Apparatus and method for obtaining lowest bid from information product vendors

• US 6,397,197 B1
• Filed: 08/26/1999
• Issued: 05/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: e-LYNXX Corporation
• Original Assignee: e-LYNXX Corporation
• Inventors: Gindlesperger, William A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cuong H.
• Application Number:
  US09/383,371
• Time in Patent Office: 1,006 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10,26,20,21-22,35,37
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3297 involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps

Abstract

A system and method for competitive bid selection from a plurality print and other customized information product vendors based on a database of vendor records, each record identifying a vendor, one or more buyers who approves the vendor for receipt of invitations to bid, and a vendor capability data representing production and economic capabilities of the vendor. A buyer'"'"'s invitation for bid data is received, representing a specific print and other customized information product or service and an invitation to bid on that product or service, and a data identifying vendor requirements for producing the product is calculated. An vendor'"'"'s invitation to bid is transmitted to the vendors from among those approved by the buyer associated with the buyer'"'"'s invitation for bid having a vendor capability data meeting the calculated vendor requirements. Responding bids from the vendors are input into the database and ranked in order of price. The lowest price bid is identified and an order is issued to the selected vendor. Further, a bid information data is transmitted to each of the non-selected vendors, representing the identity of the selected vendor and the rank order value of the bids.

Claims

1. A method for competitive bidding by print information product vendors comprising steps of:

inputting a plurality of vendor records into a storage of a general purpose computer, each of said vendor records having a data field identifying a print information product vendor and a buyer identification data field identifying a buyer that said vendor is associated with, at least one of said vendor records having a vendor capability data representing a set of vendor manufacturing capabilities of the vendor identified by said record;

inputting a buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data into said general purpose computer, said buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data having a buyer identification data, and having an invitation for bid on a print information product job from said buyer;

calculating a vendor requirement data from said buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data, said vendor requirement data representing a set of vendor manufacturing capabilities required for performing said print information product job;

comparing said vendor requirement data to a plurality of said vendor records having a buyer identification data field identifying the buyer from which said buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data was received;

identifying at least one vendor record as qualified, based on said comparing;

transmitting a vendor'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data based on said buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data to each vendor identified by said at least one vendor record;

inputting into said general purpose computer a plurality of bid data, each from one of said vendors to which said vendor'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data was transmitted, each of said bid data representing a bid price;

identifying a bid data from said received bid data having the lowest represented bid price;

outputting a selected vendor data representing the identity of the vendor corresponding to the bid data identified by said identifying step; and

transmitting an order to the vendor represented by said selected vendor data.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of:

calculating a job milestone data based on said buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data.

3. A method according to claim 1 further comprising steps of:

ranking said received bid data according to said resented bid price; and

transmitting an information data from said general purpose computer to other vendors identifying said selected vendor and the rank order value of said received data.

4. A method according to claim 2 further comprising steps of:

generating a job progress verification request based on said job milestone data; and

entering a data into said central data server representing a job progress corresponding to said job progress verification request.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said vendor capability data represents the identified vendor'"'"'s capability to manufacture each of a plurality of different types of print information products.

6. A method according to claim 1, further comprising steps of:

transmitting a request for vendor capability data to said at least one vendor associated with at least one of said buyers;

receiving a first formatted vendor capability data from said at least one vendor; and

converting said first formatted vendor capability data into said vendor capability data,

wherein said step of inputting a vendor capability data inputs said converted data.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein said vendor capability data input for each of a plurality of printing vendors represents a set of vendor capabilities relating to objective and subjective parameters for each of a plurality of types of print information products.

8. A method according to claim 1, further comprising steps of:

inputting into said central data server a completion of job data;

transmitting from said central data server to said buyer an invoice for payment of said bid price;

inputting a payment from said buyer into an escrow account via electronic fund transfer;

subtracting a system access fee data and a licensing fee data from a data representing said payment deposited into said escrow account to generate a remainder payment data; and

transferring a payment from said escrow account to an account of said vendor corresponding to said remainder payment data.

9. A system for competitive bidding by print information product vendors comprising:

means for inputting a plurality of vendor records into a storage of a general purpose computer, each of said vendor records having a data field identifying a print information product vendor and a buyer identification data field identifying a buyer that said vendor is associated with;

means for inputting a vendor capability data into at least one of said vendor records, said vendor capability data representing a set of vendor manufacturing capabilities of the vendor identified by said record;

means for inputting a buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data into said general purpose computer, said buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data having a buyer identification data, and having an invitation for bid on a print information product job from said buyer;

means for calculating a vendor requirement data from said buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data, said vendor requirement data representing a set of vendor manufacturing capabilities required for performing said print information product job;

means for comparing said vendor requirement data to a plurality of said vendor records having a buyer identification data field identifying the buyer from which said buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data was received, and generating a comparison result;

means for identifying at least one vendor record as qualified, based on said comparison result;

means for transmitting a vendor'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data based on said buyer'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data to each vendor identified by said at least one vendors record;

means for inputting into said general purpose computer a plurality of bid data, each from one of said vendors to which said vendor'"'"'s invitation-for-bid data was transmitted, each of said bid data representing a bid price;

means for identifying a bid data from said received bid data having the lowest represented bid price;

means for outputting a selected vendor data representing the identity of the vendor corresponding to the bid data identified by said identifying means; and

means for transmitting an order to the vendor represented by said selected vendor data.