Patent ID: 8214263

Claim:
A method for community-based exchange of procurement documents, the method comprising: managing, with a server computer system, a first set of rules for a first community of trading partners, the first set of rules specifying rules for direct peer-to-peer exchange and transformation of procurement documents in the first community and specifying trading partners invited to join the first community; transmitting the first set of rules to a first plurality of computing devices comprising the first community of trading partners; managing, with the server computer system, a second set of rules, different from the first set, for a second community of trading partners, the second set of rules specifying rules for direct peer-to-peer exchange and transformation of procurement documents in the second community and specifying trading partners invited to join the second community; and transmitting the second set of rules to a second plurality of computing devices comprising the second community of trading partners, wherein only a subset of the first plurality of computing devices is in the second plurality of computing devices.