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From Contracts to E-Contracts: Modeling and Enactment

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Abstract

Contracts are complex to understand, represent and process electronically. Usually, contracts involve various entities such as parties, activities and clauses. An e-contract is a contract modeled, specified, executed and enacted (controlled and monitored) by a software system (such as a workflow system). Workflows are used to automate business processes that govern adherence to the e-contracts. E-contracts can be mapped to inter-related workflows, which have to be specified carefully to satisfy the contract requirements. Most workflow models do not have the capabilities to handle complex inter/intra relationships among entities in e-contracts. An e-contract does not adhere to activity/task oriented workflow processes, thus generating a gap between a conceptual model of e-contract and workflow. In this paper, we describe conceptual modeling of e-contracts and present a business process model for e-contract enactment. The enactment of e-contracts necessitates dynamic generation and initiation of workflows during the e-contract execution, besides the static workflows. EREC business process model facilitates an integrated approach to e-contracts enactment. Our methodology is illustrated by means of a case study conducted using Financial Messaging Solution contract for banking transactions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology, Castle Hills, Masab Tank, Hyderabad, 500057, India

    P. Radha Krishna & A. R. Dani

  2. International Institute of Information Technology, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, 50019, India

    Kamalakar Karlapalem

Authors
  1. P. Radha Krishna
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  2. Kamalakar Karlapalem
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  3. A. R. Dani
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Correspondence to P. Radha Krishna.

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Krishna, P.R., Karlapalem, K. & Dani, A.R. From Contracts to E-Contracts: Modeling and Enactment. Inf Technol Manage 6, 363–387 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10799-005-3901-z

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