The ecosystem refers to a constantly developing and open functional entity, where communities, people, services and technologies are interconnected through customer needs – exchanging data, know-how and services and making use of all actors belonging to the ecosystem. A key feature of the ecosystem is se that each participant gets more value from the ecosystem than it would alone without being part of it. The actors complement each other’s capabilities and skills, generating added value that could otherwise not be provided.
Using information technology, digital ecosystems connect public administration, businesses, the third sector, products and services. Together, these form networks of interdependence.
At the moment, Finland does not have a comprehensive digital ecosystem in the context of business economy or common digital platforms between businesses and public administration. Actors mainly exchange information on a mutual basis, which is not cost-effective. Existing ecosystems have formed around a specific operating environment or industry.
The aim of the Real-Time Economy project’s ecosystem work is to identify the digital business economy ecosystem and describe its structures, strengthen and develop existing structures, and create conditions for yhteen toimivuuden any new structures required by the ecosystem. A further goal by the end of 2024 is to describe the basics, i.e., the strategy, contracts and management models for the digital business ecosystem, which enables the automatic exchange of financial data and the production of supporting services.
A common ecosystem and infrastructure help avoid industry-dependent solutions. From the perspective of businesses, it is guaranteed that services that are designed for business activities and are easy to use will appear on the market, and that the operations of the companies in the digital economy ecosystem will be as smooth and effortless as possible.
The foundation created during the project for the digital business economy ecosystem is formed around the processes whose operations are developed in the project according to the project’s goals. The project work also aims to create conditions for the digital business economy ecosystem to stabilise, develop and expand even after the end of the project.
Description of the minimum viable ecosystem of digital business economy i.e., an MVE description at the end of 2022: Real-Time Economy MVE2022 (PDF; document in Finnish).