Patent ID: 8990120
Filing Date: 2015-03-24
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method for providing procurement resources and procurement services to a plurality of customer companies, said customer companies being organized in a plurality of customer company groups, said method comprising: associating, by a computer, a first customer company of the plurality of customer companies with a first company group of related customer companies of the plurality of customer companies, wherein the first company group comprises the first customer company; authorizing, by the computer, a set of customer companies of the plurality of customer companies (i) access to procurement resources and (ii) sharing each procurement resource to be shared among a plurality of users; creating, by the computer, a user profile for each user of a plurality of users, each user profile specifying (i) that each user is authorized by the first customer company to access procurement services and the procurement resources and (ii) the first customer company and the first company group of related customer companies; inserting, by the computer in a computer database, the created user profile for each user; providing, by the computer, access to volume discounts with respect to a plurality of vendors, to all customer companies in the first company group; specifying, by the computer, the volume discounts in shared contracts for purchase of items from the vendors by said all customer companies in the first company group, wherein the volume discounts specified in the shared contracts are based on volume specific terms in the shared contracts; providing, by the computer, a resource profile specifying for each procurement resource, the set of customer companies of the plurality of customer companies authorized for accessing and sharing each procurement resource to be shared among the plurality of users; and controlling, by the computer, access to the procurement resources based on: the first customer company, the first company group in the user profile for each user, and the resource profile for each procurement resource.