Patent ID: 8285573

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: at a server system, wherein the server system comprises an electronic procurement system: receiving business rules from a first purchasing organization governing interactions between the end users authorized to use the electronic procurement system on behalf of the first purchasing organization and the electronic procurement system; receiving a first user purchase request from a first end user authorized to use the electronic procurement system on behalf of the first purchasing organization to purchase an item, and a second user purchase request from a second end user authorized to use the electronic procurement system on behalf of the first purchasing organization to purchase the same item; determining whether there is sufficient stock of the item available to fulfill both user purchase requests; in accordance with a determination that available stock is less than the stock required to fulfill both purchase quests, prioritizing the first and second user purchase requests in accordance with the business rules received from the first purchasing organization; and generating a purchase order for at least one of the first and second user purchase requests in accordance with the prioritizing.