Patent ID: 7539990

Claim:
A distributed document handling system for carrying out jobs, where jobs are carried out by services distributed over a network and where a job leads to a product, the system comprising: a pool of services, the services being distributed over a number of interconnected processing devices; specifying means for entering by a user a job specification comprising product specifications specifying the product to be delivered by the job and specifications specifying circumstantial constraints without effect on the product, in considering selection from the pool of services; determining means for determining a path of services, a path comprising at least two services, the services being selected from the pool of services, wherein the path is suitable to carry out the job in accordance with the product specifications, and wherein the determining means is operable to take into account circumstantial constraints for that job; user interface means for presenting the paths suitable to carry out the job; user interface means for, after the paths have been presented, enabling modification of the job specification by the user; and means for, upon modification of the job specification, involving the determining means again for determining a path of services, based on the modified job specification.