CrossFlow-Cross-Organizational Workflow Support for Virtual Organizations

CrossFlow is a European research project of the 4 ESPRIT Framework, aiming at cross-organizational workflow support for virtual enterprises. Virtual enterprises in the CrossFlow context are based on a service provider-consumer paradigm in which organizations (service consumers) can delegate tasks in their workflows to other organizations (service providers). The prime contractor in CrossFlow is IBM, participating with its Zürich research laboratory in Switzerland, its development laboratory in La Gaude, France, and its development site in Böblingen, Germany. Technology providers in the consortium are GMD-IPSI in Darmstadt, Germany, and the University of Twente in the Netherlands, who contribute their experience in groupware [By98] and workflow management [Gr99]. User partners are KPN Research in Groningen, the Netherlands, and AGFIL in Dublin, Ireland. Sema Group in Madrid, Spain, acts as industrial observer in the consortium. The CrossFlow project started in September ’98 and is planned to run for two years. The project covers the complete spectrum from requirements analysis to prototype assessment. Below, we briefly outline the goals of the project. See the CrossFlow web site at ZZZ FURVVIORZ RUJ for further information.