[Zope] cmf's suitability for complex, customised workflows

[Raja Subramanian]

Hi,

I'm looking at designing a workflow management system using zope.

I've had a look at CMF and from what I can tell, it seems to be very
useful in designing workflows for web portal sites like in Plone.
But I fear that I'm looking for something more than web publishing.

My workflow involves -
  1. receiving input articles (MS Word docs, text, etc) through ftp
  2. some 14 stages of processing using various Win32/Mac apps
  3. each processing stage done by dedicated well defined teams
  4. extensive report generation and activity logs
  5. hold associated meta information (emails, other tidbits) with
     every article

The output of one stage has to flow into the next.  Task queueing,
prioritising, etc are essential for intelligent workflow scheduling.
I don't find these features in Openflow/DCWorkflow/etc so I think I'm
better off developing a customised zope product to suit my requirements.

Is it easy to customise CMF to suit arbitrary workflows such as mine?
Will I have any advantages if I build my Zope product using CMF over
vanilla Zope?

Can someone throw any light into this issue?

- Raja