Abstract: System and method for receiving inbound messages from external systems and delivering the messages to applications within application servers are described. Embodiments may provide implementations of a Receiver-Processor-Dispatcher (RPD) architecture for inbound connectors that segments the work of delivering inbound messages from an Enterprise Information System (EIS) to an application into the discrete stages of receiving messages from the EIS, processing the messages to determine which components in the application should receive the messages, and dispatching the messages to the components. The delivery of messages from an EIS to an application is performed by receiver, processor, and dispatcher components of an RPD connector. RPD connectors implemented according to the RPD architecture may provide a common framework for delivering messages from an EIS to an application.