Virtual Enterprise Information System Requirements

Abstract

The digital era offers new ways of doing business. The success of these inovative approaches consists in obtaining the needed information faster than ever, executing transactions in real time and continuously refining methods and techniques. So far, companies are only beginning to grasp the advantages of the business electronic systems. At the moment, we assist at a great society transformation, from a paper-based to an electronic-based modus operandi. Virtual enterprises (VE) or web-enterprises are also global scale enterprises, acting on planetary level by using ICT. In fact, these are enterprises based on information, on knowledge; they are build on advanced information processing technologies. In these enterprises, the management structure is simpler, with less bureaucracy and, in conclusion, more flexible. Information has a multiplier role, activating all economic sectors. It assists the enterprise optimization, raising the productivity, while lowering costs. The increasing complexity of daily problems, together with the limited time for solving them, pose the new demands on software developers', who claim more and more CASE instruments, in different stages of the information system design. Under these conditions, the developing medium producers connect modeling instruments (CASE), and instrument producers are in favor of tighter linking of instruments for developing mediums. The setting-up and maintenance of e-commerce activities, which require maximum security conditions for all transactions, as well as other commercial functions such as informing users or promoting products with maxim efficiency, under the pressure of real-time transactions, are all information system designer tasks. The choice of one of the numerous solutions at hand is determined, to a great extent, by the performance criteria and business planning of each company, by expected results of the commercial activity. Other success factors are represented by the experience, professional training, innovative spirit, creativity, power of adapting and capacity of using the already existent solution capacities, of the design team. This paper will present some relevant aspects of the virtual enterprise information system requirements, CASE modeling techniques and of the VE internal and external relationships.