## 2 State-of-the-Art
### Platform Ecosystems
#### 2.5.2 Market-Side Platforms and Services  
As described in Section 2.2, intermediary entities are of increasing importance for companies. However, not only third-party energy suppliers and aggregators are commissioned. Service providers, e.g., decision support or forecasts, are also at the focus of increasing attention. Companies are focusing on their core business, and thus, on-site support processes are increasingly outsourced to third parties [72]. Additional reasons for outsourcing are the reduction and control of costs, risk minimization, and benefits from the best practice of others. For energy procurement, plenty of decision support service providers offer a wide range of software solutions. These range from electricity market forecasts to solutions for manufacturing planning optimization, taking into consideration different horizons of electricity market prices. Such service providers are, for example, Kisters ([[https://www.kisters.de/en](https://www.kisters.de/en)]([https://www.kisters.de/en](https://www.kisters.de/en))), N-SIDE ([[https://www.n-side.com](https://www.n-side.com)]([https://www.n-side.com](https://www.n-side.com))), DNV-GL ([[https://www.dnvgl.com/power-renewables/services/index.html](https://www.dnvgl.com/power-renewables/services/index.html)]([https://www.dnvgl.com/power-renewables/services/index.html](https://www.dnvgl.com/power-renewables/services/index.html))), Software AG ([[https://www.softwareag.com](https://www.softwareag.com)]([https://www.softwareag.com](https://www.softwareag.com))), and Siemens Industry Services ([[https://www.industrysiemens.com/services](https://www.industrysiemens.com/services)]([https://www.industrysiemens.com/services](https://www.industrysiemens.com/services))). These services are usually limited to decision support and do not interact with markets. Following the process of optimization, a company can generally market the flexibility on its own or via an intermediary, such as a direct marketer or an aggregator [73]. Aggregators provide comprehensive solutions, incorporating energy supply contracts, optimization of manufacturing flexibilities, and the final trading of the same. Examples include Next Kraftwerke ([[https://www.next-kraftwerke.de](https://www.next-kraftwerke.de)]([https://www.next-kraftwerke.de](https://www.next-kraftwerke.de))) and e2m ([[https://www.e2m.energy](https://www.e2m.energy)]([https://www.e2m.energy](https://www.e2m.energy))). These solutions build on current market designs and scarcely integrate new potential flexibility markets, such as local flexibility markets. Moreover, the solutions provided with regard to the interfaces, data models, and processes used for communication between the company and aggregators are not standardized. For this reason, public projects are aiming to establish reference frameworks, which deliver a common standard for systems to ensure interoperability for flexibility trading and integrating all potential flexibility customers. Several publicly-funded research projects are focused on developing open source flexibility platform solutions in order to standardize the processes and protocols for flexibility usage, including DR in the commercial and residential sector. For example, the non-profit organization USEF ([[https://www.usef.energy](https://www.usef.energy)]([https://www.usef.energy](https://www.usef.energy))) developed an open standard for transparent communication procedures fitting on top of most energy market models, extending existing processes to offer the integration of both new and existing energy markets. It is designed to make flexible energy a tradeable commodity. Thus, its focus lies on the marketing processes for potential customers, such as system operators and balance responsible parties after the flexibility was identified.