Virtual Center for Entrepreneurship Development - Enterprise Information Systems Design, Implementation and Management: Organizational Applications - page 487

Figure 6. The concept of the virtual center for entrepreneurship competencies assessment and development

provided on the web platform (Niemann et al.
2003), (Niegemann et al. 2004).
The construction of such a web-based model
ensures the system's flexibility, because new
courses can be established “on demand” and - if
necessary - at short notice. The broker establishes
- based on the specific field of demand - a course
offer to meet this demand. She/He chooses the
adequate form of teaching (seminar, workshop...)
and decides about the channel of knowledge
transfer (internet, face-to-face...). In a third and
fourth step, the location and the course tutors
are established. The course tutors determine the
contents of the courses and are responsible for the
delivery of adequate materials. So, the approach
to generate a course is a mixture of a bottom-up
and a top-down strategy.
This open broker organization supports the
demand for fast reaction to market requirements
and allows integrating many partners and experts
(Figure 6). Especially for international research
co-operations or education networks the systems

offers a high degree of flexibility (Westkämper,
2006). In this modular organization each partner
teaches courses in their specific fields of core
competence. The system provides a high level of
independence concerning location and content of
courses. The synchronizations of different courses
and co-ordination are subject to the broker.
The existing technical infrastructure also, en-
ables the CE@ANPART partners in the network
to offer tele-based courses via videoconference, so
that the courses can be offered at many physical
locations at the same time (“any time-any place
potential”). It is also an option charge a fee from
participants for some selected courses or trainings
that will help to make the system independent
from public funding.
The CE@ANPART virtual center will there-
fore ensure the permanent spreading of current
research results and will open a gate to offer
further educational or training services to differ-
ent target groups. The efforts will also foster the
deep integration of the network into the society