Abstract: A trading information exchange system includes a gateway allowing access of suppliers and retailer workstations and retailer systems to a backbone sub-system. An application layer interacts with a work flow engine via a supporting framework and a commerce platform. The latter have direct access to the gateway for monitoring supplier and retailer accesses and to the database for logging purposes. Collaborative applications comprise a timer program interacting with a work queue in the work flow engine. The timer program operates on a test-and-wait or a test-and-return basis. A community management function interacts with the work flow engine to define roles and the roles are linked with activities in process nodes. Each process node comprises an activity, case packet item variables, and rules defining routing of the activities to the work queues.