Amid the era of digital transformation, business ecosystems have once again captured the attention of C-level executives. They drive new growth and reduce costs through collaborative networks of supply chain partners — and even competitors — offering inherently greater agility and resilience. Fortunately, information technology has caught up with the concept, enabling scalable implementations. In particular, dataspace technology, which allows for data transactions across companies with IP protection, has emerged as a pivotal enabler (see “Dataspaces 101“).

In digital business, data holds paramount importance. For example, generative AI models like ChatGPT would not exist without training data, and no good results without good training data. This is where a dataspace becomes crucial. It can deliver superior data across internal departments as well as supply chain and market channel partners — resulting in more effective business applications for participants compared to outsiders.

Kindly explore our insights derived from active involvement in dataspace development, such as (1) Catena-X, the first open-source data ecosystem in automotive*, along with our dataspace case studies, such as (2) award-winning RealLab Hamburg**:

• Research Note: Schlueter Langdon, C. 2024. Business ecosystems 2.0 – built on data. Research Note (RN_DCL-Drucker-CGU_2024-02_v3), Drucker Customer Lab, Peter Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA
• Data ecosystem pilot at CES 2024 Las Vegas: IBM’s 2min video of Ford-Flex with Catena-X tech

* The author was agile Product Manager (SAFe certified PM-PO) with responsibility of delivery of the software release together with a colleague from BMW and SAP (LinkedIn 2023, link).
** The author was Principal Investigator for Deutsche Telekom’s involvement.