International Business Machines Corporation

Heiko H Ludwig

Luke James O'Connor

Keith Whittingham

A Transaction Authorization Method operating over a computer network comprising a plurality of interconnected computers and a plurality of resources, each computer including a processor, memory and input/output devices, each resource operatively coupled to at least one of the computers and executing at least one of the activities in the process flow, the method characterized in that it assembles an electronic authorization of a transaction in a manner which is verifiable by extracting and verifying whether role certificates of at least one type, associated with the authorization, are themselves authentic. The method eliminates the need of having to authorize each and every signature on a transaction individually by providing an authorization structure based on roles, this structure being accessible on a public network for verification that the transaction is authorized.

Method for inter-enterprise role-based authorization

A method and a computer network for interconnecting a first server computer () of a service requestor () and a second server computer () of a service provider (), each of the first server computer () and the second server computer () being connected to at least one client computer (), the first server computer () running a first workflow management system application (), and the second server computer () running a second workflow management system application (), the method comprising providing a first and a second connector application () for permitting the first server computer () access to a copy of the first connector application () and for permitting the second server computer () access to a copy of the second connector application (), wherein the copies of the first and the second connector application () each comprises a connection agreement () for a first work task () of a first workflow instance () encompassed by the first workflow management system application ().

Growing community of inventors

Zurich, Switzerland

Heiko H Ludwig