Network reverse auction and spending analysis methods

A method of updating a database of commodity information, comprising:

• providing an online reverse auction environment accessible via a computer network;
• providing a database of commodity information comprising multiple predefined commodity designations representing multiple predefined commodities, an estimated market price stored in association with at least one of the commodity designations, and a nonprice market term stored in associated with one or more of the commodity designations, wherein the estimated market price is formed as a function of historical pricing information not obtained via the online reverse auction environment, and wherein the estimated market price is not known to a vendor of the online reverse auction environment;
• receiving a request for proposals (RFP) accessible via a computer network from a customer at the online reverse auction environment, the RFP including a request for bids and a desired nonprice term for at least one specified commodity of the predefined commodities;
• soliciting multiple potential vendors accessible via a computer network to submit proposals responsive to the RFP in the online reverse auction environment;
• receiving one or more vendor proposals in the online reverse auction environment, at least one of the one or more vendor proposals being responsive to the RFP and including a proposed price for the at least one specified commodity and a proposed nonprice term;
• extracting the proposed price and the proposed nonprice term from the at least one responsive vendor proposals;
• comparing the proposed price and the proposed nonprice term with the respective estimated market price and nonprice market term of the database corresponding to the at least one specified commodity;
• and
• updating the database, after closing the online reverse auction environment, with the proposed price for the at least one specified commodity if the proposed price is less than the estimated market price so the estimated market price more accurately approximates an actual market price.

A computer system for facilitating the purchase of telecommunications services, comprising:

• a best of class database including an estimated market price for at least one telecommunications service;
• a customer traffic history database including traffic information describing a historical quantity of the at least one telecommunications service used by a customer during a previous time period;
• an RFP preparation module accessible by the customer via the Internet for preparation of a request for proposals (RFP) describing an anticipated quantity of the at least one telecommunications service, the RFP preparation module being adapted to extract the historical quantity from the customer traffic history database for use in determining the anticipated quantity of the at least one telecommunications service;
• an online reverse auction environment, accessible by multiple potential vendors via the Internet, the potential vendors including one or more interested vendors, the online reverse auction environment adapted to display the RFP to the one or more interested vendors and to receive bids on the RFP from the one or more interested vendors;
• a bid analysis module in communication with the online reverse auction environment and the best of class database for analyzing the received bids, and
• a database updating module for updating the best of class database, after a close of the online reverse auction environment, with at least one of the received bids if such received bid is less than the estimated market price so the estimated market price more accurately approximates an actual market price, wherein the estimated market price is formed as a function of historical pricing information not obtained via the online reverse auction environment, and wherein the estimated market price is not known to the potential vendors.

A computer system for facilitating the purchase of telecommunications services, comprising:

• a best of class database including an estimated market price for at least one telecommunications service;
• a customer traffic history database including traffic information describing a historical quantity of the telecommunications service used by a customer during a previous time period;
• an RFP preparation module accessible by the customer via the Internet for preparation of a request for proposals (RFP) describing an anticipated quantity of the telecommunications service, the RFP preparation module being adapted to extract the historical quantity from the customer traffic history database for use in determining the anticipated quantity of the telecommunications service;
• an online reverse auction environment accessible by multiple potential vendors via the Internet, the potential vendors including one or more interested vendors, the online reverse auction environment adapted to present the RFP to the one or more interested vendors and to receive bids on the RFP from the one or more interested vendors;
• a bid analysis module in communication with the online reverse auction environment and the best of class database for analyzing the received bids and generating a feedback in response to the received bids;
• and
• a database updating module for updating the best of class database, after a close of the online reverse auction environment, with at least one of the received bids if such received bid is less than the estimated market price so that the estimated market price more accurately approximates an actual market price, wherein the estimated market price is formed as a function of historical pricing information not obtained via the online reverse auction environment, and wherein the estimated market price is not known to the potential vendors.

A computer system for reducing the cost of telecommunications services, comprising:

• a best of class database including multiple generic classes of telecommunications service and an estimated market price for one or more of the generic classes of telecommunications service;
• a customer traffic history database including traffic information describing a historical quantity of at least some of the generic classes of telecommunications service used by a customer during a previous time period;
• a spending analysis software module for reading multiple telecommunications billing statements including traffic detail data, extracting the traffic detail data from the telecommunications billing statements, converting the traffic detail data to the generic classes of telecommunications service, and updating the historical quantity of the customer traffic history database with the converted traffic detail data;
• an RFP preparation module accessible by the customer via the Internet for preparation of a request for proposals (RFP) describing an anticipated quantity of a specified one of the generic classes of telecommunications service, the RFP preparation module being adapted to extract the historical quantity from the customer traffic history database for use in determining the anticipated quantity of the specified generic class of telecommunications service;
• an online reverse auction environment accessible by multiple potential vendors via the Internet, the potential vendors including one or more interested vendors, the online reverse auction environment adapted to present the RFP to the one or more interested vendors and to receive bids on the RFP from the one or more interested vendors;
• a bid analysis module in communication with the online reverse auction environment and the best of class database for analyzing the received bids and generating a feedback in response to the received bids;
• and
• a database updating module for updating the best of class database, after a close of the online reverse auction environment, with at least one of the received bids if such received bid is less than the estimated market price so that the estimated market price more accurately approximates an actual market price, wherein the estimated market price is formed as a function of historical pricing information not obtained via the online reverse auction environment, and wherein the estimated market price is not known to the potential vendors.

A computer-implemented method of analyzing telecommunications traffic, comprising:

• extracting traffic detail data from multiple billing statements, the billing statements being received from various telecommunications carriers, the traffic detail data of each billing statement describing at least one telecommunications traffic event;
• converting the traffic detail data to a generic traffic format, the generic traffic format defining multiple generic classes of service;
• storing the converted traffic detail data in a customer traffic history database;
• summarizing the converted traffic detail data;
• providing a best of class database including an estimated market price for one or more of the generic classes of service;
• analyzing the traffic detail data to determine an actual cost of the telecommunications traffic;
• and
• comparing the actual cost to the estimated market price, wherein the estimated market price is formed as a function of historical pricing information obtained via at least one previously performed online reverse auction, and wherein the estimated market price is not known to a vendor of the online reverse auction.

A computer-implemented telecommunications spending analysis system for analyzing multiple telecommunications billing statements received by a customer from various telecommunications carriers, each telecommunications billing statement including traffic detail data for multiple telecommunications traffic events, comprising:

• a set of computer-readable translation rules that relate the traffic detail data to multiple predefined generic classes of service;
• a traffic genericizing module for converting the traffic detail data to a generic traffic detail format in accordance with the translation rules;
• a customer traffic history database for storing the converted traffic detail data;
• a traffic analysis software module in communication with the customer traffic history database for analyzing the converted traffic detail data to thereby allow convenient summarizing, storage, and reporting of the traffic detail data;
• and
• a best of class database including an estimated market price for one or more of the generic classes of service, and in which the traffic analysis software module is adapted to analyze the traffic detail data to determine an actual cost of the telecommunications traffic and compare the actual cost to the estimated market price, wherein the estimated market price is formed as a function of historical pricing information obtained via at least one previously performed online reverse auction, and wherein the estimated market price is not known to a vendor of the online reverse auction.