Electronic contracts with primary and sponsored roles

Abstract

Computer-based methods and systems are provided for constructing, deploying, executing and managing the performance of electronic contract based service applications across multiple business entities. In this context, the electronic service contract includes information to be used for configuration and enforcement not just by the primary parties to the contract, but also by other parties referred to herein as sponsored roles in the contract. At least a portion of the contract may be monitored, enforced or managed by at least one of the sponsored roles. In one aspect of the invention, a computer-based electronic business service system includes: (1) a contract builder; (2) a contract deployment component; (3) one or more measurement systems; (4) a violation detection system; and (5) a management system. Generally, the contract builder component provides the mechanism for defining and pricing the contract, checking the validity of the contract and a repository for storing the completed contracts. The deployment system is responsible for configuring the (run-time) system in order to meet one or a set of contracts. The measurement system maintains information on the current system configuration, and run-time information on the metrics that are part of the contract. The violation detection system is responsible for comparing measured parameters against the thresholds defined in the contract and notifying the management system. Upon receipt of a notification, the management system will then issue appropriate actions to correct the problem, as specified in the contract.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.