Management of B2B communities

In a business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce community, wherein a plurality of B2B partners interact with a hub via a plurality of B2B applications, a method of managing the community, the method comprising:

• receiving interaction information describing communications of a B2B partner including first partner communications with a first B2B application and second partner communications with a second B2B application, wherein the first B2B application interacts with a first hub application and the second B2B application interacts with a second hub application, different than the first hub application, wherein the interaction information describes at least one of:
• material flow, correspondence, transactions, notices, and relationships between the B2B partner and the hub;
• processing the interaction information to generate a single unified view of the B2B partner, wherein the first hub application and the second hub application both access the single unified view of the B2B partner;
• based in part on the received interaction information, developing a community manager, the community manager supporting a common set of modules in communication with each of the B2B applications;
• and
• implementing the common set of modules to facilitate, with respect to each applicable B2B application, on-boarding of new B2B partners, establishing a single unified view of each of the B2B partners, and automated maintenance of B2B partnerships.

A data processing apparatus, comprising a processor, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium accessible to the processor, the computer readable storage medium including stored, processor executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving interaction information describing communications of a business-to-business (B2B) partner including first partner communications with a first B2B application and second partner communications with a second B2B application, wherein the first B2B application interacts with a first hub application and the second B2B application interacts with a second hub application, different than the first hub application, wherein the interaction information describes at least one of:
• material flow, correspondence, transactions, notices, and relationships between the B2B partner and the hub;
• processing the interaction information to generate a single unified view of the B2B partner, wherein the first hub application and the second hub application both access the single unified view of the B2B partner;
• based in part on the received interaction information, developing a community manager, the community manager supporting a common set of modules in communication with each of the B2B applications;
• and
• implementing the common set of modules to facilitate, with respect to each applicable B2B application, on-boarding of new B2B partners, establishing a single unified view of each of the B2B partners, and automated maintenance of B2B partnerships.