Facilitating the Negotiation of Standards for Inter-Enterprise Collaboration Between Trading Partners

A computer-implemented system, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a set of one or more predefined meta-model elements stored therein, each of the one or more predefined meta-model elements is incorporated into a negotiated meta-model that describes an agreement between two or more enterprises as to collaborations between the two or more enterprises, each of the one or more meta-model elements comprising data describing a standard for collaboration between the two or more enterprises;
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a collaboration software stored therein and configured to execute one or more collaborative transactions based on the negotiated meta-model, the two or more enterprises having the collaboration software;
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a meta-model negotiation service stored therein and configured to:
• receive an indication from the collaboration software of the two or more enterprises that the two or more enterprises wish to negotiate a standard for collaborations between the two or more enterprises;
• provide the collaboration software of the two or more enterprises access to the predefined set of one or more meta-model elements;
• receive selections of one or more of the predefined meta-model elements and one or more meta-model elements that is newly defined by at least one of the enterprises for negotiation and incorporation into a negotiated meta-model, the negotiated meta-model describing an agreement between the enterprises as to collaborations between the two or more enterprises;
• facilitate negotiation of the selected meta-model elements between the two or more enterprises, wherein the negotiated meta-model includes semantics capable of being understood by the collaboration software associated with each of the two or more enterprises independent of any modification of the collaboration software, the collaboration software of the two or more enterprises automatically collaborates according to the standard for collaborations based on the negotiated meta-model;
• incorporate negotiated meta-model elements into the negotiated meta-model for collaborations between the two or more enterprises, the negotiated meta-model elements comprising a demand signal element, a supply response element, and one or more exception conditions;
• communicate the negotiated meta-model to the collaboration software of the two or more enterprises for collaborations between the two or more enterprises based on the standard for collaborations in the negotiated meta-model;
• automatically executing a supply response in accordance with the negotiated meta-model when a demand signal is communicated from the collaboration software of one of the two or more enterprises to the collaboration software of the other of the two or more enterprises and the demand signal is in accordance with the negotiated meta-model;
• and
• automatically executing one or more exception conditions when a demand signal is communicated from the collaboration software of one of the two or more enterprises to the collaboration software of the other of the two or more enterprises and the demand signal is not in accordance with the negotiated meta-model.