Workflow systems for inter-organizational business processes

Business processes normally require the interaction of persons and systems of different departments or enterprises. A simple selling process for example, requires the collaboration of four partners (buyer, seller, shipping agency, and bank(s)). Moreover, in large, distributed organizations various levels of automization and heterogeneous IT-infrastructure complicate the design and execution of a general business process. The definition and execution of processes spanning over several products and using different forms of communication with the partners is therefore necessary.