System and method for establishing eletronic business systems for supporting communications servuces commerce

• US 20060059107A1
• Filed: 03/30/2001
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetCracker Technology Corporation (NEC Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Convergys Corporation
• Inventors: Stephens, Paul, Kelly, Kevin, Hoeser, Vince, Pokotylo, Vadim, Rodriguez, Hal, Bakhru, Girish, Elmore, Kevin, Mabel, Mark, Kaake, Charles, Horne, Linda, Hom, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,657,436 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/64
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A comprehensive electronic business support system comprises three layers: (1) the business layer, including various smart components which unify data and business processes across all customer interactions; (2) the integration layer, including various communications messaging interfaces and enterprise application integration adpaters, which provide a flexible, automated, and process driven solution for integrating across business applications and operations support systems; and (3) the presentation layer, including various customer views, which are presented via particular business portals. A smart component server provides the core services and comprehensive business process logic required to successfully conduct business online. The communications messaging interfaces integrate with back-office systems for functions such as billing, provisioning, and interconnection.

Claims

1. An electronic business support system, comprising a smart component server, wherein said smart component server comprises:

a plurality of activity smart components, each of which performs a specific business logic;

a plurality of service smart components which provide common infrastructure capabilities required by said activity smart components;

a plurality of communications messaging interfaces that transport messages from said support system to external systems;

a plurality of transport adapters, which facilitate connectivity with external systems;

an administrator console, which is a Java-based tool that uses XML files to map object attributes to a database which is associated with said electronic business support system;

wherein said smart components are implemented as stateless session enterprise Java beans.

2. The electronic business support system of claim 1, wherein each of said activity smart components performs a communications-specific function.

3. The electronic business support system of claim 1, wherein said activity smart components comprise:

an offer management server, which provides services for creating and presenting a collection of offer instances;

a quote management server, which provides services for creating a quote upon placing said collection of offer instances into a shopping cart; and

an order management server, which provides services for creating an order upon quoting all quote items.

4. The electronic business support system of claim 3, further comprising:

a business rule management server, which provides services for defining and managing business rules that maintain valid relationships between objects.

5. The electronic business support system of claim 4, wherein said business rules are created in said administrator console using templates.

6. The electronic business support system of claim 4, wherein said business rules are invoked during a quote process.

7. The electronic business support system of claim 3, further comprising:

a shop management server, which provides services for directing users in on-line shopping process.

8. The electronic business support system of claim 3, further comprising:

a customer management server, which provides services for managing a customer, their accounts, and their communications-specific products in a hierarchical structure.

9. The electronic business support system of claim 3, further comprising:

a sales management server, which provides services for sales management and promotion on-line.

10. The electronic business support system of claim 3, further comprising:

an interaction management server, which provides services in support of interactions on-line.

11. The electronic business support system of claim 3, further comprising:

a profile management server, which provides services for creating and managing profiles on-line.

12. The electronic business support system of claim 3, further comprising:

a bill presentment management server, which provides services for presenting and managing bill points on-line.

13. The electronic business support system of claim 3, further comprising:

a payment management server, which provides services for making payments on-line.

14. The electronic business support system of claim 3, further comprising:

a trouble ticket server, which provides services for collecting and dispatching trouble tickets.

15. The electronic business support system of claim 3, further comprising:

a notice management server, which provides services for posting notices and targeting notices to specific customers.

16. The electronic business support system of claim 1, wherein said service smart components comprise:

a database access service, which includes a plurality of value objects and a data cursor service;

an interconnect service, which uses said communications messaging interfaces and said transport adapters connecting said activity smart components with external systems;

a security service, which uses standard Internet security protocols to ensure browser to server security and server to server security;

a logging service, which creates files that report on specific actions within the electronic business support system; and

a sequence service, which establishes default sequences for page flows;

wherein said value objects include domain objects, which represent a specific row in a database table, and display objects, which are containers that deliver attribute values to JSP pages.

17. The electronic business support system of claim 16, wherein said data cursor service is implemented as a stateful enterprise Java bean;

wherein said data cursor service creates a scrollable, read-only cursor; and

wherein said read-only cursor is used when a large result set from a query is expected.

18. The electronic business system of claim 16, wherein said logging service comprises:

a file logger, which sends information to a text file; and

a console logger, which sends information to a screen.

19. The electronic business system of claim 18, wherein said logging service allows adding loggers to meet individual business needs.

20. The electronic business system of claim 16, wherein said logging service maintains an XML file which specifies a list of values that are used to determine whether to log a message.

21. The electronic business system of claim 20, wherein said list of values includes a severity level of an event, an architectural area wherein said event occurs, and a functional stage wherein said event occurs.

22. The electronic business support system of claim 1, wherein each of said communications messaging interfaces is associated with a routing policy that dispatches said communications messaging interface to a particular transport adapter which is used to handle a particular message.

23. The electronic business support system of claim 22, wherein each of said communications messaging interfaces is mapped to a plurality of strategies.

24. The electronic business support system of claim 23, wherein said strategies include:

at least one source strategy that is used by said interconnect server to build up a payload message that is associated with one of said communications messaging interfaces before being dispatched to said transport adapter; and

at least one target strategy that is used to update said support system with data from inbound messages.

25. The electronic business support system of claim 1, wherein said communications messaging interfaces are associated with multiple transport adapters to send different messages.

26. The electronic business support system of claim 1, wherein said transport adapters comprise:

a file adapter, which prints out all information that it receives from a corresponding communications messaging interface;

a business rules adapter, which determines and displays valid attachment points in a quote process;

an electronic mail adapter, which sends electronic mail messages based on a corresponding communications messaging interface;

an enterprise application integration adapter, which facilitates connection between said electronic business support system with an external system; and

an open adapter, which is to be configured by the user according to a particular communications messaging interface.

27. The electronic business support system of claim 26, wherein said open adapter'"'"'s handlers are stubs that are used by a plurality of communications messaging interfaces.

28. The electronic business support system of claim 26, wherein said electronic mail adapter'"'"'s handlers determine who receives a particular electronic mail message and what template is used to create said message.

29. The electronic business support system of claim 26, wherein said enterprise application integration adapter is a stateless enterprise bean that runs within the electronic business support system'"'"'s process space;

and

wherein said enterprise application integration adapter uses source and target connection models that run within said external system'"'"'s process space to transmit data between the electronic business support system and said external system.

30. The electronic business support system of claim 29, wherein when a routing policy dispatches a communications messaging interface to said enterprise application integration adapter, a handler for said communications messaging interface creates an event;

and

wherein said event retains an association to the data referenced by said communications messaging interface.

31. The electronic business support system of claim 30, wherein said communications messaging interface comprises a plurality of objects that contain references to data which is to be sent as events into said external system.

32. The electronic business support system of claim 30, wherein said handler invokes a source connection model that populates an object with actual data and sends said object to said enterprise application integration adapter'"'"'s automator model.

33. The electronic business support system of claim 26, wherein said external system is Vitria BusinessWare.

41. An electronic business portal for the electronic business support system of claim 1, comprising:

a plurality of JSP pages for dynamic content in a Web site;

a plurality of display policy interfaces that access and manipulate data for display;

a Web session controller which maintains user session state;

a plurality of page transition policies which determine navigation logic through said Web site; and

a plurality of resource bundles which display values or messages corresponding to codes in constant classes.

42. The electronic business portal of claim 41, wherein said Web session controller is a servlet that provides load balancing through a session-level algorithm that weighs server load information and routes requests accordingly.

43. The electronic business portal of claim 42, wherein said Web session controller provides fail-over by replacing HTTP session information across nodes in a cluster and maintains session state via a cookie-based session identification.

44. The electronic business portal of claim 41, wherein said Web session controller describes the lifecycle of data, using a page scope which passes data back and forth between a page and a display policy;

and

wherein said page scope begins when a JSP starts rendering and expires when the JSP finishes rendering.

45. The electronic business portal of claim 41, wherein said Web session controller describes the lifecycle of data, using a request scope which passes data from transition policies to JSPs and display policies or passes data between parent and sub JSPs;

and

wherein said request scope begins with a browser request that passes in HTML form data, lives throughout the life of said request from a client, until the destination JSP is rendered and sent back to the browser.

46. The electronic business portal of claim 41, wherein said Web session controller describes the lifecycle of data, using a session scope which stores data between requests;

and

wherein said session scope is created when a user first makes a request to said Web session controller and is destroyed when the session times out.

47. The electronic business portal of claim 41, wherein said Web session controller describes the lifecycle of data, using an application scope which begins with a server startup and ends when the server is shut down.

48. The electronic business portal of claim 41, wherein said transition policies are Java files that contain navigation and validation logic.

49. The electronic business portal of claim 41, wherein said transition policies access the electronic business support system'"'"'s API to perform business logic.

34. A method for publishing events from an electronic business support system to an enterprise application integration adapter, comprising the steps of:

creating an automator model to handle an event that is associated with a particular communications messaging interface;

setting up a routing policy for said communications messaging interface;

creating a source connection model;

populating a source strategy and a publisher channel for said communications messaging interface; and

restarting the electronic business support system.

35. A method for updating an electronic business support system by subscribing events from an enterprise application integration adapter, comprising the steps of;

creating an automator model to handle an event that is associated with a particular communications messaging interface;

setting up a routing policy for said communications messaging interface;

creating a target connection model;

populating a target strategy and a subscriber channel for said communications messaging interface;

retrieving, by said automator model, the published event data;

publishing, by said automator model, a corresponding event to said subscriber channel; and

updating, by said target connection model, the electronic business support system.

36. A process for sending a message from an electronic business support system to external systems, said process comprises the steps of:

(a) calling a first method on an interconnect service with a communications messaging interface'"'"'s code value;

(b) returning, by said first method, an empty object for said communications messaging interface;

(c) calling a second method on said object with an object identifier and a fully qualified class name of a domain object that contains event information to be sent;

wherein said source strategy uses said event information to retrieve data for said message;

(d) calling a third method on said interconnect service with a reference to said object that is created in step (b);

(e) performing, by said interconnect service, a database lookup to determine a routing policy to be used for said communications messaging interface;

(f) if a default routing policy is used or if no policy is specified, sending said communications messaging interface to a file adapter with a default payload;

(g) if a generic routing policy is used, performing a database lookup in a table for generic policies to determine which adapter is used;

(h) if a vendor product policy is used, performing a database lookup in a table for vendor product policies to determine which adapter is used;

(i) performing a database lookup in a table for strategy policies to determine a source strategy to be used for said communications messaging interface and said payload;

(j) sending said message, by said file adapter, out to the external systems; and

(k) updating, by said interconnect service, said database.

37. The process of claim 36, wherein if a communications messaging interface has multiple entries, steps (e) through (k) are repeated.

38. A method for sending a communications messaging interface from the electronic business support system to an external system, comprising the steps of:

obtaining a reference to an enterprise Java bean of said interconnect service;

identifying a code that is associated with said communications messaging interface;

creating an object for said communications messaging interface;

adding event messages which are specific to said communications messaging interface; and

sending said communications messaging interface to said interconnect service.

39. A method for adding a new communications messaging interface for the electronic business support system, comprising the steps of:

confirming said communications messaging interface has not been defined in the electronic business support system;

giving a code which assigns a unique identification to said communications messaging interface;

adding said code and its corresponding routing policy class name to the database;

creating source and target strategies; and

making an entry for said communications messaging interface in the database.

40. A process for an electronic business support system to receive a message from external systems, said process comprises the steps of:

receiving, by a transport adapter, a message from an external system;

wherein said message includes a communications messaging interface code value, a communications messaging interface identification, and a payload type code;

calling, by said transport adapter, a first method on said interconnect service to build a communications messaging interface based on said code value;

returning, by said first method, an empty object for said communications messaging interface;

wherein said adapter populates said communications messaging interface with the needed data before proceeding to the next step;

calling, by said transport adapter, a second method on said interconnect service;

performing, by said interconnect service, a database lookup in a table for strategy policies to determine a target strategy to be used for said communications messaging interface and a given payload; and

calling, by said target strategy, a smart component server to update said support system.

50. A process for inserting a nested flow into a page flow at a transition point, comprising the steps of:

invoking, by a transition policy for an originating page, a method which passes the identification for the first page of said nested flow, the identification of said originating page of said page flow, and the identification for the destination page of said page flow to a Web session controller;

storing, by said Web session controller, said identifications;

directing, by said Web session controller, the user into said nested flow;

informing, by a transition directive on the last page of said nested flow, said Web session controller to re-execute the transition policy for said originating page; and

when the transition policy for said originating page is re-executed, directing, by said Web session controller, the user to said destination page of said page flow;

wherein said nested flow is a set of JSP pages representing a process that can be entered from multiple places within a portal.

51. The process of claim 50, further comprising the step of:

performing at least one business process on the last page of said nested flow before re-executing the transition policy for said originating page.

52. A method for preventing a user from repeating a transition in a page flow, comprising the steps of:

flagging a non-repeatable transition policy associated with a page; and

directing the user to a destination page;

wherein said destination page was determined during a prior execution of said non-repeatable transition policy.

53. A tag library that is used to introduce dynamic content into a Web page, comprising:

a first source tag, which retrieves a display object;

a second source tag which retrieves a list of display objects;

a third source tag which creates a list of bundle item objects;

a fourth source tag which creates any value object;

a fifth source tag which creates any list of value objects;

a first presentation tag which iterates through a list of objects and makes each object available through a scripting variable;

a second presentation tag which checks a user'"'"'s permissions;

a third presentation tag which displays JSP content when said first presentation tag determines the user has permission;

a fourth presentation tag which displays JSP content when said first presentation tag determines the user does not have permission; and

a fifth presentation tag which provides access to validation information created by a transition policy.

54. The tag library of claim 53, wherein said first presentation tag also provides a counter variable.

55. The tag library of claim 53, wherein each of said source tags invokes a corresponding display policy interface which is used to modify said source tag'"'"'s behavior.

56. The tag library of claim 53, wherein said first presentation tag invokes a corresponding display policy interface which is used to modify said presentation tag'"'"'s behavior.

57. A process for electronically dealing a client request, comprising the steps of:

receiving, by a Web session controller in an electronic business portal, a request;

performing, by said Web session controller, a database lookup to invoke a transition policy;

calling, by said transition policy, an activity smart component;

calling, by said activity smart component, a data access service to create and persist value objects;

passing control back to said transition policy;

returning, by said transition policy, control to said Web session controller;

resolving, by said Web session controller, page IID in the request to a URL;

invoking a corresponding JSP page;

invoking corresponding display policies; and

returning a dynamic page to the client via HTTP.

58. An electronic business support system, comprising a smart component

server, wherein said smart component server comprises:

a plurality of activity smart components which encapsulate

communications-specific functionality and business logic;

a plurality of service smart components which provide common infrastructure capabilities required by said activity smart components;

a plurality of communications messaging interfaces that transport messages from said support system to external systems;

a plurality of transport adapters, which facilitate connectivity with external systems;

an administrator console, which is a Java-based tool that uses XML files to map object attributes to a database which is associated with said electronic business support system;

wherein said activity smart components include an offer management server which enables a user to present an offer collection;

wherein said offer collection includes a set of determinants;

wherein each of said determinants is represented by a page which includes a plurality of determinant items; and

wherein each of said determinant items represents an offer on a determinant.

59. The electronic business support system of claim 58, wherein each offer instance is created by a user'"'"'s each selection of a determinant item to a temporary collection object;

wherein the user'"'"'s determination of all selections constitutes a collection of offer instances to be added in a shopping cart; and

wherein said offer collection has an associated sequence that establishes a default order in which said determinants are displayed within offer collection.

60. The electronic business support system of claim 58, wherein each of said determinants is selected from a group of determinant types comprising:

fixed type, which is used when a collection is fixed;

choose one type, which is used when the user must select one item from a list of items;

choose multiple type, which is used when the user can select more than one item; and

information request type, which is used to collect specific information form the user.

61. The electronic business support system of claim 58, wherein each of said determinant types corresponds to a specific JSP page whose transition policies provide functionality that is needed to create said offer collection.

62. The electronic business support system of claim 61, wherein said sequence may be overridden by an individual determinant item in a determinant if a next determinant to be displayed depends upon the selection of said individual determinant item.

70. The method of claim 60, wherein said sequence may be overridden by an individual determinant item in a determinant if a next determinant to be displayed depends upon the selection of said individual determinant item.

63. A method for providing an offer collection over the Internet, comprising the steps of:

presenting a set of determinants by pages, wherein each of said determinants is represented by a page which includes a plurality of determinant items, and wherein each of said determinant items represents an offer on a determinant;

adding each offer instance which is created by a user'"'"'s each selection of a determinant item to a temporary collection object; and

upon the user'"'"'s determination of all selections, placing a collection of offer instances in a shopping cart;

wherein said offer collection has an associated sequence that establishes a default order in which said determinants are displayed within offer collection.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein only one determinant is needed for said offer collection;

and wherein a composite of determinant items in said determinant is fixed.

65. The method of claim 63, wherein at least one of said determinant items includes a predetermined list of alternative items from which the user can make choices.

66. The method of claim 65, wherein said offer instances are associated with each other.

67. The method of claim 65, wherein said offer instances are not associated with each other.

68. The method of claim 63, wherein each of said determinants is selected from a group of determinant types comprising:

fixed type, which is used when a collection is fixed;

choose one type, which is used when the user must select one item from a list of items;

choose multiple type, which is used when the user can select more than one item; and

information request type, which is used to collect specific information from the user.

69. The method of claim 68, wherein each of said determinant types corresponds to a specific JSP page whose transition policies provide functionality that is needed to create said offer collection.

71. The method of claim 64, wherein all offer instances associated with said composite of determinant items are transitioned together.

72. The method of claim 66, wherein an association between two offer instances is established by a transition which allows the user to upgrade from one offer instance associated with an assigned product to another predetermined offer.

73. An electronic business support system, comprising a smart component server, wherein said smart component server comprises:

a plurality of activity smart components which encapsulate communications-specific functionality and business logic;

a plurality of service smart components which provide common infrastructure capabilities required by said activity smart components;

a plurality of communications messaging interfaces that transport messages from said support system to external systems;

a plurality of transport adapters, which facilitate connectivity with external systems;

an administrator console, which is a Java-based tool that uses XML files to map object attributes to a database which is associated with said electronic business support system; and

wherein said smart component server organizes billing point objects and assigned product objects on an object hierarchy, said object hierarchy comprising;

a root object, which is created during registration;

a plurality of billing point objects, each of which is associated with said root object; and

a plurality of assigned product objects, each of which is associated with one of said billing point objects;

wherein each of said billing point object stores all information that is needed for billing purposes;

wherein each of said assigned product objects is associated with an offer instance that is created by the user'"'"'s selection of said product from a determinant; and

wherein each of said objects has a specific object state that is maintained by said smart component server through API calls to a particular smart component.

74. The electronic business support system of claim 73, wherein said root object may be either in a pending state, which indicates that a request to add a new root or modifying an existing root is a process, or in an active state, which indicates that a request to add a new root or modifying an existing root has been approved.

75. The electronic business support system of claim 73, wherein said root object holds a set of information comprising:

price group identity, which determines what products are available to a customer or a partner and at what price;

logo URL, which is a link to where a logo for a customer or a partner can be stored and then displayed on a portal page;

document URL, which is a link to where external documents regarding a customer or partner can be kept; and

unique authorization identity of a customer or a partner.

76. The electronic business support system of claim 73, wherein each of said assigned product objects has an object state that is selected from a group of state types comprising:

not ordered, which indicates a product is in a shop process but has not yet been ordered;

pending, which indicates that an action on a product is not complete;

rejected, which indicates that a product is not provisioned due to an error or unresolved issue;

provisioned, which indicates that a process for provisioning a product is complete;

unprovisioned, which indicates that a process for unprovisioning a product is complete;

suspended, which indicates that a service on a product is still active and its charges can be invoiced, but no modifications can be made to said product; and

canceled, which indicates that any pending action on a product is canceled.

77. The electronic business support system of claim 73, wherein each of said assigned product objects is either a provisioned product object or a composite product object;

wherein said provisioned product object has a subscriber relationship upon which an account that said provisioned product is assigned to is charged on a periodic basis; and

wherein said composite product object represents a group of products that are ordered as a bundle.

78. The electronic business support system of claim 73, wherein said object hierarchy can be displayed by category of summary point type.

79. An electronic business support system, comprising a smart component server, wherein said smart component server comprises:

a plurality of activity smart components which encapsulate communications-specific functionality and business logic;

a plurality of service smart components which provide common infrastructure capabilities required by said activity smart components;

a plurality of communications messaging interfaces that transport messages from said support system to external systems;

a plurality of transport adapters, which facilitate connectivity with external systems;

an administrator console, which is a Java-based tool that uses XML files to map object attributes to a database which is associated with said electronic business support system;

wherein said activity smart components include a quote management server which enables a user to create a quote upon placing a collection of offer instances into a shopping cart;

wherein each offer instance is associated with a quote item;

wherein each quote item is associated with the root object in a current object hierarchy in a session;

wherein said quote management server displays charges for all items in said quote; and

wherein said quote has a specific quote state that is maintained by said smart component server via API calls to said quote management server.

80. The electronic business support system of claim 79, wherein said object state for a quote is selected from a group of state types comprising:

new, which indicates that a quote is created;

pending configuration, which indicates that at least one quote item has not yet been completely configured;

configured, which indicates that all quote items are completely configured;

quoted, which indicates that all quote items are completely configured and contain all the information that is needed to order an entire quote;

expired, which indicates that a quote has expired and can no longer be ordered;

pending approval, which indicates that a quote cannot be completed until al least one requirement is met;

canceled, which indicates that the user canceled a quote;

rejected, which indicates that requirements for approval were not met; and

completed, which indicates that a quote has been ordered.

81. The electronic business support system of claim 79, wherein each quote item has a specific object state that is maintained by said smart component server via API calls to said quote management server;

and

wherein said object state for a quote item is selected from a group of state types comprising;

removed, which indicates that a quote item has been removed from said quote;

pending configuration, which indicates that a quote item is not completely configured;

configured, which indicates that a quote item is completely configured;

expired, which indicates that either the offer associated with an quote item has expired or the quote that said quote item is associated with has expired;

canceled, which indicates that the quote that a quote item is associated with has been canceled;

completed, which indicates that a quote item has been ordered;

replaced, which indicates that a quote item has been replaced by another quote item through a supplemental order;

supplemental cancel, which indicates that a quote item was canceled through a supplemental order; and

supplemental complete, which indicates that a quote item cannot be changed through a supplemental order.

82. The electronic business support system of claim 79, wherein said quote can be held for a predetermined amount of time before it expires.

83. The electronic business support system of claim 82, wherein if a price for the determinant item that is represented by a quote item changes while a quote is held, the offer instance that is associated with said quote item retains an association with the price at the time that said offer instance was created.

84. The electronic business support system of claim 83, wherein if an offer itself expires while a quote is held, the offer instance that is associated with said offer remains valid for said quote.

85. The electronic business support system of claim 79, wherein a number of values for each offer instance may be automatically populated during the transition from shopping cart to quote by using a plug-in;

and wherein said plug-in is a dynamically deployed algorithm that can be implemented to perform a specific task.

86. The electronic business support system of claim 85, wherein an attachment point plug-in is used to attach assigned products;

and wherein said plug-in, by default, attaches all assigned products to an account.

87. The electronic business support system of claim 85, wherein a parameter plug-in is used to set values for a parameter;

and wherein said plug-in, by default, accepts values set as default for said parameter.

88. The electronic business support system of claim 85, wherein a service identifier plug-in is used;

and wherein said plug-in, by default, obtains a next available service identifier.

89. The electronic business support system of claim 85, wherein a service address plug-in is used to set an address at which an item will be provisioned;

and wherein said plug-in, by default, adopts the address associated with the root object with which said quote is also associated.

90. The electronic business support system of claim 79, wherein when several of the same determinant item are purchased, a number of values may be automatically populated from one quote item to all quote items that are associated with the same determinant item by using a plug-in.

91. The electronic business support system of claim 90, wherein an attachment point plug-in is used to attach assigned products.

92. The electronic business support system of claim 90, wherein a parameters plug-in is used to set all parameter values to match the parameter values for the original quote item.

93. The electronic business support system of claim 90, wherein a service identifier plug-in is used to obtain a next available service identifier.

94. The electronic business support system of claim 90, wherein a service address plug-in is used to copy the service address that is associated with the original quote item.

95. The electronic business support system of claim 90, wherein a shipping address plug-in is used to copy the shipping address that is associated with the original quote item.

96. The electronic business support system of claim 90, wherein a requested date plug-in is used to copy the requested provisioning date of the original quote item.

97. An electronic business support system, comprising a smart component

server, wherein said smart component server comprises:

a plurality of activity smart components which encapsulate communications-specific functionality and business logic;

a plurality of service smart components which provide common infrastructure capabilities required by said activity smart components;

a plurality of communications messaging interfaces that transport messages from said support system to external systems;

a plurality of transport adapters, which facilitate connectivity with external systems;

an administrator console, which is a Java-based tool that uses XML files to map object attributes to a database which is associated with said electronic business support system;

wherein said activity smart components include an order management server which enables a user to create an order upon quoting all quote items;

wherein each of said quote items is associated with an order item;

wherein said order is associated with the same hierarchy root object in a session as the user is associated with; and

wherein said order has a specific object state that is maintained by said smart component server via API calls to said order management server.

98. The electronic business support system of claim 97, wherein said object state for an order is selected from a group of state types consisting of:

new, which indicates that a quote is ordered;

pending dispatch, which indicates that all order items are created;

dispatched, which indicates that an order is dispatched to a provisioning system;

completed, which indicates that an order is provisioned;

rejected, which indicates that an order is rejected;

pending cancellation, which indicates that a request is submitted to cancel an order; and

supplemented, which indicates that a user changed an order by creating a supplemental order.

99. The electronic business support system of claim 97, wherein each order item has a specific object state that is maintained by said smart component server via API calls to said order management server;

and

wherein said object state for an order item is selected from a group of state types consisting of;

new, which indicates that a quote item is ordered and is now an order item;

dispatched, which indicates that an order item is dispatched to a provisioning system;

completed, which indicates that an order item is provisioned;

rejected, which indicates that an order item is rejected;

pending cancellation, which indicates that a request is submitted to cancel an order;

canceled, which indicates that an order item is canceled; and

supplemented, which indicates that an order has been replaced by an order which is created through a supplemental quote.

100. A process for submitting a supplemental order according to claim 99, comprising the steps of:

creating a new quote which is populated with copies of each order item from the original order; and

determining, by a supplemental order plug-in, which order items are eligible for supplement;

wherein said plug-in, by default, only allows the order items that are in state dispatched to be supplemented;

changing determined items; and

submitting the supplemental order.

101. The process of claim 100, wherein the step of changing determined items comprises a plurality of actions, each of which is selected from a group of action types comprising:

reconfiguring, which allows certain values to be changed;

replacing, which allows for substitution of an existing order item with a new item; and

canceling, which moves an item to state canceled.

102. The process of claim 100, further comprising the steps of:

adding the items that were not eligible for supplement to the supplemental order;

adding any replacement items to the supplemental order;

adding any reconfigured items to the supplemental order;

moving the quote for the supplemental order to state complete, whereby said quote becomes inactive; and

moving the original order and all its order items to the state supplemented, whereby the original order becomes in active and the supplemental order becomes active.

103. The process of claim 102, further comprising the step of:

before adding any reconfigured items to the supplemental order, running said supplemental order plug-in again to ensure that the original items that were reconfigured are still eligible for supplement;

wherein if any item fails this check, an exception is thrown, an error displayed, and the entire supplemental order is rolled back.

104. The process of claim 100, further comprising the step of:

validating, by a business rule adapter, all quote items that are associated with said new quote against all business rules; and

wherein if any quote item relationship violates a business rule, a warning is displayed.

105. A method for creating a supplemental order according to claim 99, comprising the steps of:

creating a new quote which is populated with copies of each order item from the original order; and

determining, by a supplemental order plug-in, which order items are eligible for supplement;

wherein said plug-in, by default, only allows the order items that are in state dispatched to be supplemented;

changing determined items; and

submitting the supplemental order.

106. The method of claim 105, wherein the step of changing determined items comprises a plurality of actions, each of which is selected from a group of action types comprising:

reconfiguring, which allows certain values to be changed;

replacing, which allows for substitution of an existing order item with a new item; and

canceling, which moves an item to state canceled.

107. The method of claim 106, further comprising the steps of:

adding the items that were not eligible for supplement to the supplemental order, adding any replacement items to the supplemental order;

adding any reconfigured items to the supplemental order;

moving the quote for the supplemental order to state complete, whereby said quote becomes inactive; and

moving the original order and all its order items to the state supplemented, whereby the original order becomes in active and the supplemental order becomes active.

108. The method of claim 107, further comprising the step of:

running said supplemental order plug-in again to ensure that the original items that were reconfigured are still eligible for supplement before adding any reconfigured items to the supplemental order; and

wherein if any item fails this check, an exception is thrown, an error displayed, and the entire supplemental order is rolled back.