Software is more and more the result of integration of a set of heterogeneous software components distributed by various providers. These components evolve quickly and independently. For this reason managing the coherence of the whole software becomes difficult. The deployment of an application (or a software) becomes a complex process, which covers all the activities that have to be carried out starting from the end of development itself on the producer sites up to the installation and maintenance of the application on consumers computers. In this article we present a new approach to the creation of software deployment environments. A new technology of deployment is foreseeable due to the rapidly increasing importance of networks (intranet, internet and extranet) allowing software distribution and mobility. We introduce the concepts of "virtual enterprise" and "enterprise application" in order to realize software deployment in a distributed environment in the context of large companies. We present our deployment approach in terms of activities, products and resources associated to the
three identified levels: producers, (virtual) enterprises and users