WISE: Process based E-Commerce

Abstract

Electronic commerce is a business practice that is experiencing an extraordinary growth. Unfortunately, there is a severe lack of adequate software tools. The WISE project (Workflow based Internet SErvices) at ETH Zürich is an attempt to address this problem by providing a software platform for process based business to business electronic commerce. The final objective of the project is to develop a coherent solution for enterprise networks that can be easily and seamlessly deployed in small and medium enterprises. As a first step in this direction, we have developed a simple but powerful model for electronic commerce to be used as the overall design principle. To support this model, we have extended OPERA, a process support kernel built at ETH that provides basic workflow engine functionality and a number of programming language extensions, with the capability to implement trading communities that interact using virtual business processes. In what follows we explain the model in detail and outline the architecture of the system along with one concrete application.