Advantages of E Partnerships and Virtual Organizations

The greatest advantage of e-partnership and virtual organization lies in the fact that it eliminates the physical boundaries of organizations, and that cross-functional teams and organizations are able to operate and collaborate across space and time by communicating with each other via electronic channels. The Internet becomes the most important interface between participating organizations, teams and individuals. The e-partnerships and virtual organizations allow businesses to sell and deliver products and services across the world in the most efficient way. Other perceived benefits of e-partnerships and virtual organizations may include greater business opportunities, better integration of suppliers and vendors, better management information, lower operational costs, better market understanding and expanded geographical coverage. The e-partnership and virtual organization also offer the opportunity of consolidating resources of all partners and organizational flexibility, as other forms of inter-organizational partnerships and alliances do.
In this rapidly changing competitive landscape, few organizations can rely on their internal strengths only to gain a competitive advantage in national and/ or international markets. Inter-organizational collaborations, alliances, joint ventures, partnering and the like are gaining unprecedented momentum, regardless of their organizational and management structures and styles and communication channels. An organization's resources are limited in one way or another. Forming a business e-partnership and taking a network form of organization is increasingly one of the most popular strategies available to an organization to take advantage of an Internet Highway on the one hand, and share risks, capabilities and revenue with partners on the other. The driving forces behind building an e-partnership and a virtual organization share a lot in common with those driving any other forms of inter-organizational collaborations. They include:

• To gain a competitive advantage or increase market share in national and/ or global markets;
• To share revenue and expand sales between merchants and partners;
• To prevent competition loss;
• To tackle complexities of integration of technologies involving an ever-wider range of expertise;
• To meet changing demands of customers and markets; and
• To gain core competencies from competitors