System and method for pervasive enablement of business processes

摘要

A system and method for pervasive enablement of business processes that effectively integrates workflow technology and ad-hoc collaboration tools. Collaboration tools comprise a plurality of native communication devices capable of interacting with the user either using text or voice mechanism. A modality adapter associated with each collaboration tool (or modality) performs the function of translating staff activities to device-specific messages and receiving replies from the users and sending them back to the engine. A Workflow Engine executes the business process and sends out staff activities meant for human users to the Interaction Controller and other activities meant for software agents to Web Services. An Interaction Controller entity utilizes the Context Service and the Address Book to determine the appropriate modality or collaboration tool for a user and sends the staff activity to the appropriate modality adapter. A Context Service that provides context information, user preferences to the Interaction Controller. The Address Book contains a repository of device addresses specific to each modality a user might use. The system enables users to collaborate with each other anytime and anywhere using an appropriate collaboration modality and participate in backend business processes by performing staff activities using their preferred collaboration device.