Asynchronous real-time procurement system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10643178-B1
Application number	US-201816007373-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 13, 2018
Priority date	Jun 16, 2017
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed herein provide computerized, networked procurement systems designed to interact with source sites through asynchronous, progressive scripting requests to retrieve richer data sets from websites utilizing interactive loading and multiple hyperlinked pages either with a single vendor or across a plurality of vendors. These may provide improvements on prior art systems, such as by improving the response time relative to a prior art synchronous system from 30-60 seconds to less than ten seconds.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for dynamically integrating a procurement system with a web-based source including content associated with one or more products, comprising:
one or more memories storing software instructions, and
one or more processors configured to execute the software instructions to perform operations including:
receiving a query for a product from an end-user of the procurement system;
searching, via a browser component, over a network, using one or more computerized agents, a web-based source on behalf of the procurement system to automatically capture a first set of product information from a first page of the web-based source,
wherein the first set of product information includes only one or more standardized product facets of a list of standardized product facets, the list of standardized product facets including a supplier identifier and a product price,
wherein said first page of the web-based source also comprises one or more items of additional information corresponding to one or more product facets specific to the web-based source and outside the list of standardized product facets;
automatically displaying said first set of product information in a certain page corresponding to the first page to the end-user through said procurement system;
subsequent to the displaying, receiving an indication of an interaction with the display of the first set of product information;
subsequent to receiving the indication, automatically interacting, in the background, using one or more of said computerized agents, with said first page of the web-based source to cause said web-based source to transmit the one or more items of additional information in said first page;
automatically capturing said one or more items of additional information from said first page of the web-based source;
automatically organizing said one or more items of additional information, and
automatically displaying a set of enhanced product information, including said one or more items of additional information, in the certain page in a format compatible with the procurement system regardless of the format of the product information retrieved from the web-based source.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said web-based source is a punch-out.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said automatically interacting step is repeated to cause said web-based source to transmit still further items of additional information in said first page and said automatically capturing and displaying steps are also repeated until a product profile, configured for said end-user with regard to the query, is complete.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein complete equals a predetermined percentage of completion.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein said first displaying step occurs before said product profile is complete.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein a complete set of product information is gathered via progressive and asynchronous communication between the procurement system and the web-based source.

7. The system of claim 4 wherein said system performs a set of progressive requests via an agent, deployed in said procurement system, that is configured with JS/JQuery scripting, via a browser node to said punch-out.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein said system achieves asynchronous communication by configuring said agent to extract at least two sets of product information that are progressively requested from said web-based source.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein:
the web-based source is one of a plurality of web-based sources; and
the system includes a federator component that reconciles at least two sets of product information extracted from at least two web-based sources from the plurality of web-based sources via a plurality of scripted agents.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein automatically displaying said set of enhanced product information, including said one or more items of additional information, comprises displaying said one or more items of additional information from said first page in a different color for a predetermined length of time.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein automatically displaying said set of enhanced product information, including said one or more items of additional information, comprises ordering one or more of said first set of product information and said one or more items of additional information from said first page according to a set of preconfigured rules-based preferences.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein said set of rules-based preferences are preconfigured to block one or more items from being displayed as part of said set of enhanced product information.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein said ordering step is based on a set of one or more weighted factors including supplier preference, supplier item relevance, category relevance, and user preference.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the operations the one or more processors are configured to execute the software instructions to perform comprise:
based on the query for the product from the end-user of the procurement system, retrieving cached product information for one or more products from an item cache;
storing the first set of product information in a result set cache separate from the item cache; and
displaying the retrieved cached product information to the end user with the first set of product information.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the operations the one or more processors are configured to execute the software instructions to perform comprise:
based on the query for the product from the end-user of the procurement system, retrieving punch-in product information from a punch-in catalog; and
displaying the retrieved punch-in product information to the end user with the first set of product information.

16. A computer-implemented method of dynamically integrating a procurement system with a web-based source including content associated with one or more products, comprising:
receiving a query for a product from an end-user of the procurement system;
searching, via a browser component, over a network, using one or more computerized agents, a web-based source on behalf of the procurement system to automatically capture a first set of product information from a first page of the web-based source,
wherein the first set of product information includes only one or more standardized product facets of a list of standardized product facets, the list of standardized product facets including a supplier identifier and a product price,
wherein said first page of the web-based source also comprises one or more items of additional information corresponding to one or more product facets specific to the web-based source and outside the list of standardized product facets;
automatically displaying said first set of product information in a certain page corresponding to the first page to the end-user through said procurement system;
subsequent to the displaying, receiving an indication of an interaction with the display of the first set of product information;
subsequent to receiving the indication, automatically interacting, in the background, using one or more of said computerized agents, with said first page of the web-based source to cause said web-based source to transmit the one or more items of additional information in said first page;
automatically capturing said one or more items of additional information from said first page of the web-based source;
automatically organizing said one or more items of additional information, and
automatically displaying a set of enhanced product information, including

Assignees

• Vinimaya Inc
• Coupa Software Inc

Inventors

• Kitson John Melvin
• Keck Micky Glen
• Crowder Jeffrey Todd
• Kadayam Sundaresan R
• Reed Mark William

Classifications

• G06F16/9574

  of access to content, e.g. by caching · CPC title

• G06F16/9535

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• G06Q30/0635 Primary

  replenishment orders; recurring orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/087 Primary

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• H04L67/42

  Electricity · mapped topic