Enterlink conductor for providing a federated business to business system that interconnects applications of multiple companies

1. A federated system with state comprising:

a. a bus;

b. consolidated data stores, connected to the bus;

c. means for core services, connected to the bus;

d. means for public process applications, connected to the bus;

e. a plurality of private process connectors, each connected to the bus and each adapted to connect with a private process application of a participant; and

f. a web connection, connected to the bus and adapted to connect to third party services,

wherein

the consolidated data stores contain retail automotive industry data including:

a. an operational data store; and

b. a data warehouse for automobile service, automobile parts, and automobile customers,

the core services include:

a. management of participant trading agreements;

b. public process application integration;

c. integration of private process applications to public processes;

d. metachannel support and directory;

e. data transformation; and

f. internal business support functions, including monitoring and billing,

the public process applications include:

a. a warranty workflow application;

b. a parts management application;

c. a service scheduling application;

d. a service history application; and

e. an inventory management application,

the private process connectors include:

a. a dealer management system connector;

b. a dealer communication system connector;

c. an automobile manufacturer internal system connector; and

d. a finance company internal system connector,

the participants include:

a. automobile consumers;

b. automobile manufacturers;

c. government entities;

d. automobile exchanges; and

e. external data suppliers,

the connectors comprise:

a. an application specific interface;

b. a translation layer; and

c. an interface specific to the bus,

the third party services comprise:

a. automotive finance;

b. lead management;

c. automotive research;

d. insurance; and

e. parts locator, and

the bus comprises

a. a physical bus, with a plurality of channels;

b. a metachannel for connecting channels to each other;

c. a plurality of compound processes that interact with the plurality of channels and the metachannel;

d. a first process engine to facilitate the reading of messages from, and the writing of messages to channels;

e. a metachannel engine to control the interactions with the metachannel;

f. a metachannel repository that stores process services available to a plurality of applications;

g. a singular process model to identify the steps to be taken by a singular public process engine for processing a singular public process; and

h. a conductor that interacts with the compound processes to process the messages,

wherein the conductor comprises:

a. a second process engine that executes compound processes;

b. a compound process repository that stores compound processes;

c. a process engine user interface to monitor and manage the second process engine;

d. a conductor engine that controls the operation of the second process engine;

e. a conductor repository that stores participant objects and relationship objects; and

f. a conductor user interface to monitor and manage the conductor engine.

2. A federated system with state comprising:

a. a bus, wherein one element of the bus is a conductor comprising:

i. a second process engine that executes compound processes;

ii. a compound process repository that stores compound processes;

iii. a process engine user interface to monitor and manage the second process engine;

iv. a conductor engine that controls the operation of the second process engine;

v. a conductor repository that stores participant objects and relationship objects; and

vi. a conductor user interface to monitor and manage the conductor engine;

b. consolidated data stores, connected to the bus;

c. means for core services, connected to the bus;

d. means for public process applications, connected to the bus;

e. a plurality of private process connectors, each connected to the bus and each adapted to connect with a private process application of a participant; and

f. a web connection, connected to the bus and adapted to connect to third party services.

3. The system in claim 2 where the consolidated data stores contain retail automotive industry data including:

a. an operational data store; and

b. a data warehouse for automobile service, automobile parts, and automobile customers.

4. The system in claim 2 , where the core services further include:

a. management of participant trading agreements;

b. public process application integration;

c. integration of private process applications to public processes;

d. metachannel support and directory;

e. data transformation; and

f. internal business support functions, including monitoring and billing.

5. The system in claim 2 , where the public process applications include:

a. a warranty workflow application;

b. a parts management application;

c. a service scheduling application;

d. a service history application; and

e. an inventory management application.

6. The system in claim 2 , where the private process connectors include:

a. a dealer management system connector;

b. a dealer communication system connector;

c. an automobile manufacturer internal system connector; and

d. a finance company internal system connector.

7. The system in claim 2 , where the participants include:

a. automobile consumers;

b. automobile manufacturers;

c. government entities;

d. automobile exchanges; and

e. external data suppliers.

8. The system of claim 2 where the third party services comprise:

a. automotive finance;

b. lead management;

c. automotive research;

d. insurance; and

e. parts locator.

9. The system of claim 2 where the public process applications are selected from the group comprising automotive retail applications.

10. The system of claim 2 , wherein the connectors comprise:

a. an application specific interface;

b. a translation layer; and

c. an interface specific to the bus.

11. The system of claim 2 , where the private process application is selected from the group comprising automotive retail applications.

12. The system of claim 2 where the third party services are selected from the group comprising automotive retail services.

13. The system of claim 2 where the participants are selected from the group comprising participants in the automotive retail industry.

14. The system of claim 2 where the consolidated data store is selected from the group comprising data sources used in the automotive retail industry.

15. The system of claim 2 where the public processes comprise singular public processes and compound public processes.

16. The system of claim 2 where the private process applications read messages from and write messages to channels.

17. The system of claim 2 , wherein the bus further comprises a metachannel for connecting channels to each other.

18. The system of claim 2 , wherein the bus further comprises a plurality of compound processes that interact with a plurality of channels and a metachannel.

19. The system of claim 2 , wherein the bus further comprises a first process engine to facilitate the reading of messages from, and the writing of messages to channels.

20. The system of claim 2 , wherein the bus further comprises a metachannel engine to control the interactions with a metachannel.

21. The system of claim 2 , wherein the bus further comprises a metachannel repository that stores process services available to a plurality of applications.

22. The system of claim 2 , wherein the bus further comprises a singular process model to identify the steps to be taken by a singular public process engine for processing a singular public process.

23. The system of claim 2 , wherein the conductor interacts with a plurality of compound processes to process messages.

24. The system of claim 2 , wherein the core services comprise presentation, connectivity, workflow, data, and hosting.

25. A bus comprising

a. a physical bus, with a plurality of channels;

b. a metachannel for connecting channels to each other;

c. a plurality of compound processes that interact with the plurality of channels and the metachannel;

d. a first process engine to facilitate the reading of messages from, and the writing of messages to channels;

e. a metachannel engine to control the interactions with the metachannel;

f. a metachannel repository that stores process services available to a plurality of applications;

g. a singular process model to identify the steps to be taken by a singular public process engine for processing a singular public process; and

h. a conductor that interacts with the compound processes to process the messages, wherein the conductor comprises

a. a second process engine that executes compound processes;

b. a compound process repository that stores compound processes;

c. a process engine user interface to monitor and manage the second process engine;

d. a conductor engine that controls the operation of the second process engine;

e. a conductor repository that stores participant objects and relationship objects; and

f. a conductor user interface to monitor and manage the conductor engine.