Consortia-Developed Applications in Industry Ecosystems: Lessons from the Field

This IDC Perspective examines the process for developing industrywide alliances and building shared applications within them by studying the experience of the Catena-X Automotive Network. Formed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the beginning of the global supply chain crisis, this automotive industry alliance has managed to grow and thrive while staying true to its mission to build "a continuous data exchange for all contributors along the automotive value chain." According to Nadia Ballard, research manager for IDC's Industry Cloud and SaaS, "The Catena-X Automotive Network's journey offers valuable lessons for the industries and organizations that may be interested in setting up similar alliances to deliver specialized tools that address the most pressing challenges in their industry. Shared, codeveloped applications are still a relatively new phenomenon; so learning about their benefits, as well as the potential pitfalls along the way from pioneers such as Catena-X, greatly increases your chances for success."