Patent ID: 7366772

Claim:
A method for exposing transaction status in a supply chain having disparate systems, comprising: a trading partner exchange electronically receiving an order notification corresponding to an order created by a first trading partner system, said received order notification being associated with a first trading partner system identifier, said created order defining a transaction between a customer and a first trading partner; responsive to receiving the order notification, the trading partner exchange automatically assigning a unique transaction identifier to the transaction; the trading partner exchange electronically receiving at least one activity notification of an activity performed by at least a second trading partner system, the at least one activity notification describing an action of a second trading partner corresponding to the transaction and being associated with a second trading partner system identifier, wherein said first trading partner system and said at least second trading partner system are disparate systems that jointly define a transaction processing chain; responsive to receiving the activity notification, the trading partner exchange automatically associating said unique transaction identifier to said second trading partner system identifier; the trading partner exchange linking said unique transaction identifier to said order notification and said at least one activity notification and, wherein cross referencing the first and second trading partner system identifiers using the unique transaction identifier provides a status of the transaction at a point in the transaction processing chain; the trading partner exchange electronically reporting status of the transaction via an integrated access interface; providing the first, the second, or another trading partner access to transaction analysis information electronically generated by the trading partner exchange based upon said unique transaction identifier, said order notification, and said at least one activity notification; providing access to transaction tracking information to a customer who initiated the order while denying the customer access to the transaction analysis information, said transaction tracking information electronically generated by the trading partner exchange based upon said unique transaction identifier, said order notification, and said at least one activity notification; formatting at least one of said transaction analysis information and said transaction tracking information in response to selecting one of a plurality of communication channels for conveying information, said formatting corresponding to a particular one of the plurality of communication channels selected.