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Electronic sourcing system

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1. uonisinbes OLL 09 Japeay 5 5 00 6 055 516 1 ELECTRONIC SOURCING SYSTEM This application is a continuation of U S application Ser No 08 288 577 filed on Aug 10 1994 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to systems and methods for inter facing product information such as is typically found in vendor catalogs that are provided to customers and requisition purchasing systems and methods that may use the results of searches of product information There are a number of known requisition purchasing systems that manage and process requisitions and purchase orders One such system is the Fisher Scientific Requisition and Inventory Management System Fisher RIMS described in co pending patent application Ser No 08 042 168 filed Apr 2 1993 issued as U S Pat No 5 712 989 on Jan 28 1998 and assigned to Fisher Scientific Company of Pittsburgh Pa the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference As its title suggests Fisher RIMS can also manage inventory In the Fisher RIMS system requi sition records are created from a real time interaction between a host computer generally a mainframe and a local computer generally at a customer site with each computer using data from its own respective database of inventory in conjunction with information entered by a customer service representative op
2. Stockclerk Inventory Management System product infor mation brochure IOBar Inc 1993 Fisher StockPro Inventory Management System bro chure Fisher Scientific 1990 Systems by Fisher Inventory Management System Stock Pro amp Single User Version user manual pp 6 1 to 6 14 6 21 to 6 26 7 1 to 7 18 8 1 to 8 20 9 1 to 9 6 and 10 1 to 10 8 Fisher Scientific Company Feb 28 1989 Fisher Scientific PurchasePro user manual version 1 1 Introduction pp 1 6 File Editor pp 1 12 Purchase Req uisitions pp 1 12 Purchase Orders pp 1 8 23 and 34 Vendor Quotes p 1 Fastback Orders pp 1 8 Reports p 1 ReportPro p 1 1984 Lightning Fisher s Electronic Order Entry System bro chure Fisher Scientific Company 1989 Lightning Order Entry and Information System user manual pp 1 6 19 54 and 91 96 Fisher Scientific Com pany 1990 Fisher Reliance System brochure Fisher Scientific Company 1989 Fisher 88 catalog pp 1536 1549 1567 Fisher Scientific Company 1987 Excerpt from A Prism Electronic Catalog Proposal Product Information System for Sales and Marketing prepared by Fisher Scientific Company presented by MediaShare Cor poration Aug 31 1993 6 055 516 Sheet 1 of 5 Apr 25 2000 U S Patent 92 Vi Ola Eas H gt 1220 Jayndwog OL seseqejeg SOH LL eG Japeay
3. Distributor s host databases as a type 07 available to Dis tributor from NIST The local databases on file server 200 5 will also contain records of all items requisitioned and ordered useful to transfer files to a Customer s computer e g of purchase orders placed by that Customer in a day or to generate reports for a Customer e g or requisitions placed by each Customer department and or budget number 10 in a week DATE 08 05 94 TIME 07 04 57 20 Thus it is seen that an electronic sourcing system includ ing means for linking a requisition purchasing system and a means for searching large volumes of information has been described Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be practiced by other than the described embodiments which are presented for the pur poses of illustration and not of limitation and the present invention is limited only by the claims which follow APPENDIX I FISHER SCIENTIFIC RIMS REQUISITION HEADER ACCT NBR NAME ADDRESS COMPANY REQ NBR RELEASE ORDER TYPE R ORDER HOLD REL I RUSH CODE 9 CALLER FREIGHT OVERRIDE N TAX OVERRIDE EDI PO TO HOST N POA 855 ATIN PRT ACK Y NBR OF COPIES 1 ACK DELV CODE P PRINT amp DELIVER BILL TO REQ DELV CODE W WALK IN SERVICE CHARGE 0 00 VENDOR CREATED 08 04 1994 STATUS R RESPONSE KEY S F2 ADD F3 EXIT F4 UPDATE F5 REFRESH F6 ITEM F9 VAR F10 SRCE Fil CHGPO F12 DEL 13V123 AP
4. systems for searching vendor catalogs are limited in that only one such vendor catalog is accessible to a user at any given time They are also limited in that they can only create an order within the particular vendor catalog database They cannot source items to be requisitioned from a database containing multiple catalogs or interact with a requisition purchasing system such as Fisher RIMS to create a pur chase order or orders including the items located from that sourcing operation Thus it would be desirable to provide an electronic sourcing system that provides a means for transferring information between a requisition purchasing system that may use the results of a search of product information and a means for searching large volumes of product information such as would be included in a vendor product catalog or catalogs It would also be desirable to provide such an electronic sourcing system that is capable of searching a database containing at least two vendor product catalogs for product information It would further be desirable to provide such an electronic sourcing system that is capable of searching a database of catalog items contain in at least two vendor product catalogs selecting particular items located and transferring informa tion about the items selected for example a catalog number and a vendor identifier such as vendor name and or vendor number to a requisition purchasing system for inclusion in a requisitio
5. 444A and its associated Requisition Management data screen 110 and displayed at the top of the Requisition Management data screen 110 in the relevant fields For example in the exemplary Requisi tion Management data screen 110 shown in Appendix II the number 218848 has been entered in the Account Number field and the notation TEST NEW ONE has been entered in the Requisition Number field The user can next enter desired items and quantities for the requisition Each desired item may be identified by 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 entering its distributor catalog or part number if known in the field below the STOCK NBR label on the appropriate line in Requisition Item Table 46 shown on Requisition management data screen 110 In the sample Requisition Management data screen 110 shown in Appendix II the part number 13246818F has been entered in the STOCK NBR field of Line 001 Once the user has entered such informa tion at least partially describing a desired item on Requisi tion Management data screen 110 he or she may wish to initiate a search of catalog database 36 to find all the part numbers contained in catalog database 36 that match the part number entered or other information on Requisition Man agement screen 110 If so the user enters the letter S for Select on the line number of the item that he or she wishes to search in catalog database 36 The letter S has been e
6. APPENDIX X REQUISITION MANAGEMENT SCREEN ACCT NBR 218848 002 REQ NBR TEST NEW ONE 001 REL NBR ELECTRONIC SOURCING MESSAGES LINE NUMBER 001 PART ADDED SUCCESSFULLY LINE NUMBER 001 REPLACEMENT WAS MADE FOR PRIOR PART 5100 06 LINE NUMBER 001 VENDOR CHANGED FROM VN00000001 LINE NUMBER 002 PART ADDED SUCCESSFULLY LINE NUMBER 003 PART ADDED SUCCESSFULLY PART NUMBER 53610 PART NUMBER 53610 PART NUMBER 53610 PART NUMBER 53620 PART NUMBER 53650 F6 RETURN F7 BACKWARD F8 FORWARD We claim 1 An electronic sourcing system comprising a collection of catalogs of items stored in an electronic format a first set of pre determined criteria associated with said collection of catalogs second set of pre determined criteria associated with items from each of said catalogs a catalog selection protocol said catalog selection proto col relying on said first set of pre determined criteria to select less than said entire collection of catalogs and including matching a vendor identification code with a subset of said collection of catalogs wherein said subset of catalogs includes both a vendor catalog from predetermined vendor and a second catalog from a predetermined third party that is one of a manufacturer and a competing vendor said predetermined third party selling items corresponding to items in said vendor catalog and search program said search program relying on said s
7. Application Data please insert issued as US Patent No 6 023 683 on February 8 2000 Col 1 line 2 please insert issued as US Patent No 6 023 683 on February 8 2000 Signed and Sealed this First Day of May 2001 NICHOLAS P GODICI Attesting Officer Acting Director of ihe United States Patent and Trademark Office US006055516C1 a2 EX PARTE REEXAMINATION CERTIFICATE 10258th United States Patent Johnson et al US 6 055 516 C1 Aug 14 2014 0 Number 45 Certificate Issued 54 ELECTRONIC SOURCING SYSTEM James M Johnson Bridgeville PA US Robert P Kinross Ben Avon PA US Francis J Melly Pittsburgh US Douglas A Momyer Upper St Clair PA US 75 Inventors 73 Assignee Eplus Inc Herndon VA US Reexamination Request No 90 009 636 Nov 12 2009 Reexamination Certificate for Patent No 6 055 516 Issued Apr 25 2000 Appl No 09 234 366 Filed Jan 20 1999 Certificate of Correction issued May 1 2001 Related U S Application Data 63 Continuation of application No 08 288 577 filed on Aug 10 1994 now Pat No 6 023 683 51 Int CI G06Q 30 00 2012 01 52 U S Cl USPC centena 705 26 8 701 1 701 10 701 104 705 26 62 705 27 1 58 Field of Classification Search None See application file for complete search history 42A Requisition Databases RIMS Mur 34 ap Requisition Order Maintenance Sour
8. Japlo oseqejed oc 09 seseqejeq Jawojysny Bogen s seqejeq azy 9 qeueA Avy Vry fom eoueusjurey soseqejeq uonisinbay E 6 055 516 Sheet 2 of 5 Apr 25 2000 U S Patent di Sls suosnb y 9ec ooz 092 soseqejeq Janias 9cc cec Occ 012 pieoqhay JO IUO N Jayndwoyg 2207 SOH Orc Burseyoind uonIsinbay Jasn uolisinbay 792 092 296 6 055 516 Sheet 3 of 5 Apr 25 2000 U S Patent Jb Ola L uonisinbay SJSU WH a Yvy 6 055 516 Sheet 4 of 5 Apr 25 2000 U S Patent old oseqejeq 9 09 VAYV d v8 CLL 7 Wad IN3IN 99 Wau 0453 uox amp jueuieBeue u P d uonisinbayJ 82 6 055 516 Sheet 5 of 5 Apr 25 2000 U S Patent Dld 90 40 0 10 aseyoind SLL Jayndwoy SOH 0l gry G VOL SJ9pJO eseuoJnd uonisinbos N 021 vii Bunos 9Ll
9. be requisitioned up to twenty desired catalog items tained in catalog database 36 may be sent to REQI program 44A and its associated Requisition Management data screen 110 of Fisher RIMS system 40 If a user chooses to terminate the sourcing process ESRC program 70 would return to REQI program 44A and its associated Requisition Manage ment data screen 110 without processing any of the records ESCP program 80 links with Shell 52 and TV 2 search program 50 via DDE LINK 90 Shell 52 and TV 2 search program 50 search in catalog database 36 for the item or items desired to be requisitioned that has or have been passed from ESRC program 70 to ESCP program 80 Catalog database 36 contains the following fields vendor name vendor number vendor part catalog number prod uct description list price page number quantity unit cata log text and catalog images Shell 52 and TV 2 search program 50 may if desired search the keyword field or any other field shown in Appendix VII However not all fields may appear on the monitor 22 of local computer 20 although they are stored in memory After the user has pressed the F11 key from Requisition Management data screen 110 and control has been passed from REQI program 44A to Shell 52 and TV 2 search program 50 monitor 22 of local computer 20 will show a footer bar representative of Shell 52 at all times that the user is in the TV 2 search program 50 The footer bar which also includes approp
10. create at start up The application name strings 61 will be created in sequence with V123 being created first V124 created second etc Each application will create only one applica tion name string 61 to support its user in the CICS envi ronment 34 If the Fisher RIMS system has been selected as requisition purchasing system 40 and the TV 2 search pro 10 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 gram has been selected as search program 50 CICS OS 2 applications 34 must share a workstation with a TV 2 search program 50 The data passed by interface 60 preferably comprise all or a subset of the following twelve fields vendor name vendor number vendor part catalog number product description bid price list price keyword page number quantity unit catalog text and catalog images Because of the amount of data for catalog images present in database 36 and viewed on monitor 22 these data are usually not passed via interface 60 Any of the above listed fields may be filled by requisition purchasing system 40 prior to requesting a search of catalog database 36 by search program 50 However requisition purchasing system 40 is not required to pass any data to search program 50 If a field is not passed that field will be filled with spaces The fields that are filled with data will assist search program 50 in executing its first search against a specific catalog contained in catalog database 36 A search
11. equivalent and wherein said determination system includes a cross ref erence table matching an identification code from a first located item with a second identification code from a second located item 22 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 21 wherein said determination system includes an identical identification code for each of said located items 23 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 21 wherein said requisition module generates a preferred req uisition based on at least one of product availability and user preferences in accordance with a determination of multiple sources for a desired item 24 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 21 wherein less than said catalog selection criteria is deter mined by at least one of said user generated criteria or user characteristics 25 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 24 wherein said user characteristics include a listing of catalogs from which a user is allowed to purchase 26 An electronic sourcing module as recited in claim 21 wherein said requisition module uses at least one pre determined rule to select which of multiple sources to use for said desired item 27 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 26 wherein said pre determined rule relies on item availability 28 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 26 wherein said pre determined rule relies on a hierarchy of preferred sources 29 An ele
12. for products by manufacturer part number or a competitor s catalog number the CSR has access to cross reference files as earlier described either maintained on the local host or maintained on the Distributor host computer 210 Appropriate Distributor catalogs and manufacturer cata logs then are consulted using TV 2 search program 250 and proper selection of Distributor catalogs and of catalogs and bulletins from manufacturers whose products Distributor regularly sells Catalogs and bulletins are contained in catalog database 236 The resultant lists of products are then transferred by Shell program 252 to a work in progress requisition 260 and then entered from graphical user inter face 254 directly onto Distributor s mainframe computer 210 as orders from the applicable customer to Distributor The CSR knowing which items are available from which Distributor warehouse and direct shipping supplier then may divide the customer s requested items into multiple orders so as to assure that each order is completely filled by a single shipment In this regional environment file server 200 or the minicomputer acting as local host can maintain files of completed requisitions 242 which can be subse quently used for generating reports for customers in the region Reports can be generated either from such local data or from data periodically downloaded to the local host from Distributor s host computer 210 Another environment where the pre
13. listed on Requisition Manage ment data screen 110 in different inventory locations e g different warehouses as described in further detail below After such inventory sourcing and assuming that no errors occurred during sourcing as indicated by decision step 116 in FIG 3 the contract price source inventory location and available quantity or other fields are commu nicated back to computer 20 by host computer 10 and entered and displayed in the Requisition Management Screen This can best be seen by comparing lines 001 and 003 of Appendix VIII to Appendix IX especially as to QTY AVAIL quantity available LOC inventory location and price As Appendix IX indicates an inventory sourced Requisition Item Table 46 typically contains the same items but with more completed fields including price product type and inventory location Moreover as discussed above an entry in an inventory sourced Requisition Management screen may indicate for a requisitioned item a vendor and vendor catalog number that has been changed from what was obtained from a catalog search to a corresponding vendor and vendor catalog number for that item from another source e g Fisher which has its own catalog number for that manufacturer s item that Fisher distributes For example as shown in Appendix IX product type 01 for the item on line 002 indicates that the requested requi sition item is available as Distributor owned inventor
14. location and availability information for the type 01 items Prices for type 05 and 06 items are maintained in the local computer s 20 own databases 42B and 42C From Requisition Maintenance data screen 120 the CSR can accept all lines of the requisition if all lines show the status S for sourced in the STAT field of Requisition Maintenance data screen 120 by pressing the F6 function key If item errors are found at step 116 in the data trans mitted back to local computer 20 from host computer 10 during the sourcing process then those particular items for which error was found will be returned and displayed by local computer 20 in Requisition Management data screen 110 Once a requisition has been inventory sourced and accepted by the CSR it can be converted to one or more purchase orders as represented by step 114 in FIG 3 For example the requisition represented by the Requisition Item Table 46 of Appendix IX if accepted without further revi sion by pressing function key F6 ACCEPT would result in the generation of the following three purchase orders A Line 002 would be ordered from on site distributor owned inventory B Line 004 would be ordered from on site customer owned inventory a transfer internal to the customer and C Lines 001 and 003 would be ordered respectively from Distributor s DEL and EDC warehouses Of these three purchase orders Orders A type 01 and C type 03 are s
15. returned from inventory sourcing program or programs 44B of Fisher RIMS system 40 Messages will be logged for any of the following reasons 1 part number 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 16 changes for line sent to ESCP program 80 2 list price from inventory sourcing program 44B differs from list price returned ESCP program 80 3 vendor name from inventory sourcing program 44B differs from vendor name returned from ESCP program 80 4 on a master or blanket order in which local computer 20 tracks the amount of purchases against a blanket or cumulative sum available and or in which there is limited access to products or limited access to certain users the part has already been entered on another line and 5 the maximum number of line items has been reached Referring again to FIG 2 a user is able to view the messages returned by pressing the ALT F11 function keys in REQI program 44 and its associated Requisition Manage ment screen 110 in Fisher RIMS system 40 After the ALT F11 keys have been pressed REQI program 44A will link to ESMV program 112 via XCTL link 111 for displaying the message log created ESMV program 112 is a function of Fisher RIMS system 40 ESMV program 112 allows the user to page through the messages created and then to return to Requisition Management screen 110 A sample ESMV mes sage screen associated with ESMV program 112 is shown in Appendix X The f
16. 2 the underlying catalog text and pictures in either partial or complete form are typically collected in a memory location for rapid viewing printing or other use When multiple catalogs are present in catalog database 36 search program 50 contains a function associated with the catalog symbol of the footer bar and screen window not shown for selecting catalogs to be searched For example the following choices might be available 1 Fisher General Catalog 93 94 2 Fairmont Supplies Catalog 3 NIST Standards Catalog and 4 Promega Biological Research Products Catalog Fairmont and NIST catalogs list products not in the Fisher General Catalog but many of the products listed in the 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 Promega catalog are also listed in the Fisher General Cata log identified by corresponding Fisher catalog numbers If searching for a molecular biology product the user would select the Fisher and Promega catalogs TV 2 search pro gram 50 would then concatenate those two catalogs to perform a keyword catalog number or other subject search and generate a Hit List of pages panels from both catalogs where the searched for items were found Similarly the user might select the Fisher and NIST catalogs when searching for quality control standards or might select the Fisher and Fairmont catalogs when searching for supplies If the search is initiated from requisition purchas
17. 4 408 including entries for items corresponding to the selected 5 101 352 3 1992 Rembert 364 401 catalog items The system checks the availability in one or s Barkal 2 al n more inventory locations of the corresponding desired cata 117 ong etal 5 168 444 12 1992 Cukor et al 364 401 generates rS ix dies ecu TP for 5 168 445 12 1992 Kawashima et al 364 403 PSEC Hems TOTO TUVO HIS 5 305 199 4 1994 LoBiondo et al 364 403 5 319 542 6 1994 King Jr et al 364 401 29 Claims 5 Drawing Sheets Requisition Databases Inventory Databases Customer Specific Databases 26 Inventory REQ 44 Maintenance Sourcing Customer Variable 44E 6 055 516 Page 2 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Guide to Using First Place Automated Catalogue Services Inc Aug 1993 Grainger Electronic Catalog User s Guide Edition 6 pp 29 33 and 49 50 1994 Automated Catalog Systems product information bro chure Distrivision Development Corporation 1994 SweetSource User s Guide Sweet s Electronic Publish ing Mar 1 1993 Aldrich Catalog on Disk Reference Manual Aldrich Chemical Company Inc 1994 Easel to Move Development to Windows Infoworld May 16 1994 Easel Eases the Way to 00 Computer Select Jun 1994
18. 6012 would be added as an entry to the Items Selected screen with VN00005860 identifying the vendor as Promega accompanying it in the Order List In either case the information transmitted to REQI program 44A of Fisher RIMS system 40 would also include description list price and other information taken from the catalog database from which the selection was made When the resultant requisition is sourced however as described below Dis tributor s mainframe host computer 10 would recognize the entry for the item from vendor Promega s catalog R6012 00005860 as corresponding to that same item available from Fisher s catalog PRR6012 00000001 The system thus would transmit back the Customer s contract price and availability for corresponding item PRR6012 as a type 03 regular Distributor product available from one of distribu tor s inventory locations purchase order then would be generated for this corresponding Distributor item as further described below By contrast an item selected from the Fairmont catalog would be transferred to Fisher RIMS system 40 with the vendor number for Fairmont and would be recognized during inventory sourcing as either a type 07 product that Distributor orders from Fairmont or as a type 05 item that Customer orders from Fairmont as an Administrative Purchase In either of these two cases a purchase order would be generated for an item corresponding to a desired catalog item that is identified b
19. EQUISITION MANAGEMENT SCREEN TIME 14 54 22 ACCT NBR 363690 006 REQ NBR PO NBR 001 COMP 1 REL NBR 0 LINE STOCK NBR OTY UM STKRM XREF SPI UNIT PRICE EXT PRICE 001 A191 i EA 03 0 00 0 00 DESC QTY AVAIL 0 LOC FSHR WHSE EDC 002 02540K i PK 01 0 00 0 00 DESC QTY AVAIL 49 LOC WHSE JIT 003 13246818F 4 EA 03 0 00 0 00 DESC QTY AVAIL 0 LOC FSHR WHSE EDC 004 A181 06 1 EA 06 100 00 100 00 DESC ACETONE QTY AVAIL 0 LOC WHSE JIT JIT BACKORDER WILL OCCUR 005 DESC QTY AVAIL 0 LOC WHSE RESPONSE _ KEYS S I ITEM S PROCESSED 6 055 516 23 24 continued F3 EXIT F6 SOURCE F7 BKWD F8 FWD 10 NONCAT F11 CATALOG 212 CNCL 1B V123 APPENDIX IX RICPOMP1 FISHER SCIENTIFIC RIMS DATE 08 03 94 REQUISITION MANAGEMENT SCREEN TIME 07 44 13 COMP ID 001 REQ NBR PO NBR 001 ACCT NBR 363690 006 REL NBR ORDER NBR PICKLIST REVIEWED SERVICE 0 00 ORDER 0 00 FREIGHT CARRIER OLINE PART QTY UOM PRD UNIT PRICE SERVICE EXT PRICE LOC STAT 001 A181 1 EA 03 35 30 0 00 35 30 DEL S ACETONE CERTIFIED ACS 1L QTYAVAIL 1 QTY REC 0 002 02540K 1 PK 01 32 70 0 00 32 70 HT 5 BEAKER GRIFFIN 250 ML 12 9 QTY 49 QTY REC 0 003 13246818F 1 EA 03 3495 00 0 00 3495 00 EDC S PROGRAMMABLE OVEN QTY AVAIL 0 QTY REC 0 004 A181 06 1 EA 06 100 00 0 00 100 00 HT 5 ACETONE QTY AVAIL 0 QTY REC 0 RESPONSE _ KEY S F3 EXIT ACCEPT F7 BKFWD FWD F9 PRINT F11 M B ERRORS F12 DELETE 1B V123
20. Maintenance program 44C Customer Variable program 44D and Order Header program 44E each of which will later be described in greater detail REQI program 44 is most often the RIMS program 44 that interfaces with TV 2 search program 50 Fisher RIMS system 40 also includes several Fisher RIMS databases 42 These databases 42 preferably include requisition databases 42A inventory databases 42B and customer specific databases 42C each maintained within OS 2 operating system 32 Local computer 20 also preferably runs Shell program 52 which operates under search program 50 and is used to customize search program 50 to generate Order Lists 48 shown in FIG 1C with particular fields of formatted data about the items selected using search program 50 Local computer 20 is preferably capable of running both a RIMS program 44 and Shell program 52 at the same time i e in a multi tasking environment but the user of local computer 20 usually sees only RIMS program 44 or Shell program 52 at one time in the foreground on monitor 22 Local computer 20 is also provided with a catalog data base 36 comprised preferably of at least two vendor product catalogs The catalogs and hence catalog database 36 preferably include such information as part number price catalog number vendor name or I D and vendor catalog number as well as textual information and images of or relating to the catalog products The nature of the business that the Customer us
21. PENDIX II REQUISITION MANAGEMENT SCREEN ACCT NBR 218848 002 REQ NBR TEST NEW ONE COMP 1 REL NBR S LINE STOCK NBR OTY UM PT STKRM XREF SPI UNIT PRICE EXT PRICE 001 13246818F 0 CS 03 0 00 0 00 DESC QTY AVAIL 0 LOC FSHR WHSE BLW 002 DESC QTY AVAIL LOC WHSE 003 DESC QTY AVAIL LOC WHSE 004 DESC QTY AVAIL LOC WHSE 005 DESC QTY AVAIL LOC WHSE RESPONSE ALL ITEMS DISPLAYED EXIT F6 SOURCE F7 BKWD F8 FWD F9 NEW 10 NONCAT 11 CATALOG F12 CNCL APPENDIX ovens General 1106 Fisher Isotemp 800 Series Programmable Ovens 1107 Isotemp 700 Series Deluxe Lab Ovens 1108 Isotemp 600 Standard Lab Ovens 1109 Fisher Isotemp 500 Series Economy Lab Ovens 1110 Gravity Convection Ovens 1111 Utility ovens 1112 Mechanical Convection Ovens with Electronic Temperature 1113 General Purpose Ovens 1114 Heavy Duty Deluxe Ovens 6 055 516 21 22 continued 1116 Large Capacity Model 2882A 1117 Standard Capacity Model 281A 1118 Fisher Models 280 and 285 Vacuum Ovens 1119 NAPCO Vacuum ovens Help Catalogs Search Order List Minimize Clear Prev Next Exit APPENDIX IV FSC1106 Fisher Isotemp 800 Series Programmable Ovens Fisher Isotempx 800 Series Programmable Ovens Three linear heat up and cool down stages Talking control panel Keypad and lighted graphics 30 to 325 C range Rs 422 serial communications capability The latest technology at your fingertips Accurate easy t
22. US006055516A United States Patent Patent Number 6 055 516 Johnson et al 4 Date of Patent Apr 25 2000 54 ELECTRONIC SOURCING SYSTEM 5 758 327 5 1998 Gardner et al 705 26 5 778 355 7 1998 Boyer et al 707 2 75 Inventors James M Johnson Bridgeville 5 799 289 8 1998 Gukushima et al 705 400 Robert P Kinross Ben Avon Francis J Melly Pittsburgh Douglas A FORBIGNUEATENT DOCUMENTS Momyer Upper St Clair all of Pa 0 697 669 2 8 1995 European Pat Off WO 90 11572 10 1990 WIPO 73 Assignee Procurenet Inc Fairfield N J OTHER PUBLICATIONS 21 Appl No 09 234 366 European Search Report Application No 95 305364 Dated Aug 2 1997 22 Filed Jan 20 1993 Texas Instruments Puts the MRO Buy On Line Purchas Related U S Application Data ing p 37 May 19 1994 Technical Viewer 2 General Information Manual 63 Continuation of application No 08 288 577 Aug 10 1994 IBM Corporation 1991 51 Int Cb eese escas Go6F 17 60 IBM Technical Viewer 2 product information brochure IBM Corporation undated 52 705 27 705 26 701 1 701 10 701 104 List continued on next page 58 Field of Search 705 1 26 27 707 1 10 100 104 Primary Examiner Edward Cosimano Attorney Agent or Firm Rader Fishman amp Grauer PLLC 56 R
23. a particular Distributor warehouse and at other Distributor warehouses item records for each Product regularly sold by the Distributor discount records by Customer and cross references from the Distributor s catalog number to its corresponding vendor s part catalog number and to similar corresponding catalog numbers of other vendors suppliers or distributors for the same Product Host computer 10 and local computer 20 are preferably linked point to point or in a network employing the formats and protocols of IBM s System Network Architecture SNA Host computer 10 can be substantially any main frame or minicomputer capable of running the desired programs and conducting the required communications Preferably host computer 10 is a mainframe computer such as an IBM Model 3090 running the MVS operating system the MVS CICS application and a Virtual Telecommunica tion Access Method communications network As shown in FIGS 1C and 2 interface 60 is also a part of electronic sourcing interface system 5 Interface 60 com municates shared data between requisition purchasing sys tem 40 and search program 50 Interface 60 is preferably based upon the dynamic data exchange DDE protocol provided by OS 2 operating system 32 As shown in FIG 2 interface 60 preferably includes three linking programs to interface requisition purchasing system 40 and search pro gram 50 ESRC program 70 ESCP program 80 and DDE LINK 90 A t
24. cing Header Customer Variable Inventory Databases 44C 44E 42B Catalog Shell 56 References Cited To view the complete listing of prior art documents cited during the proceeding for Reexamination Control Number 90 009 636 please refer to the USPTO s public Patent Application Information Retrieval PAIR system under the Display References tab Primary Examiner Joseph R Pokrzywa 57 ABSTRACT Anelectronic sourcing system includes a computer that main tains a catalog database of data including product information such as product identification and descriptive information relating to catalog items available from vendor product cata logs and a means for building generating a requisition including at least one requisitioned item Information at least partially identifying an item desired to be requisitioned is entered by a user and utilized by a means for searching the database for catalog items matching that information and for selecting at least one catalog item located as a result of the search Text describing the catalog items and images of the items may be viewed Data identifying selected catalog items are communicated to the requisition building means which generates a requisition including entries for items corre sponding to the selected catalog items The system checks the availability in one or more inventory locations of the corre sponding desired catalog items and generates one or more
25. ctronic sourcing system comprising a collection of catalogs of items stored in an electronic format a first set of pre determined criteria associated with said collection of catalogs a second set of pre determined criteria associated with items from each of said catalogs a catalog selection protocol said catalog selection proto col relying on said first set of pre determined criteria to select less than said entire collection of catalogs and including matching a vendor identification code with a subset of said collection of catalogs wherein said subset of catalogs includes both a vendor catalog from a predetermined vendor and a second catalog from a predetermined third party a search program said search program relying on said second set of criteria to select specific items from said catalogs determined from said catalog selection proto col and a cross reference table linking a vendor item catalog number from said vendor catalog with an item catalog number from said predetermined third party UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO 6 055 516 DATED April 25 2000 INVENTOR S James M Johnson et al It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below On title page item 73 Assignee replace Procurenet Inc with Fisher Scientific Company L L C On title page item 63 Related U S
26. e of catalog databases 236 will help dictate what size file server 200 is required The operating environment regional CSR site on site CSR on site CSR networked with Customer end users and with purchaser personnel or Distributor pur chasing site will also affect the catalog databases 236 included file server 200 size and requisition purchasing program 240 used In some situations 2 purchasing each client computer has an independent copy of requisition purchasing program 240 in others e g on site CSR a single copy of the requisition purchasing program 240 is maintained with associated local databases on the server 200 Where the requisition purchasing program 240 and local databases are maintained on file server 200 the local database is updated after each use for the benefit of subse quent users For example in an environment using Fisher RIMS for requisition purchasing program 240 if a NIST standard is selected using TV 2 search program 250 and ordered using Fisher RIMS 240 as either a type 07 purchase from Distributer or a type 05 administrative purchase from NIST that item is available in the applicable database for subsequent requisitions For example a NIST standard ordered as a type 05 item will be stored in the local database 6 055 516 19 on file server 200 with NIST as the vendor for subsequent administrative purchases by Customer A NIST standard ordered from Distributor as a type 07 item will be stored in
27. econd set of criteria to select specific items from said catalogs determined from said catalog selection proto col 2 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 1 wherein catalogs comprising said collection of catalogs are stored in separate databases 3 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 1 wherein said catalogs comprising said collection of catalogs are stored in a single database 4 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 1 wherein said predetermined third party makes items in said vendor catalog 5 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 1 further including a cross reference table linking a vendor item catalog number from said vendor catalog with an item catalog number from said predetermined third party 6 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 1 wherein said second set of predetermined criteria includes at least one of a catalog number and item textual information 7 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 1 wherein said catalog selection protocol includes providing an electronic listing of available catalogs from said collec tion of catalogs 8 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 7 wherein said electronic listing of available catalogs is less than said collection of catalogs 9 An electronic sourcing system comprising a collection of catalogs of items stored in an electronic format a first identification code associated with a first i
28. eferences Cited 57 ABSTRACT U S PATENT DOCUMENTS An electronic sourcing system includes a computer that 4 135 241 1 1979 Stanis et al 364 200 Maintains a catalog database of data including product 4 141 078 2 979 Bridges Jr et al 364 900 information such as product identification and descriptive 4 336 589 6 1982 Smith et al 364 403 information relating to catalog items available from vendor 4 509 123 4 1985 Vereen 364 300 product catalogs and a means for building generating a 4 636 950 1 1987 Caswell et al 364 403 requisition including at least one requisitioned item Infor 4 656 591 4 1987 Goldberg 364 478 mation at least partially identifying an item desired to be 4 887 208 12 1989 Schneider et al 364 403 requisitioned is entered by a user and utilized by a means for dun ddp Sud d iid EUER searching the database for catalog items matching that 4 958280 9 1990 Pauly et al 7 364 403 information and for selecting at least one catalog item 4 972 318 11 1990 Brown et al _ 364 403 located as a result of the search Text describing the catalog 4 984 155 1 1991 Geier et al 364 401 items and images of the items may be viewed Data 4 992 940 2 1991 Dworkin 364 401 identifying selected catalog items are communicated to the 5 038 283 8 1991 Caveney 364 403 requisition building means which generates a requisition 5 077 665 12 1991 Silverman et al 36
29. elds can default to one of the smallest unit and the units can be changed when the order is reviewed in REQI program 44A Additional fields on the same items are also present in memory at this stage Upon clicking on Order when the Items Selected screen Appendix VI is viewed many or all of these fields on the items in the Order List are transmitted back to REQI program 44A via the programs of interface 60 shown in FIG 2 to be added to the pending Requisition Item Table 46 The sample Items Selected screen shown in Appendix VI includes the Isotemp Oven with catalog num ber 1324818F that was located as a result of the search for all items in catalog database 36 that match the part number 13246818F that was entered in the STOCK NBR field of REQI program 44 and its associated Requisition Manage ment data screen 110 of Fisher RIMS system 40 The following fields are transferred to Order List 48 created in TV 2 search program 50 Vendor name vendor number vendor part catalog number product description list price page number quantity unit and catalog text 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 However not all of these fields are viewed on the Items Selected screen If more than one item on Requisition Management data screen 110 had been marked with an S the process described above is repeated If the user desires to do additional searching in catalog database 36 that is not connec
30. erating the local com puter By accessing its respective database each computer can build and transmit to the other computer communica tions blocks of data relating to a particular requisition of an item in inventory or to the management of the inventory itself The other computer can then use the received data to continue processing of the requisition Thus requisition records are created from a real time interaction between the host and local computers with each computer using data from its respective database in conjunction with information entered by a customer service representative operating the local computer Other requisition purchasing systems can be grouped broadly into four classes First requisition management systems licensed to corporations purchasing for their own use include ORION software from Medical Management Systems ENTERPRISE software from ESI and NOVA software from Johnson amp Johnson Second there exist systems provided by distributors for transmitting orders to them in proprietary formats Such systems include QUICK LINK from Abbott ASAP system from Baxter and LIGHTNING system from Fisher Scientific Third soft ware packages licensed by software developers to customers and or suppliers enable the transmission of customer pur chase orders as EDI purchase orders in ANSI X 12 format Examples of such systems include ON CALL EDI from TSI International EDI Express software from General Electr
31. es II and IX It should be appreciated that data about each item is stored in Requisition Item Table 46 some of which is displayed on the screens shown in Appendices II VIII and IX The data stored can additionally include customer variable data That is the fields on Requisition Item Table 46 can be expanded to include specific item details used by a particular customer especially when reports from requisition databases are trans ferred to the customer s host computer not shown The field structure for these data is maintained in customer specific databases 42C The entire process of listing sourcing and ordering prod ucts using Fisher RIMS system 40 can be completed without any reference to a search program 50 As described herein however limited fields on specific items can be transmitted from Requisition Item Table 46 to search program 50 and more completed fields of the same or different items can be received from the search program 50 into a Requisition Item Table 46 At the bottom of Requisition Management data screen 110 FIG 3 and Appendices II VIII and IX are several fields which describe the function of various function keys F1 F2 etc The user uses REQI program 44 and its associ ated Requisition Management data screen 110 to enter the catalog or part numbers and quantities of the various items being requisitioned The Account Number and Requisition Number are auto matically passed to program
32. ess of searching displaying selecting and ordering is repeated until all of items stored by LINKS 82 have been sent to TV 2 program 50 and searched At the end of each of these searches an order list may be created and returned to Requisition Item Data Table 46 or cancelled Once the last item is completed ESRC program 70 passes control via XCTL 78 and a Requisition Management screen 110 is displayed reflecting all of the additions and changes that have been made to the Requisition Item Data Table 46 associated with that requisition A limit is normally placed on the number of items of an order that may be returned to the Requisition Item Data Table 46 For example if the maximum size in Requisition Item Data Table 46 is set at 200 lines one could create a limit on the size of each order list at 20 50 100 or even 200 A corresponding limit can be placed on the number of LINKS 82 that can be established concurrently from the same requisition Setting a limit of five LINKS 82 and forty items per order list would be one way of avoiding situations in which a Requisition Item Data Table 46 reaches its limit e g 200 lines before all of the searches five have been completed and order lists five of forty items each have been returned At this point in the use of Fisher RIMS system 40 as many entries lines of Requisition Management data screen 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 14 110 have been b
33. g and has access to said second catalog such that a request for an item in said first catalog provides said data from said second catalog 21 An electronic sourcing system comprising a requisition module including data fields user generated criteria entered into at least one of said data fields to generate at least partial criteria corresponding to a desired item a catalog collection searching module said searching module including a collection of catalogs of items stored in an electronic format a catalog selection criteria used to select less than said entire collection said searching module being used to generate addi tional search module criteria for said data fields of said requisition module 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 26 a multiple purchase order generation module said pur chase order generation module creating multiple pur chase orders from a single requisition created with said user generated criteria and said search module criteria wherein each of at least two catalogs include a generally equivalent item from a different source said requisition module working in combination with said catalog searching module to determine multiple sources for said item wherein said multiple sources is limited by said catalog searching module providing a match according to said user generated criteria said search module criteria and a determination system that located items are generally
34. hared between host computer 10 and local computer 20 as shown in FIG 3 Upon execution of Order A the inventory records on both computers for Distributor owned JIT inventory are adjusted synchronously A purchase order is generated by host computer 10 immediately there after Order B type 06 is executed and stored only on local computer 20 Upon execution of Order B the inven tory record on local computer 20 is adjusted the host computer contains no records on Customer owned JIT inventory or on items ordered by Administrative Purchases For Administrative Purchases type 05 items a purchase order is printed and mailed or faxed locally by computer 20 as indicated at step 118 in FIG 3 or via host computer 10 via EDI if EDI was selected in the Header of Appendix I and an EDI transfer arrangement existed with vendor It is an important feature of the present invention that a requisition may be filled by searching and selecting from a catalog database of items inventory sourced and the result ing requisition then divided into one or more purchase orders This contrasts with known prior art CD ROM cata log systems in which only a single purchase order to a single supplier is built without reference to inventory records and in which the information used to create the purchase order is limited to that contained in the product catalog of a single vendor Electronic sourcing system 5 also contains the capability to log messages
35. ic Information Services and GETRAN software from Sterling Software Fourth comprehensive business management packages such as REAL WORLD software from Real World Corporation of Concord N H and ASK software from The ASK Group contain a purchasing module to create replenishment orders when inventoried items fall below restocking points The same purchasing module can also be used to place spot orders for products keyed in by the customer s purchasing personnel None of these known requisition purchasing systems including Fisher RIMS however provides a capability for a user readily to search for and locate information about the products that may be requisitioned and ordered in connec 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 tion with the requisition purchasing system They also do not provide the capability for a user to search a database containing two or more vendor catalogs and then to transfer information about the items selected as a result of such searches into a requisition purchasing system such as Fisher RIMS for building a requisition for the catalog items Computer systems that are capable of searching databases containing a product catalog of a particular vendor for example on CD ROM are also known Such systems can search for user requested information about products and create orders which the user can save print or in some cases facsimile directly to a vendor The known computer
36. ing electronic sourcing system 5 con ducts will determine which product catalogs are made a part of catalog database 36 A feature of the present invention is the ability to search multiple catalogs from different suppliers For example catalog database 36 can contain the catalog or catalogs published by a vendor Distributor having Distributor s catalog numbers for all listed products and vendor manu facturer s part numbers for many of the listed products Catalog database 36 can further contain catalogs published by some of the vendor manufacturers listing the manufac turers part numbers for certain products correspondingly listed in the Distributor s catalogs and for certain products not listed in the Distributor s catalogs Catalog database 36 can further contain catalogs published by outside suppliers whether other manufacturers or other distributors listing such vendor s products different from those in the Distribu tor s catalogs Where the Fisher RIMS system is in use with electronic sourcing system 5 a host computer 10 located at a Distribu 6 055 516 5 tor site is also provided as shown in FIG 1A Host computer 10 controls all inventory pricing and requisitioning opera tions of the Distributor s regularly stocked items using host pricing and inventory databases 11 Host pricing and inven tory databases 11 may include such information as descrip tions of the items and the quantities thereof available at
37. ing pro gram 40 for example from the Requisition Management data screen 110 of the Fisher RIMS system then the catalogs searched can be determined by the information provided If for example Promega is indicated as the desired requisition item vendor interface 60 would direct TV 2 search program 50 to search the Fisher and Fairmont catalogs If no catalog delimiting information is entered for the item desired to be requisitioned interface 60 would be set up to search only the Fisher catalog or alternatively to search all catalogs in catalog database 36 Once Hit List 47 has been created by TV 2 search program 50 the user can view it and select particular ones of the located catalog items for Order List 48 that is being created in Shell 52 as shown in FIG 1C For example a search for Eco RI a restriction enzyme may have uncov ered five entries in the Promega catalog identified by Promega catalog numbers R6011 R6012 R6013 R6015 and R401 and five entries in the Fisher catalog identified by Fisher catalog numbers PRR6011 PRR6012 PRR6013 PRR6015 and PRR4014 If the user selected PRR6012 from the Fisher catalog Fisher catalog number PRR6012 would be added as an entry to the Items Selected screen with VN00000001 identifying the vendor as distributor Fisher accompanying it in the Order List 48 If the user instead selected the item identified by catalog number R6012 from the Promega catalog then Promega catalog number R
38. ironment search program 250 which preferably comprises TV 2 search pro gram 250 and catalog databases 236 are stored on file server 200 In this environment file server 200 is a large personal computer a work station or a mini computer such as an IBM AS 400 Alternatively the server 200 and a minicomputer such as an IBM AS 400 can be independently connected to each local computer 200 Each CSR has a local personal computer 220 having a monitor 222 a keyboard 224 and a printer 226 Local computer 220 is provided with programs including requisition purchasing program 240 Shell pro gram 252 and a graphic user interface 254 preferably EASEL Workbench program 254 for OS 2 for listing items One or more of these may be copied from server 220 when needed Work in progress requisitions 260 are established for each customer and are attached to graphic user interface 254 Server 200 maintains complete requisitions 242 in a manner similar to the manner in which local computer 20 maintains requisition databases 42 in the embodiment shown in FIG 1A Normally in such an environment the CSR creates Order lists for customers by entering Distributor catalog numbers into graphic user interface 254 and connecting to the Dis tributor mainframe 210 for price and availability For this purpose each local computer is connected to host computer 210 via a phone dataline and either a gateway or a mini computer acting as a local host When a customer asks
39. irst two messages of the message screen of Appendix X indicate that a part number for line 001 identified as part number 53610 was successfully added in substitution for a prior part originally entered as part number S100 06 from the Fisher Scientific catalog These messages were gener ated because the originally entered part S100 06 did not exist in the Fisher catalog but its corresponding part number S100 06 that was located by another search in another catalog did exist in that other catalog The next message indicates that the vendor for part number 53610 was changed in line 001 from VN00000001 meaning that the originally requested vendor Fisher was changed The next two messages indicate that two other part numbers 53620 and 53650 were successfully added as lines 002 and 003 In the previous description an exemplary embodiment has been described in which a Distributor CSR operates Fisher RIMS requisition purchasing system 40 and IBM TV 2 search program 50 as part of a Just In Time activity for a particular customer Customer Electronic sourcing system 5 of the present invention may also be used however in other requisition and purchasing environments In some embodiments a Customer end user or a Customer purchasing employee operating REQI program 44A of Fisher RIMS system 40 may also operate TV 2 search program 50 Operating either from a terminal connected to local computer 20 or from a separate local computer net wo
40. ms from inventory locations stocking the items BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from consideration of the follow ing detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout and in which FIG 1A is a block diagram showing one exemplary embodiment of the overall system of the present invention FIG 1B is a block diagram showing another exemplary embodiment of the overall system of the present invention FIG 1C is a block diagram showing a portion of the embodiment of FIG 1A in greater detail FIG 2 is a block diagram showing the flow of control and interaction between the various programs and data screens of the programs used for requisition management and ven dor catalog searching of the present invention and FIG 3 is a block diagram showing a portion of a system Fisher RIMS for requisition management including the electronic sourcing system of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIGS 1A and 1B show preferred embodiments of the electronic sourcing system 5 of the present invention As shown in FIG 1A a local computer 20 which is preferably located at or near a Customer site and the site of Just In Time JIT Inventory is preferably used by an on site Customer Service Representative CSR dedicated to a Customer to assis
41. n generated by the system It would further be desirable to provide an electronic sourcing system that is capable of creating an order list including items located as the result of a catalog database search and transferring that order list of desired catalog items to a requisition purchasing system for inclusion of the catalog items as entries in a requisition generated by the system SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing it is an object of this invention to provide an electronic sourcing method and system that provides a user with the capability of searching a database containing data including product vendor identification and other product information relating to items available from at least two vendor product catalogs and the capability of transferring the product information for desired catalog items obtained as a result of the search to a requisition purchasing system for use in generating a requisition includ ing entries for the desired catalog items It is also an object of this invention to provide an electronic sourcing system that provides a means for bi directionally transferring information between a requisition purchasing system that may use the results of a search of such product information and a means for search ing large volumes of product information such as would be included in a vendor product catalog 6 055 516 3 It is a further object of this invention to provide electronic sourcing sys
42. ne item or several items from the catalogs contained in catalog database 36 by using TV 2 search program 50 If no items have been selected the original items that were entered on Requisition Item Table 46 of Requisition Management data screen 110 will remain on that screen and will continue to be processed by Fisher RIMS system 40 If one or several desired catalog items were selected in TV 2 search program 50 the first item selected will replace the original item on Requisition Item Table 46 of Requisition Management data screen 110 Addi 6 055 516 13 tional items that were selected from the search that was performed in TV 2 search program 50 will be added to Requisition Item Table 46 of Requisition Management data screen 110 Interface programs ESCP 80 and ESRC 70 FIG 2 are used to send data to REQI program 44A FIG 1A and its associated Requisition Management data screen 110 FIG 2 about the items that were selected from the search performed by TV 2 search program 50 To the user it appears that all the items selected from the search are sent over to Fisher RIMS system 40 at the same time However ESCP program 80 receives multiple items from TV 2 search program 50 and then sends one item at a time to ESRC program 70 ESRC program 70 then waits until all items have been passed to it before sending data about the items to REQI program 44 and its associated Requisition Man agement screen 110 of Fisher RIMS system 40 The inf
43. ng system as recited in claim 9 wherein said first and second identification codes correspond to a part number 16 An electronic sourcing system comprising at least two product catalogs containing data relating to items such that an item in a first catalog is generally equivalent with an item in a second catalog and converting means for converting data relating to said item from said first catalog to data relating to said item from said second catalog 17 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 16 wherein at least one catalog database contains said data from each of said catalogs and said converting means includes a non catalog database containing a cross reference table such that use of a reference code corresponding to an entry in said cross reference table links said item from said first catalog to data relating to said item from said second catalog 18 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 16 wherein one or more catalog databases contain said data from each of said catalogs and said converting means including one or more catalog databases including an iden tical reference code corresponding to said data from said first catalog and said data from said second catalog 19 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 16 wherein said first catalog may be searched separately from said second catalog 20 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 19 wherein a user lacks access to said first catalo
44. ntered to the left of line 001 on the sample Requisition Management data screen 110 shown in Appendix II Any number of items or no items listed on Requisition Man agement data screen 110 may be marked with S A user may not always have information relating to the catalog or part number for the particular items that are to be requisitioned using Fisher RIMS system 40 Or the user may have relevant information about an item from a par ticular vendor but may wish to locate information about the same or a similar product available from other vendors Or the user may simply know the name of the item that he or she wishes to requisition In any of these cases the user alternatively or additionally could enter text at least partially describing the product to be requisitioned in the DESC field of Requisition Management data screen 110 e g Appendix II Then the user would initiate the electronic sourcing system 5 of the present invention to search the vendor product catalogs contained in catalog database 36 Alternatively the user could initiate search program 50 of electronic sourcing system 5 without having first entered information in RIMS system 40 about the product to be requisitioned Once the user has built or partially built Requisition Item Table 46 by filling the line numbers entries on Requisition Management data screen 110 and selecting those lines to be searched he or she is now ready to initiate electronic sourcing sy
45. o use controls allow you to program up to 3 heat up stages and 3 cool down stages linearly to provide the most appropriate conditions for your samples Using the large keyboard you can choose the heat up or cool down rate the temperature you want for each stage and the length of time you want the oven to hold each temperature And for projects requiring repeatability you can duplicate the settings at any time Help Catalogs Search Order List Minimize Clear Prev Next Exit APPENDIX V FSC1106 Fisher Isotemp 809 Series Programmable Ovens Model 818F 838F Inside Dx Wx H 16 x 12 x 16 41 x 30 x 41 18 x 18 x 20 46 x 46 x 51 Shp Wt 156 Ib 71 kg 195 Ib 88 kg Electrical Requirements 230 V 50 60 Hz 11 3 Amps 230 V 50 60 Hz 19 Amps Cat No 13 246 818F 13 246 838F Each 3495 00 3995 00 Extra Shelves for 800 Series Ovens No tip design Move to any position in seconds Full Depth Shelves Chrome Plated Steel Help Catalogs Search Order List Minimize Clear Prev Next Exit APPENDIX VI ITEMS SELECTED Part Number Description List Price 13246818F ISOTEMP OVEN MDLS818F 230 V 3495 00 Help Cancel Delete Delete All Order Description APPENDIX VII SEARCH Page Search For Part Number OFisher O Vendor OCustomer Vendor Name Bulletin HELP SEARCH CANCEL CLEAR USER DATA EXTENDED Help Catalogs Search Order List Minimize Clear Prev Next Exit APPENDIX VIII RICREQI1 FISHER SCIENTIFIC RIMS DATE 07 29 94 R
46. of the resultant hit list are reviewed the test corresponding to the search parameter is highlighted in red Thus in Appendix V catalog number 13 246 818F identified in the search appears in red while catalog number 13 246 838F and the trademark Isotemp each appear in blue A word vendor part number or catalog number located by the search will appear red even if that word or number did not have an associated hyperlink and thus is not normally blue When in search program 50 particular items selected can be added to an Order List 48 pending in Shell 52 and search program 50 When the Ordering portion of catalog text is viewed as in Appendix V particular items can be selected so as to be added to the Order List 48 by double clicking on the highlighted catalog number even if a different field was also highlighted as a result of a search of catalog database 36 The item is then added to an Order List 48 that is created in Shell 52 via a hypertext link The items that are sent to the Order List 48 are collected and shown on the Items Selected screen of Shell 52 An example of an Items Selected screen of Shell 52 is shown in Appendix VI The Items Selected screen depicts certain fields of Order List 48 that can be viewed and edited within search program 50 For example Shell 52 permits the user via a pop up window not shown to select units e g pack or case and quantity to be ordered e g two packs Alternatively the data in these fi
47. or mation transmitted to Requisition Management screen 110 from the Order List built in TV 2 search program 50 and sent through ESCP program 80 and ESRC program 70 includes vendor name vendor number vendor part catalog number product description list price page number quantity unit and catalog text However not all of the above listed fields may be displayed on screen at all times ESRC program 70 passes control back to Fisher RIMS system 40 via XCTL 78 The requisition number customer identification and release number or other data identifying the requisition will be passed in MENU Comm AREA 56 to confirm that the returned data are associated with the proper requisition MENU Comm AREA 56 is a layout of storage area within local computer 20 as one of ordinary skill in the art would readily understand As previously indicated multiple LINKS 82 may have been created between program ESRC 70 and program ESCP 80 if multiple lines were selected with the S symbol in Requisition Management data screen 110 After completing the first search and any additional searches initiated with the footer bar an order list is created and returned to Requisition Item Data Table 46 associated with Requisition Manage ment data screen 110 At this point the next item is sent from a LINK 82 through program ESCP 80 and DDE LINK 90 to the TV 2 program 50 and a hit list resulting from the corresponding search is displayed on monitor 22 The pro c
48. priority exists when more than one field is provided by requisition purchasing system 40 The priority is as follows 1 part catalog number 2 keyword and 3 page number The search will start with priority 1 and proceed through priority 3 in sequence until a search produces products matching the search criteria At that time the search will return the matching product information to requisition purchasing system 40 and stop at the highest priority resulting in a match The operation of electronic sourcing system 5 of the present invention will now be more particularly described in the context of FIGS 1A 1C 2 and 3 In FIGS 2 and 3 the rectangles represent data screens as well as programs asso ciated with those data screens The rounded rectangles represent programs not associated with data screens such that while these programs are running the prior data screen may remain visible without necessarily being operational for the input of data The programs associated with the data screens enable the user of local computer 20 to display and modify the contents of various tables associated with par ticular data screens The following description illustrates the use of the Fisher RIMS system as requisition purchasing system 40 and the TV 2 search program as search program 50 However it will be understood that the present invention is not limited to such system or program Preferably a user will start the electronic sourcing s
49. purchase orders for desired items from inventory locations stocking the items Host Databases Host Computer Customer Specific Databases 22 Monitor 4 Local Computer US 6 055 516 C1 1 EX PARTE REEXAMINATION CERTIFICATE ISSUED UNDER 35 U S C 307 THE PATENT IS HEREBY AMENDED AS INDICATED BELOW AS A RESULT OF REEXAMINATION IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT 10 The patentability of claims 21 28 is confirmed Claims 1 20 and 29 are cancelled
50. rder Header data screen 100 are several fields that describe the function of various function keys Function keys F6 F9 and F10 all cause the system to jump to a new RIMS program 44 or data screen in Fisher RIMS system 40 For example pressing the F9 key causes the system to jump to RIMS Customer Variable program 44E FIG 1A and its associated Customer Variable Header data screen 104 FIG 3 Customer Variable Header program 44E with its associated Customer Variable Header data screen 104 allows the user to enter and edit information that the particular customer desires to be associated with the requisition due to requirements of the customer s internal accounting system or other systems Pressing the F10 key will cause the system to enter the Inventory Sourcing program or programs 44B Pressing the F6 function key from the Order Header data screen causes Fisher RIMS system 40 to jump to REQI program 44 FIG 1A The screen associated with REQI program 44A is Requisition Management data screen 110 FIG 3 illustrated in Appendix II Within REQI program 44A and its associated Requisition Management data screen 110 Requisition Item Table 46 shown in FIG 1C is a graphical representation of a database table in which certain fields are completed on a list of items that are to be listed sourced and ordered Representative Requisition Manage ment data screens 110 showing a Requisition on Requisition Item Table 46 are set forth in Appendic
51. riate icons is used to make choices within Shell 52 A sample of the footer bar without the icons representing Shell 52 is shown at the base of Appendices III VII In the screens of Appendices III VI this footer bar is active to select functions In the screen of Appendix VII this footer bar is in the background and another footer bar is used to select functions If the user has marked an item on Requisition Manage ment data screen 110 with the designation S the entered data at least partially describing that item will be sent to Shell 52 and TV 2 search program 50A in the manner described above TV 2 search program 50 will search cata log database 36 for all items that match the search field sent over from REQI program 44A and Requisition Management data screen 110 When a search is performed in Shell 52 and search program 50 a Hit List 47 is produced as indicated in FIG 1C The user would see on monitor 22 of local computer 20 a Hit List 47 screen representing limited data about all matching catalog items that were located in catalog database 36 as a result of the search A sample Hit List 47 produced from a search initiated when the entry OVENS is received as the description or keyword by search program 50 from Requisition Item Table 46 is shown in Appendix III Similar Hit Lists 47 are produced when various searches are performed from the Search Input screen shown in Appendix VII When a Hit List 47 is depicted on monitor 2
52. rked with the CSR s local computer 20 such a Customer end user can select requisitioned items for inclusion in Requisition Item Table 46 by keystrokes viewing that screen and by searches in TV 2 search program 50 which are transmitted to the Requisition Item Table 46 via interface 60 as described above Depending upon his or her authorization level and access code to Fisher RIMS system 40 the Customer purchasing employee may be able to source the final requisition and or accept the sourced requisition as shown in Appendix IX If however the sourced requisition was split into more purchase orders than the Customer purchasing employee might prefer the intervention of the Distributor CSR could be invoked to revise and re source the requisition causing for example certain items origi nally sourced as type 01 products to be sourced for this order as corresponding type 03 products from a common Distribu tor warehouse with other type 03 products on the requisition The Customer end user may have authority only 6 055 516 17 to build the Requisition Item Table but then calls the Distributor CSR or Customer purchasing employee to source and accept the requisition As shown in FIG 1B the present invention also has application to Distributor s regional customer service loca tions where a large number of CSRs may be placing orders directly on Distributor s host computer 210 for thousands of different customers who call in In that env
53. search field that was entered on the Search Screen then is generated Then in a manner similar to that described previously the user can scroll through the Hit List 47 and double click on the catalog page or panel desired The user may then also view the detailed information located on the catalog page that was selected from the Hit List 47 During the search the user may also add additional items to the Order List 48 being built in Shell 52 if desired whether those additional items had been selected from the Hit List 47 or not The Order List that the user has built in Shell 52 is maintained on the Items Selected screen shown in Appendix VI From the Items Selected screen the user can cancel the order by clicking on the Cancel box at the bottom of the screen delete an item from the Order List 48 by moving the pointer bar to the item to be deleted and then clicking on the Delete box at the bottom of the screen or delete all items by clicking on the Delete All box The user can also view catalog text and images for a particular item by clicking on the Description box Once the user has completely built the Order List 48 within Shell 52 and TV 2 search program 50 he or she can transmit it to Fisher RIMS system 40 This is accomplished by clicking on the Order box at the bottom of the Items Selected screen to communicate the completed Order List 48 to Fisher RIMS system 40 The user may have selected no items o
54. sent invention can be used is in Distributor s purchasing department The item lists created in that environment can include lists of items Distributor does not regularly stock or purchase but for which particular customers indicate a requirement to buy The file server 200 in that environment contains TV 2 search program 250 EASEL graphical user interface 254 and multiple catalog databases 236 containing catalogs similar to 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 18 the Fairmont and NIST catalogs described above for the embodiment of FIG 1A The Distributor purchasing employee can receive by phone or via Distributor s host computer 210 requests for items not shown on Distributor s host databases either as regular products type 03 or third party items purchased for particular customers on a regular basis type 07 items Transmitting certain such require ments to the applicable Distributor purchasing employee can be a function of the inventory sourcing routines of host computer or may be directed by the Distributor CSR inter facing with the customer The Distributor purchasing employee can search appro priate catalogs using TV 2 search program 250 and can transfer the Items Selected to a product list in EASEL interface 254 The resultant list might display for example supplier part number supplier list price product and catalog page with access to other fields such as complete descrip
55. stem 5 Pressing the F11 function key which is labelled Catalog from Requisition Management screen 110 accesses electronic sourcing system 5 Referring now to FIG 2 after the user presses the F11 key on Requisition Management data screen 110 of Fisher RIMS system 40 Fisher RIMS system 40 will pass program control via XCTL 74 to ESRC program 70 XCTL 74 is a protocol within CICS application 34 that directs the execu tion of a program as would readily be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art As control is passed from REQI program 44A to ESRC program 70 ESRC Comm AREA data structure 76 is passed ESRC Comm AREA is a layout of storage area in local computer 20 created by REQI program 44A to pass data to ESRC program 70 as would readily be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art ESRC program 70 will then LINK 82 to ESCP program 80 with ESCP Comm AREA 84 LINK 82 is a protocol within CICS application 32 that directs the execution of a program as would readily be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art Data at least partially describing one item desired to be requisitioned is passed to ESCP program 80 via LINK 82 Thus if there are five items to be passed to ESCP program 80 there will be five LINKS 82 made If no items are to be passed to ESCP program 80 only one LINK 82 is made to ESCP program 80 ESCP program 80 can return up to twenty items per LINK 82 in other words for each item desired to 6 055 516 9
56. t that Customer in requisitioning items needed Local computer 20 includes conventional color monitor 22 and alphanumerical keyboard 24 including twelve func tion keys F1 F2 F12 Local computer 20 is also coupled to printer 26 Local computer 20 is preferably a conventional micro computer such as a 386 486 or Pentium class personal 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 computer capable of operating the required programs and of transmitting and receiving the required communications running the OS 2 operating system 32 and also running the CICS OS 2 application 34 both of which are available from IBM Electronic sourcing system 5 also includes a requisition purchasing system 40 preferably but not necessarily the Fisher RIMS system and a search program 50 that is capable of searching through large volumes of information quickly and accurately Preferably but not necessarily the Technical viewer 2 search program TV 2 available from IBM is used as search program 50 As shown in the embodiment of FIG 1A Fisher RIMS 40 and TV 2 search program 50 are run by local computer 20 Fisher RIMS system 40 is comprised of numerous pro gram modules including several programs 44 which oper ate within CICS environment 34 of OS 2 operating system 32 Programs 44 include among others Requisition Man agement REQI program 44A Inventory Sourcing pro gram or programs 448 Requisition
57. ted to catalog or other items that have been listed on Requisition Management data screen 110 of Fisher RIMS system 40 he or she can click the box on footer bar of Shell 52 that is labelled Search Then a Search screen comes up on monitor 22 of local computer 20 An exemplary Search screen is shown in Appendix VII In this screen the usual footer bar is visible in the background but is not active Using the Search screen a user can search catalog data base 36 by page text description part number where the user has the further option to search by Fisher part number for example if Fisher is to be the desired vendor Vendor part number vendor name for vendors other than Fisher or bulletin Stock numbers specific to the customer can also be present in catalog database 36 and searched using the screen of Appendix VII Bulletin refers to an additional vendor publication with detailed product information that may not be included in a vendor catalog Searching for information contained in bulletins may be done by bulletin number but only if bulletins have been made a part of catalog database 36 For purposes of this disclosure bulletins when included in a catalog database are considered a type of catalog After the user has entered the field to be searched on the Search Screen the user clicks on the SEARCH box near the bottom of the Search Screen A Hit List 47 indicating all items from catalog database 36 that match the
58. tem capable of creating an order list including desired catalog items located as the result of such a database search and transferring that order list to a requisition purchasing system for generating a requisition including entries for the desired catalog items In accordance with the invention an electronic sourcing system and method used by the system are provided The system includes a computer that maintains a catalog data base of data including product information such as product identification information and descriptive information relating to catalog items available from vendor product catalogs and a means for building generating a requisition including at least one requisitioned item Information at least partially identifying an item desired to be requisitioned is entered by a user and utilized by a means for searching the database for catalog items matching that information and for selecting at least one catalog item located as a result of the search Text describing the catalog items and images of the items may be viewed Data identifying selected catalog items are communicated to the requisition building means which generates a requisition including entries for items corresponding to the selected catalog items Additionally the invention includes a means for checking the availability in one or more inventory locations of the corresponding desired catalog items and for generating one or more purchase orders for desired ite
59. tem in a first catalog a second identification code associated with a second item in a second catalog said first item and said second item 6 055 516 25 being generally equivalent and wherein a selection of one identification code from one of said first and second catalogs provides the other identification code from the other of said catalogs 10 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 9 wherein said first identification code is identical to said second identification code 11 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 9 wherein at least of one of said first and second catalogs includes said first and second identification codes 12 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 9 wherein said selection includes a comparison of said one of said first and second identification codes with a cross reference table listing both of said identification codes as being generally equivalent 13 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 9 wherein a user selects one of said first and second identifi cation codes lacks access to said catalog corresponding to said selected identification code but is given access to the other said catalog corresponding to said non selected iden tification code 14 An electronic sourcing system as recited in claim 9 wherein a user selects one of said first and second identifi cation codes and has access to both said first and second catalogs 15 An electronic sourci
60. tion up to 500 characters The Distributor purchasing employee can then either forward the information to the CSR customer end user or customer purchasing employee who requested the item to confirm that the requirement is being met or contact the supplier to confirm pricing and availability Once responses from either or both have been obtained the Distributor purchasing employee can use the item list in EASEL interface 254 to create one or more of the following purchase orders 1 an order from the customer to the supplier an Admin istrative Purchase 2 an order from the customer to Distributor for a type 07 product and 3 an order from the Distributor to the supplier usually providing for direct shipment from the supplier to the customer or to a JIT site maintained by Distributor for the customer From the foregoing description it should be apparent that the network arrangements of FIG 1B can be used to apply the present invention in a variety of contexts The context will dictate which catalog databases 236 are provided on file server 200 in the regional CSR environment Distributor s catalogs can be present with a variety of catalogs and bulletins from manufacturers that Distributor regularly rep resents and a limited selection of outside suppliers and in the Distributor purchasing environment the number of outside supplier catalogs will be increased The number of client local computers 220 and the number and siz
61. uilt up some through use of electronic sourcing system 5 as are necessary to complete the requi sition A sample of such a Requisition Management data screen 110 in which four lines have been entered identifying desired items to be requisitioned including catalog items located as a result of a catalogs search is shown in Appendix VIII The next step is that of inventory sourcing using RIMS inventory sourcing program or programs 44B in Fisher RIMS system 40 as shown in FIG 3 Inventory sourcing is the process of determining what inventory will be used to fill the requisition Pricing is also performed in this step when it is called for Inventory sourcing in Fisher RIMS system 40 is performed on both local computer 20 and host computer 10 Within Fisher RIMS system 40 a Requisition Item Table 46 as shown in Appendix VIII similar to that shown in Appendix II but including more items can be inventory sourced by pressing the key F6 from REQI program 44A represented by Requisition Management data screen 110 shown in Appendix VIII and in Appendix II Since inven tory records on JIT items type 01 and 06 are maintained in inventory database 428 lines 002 and 004 in Appendix VIII show the availability of these items in inventory 49 items available for line 002 and 0 items available for line 004 After the F6 key has been pressed host computer 10 searches its host pricing and inventory databases for avail ability of the various items
62. y in the JIT inventory that the vendor distributor maintains near local computer 20 either for the particular Customer or for a group of customers Product type 06 for the item on line 004 indicates that this item 15 available for the requisitioner employed by the Customer from inventory owned by Cus tomer s purchasing department but managed by local com puter 20 Product type 03 for the items on lines 001 and 003 indicates that these are regular Distributor items that the communication between Distributor s host computer 10 and local computer 20 determined were available in sufficient quantity at one or another of Distributor s general ware houses designated DEL and EDC in the location LOC field Product type 05 not shown in Appendix IX indicates that a requisitioned item is to be purchased by Customer directly from an outside supplier using an Admin 6 055 516 15 istrative Purchase Order that local computer 20 creates and prints or transmits for Customer The inventory sourcing process described above also determines the net prices shown in Appendix IX for each item Type 01 and type 03 items are priced by Distributor s host computer 10 searching host databases 11 which contain various formulae and tables of Distributor s pricing agree ment with the Customer Host computer 10 also prices any type 04 or type 07 item if present These prices were transmitted to local computer 20 along with the
63. y the same Fairmont catalog number that was requisitioned After the desired item has been selected from the Hit List 47 by double clicking on that item TV 2 search program 50 6 055 516 11 can be used to bring up for viewing on monitor 22 or printing on printer 26 images and text from the catalog page on which the item selected is located For example as shown in Appendix page 1106 of the Fisher catalog has been selected If the user double clicks on highlighted page 1106 the text shown in Appendix IV and related images not shown would appear on monitor 22 On the sample screen shown in Appendix IV the item that appears on page 1106 of the Fisher catalog relates to Fisher Isotemp 800 Series Programmable Ovens Conventional scroll bars appearing on the screen not shown in Appendix IV enable the user to scroll through additional catalog information text and or images not yet displayed on the screen An example of such additional textual information is depicted on the screen shown in Appendix V On the screen of Appendix V the vendor distributor s catalog number Cat No 13 246 818F is highlighted The catalog number of an item normally appears in blue in a screen such as Appendix V This blue lettering is used for catalog numbers trademarks footnotes and other entries for which database 36 contains additional information or cross references called hyperlinks When a search is conducted and the catalog segments
64. ypical data exchange may begin with requisition purchasing system 40 which in the illustrated embodiment is the Fisher RIMS system requesting information from catalog database 36 via search program 50 Once a search by search program 50 has been completed the selected infor mation will be communicated to requisition purchasing sys tem 40 via interface 60 Alternatively if the search of catalog database 36 is initiated from search program 50 the information selected from the search is returned to requisition procurement sys tem 40 via interface 60 The start up of electronic sourcing system 5 FIG 1A may be user initiated or automatically started when the operating system preferably OS 2 system 32 is brought up on local computer 20 An application name string 61 must be identified to label interface 60 As shown in FIG 1C electronic sourcing system 5 by convention will use TV2V123 TV2V124 TV2V125 etc as application names 61 supporting the user s requesting service Preferably application names 61 correspond to virtual terminal sessions that exist in the CICS system 34 of requisition purchasing system 40 There will be a one to one correspondence between applications started such as Shell 52 and CICS virtual terminals in use at a location of requisition procurement system 40 such as REQI program 44A Local computer 20 will query OS 2 operating system 32 to determine the next application name string 61 to
65. ystem 5 from Fisher RIMS system 40 Requisitioning on Fisher RIMS system 40 in context of the electronic sourcing system 5 of the present invention is illustrated in pertinent part in FIG 3 and is fully described in application Ser No 08 042 168 now U S Pat No 5 712 989 As data e g Account Number Requisition Number and Stock Numbers associated with a single requisition are entered through the various data screens on local computer 20 that computer creates a set of Requisition Tables including a Requisition Item Table 46 shown in FIG 1C for that particular requi sition The Requisition Tables are stored in Requisition databases 42A shown in FIG 1A and can be accessed by local computer 20 using the Requisition Number to find the desired table The first step in creating a requisition in Fisher RIMS system 40 involves entry by the user of information in the Order Header program 44D shown in FIG 1A which has an associated Order Header data screen 100 FIG 3 A sample of an actual Order Header data screen 100 is set forth in Appendix I The user enters an Account Number which generally causes the correct name and address associated with that Account Number to be entered into the appropriate 6 055 516 7 fields of Order Header data screen 100 The user must also enter a Requisition Number in the appropriate field of the Order Header screen 100 Various additional information may also be entered At the bottom of O

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