Abstract. The agility to collaborate in several business networks has become essential for the success of enterprises. The dynamic nature of collaborations and the autonomy of enterprises creates new challenges for the operational computing environment. This paper describes the web-Pilarcos B2B middleware solutions for managing the life-cycle of dynamic business networks in an inter-enterprise environment. The use of B2B middleware moves the management challenges away from the individual enterprise applications to more global infrastructure services, and provides a level of automation into the establishment and maintenance. The middleware services aim for a rigorous level of transparent interoperability support, including awareness of collaboration processes, and collaboration level adaptation to breaches in operation.

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Participation in electronic business networks has become necessary for the success of enterprises. The strategic business needs for participating multiple networks simultaneously and for managing changes in these networks are reflected as new requirements for the supporting computing facilities. The web-Pilarcos architecture addresses the needs of managed collaboration and interoperability of autonomous business services in an inter-organisational context. The web-Pilarcos B2B middleware is designed for lowering the cost of collaboration establishment and to facilitate management and maintenance of electronic business networks. The approach is a federated one: All business services are developed independently, and the B2B middleware services are used to ensure that technical, semantic, and pragmatic interoperability is maintained in the business network. In the architecture and middleware functionality design, attention has been given to the dynamic aspects and evolution of the network. This paper discusses the concepts provided for application and business network creators, and the supporting middleware-level knowledge repositories for interoperability support.

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{Lea.KutvonenIToni.RuokolainenIJanne.Metso)@cs.helsinki.fi Participation in electronic business networks has become necessary for the success of enterprises. The strategic business needs for participating multiple networks simultaneously and for managing changes in these networks are reflected as new requirements for the supporting computing facilities. The web-Pilarcos architecture addresses the needs of managed collaboration and interoperability of autonomous business services in an inter-organisational context. The web-Pilarcos B2B middleware is designed for lowering the cost of colIaboration establishment and to facilitate management and maintenance of electronic business networks. The approach is a federated one: All business services are developed independently, and the B2B middleware services are used to ensure that technical, semantic, and pragmatic interoperability is maintained in the business network. In the architecture and middleware functionality design, attention has been given to the dynamic aspects and evolution of the network. This paper discusses the concepts provided for application and business network creators, and the supporting middleware-level knowledge repositories for interoperability support.