Is a large-scale field operational test the missing link for commercial success and deployment of co-operative systems?

CVIS, Safespot and COOPERS - the three IPs on co-operative services and integrated systems in Europe´s Framework Programme 6 - have successfully accomplished significant progress in terms of sounding-out what is technologically feasible and valued by selected European drivers. In a next step, EC has successfully called for large-scale FOTs on co-operative services. However, the concept of a large-scale field operational test on co-operative services is not only a new project-type within European telematics research and deployment but is itself an instrument for setting the scene and lobbying for specific stakeholders´ interests. The resulting concept-space for field operational tests is however not yet entirely clear. The purpose of this paper is to draw a landscape of what is out there in terms of competing concepts for field operational tests in order to make large-scale FOTs on co-operative services an attractive work environment for the best key individuals - who are currently rather shying away or on inner retreats. This is highly important and claimed to be the key question on marketing co-operative services in the years to come. We first describe the situation in Europe from a strategic gap analysis - the perspective of Geoffrey Moore´s concept of “inside the tornado” or in more general terms from a diffusion-of-innovation-theory point of view. We then discuss different stakeholder groups´ emerging strategies to shape and influence the concept of field operational tests for co-operative services and systems. Given the limited space we present six rather different concepts on how a field operational test obviously is seen. From a discussion of these different approaches we prepare the ground for condensing the perspective on what is helpful or more helpful for cooperative systems from a take-up and deployment perspective. We elaborate on a first SWOT analysis of the given European status quo.