An Architecture for Cross-Organisational Business Processes Yigal Hoffner, Heiko Ludwig, Ceki Gülcü IBM Research, Zurich Research Laboratory 8803 Rüschlikon, Switzerland {yho|hlu|cgu}@zurich.ibm.com Paul Grefen University of Twente P.O. Box 217 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands grefen@cs.utwente.nl Abstract Efficient means of electronic interaction are an essential requirement for the integration of different companies' business processes along the value chain. Until recently, this interaction relied on expensive, complex and inflexi- ble solutions, mostly based on EDI or some proprietary means. The high set-up costs and time associated with this type of infrastructure prohibits the dynamic forging of business partnerships, which is of utmost importance to the services industry. The CrossFlow architecture sup- ports the dynamic establishment and enactment of a busi- ness relationship between two organisations, based on a contract that specifies this relationship. This is achieved by creating an electronic market where advertising and searching for compatible business partners takes place. This is further enhanced by automating the set-up of the contract enactment and supervision infrastructure, and by connecting them together to allow the business processes of the partners to cross their organisational boundaries. Keywords: B2B e-commerce, cross-organisational proc- esses, virtual markets, workflow management, electronic contracts, contract match-making 1 Introduction Business relationships between organisations can be established in a dynamic way by integrating an electronic market with the means to specify a business relationship in a contract. The linking of the business processes of the related parties can be further enhanced by automating the set-up of the infrastructure for the enactment, accompa- nied by an end-to-end supervision of the contract enact- ment. In the past decade, the globalisation of markets and the proliferation of the Internet increased global competition in a way that companies have to face a more dynamic en- vironment, requiring them to focus on their core compe- tencies to stay competitive [1]. This, in turn, puts increas- ing pressure on companies to connect their business proc- esses to the processes of other organisations to provide services to customers. The manufacturing industry as well as banking and the trading sectors responded to that need by setting up infrastructures and standards based on the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) framework such as UN/EDIFACT [2] and SWIFT. However, such infrastruc- tures have disadvantages in terms of the low level of mes- sage-type specifications, time-consuming and expensive case-by-case implementation of gateways for new mes- sage types, and expensive software and leased lines. Such an infrastructure is beneficial for large organisations in a relatively stable environment, but is unsuitable for smaller companies and industries in which business relationships are established on a case-by-case basis. Companies in a dynamic environment need functionality for the rapid establishment and management of dynamic business rela- tionships with other organisations, to create the type of a virtual enterprise we are interested in. A virtual enterprise is an organisation that provides a complex service to a customer but cannot implement the whole complex ser- vice itself within its boundaries. It focuses on its core competency, and buys services from other organisations to actually implement the complex service for its cus- tomer. The term outsourcing is often used to refer to the concept of one organisation assuming the responsibility for part of a business process of another organisation and carrying it out on its behalf. The CrossFlow 1 architecture described here deals with the dynamic establishment and enactment of business relationships between a service consumer and a provider [3]. Services are provided and consumed as part of the business processes of the involved organisations using various resources such as applications, information repo- sitories and people. If a business process spans an organi- sational boundary, a business relationship has to be speci- fied in terms of what a provider organisation performs as a service for a consumer organisation. The business rela- tionship may also specify that a consumer can have the ability to monitor and control the service while it is being performed on its behalf. All aspects of a business rela- tionship between organisations are specified in a contract. Companies need the infrastructure that supports all stages of a business relationship (the business life-cycle), 1 CrossFlow is a 4 th ESPRIT framework project, funded by the partner organisations, the European Union and the Swiss Fed- eral Department for Education and Science. See: http://www.crossflow.org