Towards a distributed process execution platform for collaborative networks

Enterprise collaboration typically occurs in the context of a process. Therefore, in order to support collaboration, there is a need to establish a framework able to handle a diversity of collaborative processes with different computational and communication requirements. This paper discusses the need for such framework, points out key requirements and proposes a strategy for a supporting technological infrastructure. Processes are seen as the central modeling entity in this framework. Portability of process definitions among different technological bindings is also a considered issue.