Patent ID: 8140345

Claim:
A multi-enterprise collaborating network comprising: one or more client computers programmed to perform a business process between one or more other client computers via one or more communication links; a business application associated with each of the one or more client computers, the business application comprising: a version identifier associated with a version of the business application; a business process module stored in the one or more client computers and programmed to generate one or more business messages associated with performing the business process; an identification module stored in the one or more client computers and programmed to determine, based on the version identifier associated the version of the business application used by each of the one or more client computers: a client computer of the one or more client computers that maintains a higher level version of the business application, and a client computer of the one or more client computers that maintains a lower level version of the business application; and instructions stored in the one or more client computers for selecting the client computer of the one or more client computers that maintains a higher level version of the business application to execute the business process in a manner supported by the lower level version of the business application.