A Meta-model for Contract Template Driven e-Negotiation Processes

Contracts are important for attaining business process interoperability and enforcing their proper enactment. An e-Contract is the computerized facilitation or automation of a contract in a cross-organizational business process. In this paper, motivated by sales contracts, we propose a systematic way to perform negotiation activities over the Internet, in order to reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of negotiation. This is known as e-Negotiation. We also propose a meta-model of e-Negotiation to allow the rapid construction of a flexible negotiation support system using a workflow engine for a variety of negotiation processes. Furthermore, we propose a practical meta-model for e-Contract template and template variables, based on which e-Negotiation should be carried out. This facilitates the negotiation process by avoiding uncontrolled openness of the negotiation issues. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach with three typical kinds of sales e-negotiation processes, viz., bargaining, auction and request for proposals. Based on our meta-model, we are building a negotiation support system prototype, on top of an advanced workflow management system. As a result, e-Negotiation of contracts can be streamlined.