CrossFlow: Cross-Organizational Workflow Management in Dynamic Virtual Enterprises

Abstract

CrossFlow is an ESPRIT/IST project for support of cross-organizational workflow management in dynamically established virtual enterprises. The business paradigm of CrossFlow is that of dynamic service outsourcing, in which one organization (service consumer) outsources part of its business process to another organization (service provider). Service consumer and provider find each other through electronic market places and specify their collaboration in an electronic contract. This contract is then used to dynamically configure an infrastructure that connects and controls the workflow management systems of both organizations to facilitate provision of the service. The infrastructure supports fine-grained monitoring and control to allow tight cooperation between the organizations. 1 The CrossFlow context Today, companies focus on their core business and outsource secondary activities to other organizations. Growing complexity of products requires co-makership relations between organizations. Value chains require a tight cooperation between companies participating in these chains. To enable the creation and operation of these virtual organizations, the information processing infrastructures of participating organizations need to be linked. Automated support for processes crossing organizational boundaries is