Patent ID: 7155455

Claim:
A method for sharing business information in a network, the network having users, users comprising individuals from at least one small-to-medium enterprise (SME) having SME supply chain data, the method comprising: establishing a plurality of user access profiles visible over a communications network, one user access profile per user; establishing at least one SME client process, each SME client process: in communication with: at least one SME supply chain data system and the communications network; and operative upon user direction, in accordance with the access profiles, to perform at least one of: access SME supply chain data, translate SME supply chain data from a native format to a common format, and transmit common format SME supply chain data via the at least one communications network; establishing, for each SME client process, a SME host process, the SME host process: in communication with the communications network; operative upon user direction, for the corresponding SME and in accordance with the access profiles, to perform at least one of: receive the common format supply chain data, and respond to queries of received common format supply chain data.