On the electronic collaboration of SMEs: a case study

For Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) the establishment of business relationships and collaborations is becoming increasingly important in the face of market globalisation. These collaborations consist of identifying possible partners (e.g. clients or suppliers), providing them with appropriate information, setting up a common environment for communication and finally starting commercial operations. Until the early 90´s, the limited resources SMEs could allocate for such purposes significantly undermined the efficiency of the collaboration. However, recent advances in technology, including the rapid increase of the use of the Internet, suggest that an efficient and cost-effective collaboration between SMEs is possible. We present our experiences gained from a number of EU funded projects related to SMEs in Greece and other member-countries of the EU and propose a framework for strengthening efficient collaboration between SMEs. Within this framework both technical and managerial aspects are addressed