Flexibility and safety in a web-based infrastructure for virtual enterprises

The concept of virtual enterprise is promoted by the current market and eco nomic conditions worldwide, and facilitated by the recent developments in b oth information and communication technologies. A large number of internati onal research and development projects are also contributing to the develop ment of basic models and supporting infrastructures. However, there is stil l the need to develop general infrastructures that support flexible and saf e cooperation among enterprises. The Esprit PRODNET II project designed and implemented an open infrastructure to support industrial virtual enterpris es with special focus on the needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises. The proposed architecture is described summarizing its main components. The federated approach for information sharing and management is described, an d the implemented mechanisms to support secure communications over the Inte rnet are presented. Finally, the creation and configuration steps for a vir tual enterprise are discussed.