Business process management system with improved communication and collaboration

A system for enabling communications between a business process and an external entity, the system comprising:

• a processor;
• a mediator configured to receive notification data from a business process of a computer-based business process management system;
• and
• a rules database stored on a computer-readable data storage device;
• where the mediator is configured to:
• apply any rules in the rules database to any of the notification data to
• select an external entity to whom a communication will be sent,
• select a communications channel from among a plurality of communications channels associated with the external entity, and
• generate the communication from any of the notification data in a manner that conforms to the selected communications channel;
• and
• send the communication to the external entity via the selected communications channel.

A computer program product for enabling communications between a business process and an external entity, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer-readable storage medium;
• and
• computer-readable program code embodied in said computer-readable storage medium, wherein said computer-readable program code is configured to:
• receive notification data from a business process of a computer-based business process management system,
• apply a set of rules to any of the notification data to
• select an external entity to whom a communication will be sent,
• select a communications channel from among a plurality of communications channels associated with the external entity, and
• generate the communication from any of the notification data in a manner that conforms to the selected communications channel;
• and
• send the communication to the external entity via the selected communications channel.