Introduction

The notion of an intelligent product places suitability for integration firmly on the research agenda. Indeed, this paradigm aims for coordination and integration on a scale that is unseen until today. Note that this applies particularly where it concerns the core businesses of companies. For that reason, a novel concept, the intelligent being, is presented as a vehicle to achieve suitability for integration. The concept is applied to intelligent product instances, intelligent product types and intelligent resources alike.

The following questions are discussed:

• which services and functionalities can be offered by intelligent beings

• what are suitable candidate intelligent beings, and what are not.