Patent ID: 7376593

Claim:
A method for conducting a reverse auction, comprising: creating for a specified buyer an electronic request for quotation (RFQ) object that has a plurality of components and that specifies a good or service to be purchased; conducting a request for quotations over a communications network in which information from the RFQ object is sent to one or more potential vendors so that vendors send quotations to the buyer for evaluation; in response to determining that the results of the request for quotations are not satisfactory, converting the RFQ object into a reverse auction object by creating an electronic reverse auction object having a plurality of components; copying information from the components in the electronic RFQ object into corresponding components of the electronic reverse auction object, and conducting, using information from the electronic reverse auction object, a reverse auction using a communications network to identify a winning vendor to supply to the buyer the specified good or service at a price determined in the reverse auction.