IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO INFORMATION SYSTEMS

摘要

An article ordering system for use in a complex purchasing process having a plurality of stages is described. The system comprises request generation means for creating a user-determined article request, the request comprising a multi-dimensional data specification regarding the features of the article. Communications means are also provided which are arranged to transmit the request to one or more user-specified vendors via a wide area network and to receive multi-dimensional data responses from the one or more vendors. Ranking means rank the responses in order of the degree to which they match the request. The ranking means is configurable by the user to determine the weighting attributable to different features of the article for effecting the ranking. The system also comprises display means for presenting the ranked responses to the user for selection. The display means is arranged to indicate individual feature matching results for each of the requested features of the article such that the user is able to determine whether a lower ranked response is more suitable for selection due to a change in importance of one or more features.