System and method for managing a procurement process
First Claim
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1. A method of managing a procurement process, comprising:
- storing a plurality of electronic contracts including unstructured textual data;
determining one or more linguistic patterns associated with a variety of business parameters;
generating linguistic rules based on the one or more linguistic patterns;
using text mining tools to extract particular information regarding the variety of business parameters from the unstructured textual data using one or more of the linguistic rules;
collecting procurement data from a plurality of data sources, the procurement data including information regarding a plurality of procurement events;
wherein one or more of the data sources has an associated source-specific product catalog;
storing a global catalog specifying, for each of a plurality of products, mapping relationships between source-specific product attributes specified by the one or more source-specific product catalogs and one or more generic attributes specified by the global catalog;
automatically mapping the source-specific attributes associated with products identified by the collected procurement data to the corresponding generic attributes based on the mapping relationships;
for each of a plurality of business divisions of a business entity, generating a set of spend formulas for determining spending associated with that business division;
generating a set of supplier intelligence business rules regarding a procurement process, each supplier intelligence business rule interrelating at least one spend formula associated with a first one of the business divisions with at least one spend formula associated with a second one of the business divisions;
automatically analyzing at least a portion of the procurement data based on one or more of the set of supplier intelligence business rules to determine the financial effects of a decision made by the first business division on the second business division;
wherein the analysis includes identifying information regarding particular products based on the generic attributes associated with the one or more products.
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Abstract
A method of managing contracts is provided. The method includes storing a storing a plurality of electronic contracts including unstructured text. The method further includes determining one or more linguistic patterns associated with a business parameter and generating linguistic rules based on the one or more linguistic patterns. The method further includes extracting particular information regarding the business parameter from the plurality of contracts using one or more of the linguistic rules. The method further includes generating a visual output based on at least a portion of the extracted information.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method of managing a procurement process, comprising:
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storing a plurality of electronic contracts including unstructured textual data;
determining one or more linguistic patterns associated with a variety of business parameters;
generating linguistic rules based on the one or more linguistic patterns;
using text mining tools to extract particular information regarding the variety of business parameters from the unstructured textual data using one or more of the linguistic rules;
collecting procurement data from a plurality of data sources, the procurement data including information regarding a plurality of procurement events;
wherein one or more of the data sources has an associated source-specific product catalog;
storing a global catalog specifying, for each of a plurality of products, mapping relationships between source-specific product attributes specified by the one or more source-specific product catalogs and one or more generic attributes specified by the global catalog;
automatically mapping the source-specific attributes associated with products identified by the collected procurement data to the corresponding generic attributes based on the mapping relationships;
for each of a plurality of business divisions of a business entity, generating a set of spend formulas for determining spending associated with that business division;
generating a set of supplier intelligence business rules regarding a procurement process, each supplier intelligence business rule interrelating at least one spend formula associated with a first one of the business divisions with at least one spend formula associated with a second one of the business divisions;
automatically analyzing at least a portion of the procurement data based on one or more of the set of supplier intelligence business rules to determine the financial effects of a decision made by the first business division on the second business division;
wherein the analysis includes identifying information regarding particular products based on the generic attributes associated with the one or more products. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. Software for managing a procurement process, the software being embodied in computer-readable media and when executed operable to:
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cause storage of a plurality of electronic contracts including unstructured textual data;
determine one or more linguistic patterns associated with a variety of business parameters;
generate linguistic rules based on the one or more linguistic patterns;
using text mining tools to extract particular information regarding the variety of business parameters from the unstructured textual data using one or more of the linguistic rules;
collect procurement data from a plurality of data sources, the procurement data including information regarding a plurality of procurement events;
wherein one or more of the data sources has an associated source-specific product catalog;
cause storage of a global catalog specifying, for each of a plurality of products, mapping relationships between source-specific product attributes specified by the one or more source-specific product catalogs and one or more generic attributes specified by the global catalog;
map the source-specific attributes associated with products identified by the collected procurement data to the corresponding generic attributes based on the mapping relationships;
for each of a plurality of business divisions of a business entity, generate a set of spend formulas for determining spending associated with that business division;
generate a set of supplier intelligence business rules regarding a procurement process, each supplier intelligence business rule interrelating at least one spend formula associated with a first one of the business divisions with at least one spend formula associated with a second one of the business divisions;
analyze at least a portion of the procurement data based on one or more of the set of supplier intelligence business rules to determine the financial effects of a decision made by the first business division on the second business division;
wherein the analysis includes identifying information regarding particular products based on the generic attributes associated with the one or more products. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system for managing a procurement process, comprising:
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a contracts database operable to store a plurality of electronic contracts include unstructured textual data;
a linguistic rule database operable to store linguistic rules generated based on one or more linguistic patterns associated with a business parameter;
a text mining module operable to use text mining tools to extract particular information regarding the business parameter from the unstructured textual data using one or more of the linguistic rules; and
a procurement data warehouse operable to collect procurement data from a plurality of data sources, the procurement data including information regarding a plurality of procurement events;
wherein one or more of the data sources has an associated source-specific product catalog;
a global catalog module operable to;
store a global catalog specifying, for each of a plurality of products, mapping relationships between source-specific product attributes specified by the one or more source-specific product catalogs and one or more generic attributes specified by the global catalog; and
map the source-specific attributes associated with products identified by the collected procurement data to the corresponding generic attributes based on the mapping relationships;
a supplier intelligence business rules database operable to store a set of supplier intelligence business rules, each supplier intelligence business rule generated based on a variety of business parameters and interrelating at least one spend formula associated with a first one of the business divisions with at least one spend formula associated with a second one of the business divisions; and
a supplier intelligence analysis module operable to analyze at least a portion of the procurement data based on one or more of the set of supplier intelligence business rules to determine the financial effects of a decision made by the first business division on the second business division;
wherein the analysis includes identifying information regarding particular products based on the generic attributes associated with the one or more products. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification