public and private sector actors who seek or provide web services
to address mobility related needs of their cities. The Marketplace is a unique envi-
ronment where service providers, data providers and developers come together and
engage in co-design and co-creation of Mobility applications for citizens. To provid-
ers the solution offers an effective distribution channel as well as opportunities to
enter new markets and expand their user base. Developers, for their part, benefit from
easy access to standardised APIs of different mobility services, some of which are
available exclusively through the ECIM platform. The solution is indeed unique and
as such has potential to revolutionise the way Mobility services are designed and de-
livered to citizens. The aims of this paper are to (1) provide an overview of the ECIM
project (2) discuss the encountered barriers and challenges during the project deploy-
ment and resulting lessons learned and (3) to describe the identified avenues that can
help ECIM remain sustainable in the long run while staying at the vanguard of the
ongoing transport revolution.
2 Project overview
ECIM (www.ecim-cities.eu) is an FP7 project, running between January 2014 and
June 2016, with an overall budget of 4,384,000.00 EUR, with 50% of funding provid-
ed by the European Commission. The 14 partners from come from 6 countries, and
different backgrounds: academic, industry, public authorities and SMEs:
iMinds Belgium ESADE Spain
IS-Practice Belgium ISSY MEDIA France
Intrasoft Luxembourg 21C Consultancy UK
Relational Greece CEN Group UK
Mobile-for Belgium EJ Consultants UK
BePark Belgium CIRB Belgium
PayByPhone France ENoLL Belgium
The work has been divided between 7 inter-related work packages (WP), with Liv-
ing Lab as the overarching approach that engages all relevant stakeholders in each
stage of the solution design, development, deployment, testing and evaluation. ECIM
is currently in its final phase, and after successful piloting there is a proof-of-concept
being run in Birmingham. Project partners are now focusing on dissemination of re-
sults and working on a plan to make ECIM sustainable after the end of EC funding.
2.1 Objectives of the project
ECIM has three main objectives: allow cities and businesses to easily migrate ser-
vices to the cloud, open cloud-based services to innovators for use as a basis for new
services and facilitate easy access and cross-border adoption of cloud-based services
across Europe. ECIM completes the value-chain for cloud-based public services by
deploying a Marketplace wherein public authorities and the private sector, especially
SMEs, can migrate their services, create new ones and find a market to sell them. To
validate ECIM we selected mobility/parking, consistently cited as high priorities for
citizens and public service providers alike. Commercial off-street and public sector
on-street parking solutions are easy to locate online. However, these offerings func-
tion in near total isolation from each other let alone with related areas such as public
transport alternatives such as city bike stations. For example, merging real-time avail-
ability of on-street and off-street parking with transport options would enable cities to
advance ‘softer’ urban mobility priorities e.g. encouraging environmentally friendly
modes of transport. To address these issues, ECIM delivers a cloud-based platform
with functionalities that facilitate migration of existing data and services (APIs) of
various mobility service providers and public entities (e.g. parking, public transport)
and innovative creation of new ones. Moreover, we want to show that by enabling
open and innovative management of mobility within cities, ECIM has the potential to
significantly improve citizens’ lives by reducing congestion, lowering pollution and
saving time. It also has the capacity to help cities save time and money by using cloud
computing to stimulate development, aggregation and use of interoperable services
that can be reused across borders.
2.2 Approach
To design a solution according to real end-user needs, ECIM relies on the proven
Living Lab approach ensuring end-user involvement in all stages of development. The
approach taken in analysing possible business models and developing a sustainability
plan also relied on Living Lab-supported validation exercise. To validate the solution,
we ran pilots in Barcelona, Issy-les-Moulineaux and Brussels, and a proof of concept
in Birmingham. The platform was built based on collected requirements from project
partners, and various APIs were integrated. A mobile app was developed for the pi-
lots, which were able to share services among themselves to demonstrate cross-border
interoperability of the solution. Tests were conducted in several iterations, to feed
developers with feedback and test the app with incremental improvements. As its
basic idea, ECIM is a platform that plays the intermediary role in a two-sided market.
In order to create a realistic sustainability plan, various tasks were performed, from
market to business model analysis and validation. Following the market analysis,
business model analysis was performed and validated with project partners.
3 Main project outcomes
ECIM had specific goals in what concerns development of the technical solutions.
Based on extensive user requirements collection and iterative development, the plat-
form Marketplace is considered as a core project outcome. Piloting the test app, as a
Marketplace service consumer, helped us to validate the integrated multi-modal ser-
vices concept, and finally, the solution was complemented with a sustainability plan.
3.1 Platform Marketplace
The platform Marketplace, developed in WP3 [2], allows publishing a variety of
data formats (CSV, JSON, XML), web services (REST), and complements the offer-
ing with a single-sign-on and a single-payment mechanism. To publish its offerings,
the service providers are presented with an interface that allows them to create an
attractive presentation of his offering and provide full data / service details (e.g. end-
point URL, methods, parameters), useful to a developer, who will subscribe to their
offering. On the other hand, to consume a service a registered developer follows a
procedure, where he needs first to subscribe to the desired service, and only when a
data/service provider approves his request, he is able to access it. The Marketplace is
analogous to common app stores, playing an intermediary role in terms of data/service
discovery, subscription, technical interfaces (APIs), contractual, financial and legal
agreements.
3.2 Common API recommendations
While integrating various data and services from private and public providers, we
encountered the need for more homogeneous interfaces. The idea of harmonising API
formats, e.g. for a specific mobility domain (e.g. parking), stemmed from the efforts
required to integrate a variety of different service provider APIs, which enable inter-
action with similar services. As a solution, we proposed common API recommenda-
tions initially for parking services (on-street and off-street) [2], and later we comple-
mented these with a single-sign-on and a payment service. The initiative is promoted
via www.smartmobility.io. The recommendations would first of all benefit develop-
ers, who will need to get acquainted with only one format, and secondly the service
providers, who would simply follow the existing implementations and would benefit
from a large number of developers able to integrate their service with minimal effort.
3.3 Piloting
Tests demonstrated that the ECIM app was perceived as potentially useful for citi-
zens and visitors [10]. This measure was evaluated the most positive, together with
the concept underpinning ECIM. As such, ECIM app responds to the need to find
relevant mobility information fast while on the move, and to interact with these ser-
vices (start/end parking, pay tickets, etc.). Nonetheless, despite these positive points,
the ECIM app did not manage to convince testers for further use. The reasons for this
relate to the aspects of ease of use, content quality and accessibility of the app, which
for some testers interfered with getting the relevant information fast and without prob-
lems. Besides addressing strictly usability and design issues of the app, it became
clear that integration is more than just adding services together and make them tech-
nically fit. It involves also elaboration of a customer service around the fact of having
the services combined both at the physical parking spot as well as on the app regard-
ing crucial information. This cannot be done by the pilot test team alone, but requires
the active involvement of all service providers. Nevertheless, the ECIM concept was
positively evaluated, and the testers confirmed the need for such integrated apps, thus
showing the platform idea is a valid one. In its final phase the piloting was comple-
mented with hackathons and app challenges, which gave us the opportunity to vali-
date the Marketplace and to use developers’ feedback to further improve the platform.
3.4 Advances beyond the state of the art
ECIM complements existing OpenData initiatives by providing not only data (e.g.
points-of-interest), but also (web)services, which allow a developer not only to read,
but to also interact with mobility service providers. As such, it goes beyond the con-
cept of OpenData and provides the ground for OpenServices, where an authenticated
and authorised developer in able to consume and monetize public and private ser-
vices, up to now available only to providers themselves. ECIM creates a set of API
format recommendations to increase service interoperability, help developers easily
integrate new services in an app, and enable both sides exploit ECIM cross-border
capabilities. With its central role, taking care of interaction between different parties,
the Marketplace brings as one of the first the concept of the ‘app store’ to the Mobili-
ty domain, paving way to development of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) offerings.
3.5 Overall innovation potential
The innovation potential of ECIM lies in its open common APIs, which enables
service providers, such as park operators, to easily publish their API to the ECIM
Marketplace, where it immediately becomes available to registered developers. Since
the developers need to visit only one Marketplace and choose from a variety of ser-
vices, his development path is much smoother and quicker. The platform takes the
role of an intermediary and lowers the discovery and negotiation cost because it takes
over all technical, financial and contractual negotiations. A developer or a service
provider is also able to combine different APIs and create new ones, and finally pub-
lish them on the ECIM Marketplace. By providing this flexibility, ECIM gives devel-
opers and service providers the tools to innovate not only in technical terms, but also
on finding new ways to monetize their products and innovate in the business model.
3.6 References to related work and related projects
ECIM was built on the lessons learned in European Platform for Intelligent Cites
(EPIC) project (2010-2013). ECIM also made use of lessons learned in other projects
and initiatives: MOBI.Europe, SuperHub, POLITE, smartCEM, SATIE. As part of
the requirements collection and technical design phase we explored several mobility-
related initiatives, API services, Mobility apps, IoT and Mobile payments. During the
project several commercial initiatives have emerged, and the ECIM team made sure
the most important and relevant were studied and considered in the solution or con-
cept design. Just to highlight one, MaaS, a concept emerged in 2015 in Finland, iden-
tified as a paradigm shift, changing the way citizens, employees or travellers use Mo-
bility services. ECIM is seen as a technical enabler for MaaS offerings, putting MaaS
brokers on the map of potential customers.
4 Sustainability
4.1 Exploitation approach and expected impact
ECIM Marketplace enables SMEs to monetize their data and web services. With
strong value proposition for various groups of potential users, and a positive outcome
of the market analysis, the project partners engaged in studying a feasible business
model that would enable the project to become commercially viable and sustainable
also after the funding from the EC has been concluded. Sustainability planning started
with a market analysis [8], using desk research and tools such as SWOT analysis. We
concluded that in an increasingly crowded market, ECIM needs to establish itself
soon: manifold solutions exist or are being established that in one way or another
mirror ECIM’s. MaaS plays a role in this regard, as more and more projects are focus-
ing on it, rearranging boundaries of existing services. The competitive advantage of
ECIM was identified as following. First, no other solution offers an online space for
collaboration and co-creation of mobility services. Second, ECIM caters for ser-
vice/data providers and developers – a box ticked only by one of the analyzed com-
petitors, OneStopTransport. And third, the wide range of APIs ECIM offers to devel-
opers. This leads to the realization that ECIM’s most promising potential lies in ena-
bling MaaS initiatives by integrating various mobility services and offering them in
an integrated and open fashion.
Strengths Opportunities
• Enabling cooperation between service • Popularity of MaaS concept and para-
and data providers and developers digm shifts in transport market entail-
ing diverse business opportunities
• Technological means to do so (APIs)
• Involvement and investment from
• Active interest and involvement of the local, national and EU governments
public sector could secure leadership buy-in
Weaknesses Threats
• Limited Marketplace participants • Other actors (e.g. UbiGo) expanding
into ECIM pilot cities
• As an EU project disincentives estab-
lished mobility actors to invest • Several competitors with similar offers
Table 1. SWOT Analysis
We continued exploring which business model could help ECIM enter this market
and provide added value to its customers and become sustainable. ECIM business
model relies on the platform theory, which is characterized by interdependencies of
the participating groups of providers and consumers, and is conceptualized as a multi-
sided market where the utility that user A derives from participating in the market is
correlated to the number of users B (and conversely): externalities between stakehold-
ers internalized by the market [4]. We initially studied the business model frameworks
proposed in the literature, and started with business model canvas, proposed by Os-
terwalder [9], which serves well to evaluate a single company. It is a chart that helps
to visualize and clarify the essential parameters of a service or product: key partners,
activities, resources; value proposition, customer segments, customer relationships,
channels; cost structure and revenue streams. However, to provide a coherent treat-
ment of the most relevant business model parameters, while at the same time empha-
sising relationships between actors in an ecosystem setting, we decided to use another
approach [1][5][7] to enrich the classic value chain approach in changing environ-
ments such as online services where value is no longer created in a linear fashion. To
determine the right answers to the above-described challenges and to produce a solid
business plan for ECIM, a so-called LLAVA (Living Lab Assumption and VAlidation
matrix) tool developed by iMinds-SMIT was deployed. It enabled us to discuss differ-
ent business model aspects in a common framework, allowing to create and agree on a
common vision on the different business model aspects and to manage and execute
the innovation tracks by listing critical assumptions and mapping out validation steps.
Finally, it supported us to assess the strength of the envisioned business model by
pinning down focus, differentiation and coherency. We identified different business
models, from transaction-based revenue sharing, to city-paid subscription, eventually
following a public-private partnership. In all cases, the concept relies on large scale
deployment, integration of many mobility services, playing the role of a central plat-
form on which local players rely on and at the same time allowing new entrants -
application developers, festival organisers and tourist service providers to exploit
these services and provide more value to their existing offerings, e.g. full ticket-less
city mobility during a music festival, or simply providing parking when renting a car.
4.2 Barriers and obstacles, and expected market value
Platform businesses have proven to be most viable in today’s Internet economy.
Nonetheless, to establish such a business, various roadblocks have to be overcome in
the go-to-market strategy. The conclusion of the workshops suggested the need of city
authority’s involvement in ECIM deployment in order to create impact. Establishing
ECIM as a general service relying on revenue sharing would require a substantial
business setup investment and more beneficial financial conditions to be attractive to
service providers with existing payment processing contracts. Nevertheless, the main
challenge is to start such two-sided market because the interdependencies on which
such markets are founded pose substantial difficulties. Participating is only interesting
for an actor if its counterparts also participate, and to launch such market is similar to
the “chicken and egg” problem. This coordination problem (“hold up”) refers to the
lack of incentives to invest for independent firms planning to offer complementary
goods/services. Such problems (‘indirect network effects’) are argued to be “endem-
ic” to the ICT industry [6]. Coordination problems lead in turn to incentives to bundle
and to cross-subsidize complementary products and services, e.g. by using a so-called
razor-and-blade or loss-leader revenue model. In such model one good (e.g. an inkjet
printer, a video game console, or a razor) is sold below cost or is even free, while this
cost is offset by revenues from sale of complementary goods [6]. In ECIM, users on
one side of the market will only be attracted by the offer if there is desired content.
The other side supplies content, which will in turn only be attractive to join for pro-
viders if there are users. Several strategies theorize how to face this initial problem.
Most importantly, pricing policies need to maximize the quantity of content providers
on the one hand, and clients on the other. Cross-subsidization is necessary, as known
from “freemium” offers [3]. The theoretical exercise, with the addition of the work-
shops with project partners and discussions with third party providers, resulted in
several pricing models and income streams being identified as realistic and attractive.
5 Conclusion
The market analysis proved that there is room and demand for a solution such as
ECIM, positive feedback on the concept was collected during the piloting, where
testers (citizens) acknowledged the significant value of having several Mobility ser-
vices integrated the one pilot app, which was developed using ECIM APIs. Further-
more, the business model workshop showed that the identified value proposition is
realistic, and the overall business model is feasible. Revenue sharing gets increasingly
complex with an increasing number of actors involved. As a technological and con-
tractual intermediary ECIM establishes rules for these relationships and simplifies the
revenue sharing. This is the case also because certain kinds of service re-users will
also be able to provide their own services on ECIM Marketplace at some point, thus
changing role to provider; or even being both at the same time. Nevertheless, based
on the amount of the estimated initial investment, and the identified barriers in
becoming an attractive platform for service providers to share their revenue, we
identified that the most feasible initial model is to provide the platform as a public
infrastructure that is not per se profitable, but instead relies on low running cost
enabled by its cloud nature, while maintaining the opportunity to switch to a paid,
revenue sharing model once it gains popularity. Project partners are already
discussing the possibility to provide the platform to Brussels region as regional
infrastructure service, provided by CIRB and commissioned by the Brussels parking
agency, which aims to harmonise and streamline parking services in the region.
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