TXT e-solutions SpA is a leading company in the market of computer solutions for e-business and for Supply Chain and Customer Management (SC & CM), offering to its customers complete solutions, based upon kernel products, high-level competence on enabling, innovative IT and specific know-how in a number of application domains

Atos Origin s.a.e is the Spanish branch of a major international IT services company, Atos Origin plc (http://www.atosorigin.com). Atos Origin is present in 50 countries and its business is turning client vision into results through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed operations.

Atos Origin in Spain has about 5,000 people distributed in several cities. Areas of application are Business, Public Sector, Industry, and Communications. The general strategy of the Company concentrates on IT consulting, systems integration and outsourcing. It derives from an excellent customer service, which is based on a key success factor in the domains where Atos Origin operates: the technological dimension.

Within the Public Sector, the International Activities Group concentrates on the realisation of international projects, combining the most up-to-date technological developments with a high awareness of the human factors. One of the key areas of this International Group is the research and development of open source projects in Software and Services area.

D’Appolonia is a private firm with over 250 staff, offering consultancy and engineering services to industries, government bodies and research organisations. Main business sectors include Space, Defence, Security, Transportation, Environment, Energy and Infrastructures.

The company headquarters are located in Genoa, Italy, 4 branch offices in Italy and permanent officies in China, India, Serbia and U.S. D'Appolonia has experienced steady growth for more than four decades: our expansion and diversity of services have paralled the needs of oour clients as they operate in an ever-changing and complex global environment.

D’Appolonia has a consolidated background in the security policies, operational scenarios, technologies and services analysis and design, matured through extensive business relationships with both private industry and government institutions, in the fields of Satellite Systems, Airborne Ground Surveillance Systems.

The Database and Information Systems (DBIS) group at the Institute of Informatics, of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Germany, is one of the leading and internationally recognized research group in the field of databases, information systems and e-commerce.

The group is lead by Professor Roberto Zicari, the representative of the Object Management Group (OMG) in Europe. DBIS has been selected by IBM to be member of the DB2 research program, worldwide; DBIS also cooperates with Accenture and InterSystems, within their educational programs.

The "Politecnico di Milano" Technical University was established in 1863 by a group of scholars and entrepreneurs belonging to prominent Milanese families. The Politecnico di Milano is now ranked as one of the most outstanding European universities in Engineering, Architecture and Industrial Design, and in many disciplines is regarded as a leading research institution worldwide. The number of students enrolled in all campuses is approximately 42,000, which makes the Politecnico di Milano the largest institution in Italy for Engineering, Architecture and Industrial Design.

PoliMi participates to the MOMOCS project through the members of the Software Engineering group at Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione. Such a group is internationally recognized as one of the most competent research centre in requirements analysis, system design, middleware frameworks, software architectures, testing and validation, and service-centric systems.

Siemens, headquartered in Berlin and Munich, is one of the world's largest electrical engineering and electronics companies. Sustainability has been a hallmark of the company ever since it's founding more than 155 years ago.

In fiscal 2005 (ended September 30), the company had roughly 461,000 employees and posted sales of €75.445 billion from continuing operations. Net income for the year totaled €3.058 billion. Siemens generates around 80 percent of its sales outside of Germany.

With activities in more than 190 countries and some 600 plants, research facilities and sales offices worldwide, Siemens has a strong international presence.

Company businesses are focused on six key areas: Information and Communications, Automation and Control, Power, Transportation, Medical and Lighting.

In addition, Siemens is also a partner in joint ventures - with Bosch in the household appliances sector (BSH Bosch-Siemens Hausgeräte) and with Fujitsu in computer systems (Fujitsu Siemens Computers).

Innovation is a top priority for a world-class company in the field of electrical engineering and electronics. In 2005, the company invested €5.2 billion in R&D in order to remain at the forefront of technology.

Last fiscal year, Siemens researchers and developers turned out around 8,800 inventions - a 7% increase - and applied for patents for two-thirds of them. The company is the largest patent applicant in Germany, is in second place in Europe, and among the top ten in the United States.

Most of Siemens' approximately 47,000 researchers and developers are working on software projects, making the company one of the world's largest software houses. Siemens continues to concentrate on expanding the range of services, solutions and systems that complement its product portfolio.

With over 900,000 shareholders, Siemens is one of the world's largest public corporations. Just over 55 percent of the company's share capital is held outside of Germany. Since March 2001, Siemens shares have also been listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

SIGS-DATACOM is an international and independent company for professionell education in the sector of information technology.

SIGS-DATACOM is one of the leading providers of IT-Seminars for professionell education and conferences e.g. the OOP in Munich, the SET in Zurich and the TDWI-Conferences in Munich and Amsterdam.

SIGS-DATACOM is the official partner of TDWI (The Data Warehousing Institute) and is responsible for all its conferences in Europe. SIGS-DATACOM is the official partner of the OMG (Object Management Group USA) and is responsible for all its conferences and Information Days in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

SIGS-DATACOM is publisher of the IT-journals OBJEKTspektrum, JavaSPEKTRUM and BI-SPEKTRUM. SIGS-DATACOM was founded through the merger of SIGS Conferences GmbH and the DATACOM Akademie GmbH at the beginning of 2001, which were both a member of 101communications.

SIGS-DATACOM offers highly qualified information for software-architects, IT-projectmanagers, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Professionals, Telecommunication Network Professionals and experienced software-engineers and developers.

Globally renowned specialist in object technologies and software components for more than 15 years, voting member of the Object Management Group, SOFTEAM has built a unique products and services offering for accompanying IT Management in the integration of the new software architectures.

Our global offering consists of:

• high level expertise circulated by Consulting and Training
• design and development of applications with the development team
• software engineering with the Objecteering/UML, a modeling workshop and application generator, distributed henceforth by the dedicated subsidiary, Objecteering Software.

Guided by one of the best world experts in objects, SOFTEAM constantly invests in R&D in order to create innovative solutions destined to bring products and services to the market, reduce the costs of development and maximize returns on the investments of its clients. SOFTEAM intervenes in the most important projects in the sectors of Banking, Insurance, Finance, Telecommunications, Services, Defense, ...

Telefónica I+D is the largest private company dedicated to research and development in Spain. Its activities, both national and international, are principally directed at improving the competitiveness of the Telefónica Group, through technological innovation. Thus, it acts as a catalyst around which the most dynamic business activity in advanced telecommunications in our country is carried out.

Since it was founded in March 1988, its results have been directed at creating value for the clients of the Group, developing high-quality  telecommunication products, services and systems. In this way, it helps meet their present needs, and, at the same time, creates innovative solutions in anticipation of future challenges. All of its activities and internal management are based on the employment on the most advanced, competitive concepts and measures.

Its greatest asset is its human resources, and currently its staff is composed of 1,271 technologists and scientists  in the fields of telecommunications and computer science, the average age of the employees is 35 and, on average, they have more than 10 years experience. This makes Telefónica I+D a company mature in its approaches and capacities, and, at the same, time youthful in its creativity and enthusiasm. More than 93 % of its staff hold 5-year university degrees.

Based on the criterion of geographical distribution and client proximity, there are currently four different main offices: Barcelona (2001), Huesca (2004), Madrid (founded in 1988) and Valladolid (1999). In addition, in June 2002, its began to carry out its activities on an international scale with the opening of its subsidiary in Sao Paulo (Brazil), followed by the Mexican branch in 2004.

In the 17 years that have passed since its foundation its activities have been closely linked to the evolution of telecommunications, and the requirements of society in this field. Each year more than 1,000 projects are carried out focused on strengthening landline, mobile, multimedia and interactive telephone services, service and network management systems, operation and business support systems, and innovation. It has, also, made a decisive contribution to the development of broadband/ADSL as well as to Telefónica's Internet services, and has also helped extending and deploying mobile services into new markets, boosting client support systems, making the digital, or intelligent, home a reality, and advancing in the development of the Information Society.

Its activities have generated a considerable number of patents, which has markedly increased the Intellectual and Industrial property of the Telefónica Group.

It has held the ISO 9001 certification (quality) since 1994, and the ISO 14001 (for environmental protection) since 1998. In addition, it has been won numerous prizes and distinctions in recognition of its innovation and excellence. Said prizes and distinctions have been given both to the company, and to many of its members. As regards the company itself, it has held the "Telefónica I+D Award for Innovation" since 1999 - an award that is bestowed for the best research work carried out by students in the last years of their telecommunications or computer science degree courses.

As a R+D center, it collaborates closely with the State universities and is constantly present in the most important fora, congresses and publications, both national and international, on communications. Likewise, it has several technical publications, one of which "Comunicaciones de Telefónica I+D" (Telefónica I+D Communications) is distributed to the most important universities and research centers in the world.