US 8,015,041 B2Granted

System and method for managing purchasing contracts

OwnerMichael D. Whitesageinventor

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A system and method of managing purchasing contracts between supplier entities and customer entities for the purchase of products includes the step of generating at least one purchasing contract between at least one supplier entity (e.g., a product originator such as an airline company or a distributor such as travel agency) and at least one customer entity. The purchasing contract generated is one that is applicable to one or more contracted purchasing transactions effected, at least partially, through a computerized system. The generating step includes identifying one or more contract terms, wherein each contract term has one or more term attributes, and storing a term data set of the term attributes associated with each contract term in one or more computer databases. The method also involves collecting transaction data relating to one or more purchasing transactions and storing the transaction data in one or more computer databases. Preferably, a computer program is executed to identify one or more of the purchasing transactions as a contracted transaction (i.e., applicable to a specific contract) by selecting at least a portion of the transaction data for a purchasing transaction and comparing the selected portion with the term attributes for a contract term. In this way, the transaction may be identified as a contracted transaction if the selected portion is identified with one or more of the term attributes.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer implemented method of generating an electronic database comprising a collection of transaction data sets that identify multiple independent transaction data sets to a single purchasing contract, said method comprising the steps of:

creating a Transaction Detail Database for storing data sets representing transactions, including defining data storage adapted to storing the data sets in accordance with a common data format;
collecting transaction data for each of a plurality of transactions from one or more sources;
electronically storing, in the Transaction Detail Database, the collected transaction data as a transaction data set in accordance with the common data format;
repeating the collecting and electronically storing steps multiple times to populate the Transaction Detail Database with a population of transaction data sets;
selecting a contract term of a purchasing contract, from a Contract Registry Database storing a plurality of contract terms, wherein the contract term is associated in the Contract Registry Database with one or more contract term criteria defining the contract term;
executing a computer program to identify a plurality of transaction data sets from the population of transaction data sets stored in the Transaction Detail Database with the contract term, including electronically comparing data elements of the transaction data sets with the contract term criteria;
and
generating a collection of contract-specific transaction data sets including each identified transaction data set;
and
wherein said step of executing a computer program to identify a plurality of transaction data sets with the contract term, includes:
electronically comparing a data element of the transaction data sets with contract term customer criteria,
electronically comparing a data element of the transaction data sets with contract term market criteria,
electronically comparing a data element of the transaction data sets with contract term supplier criteria, and
electronically comparing a data element of the transaction data sets with contract term product criteria.

11 more elements

creating a Transaction Detail Database for storing data sets representing transactions, including defining data storage adapted to storing the data sets in accordance with a common data format;
collecting transaction data for each of a plurality of transactions from one or more sources;
electronically storing, in the Transaction Detail Database, the collected transaction data as a transaction data set in accordance with the common data format;
repeating the collecting and electronically storing steps multiple times to populate the Transaction Detail Database with a population of transaction data sets;
selecting a contract term of a purchasing contract, from a Contract Registry Database storing a plurality of contract terms, wherein the contract term is associated in the Contract Registry Database with one or more contract term criteria defining the contract term;
executing a computer program to identify a plurality of transaction data sets from the population of transaction data sets stored in the Transaction Detail Database with the contract term, including electronically comparing data elements of the transaction data sets with the contract term criteria;
and
generating a collection of contract-specific transaction data sets including each identified transaction data set;
and
wherein said step of storing in accordance with a common data format includes dividing the transaction data sets into a plurality of data elements, including a data element designated for each of customer identification data, market identification data, supplier data, and product identification data;
and
wherein said step of executing a computer program to identify a plurality of transaction data sets with the contract term, includes:
electronically comparing a data element of the transaction data sets with contract term customer criteria,
electronically comparing a data element of the transaction data sets with contract term market criteria,
electronically comparing a data element of the transaction data sets with contract term supplier criteria, and
electronically comparing a data element of the transaction data sets with contract term product criteria.

13 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/301,640Filed 13 Dec 2005 · continuation
Priority: 4 Apr 2000
Published: US 2006/0111956 A125 May 2006
Granted: 6 Sep 2011
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

G06Q 10/10
Administration; Management: office automation; Time management
G06Q 10/063
Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling: operations research,…
G06Q 10/0631
Operations research, analysis or management: resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
G06Q 10/0639
Operations research, analysis or management: performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations

Family

Application60/194,538Us provisional application · filed 4 Apr 2000
Application09/764,178Parent of this continuation · filed 17 Jan 2001
US 2006/0111956 A1Pre-grant publication · published 25 May 2006
US 7,016,859 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2002/0010686 A1Published application
US 8,015,041 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.