Information translation communication protocol
First Claim
1. A computerized system for comparison-shopping comprising:
- a back office apparatus that includes machine readable code on a computer readable medium for execution by said back office apparatus;
at least one catalog in communication with said back office apparatus having a computerized database of items, said at least one catalog being organized according to a predetermined item classification standard by a class, attribute, and value elements of a classified item in a normalized database, wherein at least one class of items including at least one item, and a Common Language Generator (CLG), wherein said at least one catalog database being normalized by said (CLG), andat least one supplier electronically linked for communication with said back office apparatus;
wherein said back office apparatus includes query means comprising a search display screen 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 electronically 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; and
means for automated comparison-shopping of the responses and for automatically selecting a source.
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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.
23 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computerized system for comparison-shopping comprising:
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a back office apparatus that includes machine readable code on a computer readable medium for execution by said back office apparatus; at least one catalog in communication with said back office apparatus having a computerized database of items, said at least one catalog being organized according to a predetermined item classification standard by a class, attribute, and value elements of a classified item in a normalized database, wherein at least one class of items including at least one item, and a Common Language Generator (CLG), wherein said at least one catalog database being normalized by said (CLG), and at least one supplier electronically linked for communication with said back office apparatus; wherein said back office apparatus includes query means comprising a search display screen 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 electronically 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; and
means for automated comparison-shopping of the responses and for automatically selecting a source. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for automated comparison-shopping, comprising the steps of:
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providing at least one computerized catalog database of items supplied by at least one supplier electronically linked for communication with a back office apparatus including machine readable code on a machine readable medium executed by said back office apparatus, said at least one catalog organized in accordance with a pre-determined item classification standard by a class, attribute, and value elements of a classified item in a normalized database 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 performing a search of the at least one catalog database by using the item requirement information provided in a special requisition and pre-determined similarity criteria provided by a Common Language Generator (CLG) having a knowledge base comprising a predetermined set of rules and relationships, wherein said at least one catalog database being normalized by said (CLG); sending by the backoffice apparatus 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 by a backoffice apparatus the accumulated responses in accordance with pre-determined selection criteria to identify a best response and the supplier; and automatically selecting by the backoffice apparatus the supplier of the best response as a source for the special requisition based on the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification