Method and system of managing contract negotiation records

• US 6,236,984 B1
• Filed: 11/26/1997
• Issued: 05/22/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ent Services Development Corporation LP (DXC Technology Company)
• Original Assignee: Electronic Data Systems Corporation (Perspecta, Inc.)
• Inventors: Owens, Geoffrey M., Benners, Timothy A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shah, Sanjiv
• Application Number:
  US08/980,351
• Time in Patent Office: 1,273 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/2, 707/505, 707/506, 707/201, 707/531, 707/104, 707/203
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

The method and system of managing contract negotiation records may comprise a contract table (44), a plurality of activity tables (46) and a contract interface (124). The contract table (44) may comprise a plurality of contract records (50) each having a plurality of fields of contract data (54) and a unique contract identifier (52). The activity tables (46) may each comprise a plurality of activity records (100) associated with one of the contract records (50) to form a contract negotiation record (40). Each of the activity records (100) may have a plurality of fields of activity data (104). The contract interface (124) may be displayed as a series of graphical displays providing selections for manipulating at least one of the contract negotiation records (40). A selection to manipulate a contract negotiation record (40) may be received via the contract interface (124) and automatically processed.

Claims

1. A method of managing contract negotiation records, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request to display a contract interface;

automatically displaying the contract interface as a series of graphical displays providing selections for manipulating at least one of a plurality of contract negotiation records, each contract negotiation record comprising a plurality of fields of data, the data identifiying a contracting party and a unique contract identifier;

storing the contract negotiation records in a central server;

storing the contract interface in a network server;

receiving via the contract interface a selection of one of the contract negotiation records for duplication;

automatically duplicating at least some of the fields of data, including the contracting party, of the selected contract negotiation record to generate duplicated fields of data, including the contracting party, and

automatically storing the duplicated fields of data and a new unique contract identifier associated with the duplicated fields of data.

2. The method of claim 1, the step of automatically storing the duplicated fields of data further comprising automatically storing the duplicated fields of data and the associated new unique contract identifier as a new contract negotiation record in a table comprising the selected contract negotiation record.

3. The method of claim 1, the network server remote from the central server.

4. The method of claim 3, the step of automatically storing the duplicated fields of data further comprising automatically storing the duplicated fields of data and the associated new unique contract identifier as a contract profile in the network server.

5. The method of claim 1, the step of automatically duplicating at least some of the fields of data further comprising automatically duplicating substantially all of the fields of data of the contract negotiation record to generate the duplicated fields of data.

6. The method of claim 1, the step of automatically duplicating at least some of the fields of data further comprising automatically duplicating all of the fields of data of the contract negotiation record to generate the duplicated fields of data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the duplicated fields of data comprise an identification, an address, a contact and a contact phone number of the contracting party.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the duplicated fields of data further comprise a classification of the contract negotiation record.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the duplicated fields of data further comprise a classification of the contracting party.

10. The method of claim 1, the data including at least one activity status field.

11. The method of claim 1, the data further comprising activity data, the activity data comprising activity date information and activity status information.

12. A method of managing contract negotiation records, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request to display a contract interface;

automatically displaying the contract interface as a series of graphical displays providing selections for manipulating at least one of a plurality of contract negotiation records, each contract negotiation record comprising a plurality of fields of data, the data identifying a contracting party and a unique contract identifier;

receiving via the contract interface a selection of one of the contract negotiation records for duplication;

automatically duplicating at least some of the fields of data, including the contracting party, of the selected contract negotiation record to generate duplicated fields of data, including the contracting party;

automatically storing the duplicated fields of data and a new unique contract identifier associated with the duplicated fields of data;

storing a contract table comprising a plurality of contract records, each contract record comprising a plurality of fields of contract data and a unique contract identifier; and

storing a plurality of activity tables each comprising a plurality of activity records associated with one of the contract records to form one ofthe contract negotiation records, each activity record comprising a plurality of fields of activity data.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of displaying the fields of non unique data on the work station remote from the central server.

13. A Microsoft Access method of retrieving data from separate fields of a record, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request to display a plurality of records, the records stored in a table in a central server and each comprising a plurality of fields of non unique data of the records and a unique identifier;

automatically displaying in a work station the fields of non unique data of the records as choices for selection;

receiving a. selection of a field of non unique data;

automatically determining the unique identifier of the record of the selected field of non unique data;

automatically interrogating the table using the unique identifier to determine a first field of non unique data;

automatically storing the first field of non unique data;

automatically reinterrogating the table using the unique identifier to determine a second field of non unique data; and

automatically storing the second field of non unique data.

15. A system for managing contract negotiation records, the system comprising:

a computer-readable medium; and

software stored on the computer-readable medium, the software operable to receive a request to display a contract interface;

to automatically display the contract interface as a series of graphical displays providing selections for manipulating at least one of a plurality of contract negotiation records, each contract negotiation record comprising a plurality of fields of data, the data identifying a contracting party and a unique contract identifier;

to store the contract negotiation records in a central server;

to store the contract interface in a network server;

to receive via the contract interface a selection of one of the contract negotiation records for duplication;

to automatically duplicate at least some of the fields of data including the contracting party, of the selected contract negotiation record to generate duplicated fields of data including the contracting party; and

, to automatically store the duplicated fields of data and a new unique contract identifier associated with the duplicated fields of data.

16. The system of claim 15, the software further operable to automatically store the duplicated fields of data and the associated new unique contract identifier as a new contract negotiation record in a table comprising the selected contract negotiation record.

17. The system of claim 15, the network server remote from the central server.

18. The system of claim 17, the software further operable to automatically store the duplicated fields of data and the associated new unique contract identifier as a contract profile in the network server.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the duplicated fields of data comprise an identification, an address, a contact and a contact phone number of the contracting party.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the duplicated fields of data further comprise a classification of the contracting party.

21. The system of claim 15, the data further comprising activity data, the activity data comprising activity date information and activity status information.