1. What is Virtual Organization? A virtual organization or company is one whose members are geographically apart, usually working by computer e-mail and groupware while appearing to others to be a single, unified organization with a real physical location.

2. Virtual Organization and its Impact on Marketing Seminar in Business Fall '13 Akram Mohab 5409011 Aya Gamal 5408023 Aya Elkhatib 5408096

3. Situations driving many organizations to examine and implement Virtual Organization A need for Process Innovation- this is often motivated by competitive pressures, stakeholders demands and other factors to achieve increased productivity and quality. Globalization- many organizations are finally realizing there is a vast pool of untapped skills,, knowledge and abilities throughout the world. Cost Reduction- improving efficiency often means reducing overhead, such as physical assets use to support traditional work environments or redistributing costs over several physical locations. Costs and Problems of Travelling- VOs address transportation issues, such as unproductive commute time, traffic hassles, the cost of fuel and environmental impact of commuting vehicles.

4. Typical Approaches in Implementing Virtual Organization Telecommuting- employees work at a location away from the usual workplace, but not necessarily at home. Computers and telecommunications equipment are used to maintain contact between the telecommuter and the home office. Hot Desking- this arrangement is for offices in which staff members spend significant amount of time on customer premises. Hoteling- this is when the client provides a hot desk for the VOs employees Virtual Teams- employees collaborate from remote locations using email, groupware, the intranet and/or video conferencing

5. Creating a Virtual Organization When created, a VO must pursue two strategic goals: 1.Exploitation: utilization of ICT to coordinate economic activities between organizations in order to reduce cost and increase productivity. 2.Exploration: the members of the network must be ready to modify their perception regarding the evolution of their economic activities.

6. The Virtualization Process of an Organization May outcome: 1.Virtual Team- which is the simplest form of a VO, is a local team using information technologies to coordinate their connectivity and share their knowledge at lower cost. 2.Virtual Project- can involve several people or organizations in the realization of certain task which are a beginning and designated end. 3.Temporarily Virtual Organization- is likening a virtual project involving several organizations in a designated period of time. 4.Permanent Virtual Organization- is created when there is no designated period in their cooperation.

7. How has the Virtual Organizations impacted Marketing? Virtual Organizations has made it easier for independent firms to join together and produce a service or product. Instead of having to go to a store to get something, you can go to the site and order and it will be shipped to your front door.

8. An example of a marketing site using virtual organizations is amazon.com. Amazon allows many stores to come together and sell their stuff through the internet. Another example is Wedding Channel. Wedding Channel is a TV channel that brings all the wedding shows, tips, an styles in one channel for the viewer to watch everything.