| The proposed work suggests the development of a software framework capable of materialising an efficient and responsive extended enterprise, joining all trading partners, including customers, suppliers, factories and warehouses. The ultimate objective of the framework is to offer the potential for strategic alliances in a pan-European level in order to retain or increase the market share of European maritime and related enterprises. The proposed research aspires to provide the means, which will 'spark' the development of a high tech manufacturing and supply chain mechanism fully incorporated in the European maritime and transportation infrastructure. The proposed architecture will be based on the operation of a set of intelligent Internet enabled agents, providing highly innovative near real time decision support functions for a set of critical maritime business processes, which have not yet been addressed by software industry yet. |