Patent ID: 7171379

Claim:
A system for managing an independent supply chain comprising at least independent suppliers and independent stores and an independent supply chain manager connected together by a network, comprising: a memory connected to the network and storing supplier master contracts with the independent suppliers negotiated by the independent supply chain manager on behalf of the independent stores and/or independent distributors, wherein each of a plurality of the supplier master contracts includes a term assigning directly or indirectly a different first set of the independent stores to the independent supplier to which to supply directly or indirectly at least one item; an independent supply chain manager computer system connected to the network and operatively connected to the memory and comprising one or more processors and including the following components a component for storing a plurality of terms of the supplier master contracts in a supply chain electronic database accessible via the network; a component for defining a plurality of data types for store sales data, each of the data types including a set of parameters; a component for receiving store sales data from a plurality of the independent stores utilizing the network, the store sales data comprising sales of goods by the independent stores, wherein the sales of the goods are made manually; a component for verifying a format of the store sales data against the parameters of the defined data types; a component for automatically correcting discrepancies between the format of the data and the parameters of the defined data types by translating the format of the store sales data in accordance with the parameters of the defined data types; a component for providing an electronic communication of or providing electronic access for one of the respective independent stores to an indication that changes have been made to the independent store sales data for the respective independent store; a component for the independent supply chain manager computer receiving data from the independent suppliers and/or independent stores and/or distributors utilizing the network, the data relating to the supply of the at least one item from the independent suppliers directly or indirectly to the independent stores; a component for automatically comparing at least one contract term in one of the supplier master contracts for the at least one item to received data relating to the supply of the at least one item; and a component for sending a communication to at least one of the independent stores or to one of the independent suppliers if there is a discrepancy between the at least one contract term and the received data.