The production of an open access publication is a complex process that requires consideration of aspects of project, business and workflow management. These workflows and processes were described in abstract terms in the predecessor project OA-HVerlag, while the OA-STRUKTKOMM project derived the data flows within the IT infrastructures. Building on the results of the previous projects, the OA-WFMS joint project aimed to analyse the business processes and workflows in university and college publishing houses involved in the production of open access publications together with stakeholders from academia and practice, and to derive requirements for suitable workflow management systems (WFMS) from this analysis. The conceptual development of a WFMS will enable OA university publishers to achieve the urgently needed higher, more effective, more predictable and, above all, faster production throughput, which will promote the acceptance, impact and dissemination of open access.