Monitoring and execution for contract compliance

electronic commerce; e-contract; business processes Real world interactions between businesses are governed by contracts that define rights and obligations of parties. Electronic contract structures the information contained in textual contract so that it can be used to automate certain aspects of contracting process. In this report we focus on the contract fulfilment stage of this process. A simple electronic contract structure expressed as an XML document is introduced that allows one to define obligations on contract parties to perform actions. The contract actions are implemented as public collaboration patterns that in turn are implemented by each of the party as business processes that lead to message based interactions. We describe a system that can process an electronic contract and when an obligation becomes due determines the relevant collaboration pattern and a corresponding business process. It then monitors the execution of the process and messages transmitted to a business partner. The information collected by the system can later be used in contract compliance decision-making, i.e. determining whether an obligation has been carried out successfully.