Method and system for providing online procurement between a buyer and suppliers over a network

• US 7,756,750 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2001
• Issued: 07/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Coupa Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Vinimaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Venkiteswaran, Vaidhyanathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; Jeffrey A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MISIASZEK, MICHAEL
• Application Number:
  US10/360,755
• Publication Number:
  US 20050049938A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,147 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0627 using item specifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A request for shopping is placed from inside a procurement system. Intelligent agents are launched to retrieve information from catalog sources web-enabled over the internet or within the intranet. Retrieved catalog information is aggregated and associated with other data items. Business rules are applied to make decisions on what part of aggregated information will be rendered to User. Sorting/multi-level refining operations are enabled. The User selects one or more catalog results, whereupon an XML shopping cart is created and submitted to the procurement system through published interfaces. The procurement system is enabled to place an order on supplier web-enabled transaction system.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for providing online procurement between a buyer and suppliers over a network, comprising:

receiving, by a procurement processor configured to provide online procurement between the buyer and suppliers, user-initiated catalog shopping requests from a first procurement system and a second procurement system over the network, wherein each catalog shopping request includes inter-related sub-requests and the first procurement system is configured to accept information in a first format type and the second procurement system is configured to accept information in a second format type;

determining, by the procurement processor, for each sub-request, one or more intelligent agents for searching supplier Web site catalogs;

determining, by the intelligent agents of the procurement processor, one or more sub-agents for searching the supplier Web site catalogs;

searching non-invasively, by the intelligent agents and the one or more sub-agents of the procurement processor, the supplier Web site catalogs for supplier product information responsive to the catalog shopping requests;

retrieving, in real-time, by the intelligent agents and the one or more sub-agents of the procurement processor, product information from the supplier Web site catalogs without requiring the supplier Web sites hosting the Web site catalogs to include specific software designed to support the search and retrieval, wherein the product information is multi-formatted;

translating, in real-time, by the procurement processor, the multi-formatted product information;

parsing, in real time, by the procurement processor, the translated product information into aggregated structured product information;

modifying, in real-time, by the procurement processor, the aggregated structured product information based on one or more rules defined by the procurement systems;

organizing, in real-time, by the procurement processor, a selected portion of the modified product information into a form integratable with the procurement systems; and

providing the modified product information to the procurement systems to enable each procurement system to submit a respective requisition request for selected products offered by one or more of the suppliers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a first supplier supports a first type of Web site catalog format, and a second supplier supports a second type of Web site catalog format that is different from the first type of Web site catalog format.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a first supplier supports a first type of Web site catalog format, and the at least one of the first and second procurement systems operates with a second type of Web site catalog format that is different from the first type of Web site catalog format.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein organizing, in real-time, a selected portion of the modified product information includes:

creating, by the procurement processor, a shopping cart in a format compatible with at least one of the first and second procurement systems; and

sending, by the procurement processor, the shopping cart to the procurement system in response to a request from the procurement system.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the shopping cart is formatted as determined by the at least one of the first and second procurement systems.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein parsing, in real-time, the translated product information into aggregated structured product information includes:

processing differently formatted product information from one of more of the Web site catalogs and creating a single view of the product information in an aggregated, structured format.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein modifying, in real-time, the aggregated structured product information includes:

appending to the aggregated structured product information at least one of part numbers, contract pricings, and UNSPSC codes specified by a user of the at least one of the first and second procurement systems.

8. A system for providing online procurement, comprising:

a computer system connected to a network that is also connected to a first procurement system, a second procurement system, and Web sites of suppliers that provide Web site catalogs of products offered by the suppliers, wherein the computer system further includes an interface for receiving user initiated catalog shopping requests from the first procurement system and the second procurement system over the network, wherein each catalog shopping request includes inter-related sub-requests and the first procurement system is configured to accept information in a first format type and the second procurement system is configured to accept information in a second format type, the computer system further including;

an intelligent agents engine that launches intelligent agents for searching and retrieving, in real-time, supplier product information from the supplier Web site catalogs over the network, wherein at least one of the intelligent agents launch one or more sub agents that assist in the searching and retrieving the supplier product information, and wherein the supplier product information retrieved from the supplier Web site catalogs is in multiple formats, and wherein the intelligent agents retrieve the product information from the supplier Web sites without requiring a software program designed to support the retrieval to be resident in the supplier Web sites;

a parsing engine that translates the multi-formatted supplier product information into aggregated structured product information that is accessible by at least one of the first and second procurement systems via a respective user interface in a single view;

a catalog engine that receives selections from a user of at least one of the first and second procurement systems for modifying the aggregated structured product information to include custom data related to the products identified in the supplier product information; and

a communication engine that provides an interface for at least one of the first and second procurement systems to retrieve the aggregated structured product information, and seamlessly sends the online documents to the at least one of the first and second procurement systems such that the at least one of the first and second procurement systems create a requisition for at least one of the supplier products identified in the online documents.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein a first supplier supports a first type of Web site catalog format, and a second supplier supports a second type of Web site catalog format that is different from the first type of Web site catalog format.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein a first supplier supports a first type of Web site catalog format, and at least one of the first and second procurement systems support a second type of Web site catalog format that is different from the first type of Web site catalog format.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the supplier product information includes product information, pricing regarding products offered by the suppliers, and availability information reflecting the availability of products offered by the suppliers.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the intelligent agents and one or more sub-agents retrieve the supplier product information in response to at least one of the shopping requests.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the communication engine creates a shopping cart in a format compatible with at least one of the first and second procurement systems and sends the shopping cart to the at least one of the first and second procurement systems in response to a request from the at least one first and second procurement systems.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the parsing engine processes differently formatted product information from one of more of the Web site catalogs and creates a single view of the product information in an aggregated, structured format.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the catalog engine performs at least one of:

adding or removing one or more of the electronic catalogs in response to a request from a user of the procurement system; and

adding at least one of part numbers, contract pricings, and UNSPSC codes specified by a user of at least one of the first and second procurement systems.