Infrastructure developments for agile virtual enterprises

Agility is an important requirement for successful organizations in periods of market turbulence and largely unpredictable socio-economic changes. Agility in a virtual enterprise depends not only on the skills of its member enterprises but also on the characteristics of its supporting infrastructure. In this paper, various requirements and approaches for agility support during the full VE life cycle are presented and topics requiring further research are identified. Finally, two practical application scenarios are introduced and learned lessons presented.