CLIAMS:We Claim:
I. A platform as a service application comprising a software framework and a hardware architecture comprising at least one computer programmed to execute a plurality of features to provide a mobile procurement platform of a component and service based
design.
2. The platform of claim I wherein said mobile procurement platform comprises means to enable a source to settle (828) process workflow on a variety of mobile devices of various form factors.
3. The platform of claim 2 wherein said means include programmed functionality allowing creation, management, and analysis of events related to at least one from the group of functions consisting of: spend analysis, reverse auctions, request for proposals, requests
for information, request for quote, contract management, supplier assessment, procure-topay, and payment settlement processes.
4. A design for a procurement-specific platform as a service application for facilitating business processes, said design comprising a software framework having a plurality of
programmed re-usable core procurement functions, and a plurality of foundational components wherein said plurality of core procurement functions includes at least one of: cache manager, access control, DI generator, authentication, content delivery network, and search, said platform as a service both device and browser agnostic.
5. The design of claim 4 wherein said plurality offoundational components includes at least one of the following: item master, supplier master, procurement taxonomy, users profiles, organizational structure, survey section, file manager, event analysis, account structure, customizable fields, exchange rate monitor, authentication and access management, search function, notifications, exception manager and logging, data access application
23 block, cashing and audit trail, workflow manager, transient fault handling block, document versioning, auto scaling, collaboration tool, and a reporting and analytical
framework.
6. A platform as a service application comprising a mobile procurement platform of a component and service based design for facilitating and managing a procurement process comprising programmed means to: facilitate spend analysis, conduct reverse auctions, provide contract management, provide supplier assessment, and manage payment settlement processes.
7. The platform application of claim 6 wherein said progranuned means further comprises at least one of: an item master, a supplier master, a procurement taxonomy, a file manager, a customizable field, an authentication and access management function, an exception management and logging function, a data access application block, an audit trail, a cache manager, a DI generator, an authentication function, a content delivery network, and a
proposal creation and management function.
8. The design of claim 5 wherein a first selection from said plurality of core procurement functions is combined to develop at least a first business process.
9. The design of claim 5 wherein a second selection from said plurality of procurement
functions is combined to develop a second business process.
10. The design of claim 5 further comprising a common set of data, said common set of data natively available for all said plurality of foundational components and all said core procurement functions without transfer of said data.
11. The design of claim 5 said design providing a plurality of benefits including identity management and single sign on through anyone of several means including corporate 24 credential, social platform authentication, and a third party authentication; integration of
corporate authorization rules to govern access management of each user; support of a plurality ofEAI and EDI integration standards; programming allowing use ofcustomization tools; and scaIeability.
12. The design of claim 5 said design providing: a) a consolidated view of spend across
enterprise; b) a category workbench; c) a low resistance bid solicitation and negotiation
system; d) a streamlined contracting process with exposure management; e) at least one
supplier relationship management feature; f) access to data from at least one catalog; g)
access to at least one catalog comprising pre-negotiated prices.
13. The design of claim 5 said design providing a) data incorporated from at least one
catalog; b) access to at least one catalog comprising pre-negotiated prices; c) tools for
creation of at least one selected from the group consisting of: invoices, requisitions,
receipts, and purchase orders.
14. The design of claim 4 said design providing a) data incorporated from at least one
catalog; b) access to at least one catalog comprising pre-negotiated prices; c) tools for
creation of at least one selected from the group consisting of: invoices, requisitions,
receipts, and purchase orders.
15. The design of claim 4 wherein said plurality offoundationaI components includes the
following: item master, supplier master, procurement taxonomy, users profiles,
organizational structure, survey section, file manager, event analysis, account structure,
customizable fields, authentication and access management, search function,
notifications, exception manager and logging, data access application block, , workflow
manager, auto scaling, collaboration tool, and a reporting and analytical framework.
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16. A platform as a service application having a software framework and a hardware
architecture comprising at least one computer programmed to execute a plurality of
features to provide a mobile procurement platform including a sourcing market
intelligence workbench.
17. The mobile procurement platform of claim 16 further comprising a plurality of
programmed functions that facilitate a plurality of procurement related tasks said
plurality of tasks comprising at least one from the group consisting of: spend analysis,
electronic reverse auctions, contract management, supplier portal, supplier assessment,
payment settlement processes, and generating electronic requests for at least one of:
proposals, information, and quotes.
18. The mobile procurement platform of claim 16, said platform integrating spend, sourcing,
and procurement functions.
19. The mobile procurement platform of claim 17 wherein said platform may be accessed
and used from a mobile device.
20. The mobile procurement platform of claim 16 further comprising at least one tool from
the following: a) at least one request-for-proposal-template; b) at least one supplier
performance and risk template; c) a supplier directory.
21. The mobile procurement platform of claim 16 wherein said sourcing market intelligence
workbench comprises research information, strategic plans, templates and models made
accessible to all members of a specified group of users ofthe platform.
22. A platform as a service application comprising hardware architecture and a software
framework and further comprising at least one computer programmed to execute the
following functions
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a) cache manage
b) access control
c) authentication
d) content delivery network,
e) search
and a plurality of foundational components.
23. The platform of claim 22 wherein said plurality of foundational components includes the
following components:
a) At least one item master
b) At least one supplier master
c) A procurement taxonomy
d) At least one authentication means
e) A data access application
1) workflow manager means
g) and means for collaboration.
24. The platform of claim 23 wherein said at least one authentication means comprises a
single authentication scheme selected from one or more of the following: single sign on
using corporate credentials; social platform authentication.
25. The platform of claim 23 further comprising means for automating tracking and reporting
savings and compliance with savings criteria.
26. The platform of claim 23 wherein said plurality of foundational components further
comprises a project management tool.
Dated this on 1st day of August 2014. ,TagSPECI:
FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
The Patents Rules, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See section 10 and rule 13)

1. Component Based Mobile Architecture with Intelligent Business Services to
Build Extensible Supply Chain Ready Procurement Platforms

2.

1. (A) Global eProcure
(B) United States of America
(C) 100 Walnut Avenue, Suite 304, Clark, New Jersey 07066,
United States of America

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention pertains to the procurement tools industry and, specifically, to tools for
managing spend analysis, reverse auctions, sourcing, contracts, procure-to-pay processes,
requests for proposals, supplier assessment and settlement processes.
BACKGROUND
The Procurement Tools industry grew from nearly zero in the 90s to over $2 billion as of 2012.
The industry grew with the innovations related to individual aspects of Procurement such as
spend analysis, reverse auctions, sourcing, contracts, Procure-To-Pay processes, among others.
In the last 5 to 8 years, these innovations have been focused on full suite procurement and
integration of these individual modules while avoiding patchwork integration. Though
patchwork integration works, it is not seamless. Seamless movement of data amongst these
related functionalities remained difficult.
As the procurement industry has matured, it has enjoyed the benefits of availability of the
procurement tools at competitive prices. But recently, procurement departments have begun
demanding a significantly better experience as benchmarked by consumer technologies.
Despite significant progress in the procurement solutions in the last few years, significant
problems remained unaddressed. These problems include:
• Low adoption rate among users due to difficulties of use and intuitiveness of the solution;
• Low spend through these Tools thereby not realizing the benefits of the solutions;
• Clunky data movement due to patch integration among modules, even though many of
these products were sold as seamlessly integrated;
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• Use of multiple solution providers (one for spend analysis, one for contract management,
one for P2P etc.), creating a hodge-podge of technical solutions; and
• Expensive and time consuming integration with existing ERP and other systems.
As a result of these limitations of the available systems, large companies turned to
Procurement Outsourcing as an alternative to these solutions. Hence, the Procurement
Outsourcing industry rapidly grew in the last 5 to 7 years.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first objective ofthe current invention is to provide a solution that increases adoption rate
among users by reducing difficulty and increasing intuitiveness. A second objective is to increase
spend. A third objective is to provide seamless movement of data by a single provider and avoid
expensive integration with ERP systems. A fourth objective is to provide a means for sourcing
professionals to easily manage tasks from nearly anyplace. A fifth objective is to provide a
means that allows a procurement company to tailor the system for its specific needs without
having to create progranuning language or templates.
The present invention describes a unique process to create a procurement platform that can be
extended into a supply chain with minimal effort. This unique design allows the platform to be
hosted in the cloud, and implemented as platform-as-a-service (PaaS) with dynamic scaling,
providing the ability to add new functionality. The platform covers the entire "Source to Settle"
or "S2S" process including spend analysis, electronic reverse auctions, electronic Request for
Proposals/information/quotes, Contract Management, Supplier Portal and Supplier assessment,
Procure-To-Pay and payment settlement processes. Further, this platform provides the user a
sourcing market intelligence workbench and the option to work from any electronic device
including mobile devices.
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Paas refers to the provision of a computing platform and the provision and deployment of the
associated set of software applications (called a solution stack) to an enterprise by a cloud
provider. PaaS provides all the infrastructure needed to develop and run applications over the
Internet. Users can access custom apps built in the cloud, just like their SaaS apps, while IT
departments and independent software vendors can focus on innovation instead of complex
infrastructure. The PaaS application of the present invention allows users to increase speed of
development with pre-loaded, customizable templates and to build applications without writing a
single line of code. Users are able to quickly automate, change and support a wide range of
business processes. Even a user that is not a trained developer will be able to use the present
invention and take advantage of the functionality it offers.
In general, platform as a service arrangements provide a set of services aimed at developers that
helps them develop and test apps without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure.
Developers can create without needing to consider the cost, space and convenience issues related
to provisioning the servers, storage and backup typically associated with developing and
launching an app. Instead, a developer is provided the capability to write code, test and launch
the application, and make changes to the application to fix bugs or add functionality. The present
invention takes advantage of all that PaaS has to offer and incorporates those advantages in a
framework set up to allow design of procurement solutions that are tailored to the specific users
needs.
The invention is an architectural solution based on a vision that a buyer should be able to
conduct the entire workflow from a mobile device. The focus is to provide a single procurement
platform easy enough to use that it becomes an extension of the procurement professionals' daily
life. The procurement platform of the present invention is comprehensive, mobile, extensible
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and scalable and embodies significant knowledge of Procurement processes, comprising
reusable components and services specific to the procurement domain. These procurement
specific components allow for rapid development of various business functionalities in sourcing
and procurement. The components selected were integrated to create functionalities. For
example, one such functionality is designed to enable the workflow of a category buyer. The
unique design ofthe platform and the process to integrate these components creates a
comprehensive procurement platform.
This state-of-art Procurement platform provides the following unique differentiators:
a) The Procurement Platform: comprises a single platform for conducting all procurement
functionality by seamlessly integrated spend, sourcing and procurement functions and by
including contextual and personalized search functions based on the user's profile and past
activities. An embodiment of the platform further includes a unified supplier portal for sourcing
and procurement tasks and is easy to integrate with ERP systems. It is simple to deploy and
update and incorporates embedded knowledge and social networking capabilities. Specifically,
the system uses and provides a combination of procurement knowledge with an intuitive and
mobile platform.
b) Procurement Knowledge: is included in embodiments in one or more of: forms for multiple
templates for RFP's, category specific supplier performance and risk management templates,
categorization schema used in an automated spend analysis product, a supplier directory,
intelligent opportunity assessment capabilities based on sourcing levers like demand aggregation,
supplier consolidation and other effective factors, and may include a "sourcing workbench"
which includes the ability to house research, strategy, templates and models in shared workspace
allowing the user to build a common knowledge and tools base for a given team.
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c) Special Features: An embodiment of the intuitive, mobile platform ofthe present invention
may include end to end voice based navigation for quick access, a highly efficient method for
creating an RFP and automating scoring especially well-suited to mobile users and/or voice
commands, and simple means to award a contract and catalog. An embodiment ofthe present
invention is preferably both device and browser agnostic and capable of handling any culture.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 schematic showing core components of the procurement platform of the present
invention;
Fig. 2 schematic showing interrelationship between data sources involved in the procurement
platform of the present invention;
Fig. 3 lists of tasks showing the platform support EAr and ED! integration standards;
Fig. 4 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary workflow ofthe invention;
Fig. 4-a is a flowchart of an exemplary worker's tasks;
Fig. 5 is a screenshot showing event wise savings by country and task list;
Fig. 6 is a screenshot of the dashboard of the present invention, showing icons for various create
tasks;
Fig. 7 is a screenshot of the dashboard, showing means to upload document and send to Partners
in the system;
Fig. 8 is a screenshot of the New RFP creation screen, with event timeline;
Fig. 9 is a screenshot showing Lot Details for auction event for valves, including bidder details;
Fig. lOis a screenshot showing return from a request for a frequently procured item;
Fig. 11 is a screenshot showing a workbench which provide logistical data over a set period of
time;
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Fig. 12 shows an example scorecard to be completed by a user ofthe platform;
Fig. l2-a; shows a screenshot ofthe sourcing scorecard analysis data for multiple suppliers by
item and team member;
Fig. l2-b; is a screenshot showing the score summary by criteria, supplier, and team member;
Fig. 13 is a screenshot showing a four-panel view of supplier spend for all suppliers listed bt
geography, time, name, and category;
Fig. 13-a; shows a spend view by supplier entity name;
Fig. 14 provides a screenshot showing an opportunity assessment based on selected categories
for a particular entity;
Fig. l5-a thru d are screenshots of the step-wise progression to create a sourcing event using
category specific templates already provided by the system;
Fig. 16 shows the screen depicting automated scoring, bid analysis, and winner
recommendations;
Fig. 17 is a screenshot of the lifecycle of a specified enterprise contract from request to approval;
Fig. 18 provides screen data depicting contract compliance with various contract metrics;
Fig. 19, 19-a and 19-b provides graphic representations of a variety of metrics related to a
specific supplier, including savings;
Fig. 20-a is a project management report showing progress toward particular milestones;
Fig. 20-b is a project management report showing status of a particular project.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The foundation of any good product design is a strong, core component based architecture. Fig. 1
illustrates a core component block diagram depicting an embodiment of the invention comprising
thirty components. These components are considered the basic architecture building blocks of
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the overall platform. Other embodiments may include only a subset of these; still others may
include these as well as additional components or may mix a subset of the thirty with additional
components.
Regardless of the number and type of components, each embodiment ofthe platform is built on
foundational components that can be reused during the various processes of and functionalities
required by a procurement and supply chain.
Core Procurement Components:
The Core Procurement Components (infrastructure) provides functionality for use which is
accessible from the platform. The Core Procurements layer provides the ability to perform the
basic but complex activities of providing the required support to host and scale the
functionalities. These core procurement components include but are not limited to: Cache
Manager function, Access control function, UI Generator, Authentication function, Content
Delivery Network (CON), and Search function. The core procurement components are either
provided as a platform service or are provided by third party specialist providers. They enable
the procurement foundation components (described in the next section) to execute the required
functionality without the burden of managing the execution. Core procurement components help
in building the business functions and also provide extensible architecture which by its very
nature makes it very simple to add new business functions at later stages. Each core component
serves a very unique purpose in the procurement platform and may all be incorporated in the
platform or, perhaps, only a subset may be incorporated.
Foundational Components:
In addition to the set of core platform components, there are foundational components which are
considered to be the base of any procurement functionality. In the present invention,
foundational components may include:
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1. Item Masters - a centralized service to manage the goods and services for an organization
(Fig. 1)
2. Supplier Master - a centralized service to manage common supplier base
3. Procurement taxonomy - common product and services classification language
4. Users profiles - rich user information to provide personalized experience in the platform
5. Organizational structure - reporting, functional and authority structure to closely align
procurement activities to users role
Other foundational components may include such known functional capabilities as: Survey
Section (Fig. 1) which provides means to select pre-set questions for which answers may be
required to be submitted by a supplier or vendor and which answers may be automatically scored
and/or a rating provided; File Manager for tracking identifying and locating files; Event
Analysis (Fig. 1), for example, for returning a vendor list in accordance with characteristics
selected by a user, or for employing the assigned rating to a supplier's response or responses;
Auction Engine (Fig. 1) for setting up and conducting auctions; Scoring Engine for creating
ratings related to a supplier's response to a set of questions served by the Survey Section; and
Organization and Account Structure (Fig. 1), Customizab1e Fields (Fig. 1), and/or an Exchange
Rate Monitor (Fig. 1). In addition, foundational components may also include anyone, several or
all of the following:
Authentication: (Fig. 1) An enterprise grade business application needs a good strategy
around authentication. Authentication allows users to identify themselves to an application.
The modes of Authentication can vary from simple username, password to complex
biometric capabilities. With more and more businesses moving towards the cloud to cater to
their business function, the need to have a single authentication scheme across the corporate
8
and cloud business applications is a must. The current platform components give the
flexibility for any business to use any of the following authentication schema: Single Sign On
into Platform using Corporate credential; Social Platform Authentication (Gmail, Facebook,
windows live id); Any Third Party Authentication.
Access Management (Fig. 1) caters to what a user is authorized to do within the business
applications. Access Management is well integrated with the business's authorization rules.
There is no need to redefine the authorization rules for a new business.
Search: (Fig. 1) One ofthe key features of better user productivity is the ability to search
relevant business data across the enterprise and outside. Search in the current platform is an
enterprise wide feature i.e. across/within business functions. It is coupled with security i.e.,
"a user gets to view what he/she is authorized to view". Search is also integrated with an
analytics component which gives it the ability to perform business intelligence enabled
searches.
Notifications: (Fig. 1) Across the enterprise and users, "to notify" is the ability to inform of a
business event occurrence. The Notification component can send notification via various
mediums, e.g., email, chat, push notification to devices and text. The ability to send
notification to various formats ranging from tablets, browser and application within/outside
of the enterprise is one of this platform's unique functional aspects.
Exception Manager & Logging: (Fig. I) A robust exception management identifier makes
troubleshooting across the enterprise simplified. Logging of messages across the enterprise
application helps in troubleshooting.
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Data Access Application Block: (Fig. l) An enterprise application in the cloud deployed in
Platform as Service Model requires "data" to persist to multiple storage types. Examples
include a relational database, big data, table storage or others. The Data Access Application
Block removes all the underlying complexity ofthe cloud in terms of transient failures and
allows the developers to concentrate only on the core business functionality development.
Caching & Andit Trail: (Fig. l) functions are core to any technical application and are very
standard in nature.
Workflow Manager: (Fig. l) Software As a Service business applications cater to a variety
of businesses with differing business processes. A sound workflow engine which gives the
ability to define and tweak business processes at the core and with unique integration abilities
to the other business processes inside/outside of the enterprise is a unique value proposition.
Transient Fault Handling Block: (Fig. l) Cloud computing is a new environment with a lot
of unknowns. It brings its share of problems in terms of intermittent errors while accessing
cloud storage and network related issues within the cloud world. Transient Fault Handling is
a required functionality to abstract these problems for the core developer.
Localization: (Fig. l) Localization is a standard component which addresses internalization
and globalization.
Document Versioning: (Fig. l) The term "document" in the enterprise world is not
necessarily defined as a word or excel document. "Document" can represent a contract, a
catalog or any other business entities. The need to version these entities comes from the fact
that end users would like to work or maintain different versions of the same business entity
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across the time dimension and hence promote some level of reusability. The concept of
document versioning is synonymous to physical document versions.
Auto Scaling Application Block: (Fig. I) Applications hosted in the cloud are often faced
with the challenge to utilize the computing power in a cost effective manner. Depending on
the load scenario there may be a need to add more computing power automatically without
the need of any user intervention. An auto-scaling application block would allow addition of
computing power in response to the system's needs rather than requiring a user's command.
Collaboration: (Fig. I) Social collaboration is a standard requirement by most enterprise
application in current times. The collaboration framework of this platform brings both social
and document collaboration to the PaaS world.
Reporting and Analytical framework: (Fig. I) All enterprise applications have data which
is reportable and becomes historical across time and other dimensions. The need to stitch
together all this data and apply intelligence over the stitched-together data will give the
customer the ability to make more educated decisions based on the intelligent data and
dashboards.
KEY TECHNICAL ASPECTS
In addition to the Core Procurement Components and the Functional Components, there are Key
Technical Aspects of this invention. The application of the present invention comprises a Pure
Play PaaS procurement platform both mobile and voice enabled. It is an enterprise grade
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application of the kind to be deployed in a Pure Cloud "Platform as a Service" Model. The
application is designed to address a wide band spectrum offonn factors and devices which range
from tablet, to mobile, to browser. The invention boasts characteristics that make it a true
enterprise-grade application in every aspect with core identity management capability (single
sign-on) across businesses. The application, at its core, is a "Component Based Architecture"
comprising the core procurement foundation services of the platform (see Figs. I and 4). It
employs a Unified Platform for complete sourcing and procurement functions, and integrates
capabilities both within and on business or backend applications. The application embeds years
of procurement intelligence and experience and is both device and browser agnostic, capable of
handling any culture.
Identity Management & Single Sign On: (Fig. 2) An enterprise grade business application
needs a good strategy for authentication. Authentication allows users to identify themselves
to an application. The modes of Authentication can vary from simple usemame and/or
password to complex biometric capabilities. With more and more businesses moving towards
cloud computing to cater to their business functions, the need to have a single authentication
scheme across the corporate and cloud business applications is a must. The Platform
Authentication component gives the flexibility for any business to use any ofthe following
authentication schemes: Single Sign On into the platform using Corporate credential; Social
Platform Authentication (Gmail, Facebook, windows live id); Any Third Party
Authentication. Access Management caters to what a user is authorized to do within the
business applications. Access Management is well integrated with the corporate
authorization rules. The application does not require a business to redefine its authorization
rules but can be set to use what's already been implemented.
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Integration Ont of the Box: (Fig. 3) The application provides out of box capabilities to
integrate with any application already employed by the business. It supports most EAI & EDI
integration standards. See Fig. 3
BENEFITS OF THE APPLICATION
The present invention typically lowers operational costs and enables better margins in a
competitive market and also lowers the cost of development resulting in a lower price to
customers. Due to the faster cycle time for features, the application enables more configuration
options and easier customization of features. The application offers scalability, which is inherent
to the cloud platform and allows the application to meet varying customer demands. Performance
is enhanced above those platforms that are not cloud based. The enhancements resulting from
the cloud environment include: load balance on multiple actual or virtual servers across the
globe; continuing provision of existing functionality in an easy to use, seamlessly integrated
fashion; access to innovative differentiations leveraging the latest technology; and easy addition
of new features and products. (See Fig. 4a)
This component based design also has several benefits to the end user. Common components
serve multiple functionalities providing an unparalleled, consistent, and comprehensive
experience ofthe platform which breaks away from the traditional modular architecture needing
import/export functionalities amongst modules. As an example, goods and services needed by an
organization using the present invention are contained in a single Item Master.(labeled "Item" on
Fig. I) This item master is used in all procurement functionalities including spend analysis,
sourcing, contracts and P2P. Hence when any user wants to retrieve or add an item it is always
served in the exact same fashion alleviating a need for exporting and then importing those items
in different functionalities. Similarly, suppliers are also hosted in a common repository and
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hence the supplier invite process from any functionality is identical. The process of finding a
supplier, and the process for selecting a supplier is the same throughout the platform.
Components such as these can also be used in the supply chain extension of the platform. For
example the item master can support an inventory capability of the platform. This concept is also
extended to business components such as a scoring process (see Fig. I at "Scoring Engine")
related to suppliers or a response from a supplier is identical using scoring component. The
scoring component can be used to evaluate suppliers during the RFP (Request for Proposal)
proposal or can also be used for the strategic evaluation of the existing suppliers for balanced
score card purposes. See Figs. 8, 12, 12-a, and 12-b.
Utilization of common mobile interfaces is another advantage of this platform. The platform
leverages a framework which allows the user interface to be designed for a variety of devices
including iOS, Android or Windows 8. This native platform gives the user the feel of a solid
platform and the user experience remains the same when the user moves from one interface to
another interface. See Fig. 4a.
The design allows the user to extend the functionality of the procurement platform to other
aspects of the Supply Chain. For example, to create an inventory functionality one can use the
Procurement components ofItems, Partners, Users, Workflow, and Reporting etc. These
components can be brought together to build and launch an inventory tracking and reporting
product in a rapid marmer.
Example of an Integrated Workflow:
A list of tasks that may be quite typical in a work session of a user of the application is provided
below and illustrated at Figs. 4 and 4a. This list is for illustrative purposes only to give context to
the information provided herein:
• Strategic Buyer Sam logs in to the Platform (Using an application on an iPad)
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sam lands on the workboard where he can see his tasks, reports, activities and 5-6
widgets
Sam now uses the voice feature to create a new Sourcing event (e.g. to submit to a
supplier or suppliers a request for information, perhaps through the Survey Section,
which information is used to select a supplier)
Sam uses an existing IT category template to create the Sourcing event
Sam views the surmnary of the sourcing event created
Sam adds suppliers and then publishes the event or publishes the event to the Partner
Network port
Next, Sam views a scoring-in-progress event and scores the event
Then, Sam views an open live auction to view the auction bid graph and details
An event has just completed and bid analysis needs to be done. Sam opens the event to
complete bid analysis and award the event to a supplier
Sam awards the event to the supplier and creates a Contract using the same event which
pre-populates some ofthe Contract
Sam opens another negotiated contract and redlines the same.
Sam signs the contract and publishes it as a catalog for internal use
Sam searches through the catalog, and compares items to create a request or a new order.
Sam gets a report on how much time it took to complete each of the activities and how he
performed against the budgeted time.
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Functionality under the Platform
o Consolidated view of spend across enterprise is provided, typically through multiple screens
which may describe or depict:
• Automated aggregation, cleansing, and normalizing of data using an Artificial
Intelligence based system that learns. Real-time human feedback and ability to change
classification
• Single consolidated supplier spend view through parent-child linkage to every single
variation (Fig. 13 or l3a)
• Understandable sourcing-focused taxonomy for wider adaption amongst procurement
professionals (also capable ofUNSPSC, SIC-Code, home grown taxonomies, etc)
• Sourcing strategy directed to detect savings opportunities which may also be called a
hunt.
• Opportunity assessment which provides benchmarking data (Fig. 14)
• A State of Art reporting framework which provides views from an enterprise view to a
line item view and everything in between.
• Reports which are flexible in nature - clients assist in defining reports and therefore have
flexibility in creating their own tool
• Reports that can be exported, mailed and scheduled in different formats (pdf, word) for
further manipulation
o Category Workbench (see Fig. II) provides the persistence knowledgebase for your
procurement:
Workbench allows users to search, store, categorize and share market intelligence with
his/her colleagues within and outside the organization. These documents are stored in the
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cloud and can be retrieved and shared with the colleagues. The workbench functionality
allows a user to complete entire sourcing workflow and still remain within the platform.
This capability increases the adoption ofthe platform and makes the change management
process simpler. The workbench can be used for building a repository of: market
intelligence, RFP templates, Category Negotiation strategies, Pricing worksheets,
Supplier specific strategies, etc. The built-in features ofthe sourcing workbench allow
users to pull the appropriate document within the platform and continue to carry
remaining workflow thus improving productivity and providing intelligence to the
procurement professionals. Specifically, the Workbench provides the following benefits:
• Single stop for all category specific information across the enterprise
• Storage for research, strategy, historical events, templates and models in one place
• Access to supplier directory tailored to the category (Fig. 5)
• Access to all the data for items ever solicited, contracted, procured or inventoried
o Low resistance Bid solicitation and negotiation features:
• Guided sourcing events with category specific templates (Fig. 15a, b, c and d)
• Completely automated scoring, bid analysis with winner recommendations (Fig. 16)
• Supplier discovery through a supplier network
• Publishing of solicitation to credible suppliers.
• Strategic reverse auctions to improve savings further
• Panel auctions to leverage excess capacity at the suppliers
o Streamlined and controlled contracting process to manage the exposure
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• Provides ability to author contracts directly within the tool- either via Microsoft word
integration or authoring directly within the tool e.g. Fig. 8 and more specifically Fig.
l5(a)
• Facilitates collaborative authoring via the platform access and the features ofthe system
to bring the experts into the contract negotiation process
• Provides a single repository of the enterprise contract with life cycle management (Fig.
17)
• Includes ability to set notifications for custom dates and notifications for milestones
• Provides templates and clause library for easy creation
• Contract repository allows clients to keep track of past agreements
• Manages contract compliance and obligations (see Fig l5c)
o Efficient and functional supplier management
• Provides central place for information about all of procurer's suppliers - keep
information updated and stored (See Fig. 5)
• Facilitates easy document and information exchange with supplier (see Fig. 6)
• Employs electronic tracking to pre-screen, assess, audit, develop, improve your supplier
base
• Drives Diversity, sustainability, code of conduct and other initiatives
o Quasi automated requisition system
• Provides ability to upload catalogs (hosted) or punch out to a supplier site (punch out) to
access catalogs that have pre-negotiated prices for buyers to purchase from - compliance
ensured
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• Facilitates creation of requisitions, receipts, and purchase orders from catalog items -
creation is quick and easier since information is already prepopulated (see Fig. 9)
• Provides views and creation of invoices within the tool to process a purchase order
("PO") flip
• Operates to provide a 3-way or 2-way match available, matching of PO/Invoice/Receipt
or PO/Invoice before payment is made
• Integrates directly with ERP system to ensure real time updates of system
Compliance and Savings Tracking
Since the user conducts the entire workflow in the platform and the platform keeps track of all
transactions, the process of compliance is simplified. The platform can report compliance with
contracts, vendors, prices, volume and other company specific buying policies. Company
specific policies can be ruled into the platform and reporting made available around myriad
compliance factors such as:
Price compliance: (see Figs 19, 19a and 19b)
The system allows comparison of negotiated prices with the actual prices and reports the
level of compliances against line item prices.
Volume Compliances or Demand Management:
The system allows the users to measure volume of a product ordered against the projected
volume in the RFP or the contract and reports the level of demand of any product against
a baseline or a budget. The volume compliance is especially important for the direct
material categories.
Preferred Supplier Compliance:
The system will also highlight spend from suppliers that are not contracted or preferred.
The buying transactions comparing the contracts and the spend on non-preferred
suppliers can be reported on a periodic basis (such as monthly basis). (Figs. 13 and 13a)
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Buyer level Compliance:
Non-compliance by buyers using the platform (price, volume or preferred) can be
reported per individual buyers. Thus management can take action for such non-compliant
behavior. E.g. Fig. 19.
Project Management Reporting
Since the user conducts all of the sourcing work in the platform, the platform can divide and
track the activities in blocks of project steps. See Figs. 4 and 20. For example,
• Spend analysis and opportunity
• Market Intelligence
• RFP Completion
• Supplier Response collection
• Negotiation
• Analysis and Supplier selection
• Contracting
Start and end time of each step is kept in the database. The user can also enter an allocated or
budgeted timeline of each project step (optional) against which the system may provide a
measurement or score. The platform can provide reports by each buyer for a number of open
projects, works in progress, and completed projects. Currently many companies keep track of
these project steps either in a separate Project Management Tool or through Excel sheets. An
example of a Project Management report is shown at Fig. 20a and 20b.
Built in Market Intelligence Capability
Since most ofthe current tools used to manage spend and procurement processes and activities
are not integrated or modular, it is very hard to gain intelligence from performing these tasks.
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The single comprehensive platform of the present invention allows users to gain intelligence
from the platform. For example, the user can obtain category specific templates, strategies,
processes, pricing sheets, automated pricing index (where applicable), suppliers and even the
previously ordered items for that category. This built-in market intelligence improves the
productivity ofthe buyers and also assists in lowering the total cost of ownership for that
category. The market intelligence may include: Category specific RFP templates based on
sourcing expertise; a knowledge base of suppliers, items, templates and best practices; simple
RFP creation, completely automated scoring; a market Intelligence workbench for category
management; end to end voice based navigation for quick access; Intelligent opportunity
assessment using sourcing levers like demand aggregation, supplier consolidation, etc.; a highly
efficient awarding-to-contract process; single step contract-to-catalog process; OCR capability
for paper based contracts and invoices; contextual and personalized search based on user's
profile and activities; category specific supplier performance and risk management templates;
and a unified supplier portal for sourcing and procurement tasks.
The detailed description and the accompanying drawings provide at least one example
embodiment of the invention. The invention may, however, be embodied in different forms and
should not be construed as limited to the example embodiments set forth herein. Rather, the
example embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and
will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
In this application it is understood that the terms first, second, etc. used herein to describe
various elements and/or components should not limit the various elements and/or components
since. The terms first, second, etc. are only used to distinguish one element and/or component
from another elements and/or component. For example, a first element and/or component
21
discussed in this application could be termed a second element and/or component without
departing from the teachings associated with the example embodiments.
It is understood that various terms in the art may be used to describe a particular element
and/or component. For example, it is well known that a "computer processor" is also called a
"central processing unit (CPU)." As another example, it is well known that the terms "flash
RAM" and "flash memory" are used interchangeably. Thus, it is understood that the terms
chosen for specific elements in this application may be known by other names in the art and are
therefore not intended to limit the invention.
The present invention has been described in detail with respect to several embodiments, it is not
intended that the scope of the invention be limited other than as set forth in the following
appended claims. For example, where specific terms are employed they are not meant to be used
in any but a descriptive manner and not for purposes oflimitation. Changes in the form and
selection of components and/or functions, as well as in the substitution of equivalents, are
contemplated as circumstances may suggest or render expedient without departing from the spirit
or scope of the invention as further described in the following claims: