The field of these researches has been enhanced for the application of Information Technology for administrative and industrial problems, business strategy and decision making to invest in strategic information technology ventures.

The technological dynamism that is influencing all production systems in a more or less preponderant manner, highlights the need to research and formalise structured approaches in order to best exploit the opportunities that such an evolution generates and to manage and develop the technological competences of all businesses.

The digital economy and the virtualisation of production processes are however not completely new phenomena , being substantially connected to the development of electronic communication systems, which have been available for some time. However, what turns the effects of these events into irreversible factors of radical change in the way we communicate, is the integration of the transmission networks, resulting in the possibility of using a single network for the emission and reception of signals with the consequent possibility of integrating, in an "Information Superhighway" (a multimedia network that is integrated and interactive), the previously separate infrastructures dedicated to telephone, television and data.

Such a process is tied to the digitalisation of information which consists of the simple, but outstanding technological phenomenon in which it is possible to translate data, sounds and images in a unique digital binary format, as used in Information Technology. In this imprecisely defined scenario, SME are beginning to confront the problem of the structural redefinition of company business information systems, in view of complete integration with key business processes.

During the month of Novembre 2001, a workshop named "Sotto l' ombrello del Web: nuove tecnologie della comunicazione e dell'informazione e lo sviluppo delle imprese" was carried out in collaboration with local institutions and a consulting company. The invited speakers were managers of IT companies and academic members of the University of Turin. Proceedings referring the workshop are in press at the end of 2002.