Patent ID: 8086501

Claim:
A method of conducting a multi-level transaction, comprising: receiving a primary call for proposals; receiving, by a computing system, one or more primary bids with respect to the primary call for proposals; for each primary bid, receiving one or more secondary calls for proposals, wherein each secondary call for proposals includes a job request associated with the primary bid; receiving, by a computing system, one or more secondary bids with respect to the one or more secondary calls for proposals; for each primary bid, automatically determining an estimate of a trustworthiness rating, wherein the estimate of the trustworthiness rating is based on a trustworthiness rating associated with the primary bid and one or more secondary bid trustworthiness ratings, wherein determining the estimate of the trustworthiness rating comprises: receiving a number of previous transactions associated with a primary bid, for each secondary call for proposals: determining a maximum secondary number of previous transactions by selecting a maximum number of previous transactions from all secondary bids associated with the secondary call for proposals, and determining a minimum secondary number of previous transactions by selecting a minimum number of previous transactions from all secondary bids associated with the secondary call for proposals, determining a maximum final number of previous transactions based on the number of previous transactions associated with the primary bid and the one or more maximum secondary numbers of previous transactions, determining a minimum final number of previous transactions based on the number of previous transactions associated with the primary bid and the one or more minimum secondary numbers of previous transactions, and selecting the estimate of the trustworthiness rating based on the maximum final number of previous transactions and the minimum final number of previous transactions; receiving the selection of a primary bid based on the estimates of the trustworthiness rating; and displaying the selection of the primary bid.