Method for a Marketplace for Bills of Materials

摘要

A method includes transmitting information to a server system from a buyer for a bill of materials. The server system enables a marketplace. The server system processes the information into a bill of material, sanitizes the bill of material to produce a sanitized bill of material having information regarding the buyer removed, posts the sanitized bill of material to the marketplace to be viewable to all users, records bids form sellers, and posts bidding activity to the marketplace to be viewable to all users. Notifications are received from the server system during a bidding period. The notifications at least include the bidding activity. A closing notification is received from the server. The closing notification at least includes a notice of an end to the bidding period and a winning bid information. The buyer's determination regarding the winning bid information is transmitted to the server system.

主权项

1. A method comprising the steps of:
transmitting information to a server system from a buyer for a bill of materials, the server system being configured to enable a marketplace, wherein the server system processes the information into a bill of material, sanitizes the bill of material to produce a sanitized bill of material having information regarding the buyer removed, posts the sanitized bill of material to the marketplace to be viewable to all users of the marketplace, records bids form sellers for the sanitized bill of information, and posts bidding activity to the marketplace to be viewable to all users of the marketplace; receiving notifications from the server system during a bidding period of the sanitized bill of material, the notifications at least including the bidding activity; receiving a closing notification from the server, the closing notification at least including a notice of an end to the bidding period and a winning bid information; and transmitting to the server system the buyer's determination regarding the winning bid information.