An exchange infrastructure for message-based exchange and integration of a collection of heterogeneous software components is disclosed. The exchange infrastructure includes a repository for storing design-time collaboration descriptions of a plurality of software components, and a directory for storing configuration-specific collaboration descriptions of a runtime system landscape. The exchange infrastructure further includes a runtime engine configured for message-based exchange of information based on the configuration-specific collaboration descriptions. At runtime, the runtime engine receives messages, and resolves intended or required receivers based on message content and parameters provided by the configuration-specific collaboration descriptions from the directory.