Patent ID: 8015104

Claim:
A system for supply chain activity optimization involving multiple enterprises, comprising: a computer system, comprising: a negotiation module tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium configured to: receive, as part of an automatic collaborative negotiation, one or more proposed flexible trade contracts from a buyer computer system for automatic evaluation and possible acceptance, each proposed flexible trade contract reflecting a buyer's forecasted demand for at least one item; automatically and without user input subsequent to receiving a proposed flexible trade contract from the buyer computer system, as part of the automatic collaborative negotiation, evaluate the proposed flexible trade contract to determine whether the proposed flexible trade contract is acceptable; automatically and without user input subsequent to evaluating the proposed flexible trade contract, as part of the automatic collaborative negotiation: if the proposed flexible trade contract is acceptable, accept the proposed flexible trade contract; and if the proposed flexible trade contract is not acceptable, generate at least one modification of the proposed flexible trade contract and communicate the modification to the buyer computer system for automatic evaluation and possible acceptance; an execution module tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium configured to execute a flexible trade contract created based on the proposed flexible trade contract as a result of the automatic collaborative negotiation to enable one or more actions to be taken to perform under the executed flexible trade contract; and a tracking module tangibly embodied on a computer-readable medium configured to monitor the terms of the flexible trade contract created based on the proposed flexible trade contract as a result of the automatic collaborative negotiation to enable one or more actions to be taken to enforce the executed flexible trade contract.