Patent ID: 8667017

Claim:
A method for collaborative management of a process, comprising: accessing a portal server coupled to one or more external data sources and configured using a configuration database, said configuration database including linking information to the external data sources; providing a data access subsystem at the portal server for retrieving and sending data in substantially real-time between a browser client at the portal server and the external data sources of the information, wherein the portal server delivers information defined using one or more data handlers through the portal server to the browser client; electronically creating at least one declaration representative of the data collected at the external sources, said declaration containing information relating to one or more characteristics of an equipment unit involved in effecting the process; electronically creating, at least partially based upon the information contained within the declaration, at least one instruction defining the operating requirements of the equipment unit; electronically capturing, by an electronic dispatch and logging communications application, at least one of the declaration and the instruction between a first operation having capacity information and a second operation having load demands; and challenging, at the portal, a user updated declaration before communicating to a dispatcher and, in response to the portal challenge being accepted by the user, recording, at the portal, all parameters in the declaration and the date/time at which the updated declaration was sent and setting a declaration status to “not acknowledge” for the dispatcher to acknowledge within a defined time out period.