PT108161A - ELECTRONIC SUPPLY PLATFORM AND OPERATING METHOD - Google Patents

Abstract

THE PRESENT REQUEST HAS THE INTENTION TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF THE SIMPLIFICATION OF THE PROCESSES INVOLVED IN THE PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS OR LOW COMPLEXITY SERVICES, BOTH ON THE SIDE OF THE BUYER AND THE SUPPLIER. AN ELECTRONIC SUPPLY PLATFORM WHICH RECEIVES USER PURCHASE ORDERS IS DISCLOSED. In one embodiment, a purchase request includes the purchaser's USER IDENTIFICATION FIELDS (301), the identification of the supplier potential (302), the description of the desired product or service (303), and the DESCRIPTION OF THE DELIVERY PLACE (304) . THIS SOLUTION MAY, THEREFORE, BE USED, PREFERENTIALLY, BY SUPPLIERS OF PRODUCTS OR LOW COMPLEXITY SERVICES, SUCH AS SUPPLIERS OF OFFICE MATERIALS. OTHER TYPES OF USE ARE ALSO POSSIBLE, SUCH AS FURNITURE, OR CAR SPARE PARTS.

Description

DESCRIPTION

"ELECTRONIC SUPPLY PLATFORM AND OPERATING METHOD"

Technical Field

This request refers to an electronic delivery platform and its method of operation.

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

Nowadays, when an organization needs to buy products or services of reduced complexity, it refers to e-mail as a means of collecting information from its network of suppliers, in particular when it seeks the offer at the lowest cost. A number of acts must be carried out when using e-mail that are often repetitive, tedious, and error-prone, causing the buyer to spend a lot of time and effort on a task that gives little value to the organization.

Additionally, in many cases, vendor email correspondence and analysis involve different formats that may cause problems and limitations to the buyer's comparison and analysis process. The network of suppliers is only known by the organization and there are a small number of suppliers, of course, compared to the total number of vendors on the market. This factor presents problems in the purchasing process, since it does not allow the buyer to fully exploit the competitive effect between suppliers and consequently to obtain a reduced cost. Several problems are also observed from the perspective of suppliers. Since providers have communication channels to attract customers, this condition means that their email addresses can be part of a limited number of networks of providers when compared to the total number of buyers in the market.

In addition, as they receive orders from different buyers, there is still the problem of looking at different message formats. As for the buyers, this factor presents problems for the sales process. Because requests are not received in standard format, the information between them can not be extracted or easily compared. This type of information can be useful to support decision-making related to changes in communication channels and customer capture.

In modern technology, there is no known solution that allows buyers to easily and efficiently find vendors and solve problems in the exchange of e-mail messages for that purpose.

Some of the solutions most focused on highly complex products or services have a complex process for submitting new purchase orders. Intermediate phases are also observed in relation to the individual evaluation of proposals received from suppliers, performed by specialized technicians who treat each offer individually. In practice, these solutions are exaggerated and disproportionate to products and services of reduced complexity and end up not solving the problems already present in the communication by e-mail. US 2009/048960 discloses a method comprising receiving at least one proposal for the purchase of at least one buyer, receiving at least one proposal from at least one supplier, and matching purchase proposals with proposed offers which results in at least a correspondence between the bid and ask proposals, with the consequent allocation that maximizes the sum of the expected profits of the transactions.

This document provides a solution directed to the purchase and sale of advertising space on the Internet. That is, there is only one product to be transacted. This solution does not allow the purchase and sale of other products less complex and has competitive effects on the buyers side, which is not at all desired.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present application is intended to solve the problem of simplifying the processes involved in purchasing low complexity products or services, both on the buyer's and supplier's side. There is disclosed a method of operating an electronic delivery platform, comprising the following steps.

One step in receiving and storing purchase orders is the procedure in which the platform receives a specification of the buyer's requirements. This information relates to products or services that are categorized by the buyer type user with at least one category of product or service. In one embodiment, the category of product or service is selected from a predefined list of products or services provided by the electronic delivery platform. In another embodiment, the buyer type user defines a custom category, for example, when the best category is not present in the predefined category list.

Once published, the purchase order can be intercepted by potential suppliers. These make proposals for the supply of products or services on offer. These proposals are stored in the purchase order entry that is stored in the purchase order database.

This raises the need to improve the operating conditions of the platform in order to allow users of the supplier type to access the purchase request covered by at least one category of product or service of interest. In addition, it is also necessary to provide access to the most up-to-date requests, preferably when they are published by buyer-type users.

This method discloses steps that solve these problems. One step discloses the processing of the search criteria for purchase orders in the purchase order database. This operation results in a list of purchase orders that satisfies the above query. This list can be used by vendor type users who perform platform searches and have access to delivery opportunities.

Another step discloses the processing of a query by a provider-type user, based on at least one category of product or service. The operation results in a supplier-type user list with at least one of the said categories of product or service searched for.

This list of suppliers is obtained by linking the categories of products or services present in a purchase order with the categories that a user of the supplier type establishes upon entering the user database. In this way, the platform allows users of the vendor type to present themselves to the market based on their work interests and seize business opportunities in configured categories. The capture is configured by the platform in two levels, that is, for buyer-type users to enter new purchase orders and periodically for suppliers-type users to be updated with the latest purchase orders.

Another step discloses the storage in the connection connection database of the at least one connection between a request and a provider type user. This supplier has at least one of the categories of products or services in that purchase order.

This record is made from a list of suppliers that is processed when a buyer type user enters a new purchase order. This list includes users of the vendor type, based on at least one category of products or services from that purchase order.

A further step of the method discloses the sending, through the connection to a computer network, of a notification to a supplier-type user with a reference to all open purchase orders in the platform, based on the categories of products or services of the vendor. user.

This step refers to the research step of the purchase orders described above, using a search query based on the categories of products or services. In this way, users of the vendor type are periodically notified with a list of potential purchase orders in the categories of target products or services that present the most up-to-date requests on the platform. In one embodiment, these notifications are sent daily. In another embodiment, they are sent weekly and monthly, or several times a day. In yet another embodiment, the user establishes the period to be implemented in his database record. Also disclosed is an electronic delivery platform, which includes the items needed to implement the disclosed method. The platform includes a connection to a geographically distributed network of computers, a processing unit and memory that allows the user to access them through their computing device. In one embodiment, the computer is connected to a network through an Internet connection. The platform also includes three databases for implementing the separate phases of the method: - a user database; - a database of the purchase order; and - a supply connection database. The user database is intended to archive and process all information related to users. In one embodiment, this platform component includes user profile information, such as user identification data, contact data, and the category of product or service of interest to you. The purpose of the purchase order database is to store and process data related to purchase orders sent by buyer type users. In addition, all orders are recorded in this database. The purpose of the supply connection database is to provide supplier type users with support in terms of the relationship with purchase orders that are received on the platform.

Therefore, this solution may be used, preferably, by suppliers of low complexity products or services, such as office supplies suppliers. Other types of use are also possible, such as furniture or car parts.

Brief Description of Drawings

To facilitate understanding of the present application, diagrams representing the preferred forms of implementation are attached, which, however, are not intended to limit the technique disclosed herein. The diagram illustrates a method of implementing the mapping of the operations of the electronic delivery platform. The diagram illustrates one embodiment for the way of selecting the categories of products or services of interest for a purchase order. The diagram illustrates one embodiment for presenting a new purchase order, wherein the reference numerals represent: 301 - identification of the buyer user 302 - identification of the potential supplier 303 - description of the requested product or service 304 - description of the place of delivery

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

With reference to the diagrams, some methods of implementation are now described in more detail. However, they are not intended to limit the scope of this application.

In one embodiment, the purchase order includes basic information about the specifications and needs of the buyer type user. In Figure 3, there is shown an embodiment for presenting a new purchase request which is filled by a buyer type user, which includes the fields of: - identification of the buyer type user 301, responsible for the request; identification of possible suppliers (302); description of the desired product or service (303); and description of the place of delivery (304).

In the buyer type user identification fields (301), the user data is collected for inclusion in the publication so that the suppliers can identify the buyer.

In the identification fields of potential suppliers (302), the buyer type user is enabled to enter contacts for suppliers, for example, a contact list for regular suppliers that they have previously contacted to provide the desired products or services. These fields are also of particular interest as they are a way of attracting new users from the vendor type to the platform.

The other desired product or service description fields (303) and the delivery description (304) fields allow buyers to clearly and concisely define their needs. From the point of view of suppliers, it allows them to evaluate the product or service they are supposed to provide and thus gives them the necessary basis for the submission of the proposals that have been requested.

While it is specifically noted in the illustrated embodiment that, based on the description of the desired product or service, the application must include the value and title fields of the purchase order. These fields are characteristic of and result from the low complexity involved in the intended products or services. In the platforms of other products or services of greater complexity, greater field complexity was observed in the order structure.

In yet another embodiment, the method comprises the steps of managing the user accounts: - authenticating a user and reading their user, buyer or provider type, based on the user's database; - retrieve the access credentials, based on the user's database; and - storing a new user in the user database.

In one embodiment, the platform further includes means and configurations for updating only fragments of the web page when necessary, rather than updating the entire page. These media and settings are common Model View Controller (MVC) framing tools such as Single Page Application (SPA) with AngularJS, jQuery,

UnderscoreJS and / or RequireJS. These technologies offer Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) requests with formatted JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

In another embodiment, the platform database portion includes means for providing a data access level, which provides the abstraction between the data and the database server used. This level is based on a data access level module that includes, for example, the following technologies: .NET; and WebAPI, for the support

Representational State Transfer (REST). In another embodiment, the databases are implemented by any of the following database servers: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, or SQL Server.

This description is of course in no way restricted to the embodiments set forth herein and any person of ordinary skill in the art can provide many possibilities for modification thereof without departing from the general idea as defined by the claims. The preferred preferred embodiments described above may of course be combined with one another. The following claims further define the preferred forms of implementation.

Claims (11)

A method of operating an electronic delivery platform, characterized in that it includes the steps of: receiving a purchase request from the connection to a computer network comprising at least one category of product or service and storing the application in the purchase order database; - receive at least one tender to a purchase order from the connection to a computer network and store the tender at the entry of the purchase order in the purchase order database; - processing a purchase order inquiry in the purchase order database, which results in a list of purchase orders satisfying that request; processing a user query of the provider type based on at least one category of product or service, which results in a list of users with at least one of the said categories of product or service searched; storing in the supply connection database at least one relationship between a purchase request and a user of the supplier type with at least one of the product or service categories of the said purchase request; sending, through the connection to a computer network, a notification to a user of the vendor type with a reference to all open purchase orders in the platform, based on the user's product or service categories. A method according to the preceding claim, further comprising the step of providing a response with a predefined list of product or service category. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the step of receiving a purchase order comprises the step of verifying that the at least one category of product or service received is present in the predefined list of product or service category and , otherwise store that new category in that list. Method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the purchase order includes any of the fields: - identification of the buyer type user (301), responsible for the request; - identification of possible suppliers (302); - description of the desired product or service (303); and - description of the place of delivery (304). Method according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the description of the desired product or service, further includes any of the fields: - quantity; - title of the purchase order; or - at least one category of product or service. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: - authenticating a user and reading their user, buyer or supplier type, based on the user's database; - retrieve the access credentials, based on the user's database; and - storing a new user in the user database. 7. An electronic delivery platform, which includes: - a connection to a computer network; - a processing unit; - a memory; - a user database; - a purchase order database; and a supply liq- ulation database configured to implement the method described in any one of the aforementioned claims. A platform according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the connection to a computer network is an Internet connection. Platform according to any of claims 7 to 8, characterized in that the purchase order database includes a predefined list of the category of product or service. A platform according to any of claims 7 to 9, further characterized in that it further includes a data access level module. A platform according to any one of claims 7 to 10, characterized in that the databases are implemented by any of the following database servers: - MySQL - PostgreSQL; - SQLite; or - SQL Server.