Computer system and method for producing analytical data related to the project bid and requisition process

• US 20040039681A1
• Filed: 04/10/2003
• Published: 02/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IQNavigator Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Volt Information Sciences Incorporated
• Inventors: Cullen, Andrew A. III, Zilberman, Leonid, Danilov, Ivan
• Granted Patent: US 7,925,568 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A comprehensive, web-enabled computer system and method is provided for producing analytical data related a project bid management system. Transactional data related to the bid and project are entered into the computer system through an on-line bid, project requisition and payment process. Using the transactional data stored within the system, virtually any type of analytical data related to single or multiple projects performed by one or more vendors for one or more buyers can be generated.

Claims

1. A method for producing analytical data in a system for managing one or more projects and one or more bids and having transactional data stored the rein, comprising:

conducting an on-line bid process on the system;

entering bid data into data fields of a bid during the on-line bid process as part of the transactional data,

receiving a request for analytical data as a function of the transactional data, and

generating the analytical data using the transactional data based on the transactional data in response to the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said entering further comprises:

entering bid request data into the data fields by a buyer associated with the bid; and

entering bid response data into the data fields by a vendor associated with the bid.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

entering project tracking parameters of a project into data fields associated with the bid as part of the transactional data;

entering voucher information into data fields associated with the project as part of the transactional data; and

entering project performance data into data fields associated with the project as part of the transactional data.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

entering the project performance data by the buyer and vendor into the system during the performance of the project.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

automatically generating the project performance data using at least the project tracking parameters.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said generating further comprises:

comparing the project tracking parameters with the voucher information to determine a status of the project; and

automatically entering the status of the project as the project performance data into the system.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said generating further comprises:

searching the project tracking parameters to determine a time status of the project; and

automatically entering the time status of the project as the project performance data into the system.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein said entering the project tracking parameters further comprises:

entering taxation information identifying taxable components of the project and taxation amounts associated with each of the taxable components.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving further comprises:

receiving the request for the analytical data, the request including one or more filters; and

filtering the transactional data to produce filtered transactional data using the one or more filters, the filtered transactional data being used to generate the analytical data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said receiving the request including the one or more filters further comprises:

receiving the request for the analytical data as a function of one or more types of the transactional data, the one or more filters filtering the one or more types of the transactional data.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more filters are related to at least one of vendor profile properties, buyer profile properties, project profile properties and commodity profile properties.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing the analytical data in a project reporting view on a web page.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the project reporting view is of a project reporting type, the project reporting type being one of a financial type, project type, commodity type or vendor/human capital type.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating further comprises:

aggregating the transactional data associated with multiple projects to generate the analytical data.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said aggregating further comprises:

computing statistical data as a function of the transactional data related to each project; and

aggregating the statistical data across the multiple projects.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said aggregating further comprises:

aggregating the transactional data associated with multiple projects performed by multiple vendors to generate the analytical data.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein said aggregating further comprises:

aggregating the transactional data associated with multiple buyers to generate the analytical data.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating further comprises:

computing statistical data using the transactional data associated with multiple projects to generate the analytical data.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said computing further comprises:

computing the statistical data using the transactional data associated with multiple buyers to generate the analytical data.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing individual transactional data related to bids and projects of a buyer, vendor or administrator in a database system of the respective buyer, vendor or administrator; and

transferring at least a portion of the transactional data stored in the database system to a central database storing multiple transactional data from multiple database systems, the analytical data being generated from the multiple transactional data.

21. A computer system for producing analytical data related to a system for managing one or more projects and one or more bids, comprising:

a web-based interface connected to receive a request for analytical data as a function of transactional data,

a database system for maintaining the transactional data including at least bid data, the bid data being entered into data fields of a bid stored in said database system via the web-based interface; and

a server connected to said web-based interface to receive the request and connected to said database system to retrieve the transactional data based on the request, said server being operable to generate the analytical data based on the retrieved transactional data in response to the request.

22. The computer system of claim 21, wherein said database system stores the bid data including bid request data entered into the data fields by a buyer associated with the bid and bid response data entered into the data fields by a vendor associated with the bid via said web-based interface.

23. The computer system of claim 21, wherein said database system further stores the transactional data including at least the bid data, project tracking parameters of a project entered into data fields associated with the bid by a buyer and a vendor associated with the project via said web-based interface, voucher information entered into data fields associated with the bid and the project by the buyer and the vendor via said web-based interface and project performance data stored in data fields associated with the bid and the project.

24. The computer system of claim 23, wherein said database system stores the project tracking parameters including taxation information identifying taxable components of the project and taxation amounts associated with each of the taxable components.

25. The computer system of claim 21, wherein said server is further operable to receive the request including one or more filters and filter the transactional data to produce filtered transactional data using the one or more filters, the filtered transactional data being used to generate the analytical data.

26. The computer system of claim 25, wherein the one or more filters are related to at least one of vendor profile properties, buyer profile properties, project profile properties and commodity profile properties.

27. The computer system of claim 21, wherein said server is further operable to provide the analytical data in a project reporting view on a web page via said web-based interface.

28. The computer system of claim 27, wherein the project reporting view is of a project reporting type, the project reporting type being one of a financial type, project type or vendor/human capital type.

29. The computer system of claim 21, wherein said server is further operable to aggregate the transactional data associated with multiple projects to generate the analytical data.

30. The computer system of claim 29, wherein said server is further operable to compute statistical data as a function of the transactional data related to each project and aggregate the statistical data across the multiple projects.

31. The computer system of claim 29, wherein said server is further operable to aggregate the transactional data associated with multiple projects performed by multiple vendors to generate the analytical data.

32. The computer system of claim 29, wherein said server is further operable to aggregate the transactional data associated with multiple buyers to generate the analytical data.

33. The computer system of claim 21, wherein said server is further operable to compute statistical data using the transactional data associated with multiple projects to generate the analytical data.

34. The computer system of claim 33, wherein said server is further operable to compute the statistical data using the transactional data associated with multiple buyers to generate the analytical data.

35. The computer system of claim 21, wherein said database system is configured to store individual transactional data related to bids and projects of a buyer, vendor or administrator, and further comprising:

a central database connected to said database system to receive at least a portion of the transactional data stored in the database system, said central database storing multiple transactional data from multiple database systems, the analytical data being generated from the multiple transactional data.

36. In a computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored therein and relating to a system for managing one or more projects and one or more bids, said computer-executable instructions comprising:

means for receiving a request for analytical data as a function of transactional data, the transactional data including at least bid data, the bid data being entered into data fields of a bid stored in a database system during an on-line bid process;

means for accessing the database system to retrieve the transactional data based on the request; and

means for generating the analytical data based on the retrieved transactional data in response to the request.

37. A method for producing analytical data in a system for managing projects and storing transactional data the rein, comprising:

entering project performance data into data fields associated with each of the projects as part of the transactional data;

receiving a request for analytical data as a function of the transactional data; and

aggregating the transactional data based on the request to generate aggregate project performance data.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising:

entering project tracking parameters of the projects into data fields associated with the projects as part of the transactional data; and

entering voucher information into data fields associated with the projects by at least one buyer and at least one vendor as part of the transactional data.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

entering the project performance data by the at least one buyer and the at least one vendor into the project bid management system during the performance of the project.

40. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

automatically generating the project performance data using at least the project tracking parameters.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein said generating further comprises:

comparing the project tracking parameters of a given one of the projects with the voucher information of the given project to determine a status of the given project; and

automatically entering the status of the given project as the project performance data into the system.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein said generating further comprises:

searching the project tracking parameters to determine time status information of the projects; and

automatically entering the time status information as the project performance data into the system.

43. The method of claim 37, wherein said receiving further comprises:

receiving the request for the analytical data, the request including one or more filters; and

filtering the transactional data to produce filtered transactional data using the one or more filters, the filtered transactional data being used to generate the analytical data.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein said receiving the request including the one or more filters further comprises:

receiving the request for the analytical data as a function of one or more types of the transactional data, the one or more filters filtering the one or more types of the transactional, data.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the one or more filters are related to at least one of vendor profile properties, buyer profile properties, project profile properties and commodity profile properties.

46. The method of claim 37, further comprising:

providing the analytical data in a project reporting view on a web page.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the project reporting view is of a project reporting type, the project reporting type being one of a financial type, project type or vendor/human capital type.

48. The method of claim 37, wherein said aggregating further comprises:

computing statistical data as a function of the transactional data related to each of the projects; and

aggregating the statistical data across the projects.

49. The method of claim 37, wherein said aggregating further comprises:

aggregating the transactional data associated with the projects performed by multiple vendors to generate the analytical data.

50. The method of claim 37, wherein said aggregating further comprises:

aggregating the transactional data associated with multiple buyers to generate the analytical data.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein said storing further comprising:

storing individual transactional data related to bids and projects of a buyer, vendor or administrator in a database system of the respective buyer, vendor or administrator; and

transferring at least a portion of the transactional data stored in the database system to a central database storing multiple transactional data from multiple database systems, the analytical data being generated from the multiple transactional data.

52. A method for producing analytical data in a system for managing one or more bids and one or more projects and storing transactional data the rein, comprising:

entering a bid data component into data fields of a bid during the on-line bid process as part of the transactional data;

entering a project tracking parameters component associated with a project into data fields associated with the bid as part of the transactional data;

entering a project performance data component into data fields associated with the project as part of the transactional data;

receiving a request for analytical data as a function of one or more of the components of the transactional data; and

generating the analytical data based on the transactional data in response to the request.

53. A method for producing analytical data in a system for managing multiple bids and multiple projects commissioned by multiple buyers and storing transactional data related to the multiple projects the rein, comprising:

receiving a request for industry analytical data as a function of the transactional data, the transactional data including at least project performance data indicating the performance of the projects by one or more vendors associated with the projects;

accessing the transactional data based on the request; and

generating the analytical data based on the accessed transactional data in response to the request.

54. The method of claim 53, further comprising:

storing individual transactional data related to bids and projects of a buyer, vendor or administrator in a database system of the respective buyer, vendor or administrator; and

transferring at least a portion of the transactional data stored in the database system to a central database storing multiple transactional data from multiple database systems, the analytical data being generated from the multiple transactional data.

55. A method for producing taxation amount information in a system for managing projects and storing transactional data the rein, comprising:

entering taxation information into data fields associated with a project as part of the transactional data;

entering voucher information into data fields associated with the project as part of the transactional data; and

generating a taxation amount associated with the voucher information based on the taxation information.

56. The method of claim 55, further comprising:

providing the taxation amount to a buyer and a vendor associated with the project for approval thereof.