Enterlink for providing a federated business to business system that interconnects applications of multiple companies

A federated system with state comprising:

• a. a bus;
• b. consolidated data stores, connected to the bus;
• c. means for core services, connected to the bus;
• d. means for public process applications, connected to the bus;
• e. a plurality of private process connectors, each connected to the bus and each adapted to connect with a private process application of a participant;
• and
• f. a web connection, connected to the bus and adapted to connect to third party services,
• wherein
• the consolidated data stores contain retail automotive industry data including:
• a. an operational data store;
• and
• b. a data warehouse for automobile service, automobile parts, and automobile customers,
• the core services include:
• a. management of participant trading agreements;
• b. public process application integration;
• c. integration of private process applications to public processes;
• d. metachannel support and directory;
• e. data transformation;
• and
• f. internal business support functions, including monitoring and billing,
• the public process applications include:
• a. a warranty workflow application;
• b. a parts management application;
• c. a service scheduling application;
• d. a service history application;
• and
• e. an inventory management application,
• the private process connectors include:
• a. a dealer management system connector;
• b. a dealer communication system connector;
• c. an automobile manufacturer internal system connector;
• and
• d. a finance company internal system connector,
• the participants include:
• a. automobile consumers;
• b. automobile manufacturers;
• c. government entities;
• d. automobile exchanges;
• and
• e. external data suppliers,
• the connectors comprise:
• a. an application specific interface;
• b. a translation layer;
• and
• c. an interface specific to the bus,
• the third party services comprise:
• a. automotive finance;
• b. lead management;
• c. automotive research;
• d. insurance;
• and
• e. parts locator, and
• the bus comprises
• a. a physical bus, with a plurality of channels;
• b. a metachannel for connecting channels to each other;
• c. a plurality of compound processes that interact with the plurality of channels and the metachannel;
• d. a process engine to facilitate the reading of messages from, and the writing of messages to channels;
• e. a metachannel engine to control the interactions with the metachannel;
• f. a metachannel repository that stores process services available to a plurality of applications;
• g. a singular process model to identify the steps to be taken by a singular public process engine for processing a singular public process;
• and
• h. a conductor that interacts with the compound processes to process the messages.