Patent ID: 8135630

Claim:
A distributed order fulfillment system, the system comprising: one or more computers coupled with a plurality of participant computer systems in different tiers of a value chain, the one or more computers configured to: receive information regarding the plurality of participant computer systems in the different tiers of the value chain and information regarding one or more items relevant in the value chain; receive inventory data from the plurality of participant computer systems relating to the one or more items; receive a request for quote for one or more items from a buying participant computer system; determine one or more selling participant computer systems that should receive the request for quote based on the received information regarding the plurality of participant computer systems and the one or more items; communicate at least a portion of the request for quote to the determined one or more selling participant computer systems; receive one or more responses to the request for quote from the one or more selling participant computer systems; communicate the responses to the buying participant computer system; receive one or more purchase orders from the buying participant computer system for one or more items from one or more of the selling participant computer systems; assign a promise to one or more of the purchase orders; determine, based on one or more sourcing rules specified by a selling participant computer system, one or more destinations from among selling participant computer system destinations to which at least one of the purchase orders is to be communicated each purchase order comprising only the one or more items of the selling participant computer system associated with the determined selling participant computer system destination; and communicate the at least one purchase order to the determined one or more selling participant computer systems destinations, wherein assigning the promise to one or more of the purchase orders comprises generating an alert when different sourcing rules are used by one or more of the plurality of participant computer systems in the different tiers of the value chain.