This book is organised into four parts and contains the chapters written by the partners of the BIVEE Project that provide an elaborated view of the project rationale and the achieved results.

The partners of the European BIVEE Project are:

• – Engineering Ingegneria Informatica S.p.A, Italy (Project Coordination);
• – Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy (Scientific Coordination);
• – AIDIMA, Instituto Tecnológico del Mueble, Madera, Embalaje y Afines, Spain;
• – ATOS, Spain S.A.;
• – BIBA – Bremer Instituts für Produktion und Logistik GmbH, Germany;
• – CNR – National Research Council, Italy;
• – BOC Asset Management GmbH, Austria;
• – Loccioni Group, Italy;
• – SRDC – Software Research, Development and Consultancy Ltd.

The consortium also enjoyed the cooperation of City University London in the area of business creativity.

The BIVEE consortium wishes to thank the European Commission, DG Connect, Unit A3, the Project Officer and the reviewers for their continuous attention and the constructive observations that allowed us to constantly improve our work. This has led to a very positive conclusion of the project that has been granted with the Excellence Award.

We hope that this book will be interesting and stimulating, both for researchers and developers, suggesting to them new directions to improve the technological solutions for innovators, and for practitioners, who will be exposed to new opportunities and solutions to engage in the challenging adventure of innovation with a better perspective of success.

We wish to acknowledge the Easy Chair platform for the available portals and services that made the editing of this volume possible.

Michele MISSIKOFF
Massimo CANDUCCI
Neil MAIDEN
June 2015