Claims:We claim,
1. An electronic procurement system (2) characterized in that:
the electronic procurement system (2) comprises of a virtual catalogue (12) in addition to the internal hosted catalogue (4) wherein;
the virtual catalogue (12) comprises of a list of items not found in the internal hosted catalogue (4) of the electronic procurement system (2); and
the list of items present in the virtual catalogue (12) are fetched from punchout websites (8) connected with the electronic procurement system (2);
such that the process for creation of the said virtual catalogue (12) is facilitated by a
processing means (6) and comprises the steps of:
a. searching all historical requisitions made in the electronic procurement system (2);
b. extracting query item name (3);
c. storing the list of all such said item names (3);
d. invoking the processing means (6) to initiate the process of performing a
keyword search, in the corresponding punchout website (8) when the requester (1) clicks on the punchout icon (7) of that particular punchout website (8);
e. initiating a login session with the said punchout website (8) and passing on the
item name (3) to the punchout website (8);
f. initiating a search in the punchout website (8) by aligning the item name (3)
with the item names listed in the punchout website’s catalogue (10);
g. extracting the item details (11) of the top five hits of the search results and
returning them to the electronic procurement system (2);
h. collating and storing all the item details (11);
i. creating a virtual catalogue (12) which includes the said collated and stored
item details (11); and
j. publishing said virtual catalogue (12) on the electronic procurement system (2).

2. An electronic procurement system (2) as claimed in claim 1, wherein both the internal hosted catalogue (4) and the virtual catalogue (12) are represented within the electronic procurement system (2) itself, thus providing the requester (1) with a comprehensive list of items available in both the said catalogues.

3. An electronic procurement system (2) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said punch out websites (8) are external websites of the suppliers or vendors and are connected with the electronic procurement system (2).

4. An electronic procurement system (2) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the requester (1) is directed to a particular punchout website (8) upon clicking the punchout icon (7) corresponding to that punchout website (8).

5. An electronic procurement system (2) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the query item name (3) is in the form of free text.

6. An electronic procurement system (2) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the exchange of data between the electronic procurement system (2) and the punchout websites (8) is facilitated by a processing means (6).

7. An electronic procurement system (2) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing means (6) is also equipped to provide a list of other better item options fetched from the item names present in the virtual catalogue (12), even in an event wherein the requester (1) finds the query item name (3) in the internal hosted catalogue (4) of the electronic procurement system (2).

8. An electronic procurement system (2) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the virtual catalogue (12) is tied with the decision rules of the processing means (6) to periodically refresh or update the said virtual catalogue (12).
, Description:FIELD OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention relates to an electronic procurement system. Particularly, the present invention relates to an electronic procurement system comprising of a virtual catalogue in addition to the internal hosted catalogue provided within the said system. The invention further relates to a process of creation of the said virtual catalogue within the said electronic procurement system.

BACKGROUND:

Electronic procurement refers to the business to business or business to customer or business to government purchase process of requisitioning, ordering and purchasing goods and services over the internet. Electronic procurement processes provide their users substantial benefits such as cost savings, shorter purchasing cycles, improved inventory control and transparency, to name a few. Electronic procurement systems typically comprise of online catalogues representing a list of items available for the purchase. Usually these systems consist of internal hosted catalogues representing a limited set of items. However, many a times an event may arise wherein the buyer or the requester is unable to find the query item in these internal catalogues thus creating an obstacle for him to raise a requisition within the electronic procurement system. In some of the electronic procurement systems available in the market, the requester is redirected to the external links for finding the query item at those locations. However, this becomes very cumbersome for the requester and hence makes the process of electronic procurement inconvenient.

Prior art:

US5319542A discloses a system that facilitates the user in the electronically ordering items from suppliers. The system comprises of an Electronic Catalogue and an Electronic Requisition facility. The Electronic Catalogue includes a Public Catalogue and a Private Catalogue. The Public Catalogue is stored in a publicly available database for access by customer/requesters. The Private Catalogue is resident on a Customer’s computer system and may contain unique pricing data based on pricing agreements. The Electronic Requisition facility is used by the customers/requesters to electronically create purchase requisitions through the appropriate approval process within the enterprise. Requisitions are then processed through the customer’s procurement system and transmitted electronically as purchase orders to suppliers.

In US 8352326B2, a virtual business transaction is implemented between a first virtual world and a second virtual world by providing a searchable catalog that includes one or more items each comprising a virtual good, a virtual service, a real good, or a real service. An object representation is stored for each of the items. Each of the stored object representations is associated with metadata comprising any of digital rights metadata, ownership metadata, identity metadata, payment method metadata, or currency detail metadata. A set of transformation algorithms are established that are customized through a rule set. A request is received specifying a copying, modifying, or reselling of an item selected from the items in the searchable catalog. The copying, modifying, or reselling of the item from a first virtual world to a second virtual world is implemented using the set of transformation algorithms. An exchange of virtual currency is implemented between the first virtual world and the second virtual world using the set of transformation algorithms.

However, the prior arts fail to provide an electronic procurement system wherein there is a provision of an additional catalogue consisting a list of item names, apart from the internal hosted catalogue being included within the electronic procurement system itself and which is accessible to the requester. The present invention thus overcomes the limitations of the prior arts and provides an electronic procurement system comprising of a virtual catalogue within the electronic procurement system in addition to the internal hosted catalogue.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION:

An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic procurement system comprising of a virtual catalogue in addition to the internal hosted catalogue present within the system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic procurement system which creates a virtual catalogue based on the search queries entered by the requester which are not listed in the internal hosted catalogue of the electronic procurement system.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a process for creation of a virtual catalogue within the electronic procurement system itself.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic procurement system which makes use of punchout websites connected with the electronic procurement system for searching the relevant items not found in the internal hosted catalogue of the system, thus facilitating in the creation of a virtual catalogue.

Yet another object of the preset invention is to provide a comprehensive list of available items to the requester by simultaneously displaying the items in the internal hosted catalogue as well as the items in the virtual catalogue within the electronic procurement system itself.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic procurement system which makes it easy and convenient for the requester to raise a requisition even when the search query entered by him is not found in the internal hosted catalogue of the electronic procurement system.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic procurement system which is simple, convenient to use and user friendly.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic procurement system which displays all possible relevant options to the requester prior to raising the final requisition request.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention relates to an electronic procurement system. Particularly the present invention relates to an electronic procurement system primarily aimed at the creation of a virtual catalogue in an event wherein the query item name entered by the requester is not found within the internal hosted catalogue of the electronic procurement system.

In one aspect, the present invention provides an electronic procurement system which is connected with a few punchout websites. In an event wherein the query item name is not found in the internal hosted catalogue of the electronic procurement system, the query item name is searched for, in the corresponding punchout websites and the best relevant results are extracted and returned to the electronic procurement system.

In another aspect, the present invention provides an electronic procurement system which involves a processing means which facilitates data exchange between the electronic procurement system and the punchout websites. The said processing means conducts a search for the query item name in the catalogue of the punchout websites by alignment of keywords, identifies the best relevant hits, extracts the corresponding item details and returns back the same to the electronic procurement system. Based on the list of such item details fetched from the punchout websites, the processing means further creates and publishes a virtual catalogue involving these item details, within the electronic procurement system itself.

In yet another aspect, the present invention provides an electronic procurement system comprising of a virtual catalogue in addition to the internal hosted catalogue, wherein the virtual catalogue creation is facilitated by a processing means. Further, the virtual catalogue so created is tied to the decision rules of the processing means to refresh or update the catalogue on a periodic basis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS:

FIG. 1 illustrates the process for creation of a virtual catalogue within the electronic procurement system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION:

Before the present invention is described, it is to be understood that this invention is not limited to methodologies described, as these may vary as per the person skilled in the art. It is 15 also to be understood that the terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing the particular embodiments only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Throughout this specification, the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps. The use of the expression “at least” or “at least one” suggests the use of one or more elements or ingredients or quantities, as the use may be in the embodiment of the invention to achieve one or more of the desired objects or results. Various embodiments of the present invention are described below. It is, however noted that the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, but rather the intention is that modifications those are apparent are also included.

Referring to FIG. 1, a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the requester (1) enters a search query in the form of a free text query item name (3) in the electronic procurement system (2), the query item name (3) is searched within the internal hosted catalogue (4) of the electronic procurement system (2). In an event wherein the query item name (3) is not found within the internal hosted catalogue (4), the query item name (3) is saved in the history memory (5) of the electronic procurement system (2). The electronic procurement system (2) makes use of a processing means (6) which further implements all the steps for creation of a virtual catalogue (12). It is to be noted that the broken arrows in FIG. 1 represent the steps which are facilitated by the processing means (6).

Initially, the processing means (6) extracts all such query item names (3) from the history memory (5) of the electronic procurement system (2) and stores the list of all such item names (3). In an event wherein, the search query item name (3) is not found within the internal hosted catalogue (4), at least one punchout icon (7) is displayed on the screen of the requester (1). As soon as the requester (1) clicks on a particular punchout icon (7), the processing means (6) is invoked to initiate the process of performing a keyword search in the corresponding punchout website (8). The processing means (6) at this stage initiates a login session (9) with the punchout website (8) and passes on the search query item name (3) to the punchout website (8). The processing means (6) conducts a search in the punchout websites (8) by aligning the search query item name (3) with the item names listed in the punchout website’s catalogue (10). The item details (11) of the top five hits of the search process so conducted are extracted and returned to the electronic procurement system (2). Once the item details (11) of the top five hits are returned to the electronic procurement system (2), all the item details (11) are collated by the processing means (6) and stored as a list. This list of item details (11) is used to create a virtual catalogue (12) which is further published by the processing means (6) on the electronic procurement system (2) and displayed to the requester (1).

Further, the virtual catalogue (12) is tied with the decision rules of the processing means (6) to refresh or update the virtual catalogue (12), the rules being predefined but also having a provision to be configured at a later stage. Based on the category of items present in the virtual catalogue (12), the processing means (6) recognizes those items for different level of urgency for the virtual catalogue (12) update i.e. whether to update the virtual catalogue (12) on a daily, monthly or quarterly basis. For instance, the processing means (6) can recognize that items like laptops are required to be refreshed every month whereas items like chairs are required to be refreshed every quarter. Based in this recognition, the processing means (6) fetches the data connected to that particular virtual catalogue (12) and refresh the item and price data.

In an embodiment of the present invention, in case of an event wherein the requester (1) finds the search query item name (3) in the internal hosted catalogue (4) of the electronic procurement system (2) and adds it to the shopping cart, before clicking on submit, the requester is still presented with a list of better options from the virtual catalogue (12) generated by any previous relevant search queries.

Punchout icons (7) refer to a link of external websites of the suppliers or vendors, available on the electronic procurement system (2). The requester (1) can directly click on the punchout icon (7) to find a particular item on the punchout website (8) linked to that particular punchout icon (7). Once the punchout icon (7) is clicked, the requester (1) is directed to the corresponding punchout website (8) where the requester (1) can select an item which will be added to the cart of the electronic procurement system (2). At the time of the check-out, the requester is directed back to the electronic procurement system (2).

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the electronic procurement system (2) is enabled to run on a desktop computer. In another embodiment of the present invention, the electronic procurement system (1) may also be enabled to operate on a mobile phone.

While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the specific elements of the preferred embodiment, it will be appreciated that many alterations can be made and that many modifications can be made in preferred embodiment without departing from the principles of the invention. These and other changes in the preferred embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the invention and not as a limitation.