Patent ID: 8364557

Claim:
A method of facilitating a project bid process, the method comprising: on at least one server computer comprising a processor and memory, establishing buyer configurations governing subcontracting-entity utilization by at least one supplier in the project bid process; generating, by the at least one server computer, a buyer-associated bid request utilizing at least a portion of bid item selections of a stored bid item list, wherein the buyer-associated bid request is associated with the buyer configurations; transmitting, by the at least one server computer, the buyer-associated bid request to the at least one supplier for solicitation of a supplier bid response to be generated with the bid item selections utilized in the buyer-associated bid request; generating, by the at least one server computer, a supplier-associated bid request utilizing at least a portion of the bid item selections utilized in the buyer-associated bid request; transmitting, by the at least one server computer, the supplier-associated bid request to at least one subcontracting entity for solicitation of a subcontracting-entity bid response to be generated with the bid item selections utilized in the supplier-associated bid request; and wherein the transmitting of the supplier-associated bid request is subject to the buyer configurations permitting bid participation by the at least one subcontracting entity.