The principal asset of an enterprise is its workforce, and a key factor dis
tinguishing the successful enterprising of the forthcoming millennium is th
e empowerment of its staff in pursuit of corporate goals. While the more ro
utine tasks will become totally automated, There will also be an increased
use of IT to amplify the abilities of knowledge workers as individuals and
members of collaborative teams. These teams are likely to be much more vola
tile than at present, being convened for specific purposes and disbanding o
nce the purpose is achieved. Individuals may simultaneously belong to sever
al teams, and may play different roles in each of these. This view of the f
uture poses challenging requirements of the supporting software infrastruct
ure. Many support applications for virtual teams share similar fundamental
requirements for core services, such as information management, co-ordinati
on and collaborative working. This paper proposes an approach to constructi
on of collaborative systems in which a model is used to describe user inter
action with core services within an application context. This model then dr
ives a run-time enactment service which provides integrated and customisati
on of core services for team members, and enhances the ability of the softw
are to evolve over time as requirements change. An experimental model-based
collaborative system was built according to this approach, and applied to
a virtual team scenario based on a BT business process for provision of quo
tations for network services. Evaluation trials were encouraging and demons
trated both the feasibility and the usability of the approach, particularly
design of collaborative systems with end users.