# US 10,482,513 B1 · Methods and systems for integrating procurement systems with electronic catalogs > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,482,513 B1 - Document ID: US10482513B1 - Status: Granted - Kind: B1 - Application number: 15/889,815 - Filed: 2018-02-06 - Granted: 2019-11-19 - Earliest claimed: 2001-11-30 - Assignees: Vinimaya, Inc. - Applicants: Vinimaya, LLC - Inventors: Vaidhyanathan Venkiteswaran - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10482513B1 ## CPC - G06Q 30/0603: {Catalogue creation or management} - G06Q 30/06: Buying, selling or leasing transactions - G06Q 30/0613: {using intermediate agents} - G06Q 30/0623: {by investigating goods or services} - G06Q 30/0625: {by formulating product or service queries, e.g. using keywords or predefined options} - G06Q 30/0627: {by specifying product or service characteristics, e.g. product dimensions} - G06Q 30/0629: {by pre-processing results, e.g. ranking or ordering results} - G06Q 30/0633: {Managing shopping lists, e.g. compiling or processing purchase lists (shipping orders G06Q10/083; order filling G06Q10/087)} - G06Q 30/0641: {utilising user interfaces specially adapted for shopping} - G06Q 40/04: Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR ## 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 a 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 systems. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A computer system comprising one or more memories storing software instructions, and one or more processors configured to execute the software instructions to perform operations comprising: receiving a user initiated catalog shopping request; searching for the request using a plurality of supplier web site search engines to access a set of disparate electronic catalog sources wherein each electronic catalog source has its own search engine; locating a set of product information associated with the request in at least one of the electronic catalog sources; retrieving said set of product information; obtaining a set of translated product information by performing acts comprising translating said set of product information into a standardized format regardless of the format of the electronic catalog sources; and rendering a document comprising the set of translated product information. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The computer system of claim 1, wherein rendering the document comprising the set of translated product information comprises sending the document comprising the set of translated product information to a buy-side procurement system. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The computer system of claim 1, wherein the software instructions comprise instructions configured to communicate with a first procurement system and a second procurement system wherein 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. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The computer system of claim 1, wherein the user initiated catalog shopping request includes inter-related sub-requests and wherein the software instructions comprise instructions configured to determine, for each sub-request, one or more intelligent agents for searching the set of electronic catalog sources. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The computer system of claim 4, wherein the one or more intelligent agents are configured to determine one or more sub-agents for non-invasively searching the set of electronic catalogs. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The computer system of claim 5, wherein non-invasively searching the set of electronic catalogs comprises using the one or more intelligent agents and one or more sub-agents on a buy-side of one or more firewalls relative to the one or more electronic catalog sources. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The computer system of claim 1, wherein the software instructions comprise instructions configured to store product information as cached results, and wherein the software instructions comprise instructions configured to render one or more cached results in response to a user initiated catalog shopping request. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The computer system of claim 1, wherein the software instructions are configured to perform the searching using a distributed remote search configured to utilize the search engines from each of the set of disparate electronic catalog sources. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The computer system of claim 1, wherein the set of product information: a) comprises information retrieved from multiple electronic catalog sources; and b) is multi-formatted. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The computer system of claim 1, wherein rendering the document comprising the set of translated product information comprises rendering attribute information which is specific to a particular buyer. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The computer system of claim 10, wherein the attribute information which is specific to a particular buyer comprises pricing information generated by a buy-side procurement system of the particular buyer. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The computer system of claim 1, wherein each catalog source from the set of disparate electronic catalog sources is a distributed catalog source remotely located from the computer system. ### Claim 13 A computer implemented method for providing online procurement between a buyer and suppliers over a network, wherein the method is implemented by executing software instructions stored on one or more non-transitory computer readable media by one or more processors, the method comprising: receiving a user initiated catalog shopping request; searching for the request using a plurality of supplier web site search engines to access a set of disparate electronic catalog sources wherein each electronic catalog source has its own search engine; locating a set of product information associated with the request in at least one of the electronic catalog sources; retrieving said set of product information; obtaining a set of translated product information by performing acts comprising translating said set of product information into a standardized format regardless of the format of the electronic catalog sources; and rendering a document comprising the set of translated product information. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein rendering the document comprising the set of translated product information comprises sending the document comprising the set of translated product information to a buy-side procurement system. ### Claim 15 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the software instructions comprise instructions configured to communicate with a first procurement system and a second procurement system wherein 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. ### Claim 16 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the user initiated catalog shopping request includes inter-related sub-requests and wherein the software instructions comprise instructions configured to determine, for each sub-request, one or more intelligent agents for searching the set of electronic catalog sources. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, wherein the one or more intelligent agents are configured to determine one or more sub-agents for non-invasively searching the set of electronic catalogs. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The method of claim 17, wherein non-invasively searching the set of electronic catalogs comprises using the one or more intelligent agents and one or more sub-agents on a buy-side of one or more firewalls relative to the one or more electronic catalog sources. ### Claim 19 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the software instructions comprise instructions configured to store product information as cached results, and wherein the software instructions comprise instructions configured to render one or more cached results in response to a user initiated catalog shopping request. ### Claim 20 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the software instructions are configured to perform the searching using a distributed remote search configured to utilize the search engines from each of the set of disparate electronic catalog sources. ### Claim 21 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein rendering the document comprising the set of translated product information comprises rendering attribute information which is specific to a particular buyer. ### Claim 22 (depends on 21) The method of claim 21, wherein the attribute information which is specific to a particular buyer comprises pricing information generated by a buy-side procurement system of the particular buyer. ### Claim 23 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the set of product information: a) comprises information retrieved from multiple electronic catalog sources; and b) is multi-formatted. ### Claim 24 A computer system comprising one or more memories storing software instructions, and one or more processors configured to execute the software instructions to perform operations comprising: receiving a user initiated catalog shopping request; searching for the request using a plurality of supplier web site search engines to access a set of disparate electronic catalog sources wherein each electronic catalog source has its own search engine; locating a set of product information associated with the request in at least one of the electronic catalog sources; retrieving said set of product information; obtaining a set of translated product information by performing acts comprising translating said set of product information into a standardized format regardless of the format of the electronic catalog sources; and rendering a document comprising the set of translated product information; wherein the software instructions comprise instructions configured to communicate with a first procurement system and a second procurement system wherein 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; wherein the user initiated catalog shopping request includes inter-related sub-requests and wherein the software instructions comprise instructions for determining, for each sub-request, one or more intelligent agents for searching the set of electronic catalog sources; wherein the one or more intelligent agents are configured to determine one or more sub-agents for non-invasively searching the set of electronic catalogs; wherein non-invasively searching the set of electronic catalogs comprises using the one or more intelligent agents and one or more sub-agents on a buy-side of one or more firewalls relative to the one or more electronic catalog sources; wherein the software instructions are configured to perform the searching using a distributed remote search configured to utilize the search engines from each of the set of disparate electronic catalog sources; wherein the set of product information comprises information retrieved from multiple electronic catalog sources and is multi-formatted; and rendering the document comprising the set of translated product information comprises rendering attribute information which is specific to a particular buyer.