Customer-hosted automated configuration catalog
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Abstract
A system and method allows a purchaser to configure products for one or more products. The method includes receiving a data file, incorporating the data file into a procurement system of the purchaser, and configuring the products using the data file, the products including non-commodity products configurable according to business rules. The purchaser includes at least one of a customer, a third party acting on behalf of the customer, supplier and a manufacturer. The data file allows the purchaser to configure the products independent of a third party provided configuration tool by providing manipulable parameters that configure a non-commodity product or service. The manipulable parameters include upgrades, downgrades and swapping of components. The data file also includes non-manipulable parameters that contribute to the configuration of a non-commodity product or service including parent components, orphan components, child components, configuration components and optional components. The data file also includes business rules including rules for manipulating buyer-generated data including functional rules and configuration rules for integrating the data file into the procurement system. The method further includes generating a purchase requisition using the procurement system, the generating the purchase requisition using data from the data file and creating a table of a plurality of components for configuring the products, the table identifying the relationships between and among the components. The method further includes allowing the purchase to self-determine whether orders placed in the procurement system will trigger a rejection of an order due to activation of a discontinue date for discontinued product or configuration.
37 Citations
65 Claims
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1-33. -33. (canceled)
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34. A method for a purchaser to configure products for one or more products comprising:
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receiving a data file, the data file including manipulable parameters that contribute to the configuration of a non-commodity product or service, the manipulable parameters include upgrades, downgrades and swapping of components; and
,non-manipulable parameters that contribute to the configuration of the non-commodity product or service, the non-manipulable parameters including parent components, orphan components, child components, configuration components and optional components;
incorporating the data file into a procurement system of the purchaser; and
configuring the products using the data file, the products including non-commodity products configurable according to business rules. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
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62. A method for a purchaser to configure products for one or more products comprising:
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receiving a data file, the data file including data relating to a configuration identifier, a price of the configuration, type of components, custom or bundled, upgrades, downgrades and additions permitted with pricing, work flow data identifying add configurations, discontinue configuration, replace configuration, effective date, and discontinue date;
data relating to pricing according to predetermined agreements with the purchaser and a seller;
data relating to factory-installed components, non-factory-installed components, and subsystem configurations;
data relating to a core configuration including commodity and non-commodity default services and customer-specific integration components;
incorporating the data file into a procurement system of the purchaser; and
configuring the products using the data file, the products including non-commodity products configurable according to business rules. - View Dependent Claims (63, 64, 65)
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Specification