Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for managing the versioning of business objects, such as contracts, advertisements, auction listings and RFQs. A state machine is used to represent a business process and manages the versioning of business objects associated with the business process. The present invention manages the original business object, the new version of the object, and any business objects that depend on the modified business object, if necessary. The business object remains in an active state during the modification process, until the new version of the business object is available. The new version of the business object remains in an inactive state during the modification process. The new version of the business object is transferred to an active state and the original business object is transferred to an inactive state when the modification is complete (e.g., when the modified business object is approved).

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for maintaining membership lists associated with given states of a state machine. The present invention uses a state machine to represent a business process. The state machine includes a plurality of states, and at least one state includes an entry action that is executed upon entering the state. A user group list can be accessed and processed using the entry action. When an object enters a state, the corresponding entry action may be executed. The entry action will obtain the membership group name from the corresponding state definition. If the field is not null, then the business process manager queries the membership subsystem to obtain a list of individuals who belong to that membership group name for the organization which owns the object. Only those users are notified that the object is awaiting approval and are therefore designated as the preferred approvers for this object.

Abstract: This invention involves an electronic catalog system which employs the knowledge and experience of a "Sales Agent", which is provided to a computer data base, and used with an inference engine to assist and guide actual customers to products that they will most likely be interested in purchasing. This system is employs hypothetical questions and answers, based on the sales agents experience with generic customers, as well as criteria and constraints provided by both the Sales Agent and the electronic catalog content.