Patent ID: 7437731

Claim:
A method for obtaining and providing status information for items exchanged between a plurality of heterogeneous applications, the method comprising: receiving, at a centralized integration system that resides external to the plurality of heterogeneous applications between which items are to be exchanged, a particular item being transmitted from a first application in the plurality of heterogeneous applications, the particular item being transmitted for delivery to one or more other applications in the plurality of heterogeneous applications; at the centralized integration system, executing two or more conversion operations on the particular item in order to convert the particular item from a first format of the first application to one or more formats for the one or more other applications; wherein each conversion operation of the two or more conversion operations corresponds to a different phase of a multi-phase operation than each other conversion operation of the two or more conversion operations; within the centralized integration system, tracking a conversion status of the particular item while the particular item moves through the different phases of the multi-phase operation; determining the conversion status of the multi-phase operation relative to the particular item after a duration has elapsed from when the particular item was received based on which of the two or more conversion operations have been performed on the particular item during that duration; and storing data that indicates said conversion status in a volatile or non-volatile memory.