Business-to-business electronic commerce clearinghouse

• US 7,451,107 B1
• Filed: 01/28/2000
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Supply Chain Connect LLC (Proactis Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Supply Chain Connect LLC (Proactis Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Giesler, Michael F., Moore, Mason A., Chvala, Richard J.
• Primary Examiner(s): WEISBERGER, RICHARD C
• Application Number:
  US09/493,794
• Time in Patent Office: 3,210 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/26, 705/29, 705 35- 45
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/023 the neutral party being a clearing house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• 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 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• 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: Y02P 90/845 Inventory and reporting systems for greenhouse gases [GHG]

Abstract

A business-to-business transaction clearinghouse integrates the traditional point-to-point business supply chain at the clearinghouse. The clearinghouse provides cost effective access to a wide variety of members and includes value-added services. Members of the clearinghouse can include trading members, members that help the trading members ship their products, and banking members. The clearinghouse facilitates business among the trading members by providing a single point of contact for all transactions. The clearinghouse can be specific to an industry, such as the chemical industry. Multiple industry specific clearinghouses may form a network clearinghouses to effectively create one larger and more general business-to-business electronic commerce community.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating chemical supplier transactions comprising:

a network coupled to a plurality of member businesses;

a clearinghouse computer server associated with the member businesses and coupled to the member businesses through the network, the clearinghouse computer server configured to receive and forward electronic messages transmitted between at least two of the plurality of member businesses, the messages corresponding to communications in a chemical supplier transaction that relate to initiation of the chemical supplier transaction, and at least one of order fulfillment for the chemical supplier transaction and payment processing for the chemical supplier transaction;

a web browser associated with at least one trading member, wherein the web browser is configured to allow the trading member to generate data and transmit the data through the web browser to the clearinghouse computer server in an original format compatible with a clearinghouse format;

an enterprise resource planning system configured to manage resources of at least another trading member, including product supply chain management; and

a translation server coupled to the enterprise resource planning system and to the clearinghouse computer server, the translation server configured to convert data in a format of the enterprise resource planning system into a converted format of the clearinghouse computer server and forward the converted data to the clearinghouse computer server, wherein the converted data and the original format data correspond to communications between a first trading member and a second trading member that relate to initiation of a chemical supplier transaction, order fulfillment for the chemical supplier transaction, and payment processing for the chemical supplier transaction.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the messages corresponding to communications in the chemical supplier transaction relate to both order fulfillment for the transaction and payment processing for the transaction.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the messages include at least one of a purchase order, a purchaser order acknowledgment, and an invoice.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the clearinghouse computer server includes a supplier managed inventory component configured to monitor an inventory of the first trading member and in response to the inventory reaching a preset level, and further configured to generate and transmit a purchase order to the second trading member that was pre-designated as a supplier for the first trading member.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of member businesses is a shipping company and the clearinghouse computer server includes a shipment tracking component configured to receive shipment tracking information from the shipping company and to provide the shipment tracking information to the member businesses.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the clearinghouse computer server includes a business intelligence component configured to aggregate data passing through the clearinghouse computer server and configured to mine the aggregated data for information requested by the member businesses.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of member businesses is a shipping company and the clearinghouse computer server includes a logistics procurement component configured to receive shipment requests from trading members and configured to forward shipment proposals from the shipping members to the trading members.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the messages are extensible markup language (XML) messages.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the clearinghouse computer server includes a product catalog component configured to store a product catalog of products available for sale from the member businesses and forward results of search requests of the catalog to the member businesses.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the clearinghouse computer includes a regulatory reporting component configured to receive information relating to a required regulatory report from one of the member businesses, to generate a regulatory report for the one member, and to transmit the report to an appropriate regulatory authority.