Patent ID: 6980966

Claim:
A system providing guided buying decision support within an electronic marketplace environment, comprising: a server operable to interact with buyers to receive procurement parameters for items; an option generator operable to: receive procurement parameters for a particular item needed by a particular buyer; determine one or more acceptable item-supplier combinations consistent with the procurement parameters for the item; and generate a plurality of diverse types of recommended options for communication to the buyer to enable the buyer to select one of the plurality of diverse types of recommended options, each of the plurality of diverse types of recommended options communicated to the buyer for selection specifying a service through which it is possible to procure the item consistent with procurement parameters, the plurality of diverse types of recommended options communicated to the buyer for selection comprising: a recommended purchase from the supplier currently offering the item at the lowest price consistent with the procurement parameters; a recommended auction in which the item is currently being auctioned under circumstances consistent with the procurement parameters; and a recommended reverse auction that may be initiated with respect to the item under circumstances consistent with the procurement parameters; the server further operable to: communicate to the buyer a recommended course of action specifying the recommended option that should be selected from among the plurality of diverse types of recommended options communicated to the buyer for selection to give the buyer the best opportunity to procure the item consistent with the procurement parameters and at the lowest price; and interact with the buyer to receive a selection of a particular recommended option from among the plurality of diverse types of recommended options communicated to the buyer for selection; and a manager application operable to automatically initiate the service specified in the selected one of the plurality of diverse types of recommended options in an attempt to procure the item consistent with the procurement parameters.