B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Business Process Management (BPM) 127
There are start and exit rules associated with business processes that
determine the control and data flow among the individual tasks. Each
task is assigned to a user, an application, or any other system, based on
the rules and consists of one or more transactions (see Figure 5.1). Each
transaction is characterized by exchange of messages among the
applications (both internal and external) involved. The messages consist
of business documents, such as a purchase order and a request for quote
along with the sender and receiver information, transport protocol and
transaction control mechanisms associated with them.
Business Process
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Talk 2
Tj»«k3
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Closed Ous m
Process
Company A
Figure 5.1. — A typical business process
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Figure 5.2.
Closed business process
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Closed Business
Process
Company B
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