Danish Technological Institute (DTI), Denmark.

Role: Coordinating Contractor, WP Leader for WP 1 (methodology and design), WP 5 (knowledge base development), WP 6 (tools development), WP 7 (knowledge base population and tools testing) and WP 11 (project management).
DTI is an independent, not-for-profit large technology service institution which already works extensively in consulting and supporting Danish and European companies and organisations in all aspects (technical, organisational and human) of the domains covered by BEEP. DTI has been developing over the last 5 years its own best practice and benchmarking services which became the world's first made available on the WWW: http://www.benchmarking.dti.dk. This is the Danish clearing house, which is now being made available in English, covering business processes, management and human resources, and which will form one model for BEEP's on-line services.

RAND Europe (RAND), the Netherlands.

Role: WP Leader for WP 2 (case resource selection), WP 8 (knowledge base interrogation).
RAND's mission, as a large international consulting foundation, is to provide independent, high quality policy analysis for public and private sector decision-makers. The foundation provides its clients with multidisciplinary and innovative approaches characterised by considerable methodological and technical depth. RAND's parent company is based in the USA, and this gives the foundation significant international experience and reach.

Martech International (Martech), Belgium.

Role: WP Leader for WP 9 (service development and dissemination).
Martech is a micro enterprise actively engaged in consulting and supporting clients of all sizes in eWork and eCommerce. Its core competencies include awareness (e.g. organising conferences and workshops, dissemination of results and editing regular newsletters), consultancy services (e.g. recent studies for the European Parliament on Electronic Commerce in Europe and the final report for the G8 pilot project that was held in Dallas in April 1999), and communications services (e.g. web and ICT technical support and paper or online support for seminars and/or training).

Telefónica Investigación y Desarrollo (TID), Spain.

Role: WP Leader for WP 10 (assessment and evaluation).
TID is a subsidiary of the main telecoms carrier and IST service provider in Spain, and a supplier of consultancy services to the parent company where it functions as a services creation lab. TID's work with services creation builds upon telephony, interactive, mobile, media, web services and web-based databases, and the public use of IST. It also has expertise in network and services management, using solutions based on the latest TMN standards, and in network innovation, with the purpose of supporting Telefónica in its effort to offer the widest possible range of services. TID also has a Human Factors Research Group and extensive expertise in usability, user interfaces, user trials, socio-economic impact assessment, etc, and has worked on many European projects.

Nomisma, Italy

Role: WP Leader for WP 4 (case study updating and coding).
Nomisma is an economic research and policy advice institute carrying out consultancy and technical assistance activities at the international, national and local levels. The institute focuses upon economic, policy and socio-economic impact of ICTs, paying particular attention to the role and behaviour of SMEs and on the role and behaviour of the innovation and technology transfer agencies and industry associations. Nomisma works on many European projects as well as with other international agencies throughout the EU, Central and Eastern Europe, the former USSR, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Empirica, Germany

Role: WP Leader for WP 3 (indicator specification).
Empirica is an SME heavily involved in socio-economic analysis and consultancy in eWork and eCommerce, which has already started to develop benchmarking services based on European projects in Germany and Europe. The Empirica Group draws on a wide mix of disciplines, both human and technical, and has a wide portfolio of German, European and international clients. An important competence developed by Empirica over the last 10 years has been in large scale survey work and analysis

New Accession State Partners .

Institute of Economics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - BAS

The Institute is pioneer in investigation, education and training in selected areas of the proposed topic.

IEBASNetU Consultants - NETU

NetU Consultants Limited is a leading Information Technology solutions and services company based in Cyprus. It provides high quality business solutions and services through the use of appropriate technologies and the deployment of skilled professional staff across all industry sectors including government, health, education and commercial. Focusing primarily in the E.M.E.A region NetU currently provides services to companies in 26 countries, ranging from the development of mission-critical systems deployed throughout the world using Internet technologies, to the implementation and support of horizontal business applications on a site-by-site basis. Currently it employs 70 employees and has offices in Greece.NetU specialises in the core areas of Consultancy, Systems Integration, Software Development, Education (Training) and Support. It has consultancy experience in a wide spectrum of fields including Project Management, Systems Specification, Networking, Office Automation and Process Re-engineering, all of which are used as the stepping stone for providing complete integrated solutions combining software, hardware and networking capabilities.

Czech University of Agriculture - Faculty of Economics and Management - CUA-FEM

The Czech Agricultural University in Prague is a leading educational centre in the agrarian sector in the Czech Republic.

Four faculties 1. Economics and Management, 2. Agronomy, 3. Technical, 4. Forestry, and the Institute of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture offer bachelor, master and doctoral education for more than 8 500 students both in regular and part-time study. Curricula as well as research strategies are developed in collaboration with the Czech and foreign universities, namely in Vienna, Berlin, Zurich, Wageningen, Uppsala, Cork, Plymouth, Coppenhagen, Montpeliere, Dijon, Athens, etc. About 600 of pedagogic and scientific staff and technicians are involved in many educational and research activities. Faculties and departments of the University are involved in many projects concerning rural development, ecology and sustainable development in all areas of agriculture and corresponding industries.

Vocational training as well as adult and lifelong education are stressed in the long term educational strategy of the University.The Faculty of Economics and Management of the Czech University of Agriculture educates specialists for the management of technological processes in agriculture and the wider economy for managers, economists specialized in finance, banking, insurance, informatics, business, trade, and in other services. In its research and advisory work the faculty focuses at the needs of the agrarian sector of the Czech Republic in the whole range of business activities, as well as with the wider economy and both public and private sectors.

TREBAG Property and Project Management Ltd. - TREBAG

TREBAG Property and Project Management Ltd. (TREBAG Ltd.) was established in 1989 and is a member of he TREBAG management consultancy group active mainly in Germany. The activities of TREBAG have a multidisciplinary character ranging from project foundation to the implementation of results and dissemination. The scope of these activities includes:

• management consultancy,
  
• quality management consultancy,
  
• research and development related to electronic commerce,
  
• dissemination and demonstration activities,
  
• implementation of technology transfer and innovation chain management and
  
• organization and management of various R&D projects.
  

Vilnius Gediminas Technical University - VGTU

The Business Technologies Department of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University is made up of 22 research and pedagogical staff, including 2 professors, 2 associate professors, 7 assistants, 4 part time professors and assistants. There are 3 doctoral students and 4 technical employees.

The main priorities on research work:

1. Information management and information technologies establishing in the business and public structures in Lithuania and other East European countries
   
2. Problems of innovation and marketing management (aspects of information technologies and international markets development).

ASM - Market Research and Analysis Centre - ASM

ASM is a privately owned Polish consulting firm founded in 1996, and specialised in the wide range of market and social surveys. The main research area cover: public sector agencies, community-based organisations, large and medium-sized manufacturing.

Type of surveys include:

• socio-economic analyse of individuals and groups needs, motivations, behavioural patterns, attitudes into new technologies, etc.;
  
• decision making process including: customers, public decision makers, managers, and other targeted groups of public;
  
• market analysis, segmentation, demand, shares, brand awareness (size, capacity, absorptive power, forecasts)
  
• customers satisfaction research (CSI), including groups of: end users, key managers, citizens, etc.
  
• testing new or existing products/packaging (Focus Groups Interview)
  

Centre for Urban and Regional Sociology -- CURS-SA

The Center for Urban and Regional Sociology (CURS) is a private social research and marketing agency. Among its clients there are governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Research activities are carried on within four departments

• Urban and Regional Research, communities' development
  
• Marketing Research
  
• Public Opinion Polling
  
• Advertising and Audience ResearchIssues of interest
  

Technical University of Košice -- TUK

The Faculty of Economics of the Technical University of Košice was established in 1992 and is one of the youngest faculties of the University. The Faculty was established with the aim to satisfy educational needs implied by ongoing transformation process in the Slovak Republic - especially in the area of finances, investments and banking and business sector. At present the Faculty has more than 800 full time and part time students in the study branch finance, banking and investments, but the number of applicants to the Faculty exceeds in order its capacity. International activities are gradually growing and enriching educational and research activities.

Faculty academic staff members carry out research in the following areas:

• Slovak economy in the transformation process, its economic and legal aspects
  
• Electronic commerce
  
• Socio-economics implications of ICT application
  
• Corporate finance, tax and taxation
  
• Marketing communication, management, modelling and optimisation of economic processes
  
• Financial mathematics.
  

A.L.P. PECA d.o.o. - ALP PECA

Local development organisation A.L.P. PECA was established as Community Partnership Company, operating in the following fields of operation: Business Support Centre, Human Resource Development, Tourism Development Centre and Rural development Centre. Within these fields of operations more than 10 projects are carried out on the national and international level.Since 2000 A.L.P. PECA has a status of Regional Development Agency.A.L.P. PECA has excellent and close working relations with the new eMinistry set up in Slovenia in March 2001, and has already begun to examine eGovernment issues and strategies as part of both its regional development and public service activities.