Management of business processes

An apparatus comprising a computer and a computer readable storage medium, said storage medium storing program code configured to be executed by the computer to perform a method for managing business processes, said method comprising:

• said computer obtaining first business process data from a first trading participant, said first business process data comprising a set of transaction messages having a first data format in accordance with a first protocol for conducting business transactions used by the first trading participant;
• receiving, by a virtual trading participant via said computer, fictitious business process data from the first trading participant and acknowledging the fictitious business process data and replying to the first trading participant that the fictitious business process data has been acknowledged in order to enable the first trading participant to determine that the first trading participant is prepared to automatically transmit the first business process data to complete the business transactions;
• said computer testing operational characteristics and a connectivity of a currently trading participant connected to a process management platform accessible via an interconnection fabric, by utilizing the virtual trading participant to determine if the data defining individual business processes is in a uniform format understood by a process management platform;
• and
• said computer utilizing the virtual trading participant to ensure compatibility with an identified version of the uniform format.

A method for facilitating a business process communication, said method comprising:

• obtaining, by a computer, first business process data from a first trading participant, said first business process data comprising a set of transaction messages having a first data format in accordance with a first protocol for conducting business transactions used by the first trading participant;
• receiving, by a virtual trading participant via said computer, fictitious business process data from the first trading participant and acknowledging the fictitious business process data and replying to the first trading participant that the fictitious business process data has been acknowledged in order to enable the first trading participant to determine that the first trading participant is prepared to automatically transmit the first business process data to complete the business transactions;
• said virtual trading participant providing, via said computer, a mechanism for generating test reports and determining if a process management platform accessible via an interconnection fabric is configured to archive or store information about business process data sent through the process management platform;
• said process management platform providing, via said computer, a directory of business processes such that the virtual trading participant enables trading participants to review, test, or both review and test an ability to access the directory and obtain data about the business processes a particular trading participant is configured to perform;
• and
• said virtual trading participant providing, via said computer, a feedback mechanism for determining if the particular trading participant is ready to send, receive, and perform other operations on business process data.

An apparatus comprising a computer and a computer readable storage medium, said storage medium storing program code configured to be executed by the computer to perform a method for managing business processes, said method comprising:

• said computer obtaining first business process data from a first trading participant, said first business process data comprising a set of transaction messages having a first data format in accordance with a first protocol for conducting business transactions used by the first trading participant;
• receiving, by a virtual trading participant via said computer, fictitious business process data from the first trading participant and acknowledging the fictitious business process data and replying to the first trading participant that the fictitious business process data has been acknowledged in order to enable the first trading participant to determine that the first trading participant is prepared to automatically transmit the first business process data to complete the business transactions;
• said virtual trading participant providing, via said computer, a mechanism for generating test reports and determining if a process management platform accessible via an interconnection fabric is configured to archive or store information about business process data sent through the process management platform;
• said process management platform providing, via said computer, a directory of business processes such that the virtual trading participant enables trading participants to review, test, or both review and test an ability to access the directory and obtain data about the business processes a particular trading participant is configured to perform;
• and
• said virtual trading participant providing, via said computer, a feedback mechanism for determining if the particular trading participant is ready to send, receive, and perform other operations on business process data.