Intelligent procurement agent

A method for managing a supply of a good based on a request for said good, comprising:

• (a) evaluating said request against a plurality of indicators and determining whether said request involves an exception, said exception being indicative of a procurement problem, in accordance with exception data, in a decision support module;
• (b) if said request involves an exception, receiving said determination from said decision support module, triggering an action that is configured to resolve that exception, and generating an interactive output to an external entity, in an execution module;
• and
• (c) incorporating said exception into said exception data if said exception is of a new type and modifying said exception data if said exception is not of said new type and has changed, to adjust said exception data in real-time.

A computer program product for enabling a computer to operate, and so comprising software instructions for enabling the computer to perform predetermined operations, and a computer readable medium bearing the software instructions, the predetermined operations comprising the steps of:

• (a) evaluating said request against a plurality of indicators and determining whether said request involves an exception, said exception being indicative of a procurement problem, in accordance with exception data, in a decision support module;
• (b) if said request involves said exception, receiving said determination from said decision support module, triggering an action that is configured to correct said exception, and generating an interactive output to an external entity, in an execution module;
• and
• (c) incorporating said exception into said exception data if said exception is of a new type and modifying said exception data if said exception is not of said new type and has changed, to adjust said exception data in real-time.

76 A system for managing a supply of a good based on a request for said good, comprising:

• means for evaluating said request against a plurality of indicators and determining whether said request involves an exception that is indicative of a procurement problem in accordance with exception data;
• and
• means for receiving said determination from said decision support module, triggering an action that is configured to resolve said exception and generating an interactive messaging means to an external entity,
• wherein said exception is incorporated into said exception data if said exception is of a new type, and said exception data is modified if said exception is not of said new type and has changed, to adjust said exception data in real-time.

The system of claim 76, said means for evaluating comprising:

• means for generating an output that is sent to a data processing means for storing first, second and third types of data, in accordance with said request;
• means for generating a categorization output that identifies said good based on a category of exception by categorizing said good in accordance with at least one of said indicators that comprise a plurality of procurement rules, and further based on said first type of data received from said data processing means;
• and
• means for determining whether said exception is of said new type, and if said exception is of said new type, identifying said exception category for addition to said data processing means, based on said categorization output received from said means for generating said categorization output and said second and third types of data, wherein said means for determining generates first and second determination result outputs.

The system of claim 76, further comprising a management means that includes,

• means for resolving supply problems;
• means for improving flexibility and supply of a back-end supply chain;
• means for ensuring proper pricing of purchases and manages delivery of reduction objectives;
• means for generating an alert replenishes supply when a prescribed lower quality threshold has been reached;
• and
• means for responding to a response from interacting parties based on said action when said exception is being processed by said system, wherein a self-learning means correlates statistical data with a plurality of business rules to refine said at least one indicator in accordance with a change in said exception.