GB2354846A - Communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

A system for communicating information between would be receivers and would be suppliers of information is envisaged as being particularly useful for communicating "Requests for Quotation" (RFQs) and "Quotes in Response" (QIRs) between sales and purchasing departments of companies. It enables all purchasing companies to submit a single RFQ to an appropriate place in a virtual space produced by networked computer systems employing distributed databases, a directory structure (Figure 1) and an appropriate administration system. This virtual space is accessible by any registered potential suppliers who are allowed to access RFQs if they are approved so to do by the purchasing company submitting the RFQ.

Description

2354846 TITLE: COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a communications system, in particular lo a system usable to enable transfer of information. While in general this system can be used for many different kinds of information the particular features and advantages of the system are described with reference to one specific type of information. This specificity does not in any way represent the limit of the invention which can easily be extended to other types of information.

At the present time potential purchaser's of goods or services will often seek from potential suppliers of those goods and services quotations for the cost of so supplying.

The cost to purchasing bodies, be they companies, government agencies, 20 or even private individuals of obtaining a sufficient range of quotations to enable them to make a sound commercial decision on which supplier to purchase these goods and services from, via facsimile or postal service, is considerable. Likewise the cost to supplier companies of maintaining outlets, providing directories and maintaining a sales-force to promote their own particular product lines is also considerable.

0 Page 2 With the advent of the world wide web (WWW) suppliers of goods and services have set up pages which are accessible by potential purchasers of the goods and/or services on offer.

This is a use of the Internet as a communications system to promote goods and services and attract requests for quotation or RFQ in the traditional manner. It is of limited appeal to would be purchasers as they similarly have to seek out goods and services and submit RFQs to potential suppliers as before and so has little to offer over traditional directory and directory searches.

As an aid to understanding the novelty of the present invention the prior art and its relationship to this specification is discussed in the appendix.

It is one object of the present invention to provide a communications system enabling potential purchasers of goods or services to seek a quotation or other information from one or more producers of such goods or services and to enable the producers thereafter to reply with a quotation or other information relating to the provision of those goods or services.

In accordance with one aspect the invention provides a communications system including means enabling potential purchasers of goods or services to present a specification of what they require to a number of producers of such goods and services and thereafter enabling the producers to quote for the provision of those goods or services.

The system may include means allowing the potential purchaser to determine the number of quotations he wishes to receive.

The system may include means which restricts the number of producers which are asked to quote for the supply of goods or services by a particular purchaser.

0 Page 3 The means enabling restriction of the number of suppliers may be responsive to the size, quality assurance or some other feature of the potential suppliers.

The means enabling restriction of the number of suppliers may be responsive to the potential purchaser's desires.

The restriction enabling means may be responsive to a number of the above noted categories.

Details of the potential suppliers are desirably held in various databases across the Internet. These details include the above noted information about lo the supplier that will either allow or prevent any given supplier to access and respond to specifications of goods and services submitted into related databases by potential purchasers.

The system also provides potential purchasers with the facility for the direct communication of his specification for the goods or services required to potential suppliers via email.

The communication system is described as being used for the effective communication of RFQs, requests for information (RFIs) and quotes in response (QlRs). This particular use should not be taken as a limitation to its use. The communications system may be adapted for many different uses where the primary goal for a would-be receiver of information is to alert desirable potential suppliers of this information to his requirements. For example the system's use can be extended to house purchasing and tourist information in a quite straightforward manner. It is only necessary to amend the directory structures and restriction categories described below to produce such alternative functions.

In embodiments, the communications system may comprise a plurality of Page 4 computer systems each having a central processor, memory, input means and output means, at least one of the computer systems being a purchaser's computer system for initiating requests for quotations and a plurality of the computer systems being supplier computer systems for providing quotations and a network connecting the computer systems.

The general hardware and implementation features of the communications system as applied to sales and purchasing between companies, agencies and individuals include one or more 'RFQ' Internet "web-sites" which host RFQ web-servers,, an RFQ common gateway interface (CGI), and RFQ distributed i o databases. These are linked in that the CGI program language communicates directly to the RFQ database server.

The databases contain the description of a hierarchical directory structure that is used to contain RFQs submitted by purchasers. From the point of view of suppliers this results in an easy way of locating RFQs in the supplier's domains of interest and in effect filters out RFQs which are of no interest to the supplier. The databases also contains the RFQs themselves and any associated selection criteria applied by the purchaser to filter out less desirable potential suppliers to whatever degree he wishes.

In general any would be purchaser might wish to apply the selection criteria to some of his RFQs and not to others. The communication system allows him to assign whatever selection criteria he desires to different groups of RFQs, each group containing a purchaser defined number of allowed QIRs.

Thus the purchaser is able to restrict the number of QIRs received from potential suppliers in various selection categories.

Any RFQs placed under the RFQ Links system have a header abstract that is visible to approved and registered suppliers who choose to browse the Page 5 directory section in which it is contained. The header may contain information such as the purchasing company's name and address, a brief description of the item(s) or services requested in the RFQ, any qualification categories, the number of quotes requested by category and the number of

Q1Rs and reservations to QIR currently submitted under each category. The header is updated by the communications system when changes occur to the information displayed and can be refreshed by a user as he searches through the directory structure. Some company details such as name and/or address may be omitted should the purchasing company so desire.

The selection criteria of purchasing companies are implemented via the use of selection categories based on an "Open Quote System" and "Restricted Quote System" which are described as follows:

RFQs placed in an "unqualified open RFQ" category are open to all registered suppliers. Any registered potential supplier who wishes to browse this category can quote to an RFQ presented here. This category is of particular interest to purchasers who wish to consider quotes from any supplier without qualification (hence "unqualified7') even if this is not generally their policy. The purchasing company, individual or agency etc. can "Trawl the WEBB" just to see what is out there and use price and delivery information to adjust policy.

This category is also of special interest to design and development engineers who are often intimately involved in the purchasing cycle. An RFQ need not necessarily be to a fully firmed up specification. Instead the RFQ may take the form of an RFI or "Request For Specification" (RFS) in which a design or development engineer places a fimctional requirement document on the WEBB for a supplier with access to expertise in the relevant field to reply

0 Page 6 to. In practice any reply may not necessarily reveal the full specification of the product to be supplied to fulfil the requirement but may amount to a quote with useful subsidiary information. In this way a potential supplier prevents the ideas being taken without the product and forms a first contact, which will hopefully lead on to future sales.

RFQs in "qualified open" categories are also visible to all would be suppliers. They are differentiated from the unqualified category however by a purchaser's stipulation as to the kind of suppliers from which RFQs will be considered. It is anticipated that most usually these restrictions will also be lo placed in the RFQ header information. Typically qualifications might be those of acceptable quality registration such as ISO 9000 series, FDA registration, exclusions from a particular country, company or geographical restraints. Qualification categories are decided by the purchaser and may also supplement RFQs placed in the restricted quote categories described below, In all other respects the qualified open RFQ is identical to the unqualified open RFQ and similar arguments apply as to the uses to which this category might be applied. The category allows a high degree of coarse filtering for those companies wishing to spread their nets wide and still restrict quotes to their desired supplier qualifications.

The qualified open category may eventually be implemented under the restricted quote system so as to automate the process of filtering out RFQ headers from potential suppliers who are unable to quote through lack of a customer's desired qualifications.

While the headers may or may not be visible to all users of the system, the fall details of any RFQ placed under the "restricted quote syste&' are inaccessible to suppliers ineligible to QIR to a given RFQ via a restricted Page 7 category. They may of course be able to QIR to the same RFQ via an unrestricted category. Only suppliers contained on databases selected by the purchaser will be able to examine an RFQ's full details and submit QIRs to restricted category RFQs. The visibility of header information may be restricted by a user submitting an RFQ so that potential suppliers ineligible to quote at any one time are unable to see any header information related to the RFQ in question. Alternatively information on the current state of each restriction category may also be suppressed. A potential supplier might also set up database options to prevent his screen being cluttered by RFQ headers lo to which he is ineligible to QIR to. Access to information is performed by the administrative side of the communications system referred to as the "system administration" below.

The three fundamental types of restricted RFQs are described:

The world may be roughly divided into two trading blocks: the American and the Eurasian blocks. It is to be noted that the majority of trade takes place within each of these blocks. Further within each block a majority of trade is conducted between approximately 5000 of the largest companies within each block. It is proposed that under the "core database restricted quote system" one or more core databases be prepared to reflect the typical purchasing practices of these large companies. By selecting companies from the Eurasian and North American Business directories using the criteria of size, turnover, quality registration etc. a number of core databases will be built up and will be used to limit the accessibility to RFQs to suppliers. Only suppliers identified in a core database selected by a purchaser for any particular RFQ would be able to access the RFQ information. Ultimately many other criteria such as trading standards, government preferred defence suppliers or ethical policies Page 8 may be used to construct a series of core databases for the general use of registered system purchasers.

It is anticipated that many of the core databases will be developed and maintained by established directory providers who will eam revenues from the 5 use of these databases by potential suppliers.

The second restricted quote system is one which applies a registered purchaser's own database to filtering potential suppliers. Again only suppliers on this database will be able to view RFQs stored in the directory structures. Very often a purchasing client's database will represent a modification of the lo core databases with a few dozen or hundred additions or subtractions to some of the core database lists which may simplify the construction of such databases.

The communication system described so far enables any would be supplier to QIR to any RFQ that he is able to access. It is often the case that a purchaser specifically desires a particular supplier to submit a QIR to an RFQ which his sales staff may not, for whatever reason, accessed through the directory structures. The system provides that these likely registered suppliers receive the RFQ via direct email.

Access to RFQs by suppliers is limited so they are able to quote only once and at their highest level of restriction. For example a registered supplier receiving email direct may not be able to access the RFQ through the directory structure. Similarly any supplier able to QIR to an RFQ because he is on the purchaser's own database and who is also present on a "core" database from which the purchaser has also requested a number of RFQs will have any QIR submitted deemed to have been made at the level of the purchaser's own database. The level of cateizory restriction is in ascending order of restriction:

0 Page 9 open unqualified, open qualified, restricted core database(s), purchaser's own database, email direct. The number of QIRs received in each RFQ restriction category except the "Supplier Direct' 'category will be counted by the system until the number of QIRs requested is reached whereupon the RFQ will no 5 longer be accessible in that category. Any supplier who has quoted to a given RFQ or received "Supplier Direct" email will be unable to submit further QIRs to the same RFQ. Purchasers are able to request any number of QIRs to each RFQ in any or all categories whether open or restricted.

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the invention will lo become apparent from the following description of an embodiment of the invention made with reference to the single figure of accompanying drawing which illustrates the main features of the communications system and the way that it may be used by potential users.

Referring to the accompanying figure (fig. 1). The drawing represents a number of linked pages of the user interface. It should be understood as an aid to describing the systems functionality rather than as representing the totality of the system. The system is not restricted to using the layout illustrated or restricted to the number of pages, links or organisation shown.

In general a user of the system (a potential purchaser or supplier of goods or services) is presented with a number of WEB pages which he navigates between using combinations of forward and backward link buttons and search engines which act on data entered by the user in search windows. The pages typically consist of administration pages and directory pages that are used to display information about RFQs currently accessible by users of the system.

Pagel 0 Page 1 is the home page of the system and it presents a potential purchaser or supplier of goods or services with a welcome message and a brief explanation of the system.

It is provided with a series of buttons upon which a user may click with a pointing device. On clicking one button a user is presented with an appropriate listing of the advantages of the system to purchasers (page 13). Similarly on clicking a second button the user is presented with an appropriate listing of the advantages of the system to suppliers (page 14).

Clicking a third button presents the user with a brief explanation on the lo working of the system (page 15). For example it is explained how a Purchaser may enter an RFQ in the various restriction categories, including direct email, thus accessing different categories of suppliers and numbers of suppliers in each category. It is also explained how a potential supplier can use the directory structure and search engines to access RFQs and use submission forms to submit QHZs. Other buttons give access to pages giving the answers to questions commonly asked by purchasers and suppliers. Feedback pages are also available for system users to email their comments and ideas to the system operators (page 16).

The page also contains a browse button giving access to directory pages and a registration button giving access to a registration page for new users of the system.

Page 2 is the initial directory page. In effect it represents one of a number of possible initial directory pages presenting to the user a hierarchical breakdown of product groupings as might be obtained from standard business directories. These pages link into a succession of general directory pages as exemplified by page 3.

0 Pagel 1 These initial pages contain a "Submif 'button so that a supplier who has reserved the right to quote to an RFQ on an earlier occasion may access the QIR submission page and submit a prepared quote.

A search box allows the user to use an in-built search engine to find pages containing headers with desired RFQ subjects therein or directory pages dealing with a desired product or product grouping.

Page 3 represents a single example of one of a whole hierarchy of directory pages. In practice pages that link into a page containing RFQ headers like the one shown may only be reached after several links have been lo traversed from the upper directory structure. Pages at higher levels in the directory structure may or may not contain links to RFQ header pages. At higher levels in the directory hierarchy, linked RFQ header pages are more likely to represent invitations to tender for major contracts in areas represented by the directory page product descriptions which will typically be more general at such higher levels.

As do all "page 3" type directory pages, the page shown contains a QIR submit button, a back link button and a search engine entry box and button. Each page 3 (except the lowest) contains a link to lower directory pages.

Page 4 principally displays a listing of RFQ headers, each of which contain limited information about a particular RFQ and its status. It also includes a submission button linking to the QIR submission page and a password window (which may be located elsewhere in the directory structure) in which a supplier enters a password should he wish to submit a QIR or examine any accessible RFQ beyond the header stage. Once a password is entered system administration traces the progress of a registered user through 0 Page 12 the various pages so there is no need to enter the password ftirther during any period for which the user is logged on to the system.

The page contains a title derived from the label of the last catalogue page button to be clicked and is able to be refreshed, i.e. updated, by means of a user key or mouse click.

To examine in full detail any particular RFQ accessible by him the user links to a full text RFQ page (page 9), by a mouse click or other appropriate means. If the RFQ is accessible the system administration simultaneously places a quote reservation on the relevant RFQ record's reservation lists along lo with a time stamp and the potential supplier's identification number. It also sends out a header change message to header infonnation files that are mirrored across the Internet. The RFQ records are amended to include the reservation in the highest restriction category to which the supplier belongs as discussed above. The system administration uses semaphores or flags to prevent the reservation and QIR totals in any restriction category exceeding the number allotted by the purchaser in that category. This may sometimes result in a potential supplier being locked out if the current state of the RFQ records is in advance of the inforr-nation presented on the header. Every time the system administration updates its record of a particular RFQ it sends out header change messages to participating sites across the Internet.

If a supplier is locked out by system administration on the basis that his highest supplier restriction category total is fully subscribed by QIR and/or reservation, system administration may allow access as a member of a lower supplier restriction category. For example: the case where a potential supplier is locked out of access to an RFQ's full details in a restricted access category. The supplier may gain access to the RFQ's full details via qualified open or Page 13 unqualified open categories, provided that the RFQ is accessible via these categories and that they are not fully subscribed by QIR and/or reservation also. Header information remains visible on any header pages accessible by a user until the individual underlying header record shows that the full complement of QIRs requested by the purchaser in all restriction categories to which the user is able to QIR have been submitted. This visibility allows potential suppliers to have their identification numbers placed on a back-up list as described below.

Any particular RFQs master records are generally kept at a single site. lo Header information is abstracted from these master records and may be duplicated at sites across the Internet. At any instant in time not all copies of headers will be identical as the most up to date header records are updated by means of record change messages distributed by the site maintaining the master RFQ records. Record change messages take finite times to reach all sites maintaining mirrored header records. For this reason it may be that a request for reservation made by a potential supplier would be locked out by system administration if the total number of QIRs plus reservations allowed had been received in the restriction categories available to the potential supplier. In this case the system adds the identification number of the potential supplier with a time stamp to a priority ordered list (the "back-up lisf') maintained in the relevant RFQ database. This action may also be performed for the case in which a potential supplier attempts to access a visible header that is fully subscribed for the supplier's otherwise accessible restriction categories. The purpose of the back-up list is to give potential suppliers a chance to submit quotations should any RFQ reservations be relinquished at a later date. The list is ordered by time giving the earliest Page 14 received access attempt priority for the receipt of RFQ information. The list will hold a maximum number of back-up suppliers wishing to access RFQs. If this maximum number is reached the header will be withdrawn. If the backup list drops below this maximum number the header will be re- posted.

Potential suppliers details are removed from the back-up list only if they are sent a full RFQ text or if the requested number of QIRS is received and the RFQ is removed from the system, in which case the list is destroyed.

If an RFQ reservation is relinquished system administration inspects the back-up list and obtains the identification number of the first supplier on the lo list allowed to QIR by his restriction category. The full details of the RFQ are forwarded to this supplier. If such a potential supplier does not exist on the list then header records are amended via header change messages and sent to sites holding mirrored header records. This re-opens direct access to suppliers able to access the highest restriction categories held by the supplier that relinquished the RFQ.

The site holding individual RFQ records can be the customer's own site. This enables the customer to check which companies are attempting to access their full text RFQs directly.

Any header for an RFQ which is currently locked out in any restriction category due to its current total of QIRs and reservations in that category reaching the purchaser's requested total should carry a colour or graphical texture coded indication of its status in that category. Similarly coding should be used for RFQ header restriction categories fully subscribed with QIRs.

Page 5 represents the RFQ submission page. It can be accessed by any registered user of the RFQ Links communications system from any directory page or via a combination key press at the user's terminal. To add an RFQ a 0 Page 15 potential purchaser enters his password (if he is not already being traced through the system after entering his password earlier) and enters details of the RFQ into a window. Details can be added by direct text entry, by cut and paste from other applications or by attachments from other applications such 5 as industry standard word processors and drawing packages.

In addition to details of the RFQ the potential purchaser must also enter details to enable the administration of the RFQ, some of which appears in the header information. He must enter the number of QIRs desired in each restriction category and the reservation period for which a registered user may lo reserve the right to quote. If direct email to preferred suppliers is required he must enter their email addresses. He must enter any qualifications to appear in header information and information about his company he wishes to present on the RFQ and/or RFQ header.

When submitted to its WEB site, System Administration sets up the relevant records to associate with the RFQ details and distributes RFQ header information to participating sites across the Internet. An information page (page 6) is generated detailing the transaction with a unique identification number, time, date and any charge information. This is emailed to the user that submitted the RFQ for his records. 20 In the event of an RFQ being withdrawn at a later date by a registered user the unique identification number is entered on the withdrawal section of an RFQ submission page with a marked check box indicating that withdrawal of the RFQ has been requested by a user. Upon receipt of an RFQ withdrawal message, System Administration sends an information form (page 6) 25 containing details of the withdrawal for the user's records. The RFQ and its associated records and headers are deleted from appropriate Intemet sites. The Page 16 withdrawal may in practice be implemented separately or as a sub-page of the RFQ submission page (page 5).

Page 7, is a registration form which enables a casual browser of the RFQ links system to be registered and thereafter gain access to full text RFQs and have the right to submit QIRs and RFQs of his own. It can be accessed from the home page and other appropriate pages.

The form contains fields for the entry of company information and his facsimile, telephone and email addresses, qualification categories, setup information, requests to be placed in particular restriction databases and other lo information such as his preferred method of billing etc.

An information form (page 8) is emailed to him by systems administration, upon successful registration or detailing any errors in his entry that have prevented successful registration.

Registered user information is stored in databases along with unique identification numbers by Systems administration for use in operation. The database is also used to reflect the RFQ access restriction status of the registered user.

Registered user information may also be used to build up databases of preferred suppliers for individual companies.

Page 9 gives full access to all text and drawings of an RFQ that may be included as emailed attachments in various standard electronic document formats. When accessed via directory pages the identification number of the registered supplier is stored with a time stamp on a reservation liston the site containing the full RFQ records. Only one entry on the reservation list is allowed per registered user identification number. In effect this list is used to 0 Page 17 filter full RFQ detail requests so they cannot again be sent to suppliers who have already received this information.

The page contains a reservation button which when pressed allows the registered user to reserve the right to quote to the RFQ detailed on page 9 for a period decided by the potential purchaser who submitted the RFQ. This period is generally longer than the temporary reservation period, currently estimated at 1-3 hours, allocated by the system when a potential supplier accesses full RFQ details.

The site maintaining the full RFQ records advises the potential supplier lo of his reservation status on an emailed form (page 11). If the reservation request is received within the temporary reservation time the Bann contains RFQ header information, including the RFQ identification number and the reservation period. A reservation number is included which the supplier must enter when he submits a QIR or relinquishes the right to submit a QIR at a later date. If the request for reservation was not received within the temporary reservation period the form is emailed to the supplier detailing the rejected request.

If the reservation is accepted by the site maintaining the RFQ records the system will record the allowed time period in that particular RFQ's reservation list along with the supplier identification number and a time stamp recording the time the request was received.

System administration maintains the reservation lists and deletes any temporary identification numbers from the lists when they time out. Should a QIR not be received by the site holding the RFQ records within the allowed reservation period the entry is deleted and a form detailing its removal is emailed to the supplier who has failed to QIR (not shown on figure 1). Details Pagel 8 of the supplier who has failed to QIR may be forwarded to the user that submitted the RFQ for his records or should he choose to contact them directly and allow them more time. If a QIR is received by system administration within the reservation period the suppliers' entry in the reservation list is made permanent for the duration of the individual RFQ's record. Every time a relevant change is made to the reservation lists, Systems administration sends out header change messages to the Internet.

Page 10 is used to submit Q1Rs and can be accessed from many directory pages. It functions in a similar fashion to page 5, the RFQ lo submissions page, with a user able to enter direct text, attach standard electronic format documents or cut and paste. The page contains a box for entering the reservation identification number. This must be done if the page is not accessed directly from the RFQ full text page (page 9) which will generally be the case. This number is needed by Systems administration to identify the RFQ and the supplier. In practice it may simply be a combination of the RFQ identification number and the supplier's identification number.

After submission the system confirms acceptance or otherwise of the QIR (page 12) along with details of the RFQ to the potential supplier. In the event of the potential supplier relinquishing the right to QIR to an RFQ the form retums details of this along with RFQ details and relevant time stamps. The QIR is forwarded to the user that submitted the RFQ.

After submission Systems administration updates the reservation lists. In the event of a QIR being submitted on a temporary reservation (i.e. quickly) the list is updated as though a reservation has been made i.e. with the reservation being made perinanent.

0 Page 19 Pages 13, 14 and 15 represent a number of pages giving to potential users of the system details of how the system works, how to register and pages on which to email their comments and suggestions to the system operators.

They are accessed as described above from the home page (page 1).

It is envisaged that the supplier's identification number will contain a sub field to provide for a number of separately identifiable users of the system generally working for the same company.

It is envisaged that operating charges will be made to registered users of the system. These are likely to be on the basis of RFQ and QIR submissions lo (or QIR reservations) made. Penalty charges may be levied on requested reservations that are neither submitted as QIRs nor relinquished.

It.is envisaged that users will have the option of requesting that some data be sent via email rather than by direct interaction via the WEB pages so that at times when the Internet is at peak load operations will be speeded up (e.g. RFQ full details, transaction forms).

It will be appreciated that various modifications may be made to the arrangement described above without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Page 20 Appendix A computer networked purchasing system is described in International Publication Number: WO 97/31322.

This document describes a computer based communications system in which RFQs are broadcast from would be purchasers to potential suppliers of goods and services via a series of pre-arranged filters. On page 5 the inventor states: "However the goods and services must be standard items to ensure lo there is no confusion as to what buyers are requesting and what sellers are offering to buyers". This limitation arises because there is no active human participation in the filtering process and the filtering is applied in part to the goods and services themselves.

The communication system proposed herein facilitates communication between suppliers and purchasers of any form of good or service. Filtering is not applied directly to the goods and software does not decide which potential supplier of any "standard goods or services" will receive a particular RFQ.

Instead filters are set up by potential purchasers with each RFQ they submit and the filters act only to restrict access to suppliers or categories of supplier deemed suitable by the would be purchaser of goods and services. The filters can restrict access to a purchaser's own approved suppliers lists or even third party supplied lists which is not a feature of the prior art.

The communications system proposed herein requires active human participation on the part of suppliers in deciding which RFQs to respond to on 0 Page 21 an individual basis. In effect permitted suppliers dynamically filter out the RFQs they are most able to respond to rather than software acting on predefined lists of standard goods, standard services and suppliers as is described in the prior art.

The form of exchange facilitated by the novel proposed communications system can be described as "Inverse Communication7'. When used in a business context the paradigm is one in which instead of purchasers going to supplier's shops or catalogues the suppliers of goods or lo services go to one particular place to find all their potential customers. This form of behaviour is not possible in real space but is possible in virtual space.

The directory structure is the interface between users and the virtual space of the communications system. Because the dynamic filtering of RFQs performed by human users is not a feature of the prior art the proposed directory structure is novel.

The communications system described herein is aimed at facilitating dynamic user filtering of RFQs so that objects such as header abstracts, the back up lists and many features of the administration of the communications system are not represented in the prior art. These features are novel to the communications system described in this specification.

Page 22

Claims (1)

1. A novel communications system using a network of computer systems made up of members being both suppliers and requestors of information and described herein by reference to the example of the request and supply of purchasing information.

   2) The communications system is one in which the usual information seeking process is inverted enabling suppliers of information to locate all the seekers to which they are allowed to supply information in a single virtual space location 3) The implementation of a system of restriction categories whereby the requestor of information may restrict access to the "Request For Information" (RFI) to persons or companies fulfilling restriction criteria decided on an individual "RFI" basis by the requestor.

   4) The implementation of several restriction categories with incremental levels of restriction into each of which a requestor may place any numbers of requests for information.

   5) The employment of databases to hold restriction classification information on many participating users of the communications system.

   6) The employment of unrestricted and partially restricted access categories to allow otherwise excluded suppliers of inforination potential access to the communications system.

   7) A directory structure, reflecting the breakdown of the categories of information to be supplied which enables receivers of inforrnation to place RFIs in a place they deem most representative of the nature of the information Page 23 they are requesting. and also enables potential suppliers of the information to easily locate the RFI.

   8) An administration system that underlies and facilitates the operation of the communications system by means and mechanisms described in the description.

   9) The means and mechanisms of claim (8) include the request headers of the description which mirror RFI abstracts and system status information around the internet.

   10) The means and mechanisms of claim (8) include the "Back-up List" which enables full details of an RFI to be communicated to a desired would be supplier in the event of an earlier reservation to supply information being relinquished by another would be supplier either deliberately or by default.

   11) A communications system substantially as herein described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.