A hub-and-spoke communication arrangement is provided, in which the "hub" includes a server computer system. The "spokes" are other computers that act as message originators and/or destinations. All internal-to-external messages, and vice versa, are routed through the server computer system to reduce the number of proprietary connections needed between the internal and external entities. In addition, the server computer system provides protocol conversion, message payload conversion, encryption conversion, message broadcast, and/or message archival functionality, so that the "spoke" computers need not be concerned with providing such functionality on their own.