<p>Copyright TM Forum 2005<br/></p><p><br/></p><p><b>Extended Description</b><br/></p><p><br/></p><p>The purpose of the Mediate & Orchestrate Supplier/Partner Interactions is to ensure that transaction message structure and interactions conform to agreed, externally defined standards used by the enterprise and its suppliers/partners. Increasingly transactions with external parties (e.g. suppliers using RosettaNet or ebXML standards) will need to conform to message and data formats defined by third parties or third party organizations.  Based on the specific transaction type and involved external party, this conformance will require the identification of the necessary data formats to be sent externally, and conversion of externally received messages into the required internal enterprise formats.  In addition, interactions with external parties may require that messages and transactions need to be undertaken with defined and agreed orchestration for message exchange.  The actual agreement between the parties to use specific interaction standards is part of the Support S/P Interface Management and Manage Supplier/Partner Engagement L3s.<br/></p>