Virtual Enterprise Integration

Book excerpt: Virtual Enterprise Integration: Technological and Organizational Perspectives addresses the emergent research and development issues for the most-advanced enterprise organizational paradigm of today's world - the virtual enterprise paradigm. Virtual enterprise is characterized as a dynamic agile network of independent enterprises sharing all resources, including knowledge, market, and customers, in order to be permanently aligned with the highly demanding and global dynamic market. The issue of integration is the critical success factor in creation, reconfiguration and operation of a virtual enterprise as it is a network of partners that use heterogeneous resources that are supposed to work together effectively and efficiently. The problem of integration is multidimensional and one of the most difficult to resolve and manage. Virtual Enterprise Integration: Technological and Organizational Perspectives integrates the contributions by renowned international researchers and scientists and is virtually the first book focusing solely on the problem of virtual enterprise integration. This book is a guide that gives readers a broader perspective of VE integration requirements and raises their awareness on which technology and how technology can serve the needs of an expanding and increasingly competitive organizational model.