The membership fee structure calls for fees to be paid by all Members, individual, academic and corporate members alike, but with different fees according to each category of Members. Fees recovered from Members is the main source of income with labelling fees coming second. The possibility to develop the labelling activity is linked to the availability of a fully operational Tester Suite and to a freeze in the CAPE-OPEN specifications.
In terms of membership, resources for 2001 are expected around 131 k€ with 10 strategic end-user organizations joining CO-LaN. Resources from labelling are expected at 15 k€ while this level of income is considered as overly optimistic.
In terms of expenses, making CO-LaN better known is seen as a priority so dissemination activities represent 42 k€ while development activities, including buying software and hardware tools necessary represent 68 k€ and adminustrative overhead is kept low at 2 k€.
Regarding dissemination, a list of conferences to be attended has been drafted such as ICheaP-5, ECCE-3, 6th World Congress of Chemical Engineering, etc… A graphical charter for CO-LaN and website design are the other dissemination expenses. In terms of development expenses, there is a need to develop the CAPE-OPEN Tester Suite in order to make it cover the entire spectrum of interface specifications. There is also a need to develop a repository of CAPE-OPEN specifications.
Looking ahead, the target is to double the CO-LaN membership in 5 years while keeping the founding Members within the organization. Labelling will accompany the development of a market for PMCs and PMEs. Revenues from labelling are expected to represent one third of CO-LaN revenues. CO-LaN recognizes the need to deliver highly professional services and this can be achieved by contracting specialized organizations for that purpose. Services will be centered on specification development and maintenance, on testing software development, on compliance testing and on dissemination.