Patent ID: 7475034

Claim:
A web-based method for selecting an auction methodology for use in a buyer/supplier business-to-business process and a government procurement process comprising any of a request for information, a request for quotations, and a request for proposals, said method comprising: determining an auction scope in a data processing system, wherein said auction scope comprises (i) a supplier qualification input indicating that said supplier can meet financial, quantity, quality, scheduled deadlines, travel, and governmental specification requirements relating to supplying a particular commodity to said buyer, (ii) a predetermined list of suppliers permitted to bid against one another, (iii) a new sources input that identifies whether said particular commodity has known or limited sources, and (iv) a customer preference control; determining an auction interaction in said data processing system; determining an auction control in said data processing system; determining an auction pricing in said data processing system; determining a set of auction closing rules in said data processing system; determining an auction iteration in said data processing system; and selecting an auction methodology based on at least one of said auction scope, said auction interaction, said auction control, said auction pricing, said auction closing rules, and said auction iteration, wherein the selecting process allows a buyer to select bids from a supplier without requiring said buyer to review all bids from all suppliers in order to receive a desired response to any of said request for information, said request for quotations, and said request for proposals, wherein said desired response is dictated by control parameters established by said buyer.