Patent ID: 8401936

Claim:
A computer program product comprising application software encoded on a non-transitory, tangible machine-readable information medium, the application software being structured as process components interacting with each other through service interfaces, the software comprising: a plurality of process components, each of the process components being a package of software implementing a respective and distinct business process, the plurality of process components including: an expense and reimbursement management process component that involves management and monitoring of expenses incurred by employees, and reimbursement of such expenses to employees; a due item processing process component that involves collection, management, and monitoring of trade receivables or payables and corresponding sales tax or withholding tax; a payment processing process component that involves processing and management of all payments; a payroll processing process component that involves execution and monitoring of regular as well as off-cycle payroll processes; and an accounting process component that records all relevant business transactions for valuation and profitability analysis; and a plurality of service operations, each service operation being implemented for a respective process component, the operations comprising inbound and outbound operations, the outbound operation for a first process component being operable to send a message to a second process component of the plurality of process components, the second process component having an inbound operation for receiving the message, the passing of messages between an inbound and an outbound operation defining a message-based pair-wise interaction between the respective process components of the respective operations, the pair-wise interactions between pairs of the process components including interactions between: the expense and reimbursement management process component and the due item processing process component; a bank statement creation at bank process component and the payment processing process component; the due item processing process component and the accounting process component; the payment processing process component and a payment order processing at house bank process component; the expense and reimbursement management process component and the payroll processing process component; the expense and reimbursement management process component and the accounting process component; the payment processing process component and the accounting process component; and the due item processing process component and the payment processing process component; and a plurality of process agents, each process agent being either an inbound process agent or an outbound process agent, an inbound process agent being operable to receive a message from an inbound operation, an outbound process agent being operable to cause an outbound operation to send a message, and each process agent being associated with exactly one process component.