Information translation communication protocol
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An inventive procurement system includes a requisition system for special item purchases that are not found when searching a catalog database. Using the requisition system the buyer is provided with the desired item while the information associated with the requisition is selectively added to a rule-based knowledge base as well as to an item database. In a preferred embodiment a common language generator has been used to normalize free form data using pre-determined rules to place the data into a class/attribute/value relationship. By having the item requisition follow the same relationship, the pre-determined rules may be updated and the free-form data associated with the item properly coded for inclusion into an item database.
24 Citations
46 Claims
-
1-26. -26. (canceled)
-
27. A system for comparison-shopping comprising:
-
at least one catalog database of items organized according to a predetermined item classification standard comprising at least one class of items including at least one item, and at least one supplier therefor;
means for searching the at least one catalog database and locating at least one potential supplier therefrom based on item requirement information provided in a special requisition;
means for sending a request for a quote that includes information from the special requisition, to the at least one potential supplier and for receiving responses including product availability information for items and classes of items corresponding to the special requisition that are available from said at least one potential supplier;
means for comparison-shopping of the responses and selecting a source. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
-
-
39. A method for comparison-shopping, comprising the steps of:
-
providing at least one catalog database of items supplied by at least one supplier, said at least one catalog organized in accordance with a pre-determined item classification standard that includes at least one class of items having at least one item supplied by said at least one supplier;
locating a potential supplier in the at least one catalog database by a search of the at least one catalog database that uses the item requirement information provided in a special requisition and pre-determined similarity criteria;
sending a request for a quote that includes the special requisition to the located at least one potential supplier;
accumulating, for a given period of time, responses to the request sent to the located at least one potential supplier;
comparing the accumulated responses in accordance with pre-determined selection criteria to identify a best response and the supplier; and
selecting the supplier of the best response as a source for the special requisition. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
-
Specification