System and method for providing services using a Web hub

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating and managing relationships between and among companies and service providers that seeks to minimize and overcome the problems and inefficiencies of traditional methods is provided. The present invention integrates services that are currently provided by multiple entities into a unified system that may be advantageously provided by a single entity to facilitate the buying and selling of services and products. An embodiment of the present invention as a business to business (B2B) site on the World Wide Web (WWW) provides suppliers and customers in an industry with “one stop” to locate services that will facilitate their interactions. The present invention is particularly advantageous for use in providing services to the chemical industry. A community of service providers, companies and partners interact with each other utilizing a hub-based model. In one embodiment, the community comprises an industry such as the chemical industry. The community, however, may exist on many levels and comprise an entire industry on one level and segments of that industry on other levels. The community may be implemented as a “virtual” community, for example as a site on a computer network such as the World Wide Web; a corporate intranet; a government/military network or the like. Preferably, for ease of access to the widest number of participants, the virtual community is implemented as a site on the World Wide Web (Internet).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.