Informatica Economică vol. 16, no. 1/2012 143 Collaborative Virtual Organizations in Knowledge-based Economy Ion IVAN, Cristian CIUREA, Mihai DOINEA Department of Economic Informatics and Cybernetics Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] The paper establishes the content of the virtual organizations concept, insisting on their collaborative nature. Types of virtual organizations architectures are developed and there are analyzed their characteristics compared to classical organizations existing in the pre- informational economy. There are presented virtual organizations for education, production and banking, focusing on their collaborative side. Metrics are built to evaluate the performance of collaborative virtual organizations. Keywords: Collaborative System, Virtual Organization, Banking, Production, Metrics The virtual organizations virtual organization is built on four elements, 1 In [1], virtual means the possibility that a namely connectivity, purpose, technology potential effect to be achieved without and separation. actually occurs. The classical organization is Virtual organizations are collaborative a social institution that brings together people systems applied in the economy, where with common concerns and concepts, formed people share resources and realize on the basis of some regulations for activities complementary activities from distinct submission and for the achievement of locations, in order to achieve a common goal. common goals. It is considered that virtual organization is In [2],the virtual organization is presented as deemed to have together with the feature of a routine formation, representing groups or flexibility also the interdependence feature, associations of companies that are productive in the sense of cooperation between and competitive. Virtual organization is departments and authorized individuals characterized by a unique identity, which within one unique organization. implies the existence of loyalty and The virtual organization features that cooperation between partners based on distinguish it from classical organization are: mutual trust. - semi-permanent structural units, In [3], the virtual organization represent the geographically dispersed; ensemble of production companies placed in - performance level based on a common different locations, working together in a understanding of the business; distributed environment, to achieve a - continuous adaptation of organizational common goal and between which runs deep forms; appropriate communication processes with - intensive use of information technologies. the help of new information technologies. Conditions for the virtual organization In [4] it is considered that virtual existence are the followings: organization is a geographically distributed - infrastructure that allows interaction in enterprise whose members are bound by a informatics plan; common interest, pursue a long-term goal, - powerful database describing resources; communicate and coordinate their work - very good virtual management. through specific tools of information There are criteria for the classification of technology. virtual organizations, such as involvement of Virtual organization is a collaborative system individuals, group membership, organization in which component organizational entities mission, the level of information have more capabilities and have more power technologies use [2]. than individually. The working context of Based on criteria established, in the 144 Informatica Economică vol. 16, no. 1/2012 knowledge-based economy there are multiple projects, developing responses to a distinguished followings virtual specific market opportunity; organizations: O5– permanent, that implies the use of virtual O1– internal, comprising business units, concept in all operations performed, consisting of autonomous groups and work including tasks, virtual teams and teams; management of organizational activities. O2– stable, based on collaboration between The lack of physical locations to conduct internal organizations and have the purpose educational activities led to the development of acquiring non-specific competences of virtual universities. In the classical through the main organization; university, the number of students is O3– dynamic, involving widespread and dependent on the capacity and number of extensive cooperation with other rooms to support the courses and exams. organizations; Table 1 compares the advantages of classical O4– temporary, which are extensions of and virtual universities. internal virtual organizations and address Table1.Comparison between virtual university and classical university Classical University Virtual University Advantages: Advantages: - direct interaction with teachers and - flexibility of study program; students; - online exams; - the opportunity to ask questions and - transmission of homework and receive explanations in real time; projects by email or upload to the - existence of reading rooms and platform online; laboratories; - equivalence of diplomas. Digital Libraries have increased in the same - virtual management, which means time with the development of techniques for efficient management of resources and data storage and Internet development. activities in the virtual organization. Physical books are scanned and can be found For description of virtual organizations are in the digital libraries, being accessible from taken into account: the followings elements: personal computers or mobile phones goal, structure, flows, inputs, outputs and connected to the internet. activities specific to each organization. Analysis of classical and virtual organization reveals differences between the two entities, 2 Structures of virtual organizations the need and conditions in which virtual By level of complexity criterion, virtual organization appears. organizations are classified in organizations Peculiarities of virtual organization are: with low complexity level, with medium - selectivity, which involved the allocation level and virtual organizations with high of resources necessary for the complexity level [5]. organization based on internal The structure of virtual organization with low requirements; complexity level, Figure 1, is characterized by interactions between homogeneous components. Informatica Economică vol. 16, no. 1/2012 145 Fig. 1. Structure of virtual organization with low complexity level In Figure 1, all components C1, ..., C6 belong heterogeneous components and interactions to the same category and are homogeneous. between them. The structure of virtual organization of In Figure 2, components C1, C3and C5are medium complexity level is shown in Figure heterogeneous and belong to different 2 and is characterized by the appearance of categories. Fig. 2. Structure of virtual organization with medium complexity level The structure of virtual organization with difficulty of the message exchange between high complexity level, shown in Figure 3, is components. characterized by interactions between In the case of virtual organization with high heterogeneous components, which belong to complexity level, all components are different categories. Heterogeneity of different and determine the heterogeneity of components increases the complexity of the structure. virtual organization and amplifies the Fig. 3. Structure of virtual organization with high complexity level Translation from the virtual organization achieved by insertion of heterogeneous with low complexity level to virtual components in the organization structure. organization with high complexity level is 146 Informatica Economică vol. 16, no. 1/2012 3 Applications in economy of virtual banks to enter on new markets. Virtual bank organizations is exposed to the same risks as physical bank, The virtual bank is a virtual organization namely the administrative risk, legal risk, created to facilitate banking transactions operational risk and reputation risk, risks that handled by physical banks. a virtual bank aggravates them. In the case of In [6] are presented the structure, features, virtual banks there is the operational risk benefits and risks of virtual bank as an represented by the transition to new application to carry out online transactions. It technologies that make security and defines the virtual bank as a bank to distance informatics system availability the main that gives great advantages to consumers, operational risk. Risk management in virtual offering simplified and cheaper operations in banks is analyzed inside the digital economy, than traditional banks. given the growing number of Internet users The virtual bank facilitates the purchase of and of those using the services of virtual banking services and products, contributes to banks. increasing interbank competition and allows Fig. 4. Structure of virtual bank The virtual bank is characterized by a very and the virtual bank has CBR2 clients and strong collaborative nature and the effective KBR2 costs, so that CBR1 + CBR2 = allocation of resources is irreversible in CBRandKBR1 + KBR2< KBR. relation to costs. Making erroneous banking Flows that occur in a virtual bank are similar operations suppose the payment of related to those of the real bank, except that are amounts, fees and any damages. realized online. The virtual bank objective is to reduce the Virtual bank entries are represented by costs incurred by processing banking scriptural money, new customers, electronic transactions, by redirecting customers to