Patent Application
20220188907
In a business-to-business (B2B) E-commerce context, business customers often use online supplier marketplaces to purchase products directly from other businesses or the B2B goods suppliers. For example, businesses can purchase office supplies, manufacturing parts, janitorial supplies, and other products directly from other businesses. B2B customers often use their home grown or 3P procurement systems (also referred to as E-procurement systems, spend management systems, punchout systems, supplier management portals, travel & expense management systems, etc.) to manage such procurement needs. Such systems are integrated with the supplier's marketplace to allow their employees or authorized users of the procurement systems to make purchases from the supplier's marketplace through such procurement systems. The use of such systems allows for greater visibility and control into the organization's purchases and for compliance with internal policies of the businesses.
For example, users can log into the 3P procurement system, then via links in the 3P system (e.g., via a click button), login into the supplier's marketplace (e.g., supplier system). Once they are on the supplier marketplace, the user then searches for the items to buy and builds a shopping cart of these items. This method of accessing a supplier's web-catalog, E-commerce website, or marketplace from within the B2B customer's procurement system is often referred to as “Punchout.” Once a customer “punches out” and builds the cart on the supplier's website, the user then transfers the cart back to their procurement system. Thus, the customer's employees can access and shop in an E-commerce website without leaving the customer's platform. After the shopping cart is received back in the customer's procurement system, the customer performs administrative actions within the procurement system to send the cart for approval to their supervisor, who approves the cart. After approval, the procurement system sends a purchase order to the supplier system.
In Punchout, a buyer has to login to the third-party purchasing system associated with a company. From within the system, the buyer accesses the supplier catalog or E-commerce website. There is a desire to allow employees of the company to buy directly from the supplier's E-commerce website. In B2B purchasing, ordering is proposed wherein a customer can buy directly from a supplier website without logging into their own E-procurement system. In one embodiment, the supplier website allows the buyer to place a purchase order (PO) directly on the supplier website, and routes this purchase order through the buyer's purchasing system for reconciliation and approval. For example, the buyer's purchasing system can include an E-procurement system, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and other financing systems. The PO can be sent directly to any of these subsystems within the purchasing system. The purchasing system sends an acknowledgement, and the supplier can proceed to fulfil the order. This flow allows the customer to access a supplier website outside of VPN to provide more flexibility and the ability to enforce policies and controls.
The client device 112 can be any client device, such as a mobile phone, tablet, laptop computer, etc. Notably, the customer operating the client device 112 does not login to the third-party system 120 and access the supplier website 110 through the third-party system. Instead, the customer operating the client device 112 logs directly into the supplier website 110. The E-commerce system 100 further includes a database 132 for storing customer settings. For example, an administrator of the third-party system 120 configures a customer business account in the database 132 for enabling purchasing directly (i.e., without logging into the third-party system) from the E-commerce system 100. The administrator further provides an identification strategy allowing the E-commerce system to identify the customer 112 as associated with the third-party system 120. Example, identification strategies include using a user-specific unique identifier (Email ID, Mobile Number, third-party common keys, cookie, token, etc.), SSO details or Third-Party authentication and authorization. Other configurations performed by an administrator of the third-party that are stored in the database include defining a template to use in generation of a purchase order (PO), providing an authentication technique to be used for communications between a supplier and the third-party system, etc. Other configurations can be used. In order to configure the customer settings 132, an administrator of the third-party system 120 can submit the settings to the supplier website 110. The supplier website 110 can then populate the customer settings in the database 132.
In order to further understand interactions between the customer client device 112, the third-party system 120 and the supplier system 110, circled numbers are indicated relating to example steps that can occur. At 1, a customer using the customer client device 112 logs directly into a supplier website 110 to purchase goods, just the same as a general consumer (unaffiliated with the third-party system) logs into the supplier website 110. The customer login is typically using credentials associated with a business account. At 2, the supplier website 110 searches the customer login details in the database 132, such as by searching using a parameter of the credentials as a key (e.g., an email address). If a match is found, then the supplier website 110 identifies the customer as associated with the third-party system 120. Other business account details and setup properties are also retrieved from the database 132. At 3, the customer creates a shopping cart 135 on the supplier website 110, such as by placing one or more products in a shopping cart for purchase. The shopping cart is software that includes identifiers associated with products to purchase. At 4, the customer submits the shopping cart 135 for purchase and the E-commerce system 100 checks the previously retrieved properties (shown as customer settings data 136). If the customer is associated with the third-party system, then the customer settings data is checked at 140 to determine whether a manager needs to approve the purchase of the products in the shopping cart 135. If approval is required, then at 142, a message (e.g., email, text, etc.) is sent to the manager requesting approval of the shopping cart. At 5, the manager logs into the supplier website 110 and approves the purchase at 144. Alternatively, if the manager rejects the purchase, then at 150, a message is transmitted to the customer informing the customer that the order was rejected.
If decision block 140 is answered in the negative (no approval required) or decision block 144 is answered in the affirmative (manager approved), then a service 170 generates a PO in conformance with custom PO settings 172 from the database 132. The custom PO settings can include a template used by the service 170 to customize the PO for the purchasing system 124. The template can take any form, but one potential format is under the cXML format for transmitting purchase orders. Other formats include ANSI X.12 Electronic Data Interchange. At 6, the service 170 generates the PO in conformance with the settings 172 and transmits the PO directly to the purchasing system 124 of the third-party system 120, as shown at 174. The PO can include identifiers of the products to be purchased, an account code, a project code, or any other desired custom data. In prior art systems, it is the E-procurement system that generates the PO. Having a service within the E-commerce system 100 generate the PO provides benefits in that the customer can log directly into the supplier website 110 and obtain approval from the purchasing system 124 within seconds of the service 170 transmitting the PO. A Punchout Order Message (POOM) is not generated. The purchasing system 124 can reject the PO. For example, the purchasing system can have controls over which users can purchase or not, which product categories are acceptable or not, and which specific products are acceptable or not. However, if the purchasing system 124 approves the order, then at 7, an order confirmation 180 is transmitted to the supplier website 110. At 8, the purchased items are then shipped to the customer or the third-party.
With reference to
A computing system may have additional features. For example, the computing environment 600 includes storage 640, one or more input devices 650, one or more output devices 660, and one or more communication connections 670. An interconnection mechanism (not shown) such as a bus, controller, or network interconnects the components of the computing environment 600. Typically, operating system software (not shown) provides an operating environment for other software executing in the computing environment 600, and coordinates activities of the components of the computing environment 600.
The tangible storage 640 may be removable or non-removable, and includes magnetic disks, magnetic tapes or cassettes, CD-ROMs, DVDs, or any other medium which can be used to store information in a non-transitory way and which can be accessed within the computing environment 600. The storage 640 stores instructions for the software 680 implementing one or more innovations described herein.
The input device(s) 650 may be a touch input device such as a keyboard, mouse, pen, or trackball, a voice input device, a scanning device, or another device that provides input to the computing environment 600. The output device(s) 660 may be a display, printer, speaker, CD-writer, or another device that provides output from the computing environment 600.
The communication connection(s) 670 enable communication over a communication medium to another computing entity. The communication medium conveys information such as computer-executable instructions, audio or video input or output, or other data in a modulated data signal. A modulated data signal is a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media can use an electrical, optical, RF, or other carrier.
Although the operations of some of the disclosed methods are described in a particular, sequential order for convenient presentation, it should be understood that this manner of description encompasses rearrangement, unless a particular ordering is required by specific language set forth below. For example, operations described sequentially may in some cases be rearranged or performed concurrently. Moreover, for the sake of simplicity, the attached figures may not show the various ways in which the disclosed methods can be used in conjunction with other methods.
Any of the disclosed methods can be implemented as computer-executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media (e.g., one or more optical media discs, volatile memory components (such as DRAM or SRAM), or non-volatile memory components (such as flash memory or hard drives)) and executed on a computer (e.g., any commercially available computer, including smart phones or other mobile devices that include computing hardware). The term computer-readable storage media does not include communication connections, such as signals and carrier waves. Any of the computer-executable instructions for implementing the disclosed techniques as well as any data created and used during implementation of the disclosed embodiments can be stored on one or more computer-readable storage media. The computer-executable instructions can be part of, for example, a dedicated software application or a software application that is accessed or downloaded via a web browser or other software application (such as a remote computing application). Such software can be executed, for example, on a single local computer (e.g., any suitable commercially available computer) or in a network environment (e.g., via the Internet, a wide-area network, a local-area network, a client-server network (such as a cloud computing network), or other such network) using one or more network computers.
For clarity, only certain selected aspects of the software-based implementations are described. Other details that are well known in the art are omitted. For example, it should be understood that the disclosed technology is not limited to any specific computer language or program. For instance, aspects of the disclosed technology can be implemented by software written in C++, Java, Perl, any other suitable programming language. Likewise, the disclosed technology is not limited to any particular computer or type of hardware. Certain details of suitable computers and hardware are well known and need not be set forth in detail in this disclosure.
It should also be well understood that any functionality described herein can be performed, at least in part, by one or more hardware logic components, instead of software. For example, and without limitation, illustrative types of hardware logic components that can be used include Field-programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Program-specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Program-specific Standard Products (ASSPs), System-on-a-chip systems (SOCs), Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs), etc.
Furthermore, any of the software-based embodiments (comprising, for example, computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform any of the disclosed methods) can be uploaded, downloaded, or remotely accessed through a suitable communication means. Such suitable communication means include, for example, the Internet, the World Wide Web, an intranet, software applications, cable (including fiber optic cable), magnetic communications, electromagnetic communications (including RF, microwave, and infrared communications), electronic communications, or other such communication means.
The disclosed methods, apparatus, and systems should not be construed as limiting in any way. Instead, the present disclosure is directed toward all novel and nonobvious features and aspects of the various disclosed embodiments, alone and in various combinations and subcombinations with one another. The disclosed methods, apparatus, and systems are not limited to any specific aspect or feature or combination thereof, nor do the disclosed embodiments require that any one or more specific advantages be present or problems be solved.
In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of the disclosed invention may be applied, it should be recognized that the illustrated embodiments are only examples of the invention and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. We therefore claim as our invention all that comes within the scope of these claims.
