Abstract
The practice of optimising business processes has, until recently, been undertaken mainly as a manual task. This paper provides insight s into a n automated business process optimisation framework by using web services for the development of re - configurable business processes. The research presented here extends the framework of Vergidis (2008) by introducing web services as a mechanism for facilitating business process interactions, identifying enhancements to support business processes and undertaking three case studies to evaluate the proposed enhancements. The featured case studies demonstrate that an increase in the amount of available web services gives rise to improvements in the business processes generated. This research highlights an increase in the efficiency of the algorithm and the quality of the business proc ess designs that result from the enhancements . Future research directio ns are proposed for the further improvement of the framework