1. A system for receiving, processing and sending business transaction information, wherein said information is part of a business transaction application, comprising: a plurality of distributed gateways, wherein each gateway can receive transaction information from another gateway, can process transaction information, and send transaction information to another gateway, said transaction information being communicated by a gateway using a shared common data structure, wherein said shared common data structure is based on a domain specific normative data model configured to generate normative transaction information, wherein each gateway has one or more associated local client application devices to which the gateway can send transaction information and from which the gateway can receive transaction information, using one or more local data formats, wherein each gateway is configured to transform the transaction information in the one or more local data formats into one or more common data structures, and to transform the one or more common data structures into the one or more local data formats, wherein the gateway can complete a transaction, said transaction being part of a business transaction application, by processing the transaction information and by sending or receiving transaction information to an associated local application device; wherein each gateway comprises a message processing module configured to generate a gateway message comprising the transaction information by providing an envelope for the normative transaction information, wherein the envelope of the normative transaction information identifies a transaction type; wherein customized processes are associated with one or more transactions; and wherein the transaction information contains information about what standard processes and what customized processes, from a plurality of processes, are to be processed to execute the transaction represented by the transaction information.