Information translation communication protocol

A procurement process for sourcing of a buyer-specified desired item by a back office apparatus, said process comprising:

• enabling, using a communications interface of the back office apparatus, communications with a buyer unit and at least one supplier unit via respective communication links, the back office apparatus including machine readable code on a computer readable storage medium that when executed coordinates procurement between the buyer unit and the at least one supplier unit;
• a common language generator (CLG) means in the back office apparatus normalizing a catalog comprising a plurality of electronic databases and the plurality of electronic databases including a plurality of catalog items, such that each of the plurality of catalog items is uniquely identified using a common parametric hierarchy with respect to normalized class relationships, attribute relationships and value relationships, said relationships including a source for each said catalog items;
• providing a selection interface to the buyer unit for selecting one or more of the plurality of electronic databases of the catalog;
• the buyer unit selecting one or more of the plurality of electronic databases of the catalog to be searched and specifying a cascading search of the selected one or more of the plurality of electronic databases of the catalog to be searched for the buyer-specified desired item on the selection interface;
• the buyer unit specifying class relationships, attribute relationships and value relationships for the buyer-specified desired item in the selected one or more of the plurality of electronic databases of the catalog of the specified cascading search;
• providing a hot list of previously purchased items identified by class relationships, attribute relationships and value relationships on the selection interface;
• the back office apparatus invoking a search procedure based on a pre-determined criteria for matching the relationships of the hot list and the plurality of catalog items in the plurality of electronic databases of the catalog to a buyer terminal specified class relationships, attribute relationships and value relationships for the buyer-specified desired item in the selected databases of the specified cascading search;
• the back office apparatus coordinating procurement if the buyer-specified desired item is found in either the hot list or in the one of the selected electronic databases of the catalog;
• wherein for the buyer-specified desired item found in the one of the selected electronic databases of the catalog, the catalog item can be at least one of copied and moved between electronic databases by said back office apparatus, said copying and moving being facilitated by using the common parametric hierarchy and an exception list;
• the back office apparatus automatically reviewing and generating a special requisition for the buyer-specified desired item by capturing matching classes, attributes and values in a special requisition whenever the buyer-specified desired item is not found in the hot list and not found in any of the selected one or more of the plurality of electronic databases of the catalog, said special requisition being used to select at least one potential source of the desired item, wherein the back office apparatus includes a machine-readable code on a computer readable storage medium which when executed by the back office apparatus implements the automatically reviewing and generating step.