The evolution of the global economy can be characterized through ever shorter life cycles for products and services while, at the same time, development costs increase and the time to bring a new idea into the market reduces. Collaboration has introduced itself as a promising approach to address various challenges enterprises are faced with in such a context. The paper presents a number of observations and theses that point towards future developments. In doing so, the role of services and their development as a major element for successful long-term cooperation in value networks or as a basis for the collaborative enterprise is presented. Instead of providing a clear outline, we will present a number of theses that point towards future developments.