A Provision-centric Model for Electronic Services

In addition to producing a pervasive standard and a technology framework, the Web Service initiative has prompted businesses to re-examine their service delivery channels. Back-end systems are already in place to capture business knowledge and manage operational strategies and procedures. Web Services enable access to such systems, as well as basic orchestration. The infrastructure is in place to recreate the business-level notion of an electronic service. However, the gap between technology-oriented and business-oriented models for services is still considerable. In this paper, we outline a model for electronic services as defined by the FRESCO project. The model constitutes an architectural blueprint of the technical and business infrastructure for an electronic service. The focus is on the provisional aspects of electronic services.