EP1275072A2

EP1275072A2 - Chemical sales process

Info

Publication number: EP1275072A2
Application number: EP01925063A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Ian Robert Shankland
Original assignee: Honeywell International Inc
Current assignee: Honeywell International Inc
Priority date: 2000-04-17
Filing date: 2001-04-17
Publication date: 2003-01-15
Also published as: WO2001080142A8; AU2001251661A1; WO2001080142A2

Abstract

A computerized system and a method which utilizes the system for buying and selling specialty chemicals over the Internet comprising a web site which displays a chemical drawing structure tool adapted to permit a user to draw the structural formula of a desired specialty chemical, wherein the user may send the structural formula over the Internet to the provider of the web site. The purchaser can draw the structure of a desired chemical using the tool and the seller or intermediary can receive at a server system or another workstation a request from the purchaser including a desired quantity and desired chemical structure. The chemical structure can include generic structures which do not define a particular, specific chemical, but rather define a class of chemicals. The system may include expert tools which automatically determine whether a specific chemical, or any chemical within a requested class, can be made, and can determine the cost for a requested quantity using algorithms which calculate manufacturing costs and profits.

Description

CHEMICAL SALES PROCESS

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to methods and systems for selling chemicals, particularly chemicals which can be identified more conveniently by structure than by name.

With the advent of electronic commerce, businesses are becoming more and more familiar with placing and receiving orders over the Internet or other network, e.g., an intranet when a customer has access to a vendor's intranet system. This practice is becoming known as "B2B" which stands for "business-to-business" sales over the Internet using a vendor's web site, a customer's browser, and Internet service providers.

The use of a web server computer to run a web site application which can be addressed by any client computer with Internet access and a browser such as Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer has become very well known. A vendor's web site is typically addressed by a URL which can be in the form http://www.vendorname.com, for example. The vendor web site may have a routine which requires the customer to identify itself and provide payment information and delivery information, or may have a routine wherein the customer is automatically identified by use of a "cookie" method.

In the field of B2B sales of chemicals over the Internet, the vendor may have pull down menus on its web site which list all of the chemicals offered or may have an online catalogue or database. In the case of a vendor who offers to specially make chemicals, the vendor's web site might provide a space where the customer can type the name of the chemical and request a quote from the vendor. The vendor might respond to such a request with a proposed price, terms of sale, delivery time, etc., and the buyer can then accept or counteroffer over the Internet, or use non-Internet methods of negotiation such as telephone, in person meetings, facsimile, regular mail, and the like. Due to the growing acceptance of the Internet and B2B use thereof for selling and purchasing, and the recognition of the great efficiencies afforded by such methods of doing business, many businesses prefer to do as much of their selling and purchasing over the Internet.

In the field of Internet commerce in chemicals, intermediary companies such as Chemdex have organized systems wherein a buyer can search through a database of 2,000 suppliers with one million products to find a chemical item, and the buyer can then order the chemical online over the Internet. However, with respect to the field of specialty, custom made chemicals, there are some problems which have interfered with the wide acceptance and usability of B2B. The primary problem has been that there is ambiguity in the naming of certain types of chemical compounds, and so if the prospective buyer requests a quote on one compound, the vendor may misunderstand which chemical is being referred to. Another problem is that often a customer will be interested in any of a family of compounds with a particular substructure, which is impossible to handle with pull down menu selection methods or other web commerce methods because the vendor could not possibly anticipate all possible chemical structures and substructures thereof. For example, if a customer needs RCOF, with R representing any substructure because the particular substructure is not important to the customer, there may be no name for that molecule since the substituent substructure is not specified. There is a need to provide an automated B2B method of communicating such a concept.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The aforementioned needs, and others which will become apparent from the following disclosure and drawings, are addressed by the present invention which in one aspect comprises a computerized system for buying and selling chemicals over the Internet comprising a web site having a chemical drawing structure tool adapted to permit a user to draw the structural formula of a desired specialty chemical, wherein the user may send the drawing over the Internet to the provider of the web site.

In another aspect the invention comprises a method comprising providing a web site having a chemical drawing structure tool adapted to permit a user to draw the structural formula of a desired chemical or class of chemicals and send the drawing over the Internet to the provider of the web site. The provider of the web site can be a manufacturer of specialty chemicals or an intermediary such as a broker, for example. The tool may be a chemical drawing applet using Javascript, CGI, or other languages, or may be another type of mini- program which loads quickly when a web site is addressed by a browser over the Internet, and preferably can be used for drawing, viewing, and rotating chemicals in both two and three dimensions. The calls can be preferably can be triggered by button presses and checkbox state changes.

In some embodiments the drawn structural formula is automatically compared with structures in a provider database, and the provider's web site automatically indicates to the user the availability of a desired chemical which matches a structure in the database. In some embodiments the user is permitted to enter information pertaining to the amount of the desired chemical or class of chemicals the user wishes to purchase and the desired delivery date, and to send the drawing and the information over the Internet to the provider of the web site, and the provider, i.e., the broker or manufacturer, may have an expert system to calculate the cost to custom manufacture the desired chemical or one within the generic formula, and to automatically quote a cost and delivery date over the web site to the customer, which will constitute an offer to the customer.

We have found the invention to be especially useful with fluorochemicals because there are so many types and frequently a purchaser is interested in any available one having a particular generic structure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block flow diagram of a method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a system architecture of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention provides a method and system for effecting an order of a chemical in a client/server environment such as the Internet. The method and system of the invention reduces the risk of error in the identification of a chemical in such environment, and allows for a more efficient sale transaction between a customer and a vendor of chemicals than heretofore available. The method and system of the invention permits a customer to request a chemical or class of chemical by drawing the chemical structure or the class structure using a chemical drawing tool on a vendor's web site, allowing the vendor to avoid any misunderstandings as to exactly what chemical is being requested since the chemical structure is a better way of identifying a chemical than a name.

The present invention also allows the vendor to automatically determine whether the requested chemical is in stock, whether the chemical may be synthesized if not in stock, and to determine a price which is derived from a calculated cost to synthesize the chemical plus a predetermined profit margin. The invention may also be used to quote price and terms for a chemical which has never been previously synthesized by the vendor, and even for a chemical which is novel.

The client is generally a customer workstation which is running a browser program and is connected to the Internet. The server is generally a web server computer which is programmed to deliver a web page containing a chemical drawing tool when accessed over the Internet by a customer client and to receive a request for quotation f om a customer which includes a chemical structure drawn with the tool. The tool can be, for example, a chemical drawing applet comprising CGI or JavaScript calls triggered by button presses and checkbox state changes. One particularly suitable tool is Jchem which is written in Java and can be easily incorporated into a web site. Jchem can work with Marvin Java applets and Java beans for drawing and viewing structures, and has modules for substructure and similarity searching and data manipulation. Database engines such as Oracle, MySQL, MSSQL Server, Access, and the like can be used to store chemical structures and other data which can be handled together, including tables which can be joined. SQL statements can be used to access structural data in the preferred system. The tool can be used for structure search and data manipulation with Java servlets and scripts which access Java, such as Java Server Pages, and can be built into legacy databases in cases where the seller has a large inventory of structures prior to implementation of the system of the invention.

In operation, the user enters a structure into the tool using a web browser which has called up the sellers URL. The system searches in a table containing structures and creates a list containing identification numbers of found structures, or if none are found, can invoke the custom designed chemical script which uses algorithms designed to determine cost of manufacture, capacity to manufacture, and to quote a selling price and delivery date to the customer-user who has requested the chemical.

The drawn structural formula can be automatically compared with structures in a vendor database, and the server can be programmed to automatically indicate to the client (customer) the availability of the desired chemical if it matches a structure in a database on the vendor's server. The server can also be programmed to automatically determine whether the chemical can be synthesized if it is not in stock, or even if the chemical is not in the database. This latter feature is best accomplished with a so-called expert system in which a synthesis route to make the new structure can be computed, costs of the raw materials and processing steps can also be computed, equipment required and availability of that equipment can be computed, and thus a decision made as to whether to offer the customer the chemical, a delivery time, and a price. All of these factors can be included in the server's response to the client, and the customer can then accept or reject the offer contained in the response.

Referring now to FIG. 1, an embodiment is illustrated wherein a user enters 10 a seller web site by entering a URL in a browser, and the seller web site is sent via

HTML to the user's browser, containing a drawing tool Java script 11. The user enters 12 an identification and password, a structural formula of a chemical or a class of chemicals, quantity requested, delivery date, and clicks OK, generating 13 an SQL inquiry which is used in the seller computer to compare 14 the requested structure to structures in a database. If the structure is found, the seller computer returns 17 a price, delivery terms to user as an offer to sell, and the user may click 18 to accept the offer and purchase the chemical. If the structure is not found 15, the host computer returns the most similar structures and uses an expert system to analyze and determine capability to manufacture the chemical having the structure, or any species within a requested generic structural formula. The seller computer offers 16 the user to manufacture the compound not found in the database of available structures, quotes price and delivery terms as in 17 and the user can click to accept as in 18.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the seller server or host computer contains a database 19 of structures, a commerce system 20 which generates HTML web pages, processes orders, processes payments, and billing systems. Such commerce servers are common in B2B systems which are employed to sell goods and services over the Internet. The system architecture also comprises an expert system 21 which determines capability and cost to manufacture structures not found in the database 19, and/or structures within a requested generic formula in cases where the user has entered a generic request.

Whereas the invention and preferred embodiments have been described in detail herein, various modifications, alterations, other embodiments, and improvements should become apparent to those skilled in this art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A computerized system for buying and selling chemicals over the Internet comprising a web site having a chemical drawing structure tool adapted to permit a user to draw the structural formula of a desired chemical or class of chemicals, wherein the user may send the drawing over the Internet to the provider of the web site.

2. System according to claim 1 wherein the provider of the web site is a manufacturer of specialty chemicals.

3. System according to claim 1 wherein the chemical drawing applet is a software program useful for drawing, viewing, and rotating chemicals in at least two dimensions.

4. System according to claim 1 wherein the chemical drawing applet comprises CGI or JavaScript calls triggered by button presses and checkbox state changes.

5. System according to claim 1 wherein the drawn structural formula is automatically converted into a molecular description record and then compared with molecular description records corresponding to structures in a provider database, and the provider's web site automatically indicates to the user the availability of a desired chemical which matches a record in the database.

6. System according to claim 1 wherein the specialty chemical is a fluorochemical.

7. System according to claim 1 wherein the user is permitted to enter information pertaining to the amount of the desired chemical or class of chemicals and desired purity which the user wishes to purchase and the desired delivery date, and to send the drawing and the information over the Internet to the provider of the web site.

8. A method comprising providing a web site having a chemical drawing structure tool adapted to permit a user to draw the structural formula of a desired chemical or class of chemicals and send the drawing over the Internet to the provider of the web site.

9. Method of claim 8 wherein the tool is a software program useful for drawing, viewing, and rotating chemicals in both two and three dimensions.

10. Method of claim 8 wherein the tool comprises CGI or JavaScript calls triggered by button presses and checkbox state changes.

11. Method of claim 8 wherein the drawn structural formula is automatically compared with structures in a provider database, and the provider's web site automatically indicates to the user the availability of a desired chemical which matches a structure in the database.

12. Method of claim 8 wherein the chemical is a fluorochemical.

13. Method of claim 8 wherein the user enters the amount of the desired specialty chemical and desired delivery date and the web server automatically calculates the availability and price and accepts the order.

14. A method for buying and selling chemicals comprising: displaying on a vendor web site a chemical drawing structure tool which may be used by a customer at a client workstation to draw the structure of a desired chemical;

receiving at a server system a request from a customer including a desired quantity and desired chemical structure drawn with the tool.

15. Method of claim 14 wherein the server system identifies the requested chemical, determines price for the quantity requested, sends an offer to the customer client system, and receives an acceptance from the customer client system, and processes accepted orders.

16. Method of claim 14 wherein the client workstation and the vendor server system communicate via the Internet.