The COMETS project set out to create a generic cost model for Trusted Third Parties. After eight months' work in the course of 1998, the output includes a Microsoft Excel workbook, which automatically produces a business plan for five different logical components of a Public Key Infrastructure, combined into a user-selectable set of business units. The business plan takes the form of worksheets in the Excel environment, with data based on the research carried out by the project. However, the worksheets can be modified by the user to fit existing data, either using the custom COMETS menu, or by directly manipulating the worksheets. In this way, the workbook application provides a flexible tool for users to create their own business plans.

You can download the COMETS workbook application v. 1.0 plus the manual (in Microsoft Word format) from here. It requires Microsoft Windows '95 plus Excel '97 and Word '97.

Cometsv10.zip (375 kB)

You can see a sample of the output from the COMETS application, edited for HTML, if you click here (45 kB).

In this project, we worked with our partners Cryptomathic A/S, Logica plc and the University of Leuven. You can find further information about the ETS programme on the European Commission's website.