Patent ID: 7330846

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of facilitating a distributed search for a procurement request by a procurement server, the method comprising: receiving the procurement request from a user, wherein the procurement request is subject to organizational procurement controls, and wherein the procurement request involves requesting goods and/or services; using the organizational procurement controls to determine if the search involves a local search and/or a remote search; when the search involves a local search, initiating a local search of a local information source; and receiving results of the local search; when the search involves a remote search, the method further comprises: requesting a remote supplier to conduct a remote search to satisfy the procurement request, wherein the remote supplier is an external supplier and/or vendor who is located outside of the organization to which the user belongs, and wherein requesting the remote supplier involves including information that enables the remote supplier to verify the identity of the procurement server and/or the user; receiving results of the remote search, wherein the verification of the identity of the procurement server and/or the user enables the results of the remote search to be customized for the organization to which the user belongs; filtering the results of the remote search by applying the organizational procurement controls to the results of the remote search whereby the organizational procurement controls can be applied to results of the remote search which is performed by the remote supplier; masking the sources of information in the remote search result to prevent the user from purchasing from the remote supplier; and merging the results of the remote search, when the remote search is initiated, with the results of the local search, when the local search is initiated; and presenting said merged search results to the user.