Patent ID: 8380608

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a request to procure goods or services that are required to satisfy a spot need of a buyer, wherein at least one aspect of the spot need of the buyer is a requirement that the requested goods or services be available for immediate delivery, wherein the request includes information identifying a type of good or service being procured by the buyer, and wherein the request includes geographic information; querying, using a processor, a database of information representing the capabilities of suppliers to deliver goods and services to geographic areas and automatically selecting as potential bidders for an auction those suppliers whose capabilities satisfy at least a portion of the request; electronically notifying each of the potential bidders of an opportunity to submit a bid to satisfy all or part of the buyer's purchase request; conducting the auction that includes electronically accepting bids from those potential bidders that each provide one or more bids before a bidding deadline expires and not accepting the bids after the bidding deadline expires; and automatically selecting one or more winning bidders in accordance with the received bids.