According to a research commissioned by Nortel and the Communications Management Association (CMA), the majority of European companies believe the virtual enterprise is the way to increase profits and productivity for the future.

The research report, Virtual Enterprise 2006, focused on 200 UK-based organisations that conduct business across Europe. It is the first survey in the region to capture business perceptions of the virtual enterprise. The survey defined the virtual enterprise as a ‘human Internet’ where customers, employees, partners and suppliers have access to information - and each other - from wherever they are and on whatever device.

83 percent of respondents believe adoption of virtual enterprise solutions will increase to drive cost savings and improve efficiency. 91 percent of surveyed organisations already provide their employees with secure remote access to their internal network when needed. Flexible working capabilities and hot-desking facilities for teleworkers are being provided by the majority of respondents. The perceived benefits of making these provisions for employees were increased

The survey found that organisations do perceive some barriers to the adoption of the virtual enterprise. Primary concerns are HR concerns relating to new management and organisational structures (68 percent), security issues (23 percent) and the cost of new technology (19 percent).

The research also revealed a disparity between the pace of virtualisation of the workforce and that of partners and suppliers. The virtualisation of suppliers and partners appears to be a slower process. 58 percent of the surveyed organisations have already integrated suppliers or partners with their IT system. The companies that have already adopted the virtual enterprise model with partners and/or suppliers stated that their organisations have become more efficient and responsive. Despite the barriers, less than 20 percent of the respondents do not plan to integrate their IT system with suppliers and/or partners.

Glenn Powell, chief executive, CMA, concluded: “We were very interested to discover that although many of the respondents may not have been familiar with the term ‘The Virtual Enterprise’ they were acutely aware of the benefits of this model of working.”