Collaborative systems have to support specific functionalities in order to be useful for special fields of application and to fulfil those requirements. In this paper we introduce the Wasabi framework for collaborative systems, which is characterised by flexibility and adaptability. The framework implements a service oriented architecture and integrates different persistence layers. The requirement analysis for the Wasabi CSCW system is presented in the context of a collaborative environment for medical research which has strict requirements concerning data integrity. This paper shows the results of the requirement analysis and how these are implemented in the Wasabi architecture.