ESA is operating since two years the Service Support Environment (SSE - http://services.eoportal.org), which offers to EO (Earth Observation) Service and Data Providers alike the opportunity to prototype, test and provide simple or orchestrated EO and GIS related services, keeping full control of processes and IPR. SSE as a "neutral" instrument for prototyping and demonstrating services is a unique opportunity for:

• Moving from a "data centric" to a "service centric" vision
• Exploiting a ground segment interface extension tuned for service provision
• Widening business opportunities by
  • Maximising the reuse of previous developments
  • Reducing the investment necessary to test and demonstrate new services
  • Reaching and serving new niche markets with marginal investments
  • Promoting existing and new services through an additional, free-of-charge channel
• Offering richer or demanding services through horizontal cooperation with other service providers by
  • Concentrating own efforts on core business
  • Exploiting the complementary expertise of other service providers
  • Re-using common service elements

The new challenges - in particular set by the GMES perspective - require a much tighter cooperation across European and national initiatives and ESA is currently running projects aimed at integrating new EO services, from multiple sources and providers, into the SSE. A new SSE Invitation To Tender (ITT) for services integration will be published in October (by SPACEBEL on EMITS). In order to maximise the return from this initiative, ESA wishes to invite current and potential Service Providers to a dedicated workshop to draw lessons learnt from previous experiences and prepare the next activities to come.