| 摘要 |
The present invention relates generally to a method and system for conducting online auctions. It has particular application in conducting business over a network of computers such as the Internet, for establishing materials or service supply or sales contracts, agreements for allocation of resources, etc. In particular, the invention relates to the use of multiple options within an online auction scenario. In one form, the invention provides a method for conducting an online auction event to establish a contract, the event conducted between a controlling party and at least two parties from a prescribed panel of qualified competing bidding parties, each competing bidding party operating a bidding computer, the online auction event including at least two alternative contract options potentially acceptable to said controlling party, the online auction event conducted by receiving bids from respective bidding computers, automatically comparing, during the online auction event, the respective bids and the respective contract options involving those bids, and selecting from said alternative contract options to award the contract on the basis of the comparisons. |
| 主权项 |
1. A method for communicating data over a network to automatically conduct an electronic online auction with multiple simultaneous transactions, the method comprising:
using a computer network including at least two bidding computers and at least one administrator computer communicating over the Internet or other communication network; storing data, in a database of at least one of the administrator computer or the bidding computers, data relating to at least two alternative contract options of the online auction, one or more of said alternative contract options having a corresponding plurality of different lots, each lot being the subject of a subcontract, which together combine to provide the contract; providing computer readable mediums for online access by at least two bidding computers and at least one administrator computer, the mediums comprising instructions to conduct the online auction with the multiple simultaneous transactions to include determining whether two alternative contract options are potentially acceptable to a controlling party; automatically conducting the online auction by the exchange of electronic data between a controlling party operating the administrator computer, and at least two parties from a prescribed panel of qualified competing bidding parties, each competing bidding party operating a respective bidding computer, the conducting step further comprising receiving data by the at least one administrator computer regarding at least one bid transmitted over the network from respective bidding computers; the computer readable mediums further having instructions that (i) automatically compare, during the online auction event, data reflective of respective bids and respective contract options involving those bids; (ii) select from the alternative contract options to award the contract on the basis of the comparisons, (iii) automatically conduct sub-auction bidding events wherein at least one of the alternative contract options includes data reflective of two or more subcontracts, each subcontract awarded in a corresponding sub-auction bidding event for a lot, each sub-auction bidding event therefore being an electronic competitive bid for a lot comprised in the contract; (iv) automatically allocate, by or on behalf of the controlling party, data reflective of respective bidding party factors to the competing bidding parties, each factor applied to bids received from a respective party's bidding computer before comparison with any other bid in a sub-auction bidding event; (v) automatically conduct all the sub-auction bidding events simultaneously and applying the respective bidding party factors to bids received from said bidding computers for comparison during the auction event between the different bids and between the different options; (vi) during the online auction event, automatically providing each bidding computer of parties involved in a sub-auction bidding event for the related lot data reflective of an option target bid (OTB) indicating a bid that that a party must make for that lot to ensure the option in which that sub-auction bidding event is involved is a leading option in the auction event; (vii) during the online auction event, automatically creating data reflective of a lot target bid (LTB) for each party and transmitting the respective LTB to each bidding computer of parties involved in a sub-auction bidding event, the LTB indicating an electronic bid that that party must make to be a leading bid in the corresponding sub-auction bidding event; and wherein the computer readable mediums automatically generate an electronic output to cause an indication of a corresponding OTB and LTB from a corresponding sub-auction bidding event to be displayed on a corresponding screen display of at least one bidding party's computer. |
