Patent ID: 7945498

Claim:
A method for facilitating business-to-business transactions between a plurality of members in a trading network comprising: connecting a clearinghouse to an enterprise resource planning computer system (ERP) associated with a first trading member of the network, wherein the enterprise resource planning computer system is configured to manage resources of the first trading member; receiving a purchase order for a product at the clearinghouse from the first trading member of the network and directed to a second member of the network; forwarding the purchase order from the clearinghouse to the second trading member of the network; receiving a shipping notice at the clearinghouse from the second trading member of the network directed to the first trading member for the product associated with the purchase order; forwarding the shipping notice from the clearinghouse to the first trading member of the network; receiving an invoice at the clearinghouse from the second trading member of the network for the product; and forwarding the invoice to the first trading member of the network; wherein the purchase order, the shipping notice, and the invoice are received at the clearinghouse in an extensible markup language (XML) formatted message.