Multi-Enterprise Applications leverage the Internet to connect all of the business partners involved in one or more related processes, and provide a distributed software framework that handles the routing and processing of the associated transactions between the different business entities.
A
distributed architecture benefits such applications by:
- Allowing processing of the transactions locally at each user site
- Enhancing privacy, as data associated with each transaction is stored locally at participant’s site rather than centrally, and is protected by sophisticated PKI signing and encryption
- Enabling local customization by each user of the solution
Multi-Enterprise Applications allow every business partner to communicate directly with any other business partner (peer-to-peer), rather than using a central hub.”
- Each user has the ability to exchange transactions directly with any other user within a closed community
- Privacy is enhanced, because only the parties involved in a transaction are aware of it
Multi-Enterprise Applications require a service-oriented architecture that is facilitated by a Service Provider who:
- Sets and maintains common rules for the exchange of these transactions
- Administers and manages the service levels of the exchange environment
- Adds new shared services as required
Examples of processes that are best implemented by a Multi-Enterprise Application include payments processing, medical records exchange, competitive procurement, and buying/selling commodities.
