System And Method For Competitive Pricing And Procurement Of Customized Goods And Services

• US 20100325010A1
• Filed: 08/12/2010
• Published: 12/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: e-LYNXX Corporation
• Original Assignee: e-LYNXX Corporation
• Inventors: Gindlesperger, William A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,209,227 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

An apparatus and method for selecting a lowest bidding vendor from a plurality of vendors of a customized good or service, including receiving a set of vendor'"'"'s attributes from each of the plurality of vendors representing their respective capabilities, and receiving an invitation-for-bid data from the buyer defining a custom job for which the buyer desires price quotes or bids. The vendor attributes or the invitation-for-bid, or both, are received through a web browser. The invitation-for-bid is compared to each of the vendor'"'"'s attributes according to certain standard or optional selection criteria to generate a vendor selection pool of vendors qualified to bid on the job. Each vendor in the vendor selection pool receives a vendor'"'"'s invitation-for-bid. A bid is received from at least one vendor in the vendor selection pool, the lowest price bid is identified, the buyer is informed of the identity of the selected vendor, and solicited for approval of the selected vendor. Upon receipt of approval from the buyer, an order is issued to the selected vendor. The non-selected vendors in the selection pool are informed of the bid prices and of the selection results.

Claims

1. A system comprising one or more non-transitory computer readable medium containing computer-readable instructions executable on one or more computer processors that are operatively connected to the computer readable medium to perform a method for facilitating a buyer'"'"'s selection of a vendor for customized goods or services, the method comprising the steps of:

processing at least one electronic communication including vendor data used in establishing a plurality of vendor records stored in at least one database, the vendor records corresponding to each of a plurality of vendors and having vendor capability data identifying a plurality of capabilities of each vendor for providing a customized good or service;

processing at least one electronic communication including vendor pool information identifying a plurality of vendors which are selected for inclusion in a vendor pool associated with a buyer for receiving a job solicitation, and storing electronic data in at least one database that identifies each vendor pool and its association with a corresponding buyer;

processing at least one electronic communication including job information associated with at least one buyer after the vendor records and the buyer'"'"'s vendor pool have been established, the job information including job descriptor data which specifies a plurality of characteristics of the customized good or service for a job on which the buyer seeks to receive a bid;

automatically comparing via a computer processor the vendor records to the job information, wherein the plurality of characteristics for the customized good or service is compared with the plurality capabilities for the vendors from the buyer'"'"'s vendor pool;

automatically identifying via a computer processor one or more subsets from the buyer'"'"'s vendor pool as qualified for receiving the job solicitation, based on said comparison;

thereafter transmitting the job solicitation to selected members from at least one of the identified subsets of the buyer'"'"'s vendor pool;

receiving and processing a bid response from at least one of the vendors which received the job solicitation, the bid response including bid response data identifying a bid price for the job from a corresponding vendor; and

outputting to the buyer or agent of the buyer an electronic communication providing the bid response data from at least one of the bid responses.