Proposals
C4FF has been at the cutting-edge of innovation since its foundation in the 1980’s
and was selected for EU funding. The UK Government and European Union have been
supportive of our new and novel approaches in education, training and research with
funding for our developments.
C4FF have an excellent reputation in providing value and developing innovation.
Many of the new ventures in our four sectors require funding from a wide number
of sources, such as the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) in the UK and the 7th Framework
programme by the EU. In the past we have devised and led proposals and bring valuable
experience and expertise to the subject. However we are not seeking to lead a project
at this time. Instead we hope to offer our expertise as a partner on other projects.
A selection of our proposals (past and present) can be seen below.
Choose a division from the list below in order to go to its description and projects.
You can also scroll the page.
CFF Maritime Education Division
The Maritime Education division has many years of experience in developing well
assessed and well documented programmes for the education and training of merchant
navy officers based on the international standards with a view to improving safety
at sea.
This division has many years of experience of high level research in Maritime and
Shipping projects.
Choose a project from the list below in order to go to its description. You can
also scroll the page.
Project proposal: Professional, Industrial, Competence and sKills – UPdating (PICK-UP)
[Project proposal ready for Submission]
Budget: 400,000 Euros
Funding Stream: EU Leonardo Transfer of Innovation Programme
Time Period: 2010 – 2012
PICK-UP concerns the updating of the knowledge, skills and the understanding of
those working in the water transportation sector. The proposal responds to the needs
of the sector for training of employees and employers, paying particular attention
to the training and re-training needs of smaller companies and self-employed.
Due to the nature of the PICK- UP project for skills updating, it was divided into
three parts. In part one, a classification system will be developed grouping
various short course programmes under specific headings, viz., safety, security,
specialised, legal, management and so forth. Through cross-referencing techniques,
developed as part of an earlier European Union (EU) funded project (Eurotecnet and
Force), a matrix table will be produced identifying where these courses are delivered
within the partner countries and later the courses offered in the surrounding countries
would be added to the database, including information such as fees, frequency of
delivery, location and other relevant details. Through a harmonisation plan, the
titles and content of these courses will be examined and a comprehensive set of
training programmes will be developed. Learning materials will be gathered together
and additional materials developed. Other resources (equipment, simulators, software,
charts, manuals, etc) will be incorporated and shared among the partner countries
and will be made available to other European Union member states as part of the
intended valorisation.
The second part of the project concerns sharing of resources and value added activities
manifested in jointly planned and/or joint delivery of these courses, providing
a golden opportunity for training the trainers, in an efficient and effective manner.
The third part relates to the development of specific training and re-training courses
on newly emerging requirements, particularly relating to national and international
conventions and security requirements, specifically those introduced after 9/11,
for instance, requirements of USA coastguards or specific ports relating to security.
The project provides an opportunity for partners to recognize each others’ certificates.
This is an important objective of the project.
To ensure these developments are successful, it is proposed to establish a network
of partners including the relevant authorities to ensure these programmes receive
the support needed. The work will commence with the review of an existing needs
analysis report and identification of urgent short courses which will incorporate
the latest requirements of bodies such as the International Maritime Organisation
(IMO). There will be a training programme with support from partners for
the trainers and their certification in line with European vocational qualifications
for trainers/assessors and those who will be involved with internal and external
examinations. It is agreed that a serious attention will be paid to provision of
pathways, through ‘integrated short course programme’, to technician qualifications
and also through existing routes to higher qualifications. The reason for this is
the anticipated shortages of qualified seafarers in the near future.
Partners: C4FF, TUDEV, Glasgow College of Nautical Science, Blackpool Fylde
College, Tromso University College, FIMS, DIMS with others partners also being considered.
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Project proposal: HELping english Language develOpment in Shipping and mAritime
Industries Leading tO impRoved safety (HELLO SAILOR)
[Project proposal ready for Submission]
Budget: 400,000 Euros
Funding Stream: EU Leonardo Transfer of Innovation Programme
Time Period: 2010 – 2012
This is a Language Competency project to improve the Maritime English language skills
of:
- young people aged 14-18 years old wishing to enter the Merchant Navy as Lycee/lise
cadets,
- those embarking on a career as Merchant Navy Officers and ratings, and
- those working on board vessels and at ports seeking to update their knowledge, skills
and understanding of Maritime English.
The project outcome will incorporate the development of a series of English (foundation
and maritime) language training modules at lycee/lise level at one of the partner
centres and a similar, but one-year programme at another maritime centre involved
with the education and training of merchant navy officers including all ranks.
For the latter, the English tuition would concentrate on three levels of proficiency:
Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced simultaneously. All levels would concentrate
on active skills i.e. Speaking, Comprehension and Writing. The content would be
based on maritime terminology. For the former, in the first two years the focus
would be on all skills with more emphasis of grammar. The next two years would concentrate
on the application of maritime English.
All courses would lead to vocational qualification recognised internationally. The
trainees would also become aware of the latest changes to rules and regulations
in the maritime industry commensurate with their ranking.
The project was developed by several industrial and education/training organisations
in Turkey, the UK and Norway. The project manager at the co-ordinating (technical)
organisation has substantial experience of instigating and implementing EU/European
funded projects. Representatives of Contracting and Coordinating organisations have
already visited all partners and had at least on two occasions met the other partners.
Partners: C4FF, TUDEV, Glasgow College of Nautical Science, Blackpool Fylde
College, Tromso University College, FIMS, DIMS with others partners also being considered.
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CFF Hybrid Vehicles Division
This division was formed recently to support Professor Ziarati and his project teams.
Professor Ziarati is the designer of the Sliding Plug and Zip Fastener Variable
Geometry Turbochargers which has contributed significantly to the growing popularity
of diesel engines. Professor Ziarati proposed a hybrid car and a hybrid bus in early
1990s and was awarded the McKenzie Junner Technical Award for his Paper on Design
and Use of Hybrid Vehicles. He was also awarded the IRTE’s National Diploma for
his National Lecture on design of hybrid vehicles. He was the initiator of the Clean
Diesel Project which was part of a major EU funded non-nuclear programme
of research led by Lloyd’s Register of Shipping and over 8 major academic and industrial
partners from several EU member countries. The following is the first programme
of research which is expected to be the foundation for the proposed Clean Diesel
II and many other projects. Professor Ziarati’s team are currently working
on a combustion model and an original engine management system.
Choose a project from the list below in order to go to its description. You can
also scroll the page.
Project proposal: Clean Diesel II - design and development of a hybrid engine using
bio diesel and self generating electric power unit
[Project under consideration – and – seeking involvement in similar project]
Budget: £1.6 Million
Possible Funding Stream: Collaborative Research and Development as part of the Technology
Strategy Board (TSB) previously run by the UK Government’s DTI/BERR department in
conjunction with the UK Government’s Ministry of Defence / EU Seventh Framework
Programme
Time Period: 2011 - 2014
The project aims to develop an experimental computer model for diesel engines burning
bio-diesel with substantially reduced emissions. A test rig for a diesel
engine will be developed using a range of tools as well as two innovative means
of reducing emissions particularly Nox in diesel burning bio-diesel.
This project’s design and development of a hybrid engine is a continuation of an
earlier and successful EU non-nuclear research project known as Clean Diesel. This
earlier project led to the design of several hybrid vehicles, an original engine
management system and innovative engine component systems such as variable geometry
turbochargers and application of a new fuel injection system as well as a water
injection system. The variable geometry turbocharger system went into limited production
by Cummins in 1992 and shortly followed by several manufacturers. The management
system was adopted by Lloyds Register and now is being use by several companies.
The hybrid versions have been the core of several EU funded projects.
A paper was produced based on this dynamic project which was selected as the Best
Paper and awarded the Mckenzie Junner Technical Prize by IRTE in 1995 and the National
Lecture given by its author selected as the Best National Lecture. He was also awarded
the National Diploma by the same Institute. The monetary prize by IRTE was given
to British Cancer Foundation.
Considering the success of the first project it is expected that this project like
its predecessor would lead to several important mile stones and would lead to a
viable hybrid bio diesel power unit for application in a range of engines.
The development of reliable and cost effective fuel supply chains such as bio-diesel
requires an investigation into the viability of such a fuel for the short, medium
and long term. The recent tests in using bio-diesel in engines have shown that while
the fuel may be a viable means of powering diesel engines of various shapes and
sizes in medium term, it has a major drawback viz., increase Nox levels, which if
it is to be reduced sufficiently requires a serious programme of research. The long
term use of such a fuel would depend on success in reducing the increased Nox emissions
and a serious attempt by many governments to encourage and support the necessary
incentives for agricultural land to be made available by the owners for production
of bio crops in order to sustain the demand for such a desirable fuel in the foreseeable
future. It is hoped that the project could reduce the emission of greenhouse gases
such as CO2 with beneficial impact on the emission of other pollutants.
The proposed research would improve the understanding of how bio-diesel behave in
combustion of diesel engine and its impact on reliability, maintenance and performance
of these power units and their main component such as fuel injection system and
so forth.
It should be noted that there have been many projects concerning design and development
of diesel engine mathematical models and almost equal numbers on diesel engine test
rig design and development for performance calculations.
In recent months, Marine Education, which is a partnership of several education
and research institutions as well as several commercial, professional and awarding
organisations, has initiated a research programme of work to continue a project
that was concluded as part of a major European Union initiative lead by Lloyds Register
of Shipping. The project was entitled ‘Clean Diesel’ and lead by Professor
Ziarati then the Head of Engineering at Southampton Institute, UK.
Two mathematical models were developed and later several papers were published by
the project team in parallel engine tests, rig were either developed or reconfigured
in several institutions across Europe. The theoretical and experimental work made
use of earlier work within Europe specifically the UK Combustion Group; this in
particular included the outcome of experimental work on the Paxman engine at Newcastle
University and the Atlas engine at Ricardo, Brighton, UK. The later work also included
the theoretical and experimental work on an actual ship on a large marine diesel
marine.
The intension is to continue theoretical and experimental work carried out so far
and establish a national team to re-develop the software suites developed as part
of previous Clean Diesel project and reconfigure an existing engine rig.
The proposed programme of research facilitates partners each with specific areas
of expertise to work together and share data, and through the internet to see one
another’s actual work.
It is expected that initial partnership will expand and include the leading members
of the previous Clean Diesel project group and the group would develop a
new proposal for consideration under the Framework 7.
Partners: Coventry University, De Montfort University, Centre for Factories
of the Future, Piri Reis University and several major industrial organisations
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Project proposal: SmartCity System
[Project under consideration – and – seeking involvement in similar project]
Budget: £2 million
Possible Funding Stream: Regional Development Funding / EU Seventh Framework Programme
Time Period: 2011 - 2014
The SmartCity System projects’ central focus is creating an innovative, clean
and sustainable method of city transportation regulation and control. The project
aims to produce a system that simultaneously reduces harmful carbon emissions
while managing city centre traffic more efficiently.
The central technological pillar of the project is the growth and development of
mobile and wireless technologies. We intend to apply the principles of mobile advancement
to the problems confronting city traffic congestion today, through the use of Mobile
tracking solutions. Placed within taxis and buses, mobiles trackers
can help establish a more accurate and reliable model of city traffic flows. The
technology also exists to offer up-to-date bus or tram timetables via mobile technological
means, thus providing commuters with the ability to plan their internal city journeys
with greater efficiency, reduce unnecessary overcrowding of public transport.
C4FF has for some year been involved in the development of new hybrid diesel
engines, which we believe will of invaluable benefit to the project. Through
the combined application of mobile and wireless technology, we believe that the
introduction of cleaner, lower emission vehicle engines will play an important role
within the SmartCity System.
Additionally using knowledge attainted during an earlier involvement with the "Clean
City of Bath" project, C4FF aims to integrate emission measuring
devices in the city and facilitate communication with public transport, providing
different and often shorter public transport routes, avoiding areas of high pollution,
and therefore reducing the level of pollutants in existing pollution black-spots.
Finally C4FF hopes to develop and expand a system of Bus Route SmartCards.
The principle of which is that commuters waiting at bus stops can push a button,
which would notify a bus driver of the number of people waiting at any given bus
stop. If there was no one there then the bus could create an alternative route that
would be short and more efficient.
Partners: C4FF in collaboration with a number of EU-based organisations.
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CFF Business Intelligence Division
The company is involved in the Business and Market Intelligence processes
by studying the supply chain to search for the relevant information about a company’s
markets for the purpose of accurate and confident decision-making in determining
market opportunities by using a variety of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)
Techniques for Data Analysis.
The business intelligence division has many years of experience in this field with
the senior management team very much involved in developing new and innovative Artificial
Intelligence (A.I.) techniques primarily with the use of neural networks.
Choose a project from the list below in order to go to its description. You can
also scroll the page.
Project proposal: Development of Artificial Novel Neural Network Models for application
in Advanced and High Value Manufacturing
[Project proposal ready for Submission]
Budget: £950,000
Possible Funding Stream: Collaborative Research and Development as part of the Technology
Strategy Board (TSB) previously run by the UK Government’s DTI/BERR department
Time Period: 2010-2013
Project Details:
The project concerns the development of pull system for application in the advance
and high value manufacturing industry. The model under consideration uses innovative
A.I. forecasting techniques to predict the demand and based on this information
it develops a streamlined manufacturing process for maximum effectiveness and efficiency.
A consortium is formed and the initial research has commenced.
Partners: C4FF and 5 major companies and one university.
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Project proposal: Application of Neural and Expert Systems in Capacity Requirement
and Ship Building
[Project under consideration – and – seeking involvement in similar project]
Budget: £1.5 Million
Possible Funding Stream: Collaborative Research and Development as part of the Technology
Strategy Board (TSB) previously run by the UK Government’s DTI/BERR department in
conjunction with the UK Government’s Ministry of Defence / EU Seventh Framework
Programme
Time Period: 2010-2013
Transport by sea is growing rapidly and is fast becoming the safest and most efficient
mode for the transfer of goods and services. Furthermore the emergence of China
and India as economic powers has witnessed the growth of competition amongst the
commercial shipping sector.
An opportunity has arisen to use dynamic new tools to predict capacity requirement
and apply neural and expert systems to build ships at a minimised cost.
An activity based costing system would be adapted and ship construction process
would consider maintenance requirements as well as the dismantling arrangements.
Safety issues would be incorporated in the design phase. The project would involve
importing knowledge, cognitive and learning systems, simulation and visualisation
techniques as well as technology enhanced learning, adaptive and active learning.
Dismantling would be a corner stone of the intended areas for particular attention
and recycling of dismantled components would be a priority area in the knowledge
solicitation of the intended expert system.
Partners: C4FF in collaboration with over 10 other EU based organisations.
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Project proposal: MobDiMa, Mobile Direct Marketing
[Project under consideration – and – seeking involvement in similar project]
Budget: 1.3 million Euros
Possible Funding Stream: Eureka
Time Period: 2010 - 2012
The project proposed focuses on the development of Mobile Direct Marketing (MobDiMa),
which will make direct marketing activities more accessible and convenient for market
researchers.
Through the use of mobile communication technology the aim of the project
is to develop an IT solution that will successfully replace paper & pen technology
currently used by market-researchers. At present street based market-researchers
use primarily a pen and paper to record their immediate findings, this project will
seek to replace pen and paper with specially adapted mobile phones, which
will improve data collection and storage ability.
The mobile phones will have a special application installed, which will be used
by researchers collecting survey results. Web-based servers will then be used to
store data over the mobile network and will make the results available on the internet
to assist market research specialists to manage survey data, build demographic structure
definitions, and browse results. Therefore the mobile technology platform will aid
in the accurate attainment of market research and provide the results instantaneously,
and in a cost effective manner.
Because mobile communication technology is new and evolving, it is at the
beginning of being developed for marketing activities. Therefore at present there
is no comparable competition. Our competitors offer different approaches
that are all based on older technologies and equipment, and remain largely unsuccessful.
The technological feasibility of MobDiMa has been proven in the pilot project,
and major problems in the implementation are not expected. The pilot project was
tested on real marketing activity and testing customers were very satisfied. Therefore
the project is ready for a practical execution.
Partners: AdaptA, C4FF and 6 other major companies.
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Academic Research Area: Supply and Demand in Shipping Market Using Intelligent Neural
Networks
Over 95% of the worlds’ total cargo is transported by ship. Therefore the shipping
industry plays an overwhelming role in the transportation of goods, including everything
from food supplies to fuels. It is also true that the shipping industry
is a major player in today’s world economy. The globalisation of ship building has
given the shipping industry another important role as it now has a major effect
on the end price of that 95% of the goods transported worldwide, which makes the
forecasting in the shipping industry increasingly important.
The studies which explore the effects of supply and demand for various types of
vessels in the market have shown historically that there is a strong correlation
between world seaborne trade and total world cargo fleet. In this study
an attempt has been made to forecast the total dry bulk fleet. However, there is
no reason why other types of cargo should not have been considered.
There are many forecasting techniques but the research reported here has shown that
the neural network method is most accurate and is the most commonly used technique
in forecasting demand.
This research offers a new approach in the application of neural networks in forecasting
demand. The approach adopted here not only relies on past data to predict future
demand but also takes into consideration several factors as independent and dependent
variable inputs in forecasting demand for world bulk fleet in the future. What is
also unique in this case is that there is a validation signal which gives a means
to assess the reliability of the predicted demand.
Partners: C4FF, De Montfort University, UK, Piri Reis Univesity, TR and Baben
Taşımacılık İnşaat Taahhüt ve Ticaret Limited
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Research Area: Application of Novel Artificial Intelligent Techniques in Ship Building
Using Activity Based Costing and Neural Networks
This research concerns with the development of an Activity Based Costing (ABC)
system for application in SMEs in the shipping building industry. It represents
a review of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and practices and their
application in ABC particularly in determining costs more accurately. The ultimate
aim of this work is to design and develop a costing model using either a Knowledge
Based System (KBS) and/or a Neural Network (NN).
In the previous work, a neural network was designed and tested for estimating the
cost of the activities and the hours of the activities in the shipping industry,
by considering the ship parameters such as length of the ships, width, tonnage,
etc. Multi-layered feed forward neural network trained by back-propagation algorithm
was used in that work. Its results encouraged the research team to develop a new
neural network model for representing ABC in designing and costing of ship building
activities and processes.
In this research, a new neural network model was configured for establishing the
relationship between the cost of the activities and the indirect costs. The new
neural network model is a multi-layered, feed forward neural network. The output
layer gives the indirect costs. The proposed neural network has been trained using
back-propagation training algorithm. It has been trained by using vast amounts of
data of different ships with a view to design new ships.
Partners: C4FF, De Montfort University, UK, Piri Reis University, TR and
Furtran Ltd and Adiks Ltd
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Research Area: Activity Based Costing for Small and Medium sized Maritime Enterprises
in Turkey
The research aims to investigate the needs for costing systems for SMEs in
the maritime sector in Turkey. The research will design, develop and test a generic
costing system which is capable of associating costs and margins with products,
processes and customers.
Partners: C4FF and De Montfort University
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Research Area: Sustaining competitive advantage through co-operative decision making
The research will study competitive advantage and how it can be sustained through
co-operative decision making processes and case studies of several businesses.
This will involve exploring the reasons family businesses tend not to be competitive
and as to why they go out of business after a few generations. The next stage will
be the development of a checklist as a basis for constructing a model for family
businesses in shipping industry, in particular in Turkey with a view to
help them to remain competitive for generations to come.
Partners: C4FF, De Montfort University and Kaptanoglu Holdings
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CFF Automation Division
The Automation Division was and is the foundation of the other three divisions within
the CFF. It has a history of prestigious association with leading companies in automation
arena. It has been involved in establishing and supporting the development of many
factory of the future centres in the UK, other parts of EU and recently in Turkey
with much funding from the UK Government bodies and European Union.
The Division is currently working on the next generation of wireless factories particularly
focusing on Artificial Intelligence solutions with CFF’s AI Division.
Choose a project from the list below in order to go to its description. You can
also scroll the page.
Project proposal: Responsiveness in Ship Building (RiSB) - an investigation into
the design, manufacturing and management processes considering modern lean and total
quality principles to improve demand and capacity forecasting for merchant navy
vessels.
[Project under consideration – and – seeking involvement in similar project]
Budget: £1.2 Million
Possible Funding Stream: Collaborative Research and Development as part of the Technology
Strategy Board (TSB) previously run by the UK Government’s DTI/BERR department in
conjunction with the UK Government’s Ministry of Defence / EU Seventh Framework
Programme
Time Period: 2010 - 2013
The initial aim of the investigation in the maritime sector concerned how small
and medium manufacturing enterprises manage their design and manufacture processes.
This would lead to the development of an improved manufacturing management system
using modern lean and total quality principles that are capable of reacting responsively
to changes in the competitive global market place. The end point of the
project involves the development of an improved demand and capacity forecasting
of merchant navy vessels
Partners: C4FF, De Montfort University and six organisations
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Project proposal: SmartCity System
[Project under consideration – and – seeking involvement in similar project]
Budget: £2 million
Possible Funding Stream: Regional Development Funding / EU Seventh Framework Programme
Time Period: 2011 - 2014
The SmartCity System projects’ central focus is creating an innovative, clean
and sustainable method of city transportation regulation and control. The project
aims to produce a system that simultaneously reduces harmful carbon emissions
while managing city centre traffic more efficiently.
The central technological pillar of the project is the growth and development of
mobile and wireless technologies. We intend to apply the principles of mobile advancement
to the problems confronting city traffic congestion today, through the use of Mobile
tracking solutions. Placed within taxis and buses, mobiles trackers
can help establish a more accurate and reliable model of city traffic flows. The
technology also exists to offer up-to-date bus or tram timetables via mobile technological
means, thus providing commuters with the ability to plan their internal city journeys
with greater efficiency, reduce unnecessary overcrowding of public transport.
C4FF has for some year been involved in the development of new hybrid diesel
engines, which we believe will of invaluable benefit to the project. Through
the combined application of mobile and wireless technology, we believe that the
introduction of cleaner, lower emission vehicle engines will play an important role
within the SmartCity System.
Additionally using knowledge attainted during an earlier involvement with the "Clean
City of Bath" project, C4FF aims to integrate emission measuring
devices in the city and facilitate communication with public transport, providing
different and often shorter public transport routes, avoiding areas of high pollution,
and therefore reducing the level of pollutants in existing pollution black-spots.
Finally C4FF hopes to develop and expand a system of Bus Route SmartCards.
The principle of which is that commuters waiting at bus stops can push a button,
which would notify a bus driver of the number of people waiting at any given bus
stop. If there was no one there then the bus could create an alternative route that
would be short and more efficient.
Partners: C4FF in collaboration with a number of EU-based organisations.
top
Project proposal: MobDiMa, Mobile Direct Marketing
[Project under consideration – and – seeking involvement in similar project]
Budget: 1.3 million Euros
Possible Funding Stream: Eureka
Time Period: 2010 - 2012
The project proposed focuses on the development of Mobile Direct Marketing (MobDiMa),
which will make direct marketing activities more accessible and convenient for market
researchers.
Through the use of mobile communication technology the aim of the project
is to develop an IT solution that will successfully replace paper & pen technology
currently used by market-researchers. At present street based market-researchers
use primarily a pen and paper to record their immediate findings, this project will
seek to replace pen and paper with specially adapted mobile phones, which
will improve data collection and storage ability.
The mobile phones will have a special application installed, which will be used
by researchers collecting survey results. Web-based servers will then be used to
store data over the mobile network and will make the results available on the internet
to assist market research specialists to manage survey data, build demographic structure
definitions, and browse results. Therefore the mobile technology platform will aid
in the accurate attainment of market research and provide the results instantaneously,
and in a cost effective manner.
Because mobile communication technology is new and evolving, it is at the
beginning of being developed for marketing activities. Therefore at present there
is no comparable competition. Our competitors offer different approaches
that are all based on older technologies and equipment, and remain largely unsuccessful.
The technological feasibility of MobDiMa has been proven in the pilot project,
and major problems in the implementation are not expected. The pilot project was
tested on real marketing activity and testing customers were very satisfied. Therefore
the project is ready for a practical execution.
Partners: AdaptA, C4FF and 6 other major companies.
top