A Workflow Model for Designing and Managing Distributed Business Process in Virtual Enterprises Francesco M. Barbini 1 , Alessandro D’Atri 1 , Daniela Luzi 2 , Fabrizio L. Ricci 3 1 CeRSI – Luiss Guido Carli {fbarbini,datri}@luiss.it 2 ISPRI – CNR luzi@isrds.rm.cnr.it 3 ISN (sez.Catania)– CNR ricci@isrds.rm.cnr.it Abstract This papers introduces a research activity undertaken to identify the main strategies for enabling an easy and efficient integration among dispersed, heterogeneous workflow systems in virtual enterprises. It starts from the definition of the main features characterizing a virtual enterprise and from the main approaches to workflow designing. The main results are a taxonomy of the desirable characteristics of a workflow management system for virtual enterprises and an assessment of the workflowability of the virtual process. 1. Introduction A virtual enterprise is “a temporary network of independent companies – suppliers, customers, even rivals – linked by information technology to share skills, cost, and access to one another’s markets. It will neither have a central office nor organization chart. It will have no hierarchy, no vertical integration. Instead proponents say this new, evolving corporate model will be fluid and flexible – a group of collaborators that quickly unite to exploit a specific opportunity. Once the opportunity is met, the venture will, more often than not, disband” [3]. New competitive environments are forcing enterprises to cooperate in innovative and efficient ways. The virtual enterprise paradigm, though appearing potentially very powerful, is hampered by the difficulty in coordinating and letting autonomous organizations working as a single one. The “planning” and “set up” phases of the virtual enterprise are very de-structured tasks, so it is quite difficult to formulate general rules and indicate a development path. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify a framework in which some entities perform a suitable set of activities. Main operative problems are related to the need for coordination among both members and processes [12] and can be summarized in terms of development of integration methods and management of the distributed business process. The virtual enterprise is based upon an integrated process (virtual process) composed by a nested set of private core processes, i.e. the resources, skills, and competencies made available by participant firms. Workflow technologies are the main enablers for achieving an efficient integration, monitoring and execution of the entire virtual process. The aim of this paper is to analyze the workflowability of a virtual process considering the typical characteristics of a virtual enterprise. In addition, we identify the special features of a workflow system seen as a tool for designing and managing distributed business processes. 2. Virtual Enterprises A list of features characterizing a virtual enterprise can be extracted from literature [5][6][13]: • Market-driven cooperation: the network is set-up to exploit a specific business opportunity. • Complementarity: each partner excels in particular sub-processes and/or has a critical knowledge about the process, the product or the market; in particular, mutual interdependencies among members have to be identified and managed to create a unique combination of resources, skills and knowledge. • Dynamic participation: organizations can connect into the network and disconnect from it in a dynamic way. • Legal and economic independence of participating partners: there are no “focal” members, partners are cooperating on a voluntary basis. • Processes/resources sharing: blurring of single enterprise’s boundaries, partners work together, integrating processes and sharing resources. • Time limitation: the virtual organization is aimed to achieve short/medium terms business opportunities; • Transparency: partners agree in sharing all necessary information, while protecting their own Page 429 EurAsia-ICT 2002, Shiraz-Iran, 29-31 Oct.