JP2002092353A - System and method for electronic estimation, and recording medium with the method recorded on it - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make specifiable the conditions of estimation in a free form using the best of an advantage of XML, without using a request form for the conditions of the estimation. SOLUTION: If a buyer side enterprise 3 presents a request for estimation 5 to a virtual market 2, it is distributed to a seller side enterprise 4. If a single or plural seller side enterprises 4 who have received the request for estimation 5 make estimated information 6 in compliance with the conditions written in the request for estimation 5 and present it to the virtual market 2, it is distributed to the buyer side enterprise 3. Exchanges of the information on the virtual market 2 is described by a XML form by using a data exchange format 7 forming data of a format determined in advance. In the format of this XML file, only a fixed part of information is defined by the data exchange format 7. Thereby, the buyer side enterprise 3 can obtain the estimated information 6 from many seller side enterprises in a short time by describing desired conditions of the estimation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic estimating system and method for estimating materials and the like using a computer network, and more particularly, to an electronic estimating system using a computer system using the Internet and XML (eXtensible Markup Language). And how to do it.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the use of the Internet in a business-to-business system has been increasing, and the Internet has begun to be widely used for ordering materials and the like. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-506290 discloses a computerized system that connects a buyer who makes an estimate request for goods and services and a seller who processes the request via a network, and which can determine the conditions for establishing and selling by computer processing. An estimation system is disclosed. According to this technique, when estimating a price, an Internet site request form is used, and conditions of the quoted product are specified by selecting an option displayed in the request form. In other words, only the displayed options can be specified within the range that can be specified in the request form. Therefore, it is possible to provide an extremely useful estimating means between network members whose contents, estimation conditions, and the like of products to be bought and sold are predetermined.

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional system for estimating a material order using the Internet, only conditions can be specified in a fixed format. Therefore, a large number of exchanges are usually required between a buyer company and a seller company before a buyer finds a product with various configurations desired by the buyer. Also, if you want to get quotes from multiple companies, you need to use a system for each company to request a quote, and you must request a quote in a different format.
As a result, there is a problem that it takes a lot of time to submit an estimate request. In addition, the above-mentioned conventional technology uses HTML.
Since (Hyper Text Markup Language) is used, tags cannot be described freely. Therefore, there is a problem that a lot of definitions have to be made in advance in the format of an estimate request.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a purpose of the present invention is to specify an estimation condition in a free format taking advantage of XML without using a request form for the estimation condition. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic quotation system and method using such a computer system. That is, by freely describing the tag using XML, and by giving meaning to the data itself, it is possible to define only the minimum part of the format of the quote request and to specify the quote condition in a free format. Is to do so.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an electronic quotation system of the present invention has a buyer-side company and a seller-side company on the Internet. In an electronic quotation system for estimating goods or services between a company and a seller company, a virtual market for exchanging quote information between a buyer company and a seller company is constructed on the Internet. As quote information exchanged in the market, an XML file described in an XML format is used, and a buyer company and a seller company perform estimation using a data exchange format based on an XML file.

That is, according to the electronic quotation system of the present invention, quote information exchanged between a buyer company and a seller company uses not XML but XML in which tags can be described freely. . Therefore, the data of the exchanged quotation information can have meaning.
As described above, the electronic quotation system of the present invention makes use of the advantage of XML so as to define only the minimum part of the format of the quotation request, and can freely describe various quotation conditions desired by the buyer company and the seller company. It is characterized by doing so. Thus, the process from ordering an estimate to obtaining a response can be performed in a short time and at low cost.

[0007] In the electronic quotation system of the present invention, in the above invention, the quotation information described in the XML file includes, in advance, fixed quotation information defined in the data conversion format, The seller company
Each of them comprises variable quotation information arbitrarily describing desired conditions, and the buyer company and the seller company describe variable quotation information in an XML file and execute estimation of desired conditions. It is characterized by.

[0008] That is, according to the electronic quotation system of the present invention, a buyer company and a seller company can estimate by describing free quotation conditions in an XML file. In this way, by issuing a quote request that describes complex conditions of various patterns in a free format, it is possible to obtain a lot of quote information that meets the conditions with a single quote, It is possible to reduce the number of exchanges between the buyer company and the seller company until obtaining information.

Further, in the electronic quotation system of the present invention, in the above invention, a plurality of seller companies exist for one buyer company, and each quotation information submitted from the plurality of seller companies is virtual. It is characterized in that a buyer's company is pooled in a market, and obtains desired quotation information from a plurality of quotation information pooled in the virtual market by accessing the virtual market.

[0010] That is, according to the electronic quotation system of the present invention, for example, in the procurement of materials, the buyer company only participates in the virtual market on the Internet by registering one quotation request and participates in the virtual market. Estimation information can be obtained from a number of seller-side companies, and good estimation information can be found in a short period of time.

In the electronic quotation system of the present invention, all quotation information submitted by a plurality of seller-side companies is accumulated in a database provided in the virtual market, and the buyer-side company browses desired quotation information from the database. , And a drawer.

That is, according to the electronic quotation system of the present invention, a large amount of quotation information is always stored in the database of the virtual market. , And extract necessary quotation information.

In the electronic quotation system of the present invention, the quotation request information submitted by the buyer company is stored in a database provided in the virtual market, and the seller company can browse desired quotation request information from the database. It is characterized by doing so. That is, the seller-side company can also browse the quote request information submitted by many buyer-side companies at an arbitrary timing as needed, and submit an estimate reply as needed.

The present invention also provides a method for electronic quotation by a computer system. In other words, there is a buyer company and a seller company on the Internet, and in a method of electronic quotation for estimating goods or services between the buyer company and the seller company using a computer network, The procedure in which the company and the seller company register in the virtual market, and the buyer company
The procedure for submitting quote request information to the virtual market using a file, the procedure for the virtual market to distribute quote request information to the seller company, and the procedure for the seller company to Of submitting quote reply information created using an XML file based on the received quote request information, and the buyer company acquiring desired quote reply information from the quote reply information distributed to the virtual market The electronic quotation method is characterized in that the quotation is executed between the buyer's company and the seller's company through the following steps.

In the above electronic estimation method, the XML
The quote request information and the quote reply information described in the file include fixed information defined in advance in a data conversion format and variable information in which a buyer company and a seller company arbitrarily describe desired conditions. It is characterized in that a buyer company and a seller company describe variable information in an XML file and execute estimation of desired conditions.

The present invention also provides a computer-readable recording medium for realizing the electronic estimation method of the present invention. That is, there are a buyer company and a seller company on the Internet, and a computer-readable record that supports estimation of goods or services performed between the buyer company and the seller company using a computer network. A medium in which a buyer company and a seller company register in a virtual market; a buyer company submits quote request information to a virtual market using an XML file; A procedure in which the market distributes quotation request information to the seller company, and a quotation response information created by the seller company using the XML file based on the received quotation request information with respect to the virtual market. The submission procedure and the procedure by which the buyer-side company obtains the desired quotation response information from the quotation response information distributed to the virtual market. A computer-readable recording medium characterized by recording a program to be executed by the Yuta.

Note that the computer-readable recording medium is a portable medium such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a magneto-optical disk, a ROM, a CD-ROM, or a storage device such as a hard disk built in a computer system. Say. Further, the computer-readable recording medium is, for example, a volatile memory (RAM) in a computer system which is a server or a client when a program is transmitted through a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line. , For a certain period of time.

Further, the above-mentioned program is obtained from a computer system in which the program is stored in a storage device or the like.
It may be transmitted to another computer system as a transmission medium or by transmission in a transmission medium. here,
A transmission medium for transmitting a program refers to a medium having a function of transmitting information, such as a network (communication network) such as the Internet or a communication line (communication line) such as a telephone line. Further, the program may be for realizing a part of the functions described above. Furthermore, what can realize the above-described function in combination with a program already recorded in the computer system, that is, a so-called difference file (difference program) may be used.

[0019]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention; In the present invention, an estimation system for estimating materials and the like using a computer network is referred to as an electronic estimation system. FIG.
It is a conceptual diagram of a virtual market for explaining the electronic quotation system of the present invention. That is, in this virtual market, a virtual market 2 exists on the Internet 1, and a buyer company 3 and a seller company 4 participating in the virtual market 2 are connected to the Internet 1.

When the buyer company 3 submits an estimate request 5 for materials and the like to the virtual market 2, the seller company 4 that handles materials having classification codes such as the materials described in the estimate request 5 is sent to the virtual company 2. , The quote request 5 is automatically distributed. Then, one or a plurality of seller-side companies 4 that have received the quote request 5 create quote information 6 for the material that meets the conditions written in the quote request 5,
Submit to Virtual Market 2. Then, the estimate information 6 of the plurality of seller-side companies 4 submitted to the virtual market 2
Is delivered to the buyer company 3 as soon as it reaches the virtual market 2.

For exchanging information on the virtual market 2, a data exchange format 7, which is data in a predetermined format, is used. That is,
The exchange of information between the buyer company 3 and the seller company 4 on the virtual market 2 uses an XML file.
In the format of the XML file, only a fixed information part is defined in the data exchange format 7.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the virtual market shown in FIG. Therefore, the operation on the virtual market will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, the same portions as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the flow of the process is denoted by step S.

In the virtual market 2 existing on the Internet, materials are procured. In order to start a transaction on the virtual market 2, the buyer company 3 registers in advance in the virtual market 2 (step S1), and similarly, the seller company 4 also registers in the virtual market 2 (step S1). Step S2). At that time, the seller company 4
Registers the classification code of the product handled by the company in accordance with the classification code of the product negotiated on the virtual market 2.

When the registration is completed, the data exchange format 7 used when conducting a transaction on the virtual market 2 is disclosed to the buyer company 3 (step S3).
a) At the same time, it is open to the seller company 4 (step S3b). Thus, the buyer company 3 and the seller company 4
Will be able to start the transaction. Then, the buyer company 3 submits the quote request 5 to the virtual market 2 in a format based on the published data exchange format 7 (step S4). At this time, the format of the estimation request 5 is divided into two parts. On the other hand, the fixed information is described by writing the name of the ordering company, the name of the product to be ordered, the number, the delivery date, and the like. The other is a portion that can be freely described, and allows various conditions regarding the product to be freely specified.

Then, the quote request 5 submitted to the virtual market 2 is distributed to the seller company 4 registered in the virtual market 2 in advance based on the classification code described in the quote request 5. (Step S5). Further, when the seller company 4 receives the quote request 5,
The estimation information 6 of all the commodities satisfying the complex conditions specified in the estimation request 5 is created and sent to the virtual market 2 (step S6). This estimate information 6
Are also published in a format based on the data exchange format 7.

Since the quotation information 6 of the seller-side company 4 is sent by a plurality of seller-side companies 4, the buyer-side company 3 issues one quotation request to the virtual market 2.
, It is possible to obtain a plurality of pieces of estimation information 6. The estimate information 6 submitted from the plurality of seller-side companies 4 is distributed to the buyer-side company 3 as soon as it reaches the virtual market 2 (step S7).

Further, at the same time, estimation information 6
Is also stored in the database 8 in the virtual market 2 (step S8), and when it is desired to retrieve the information, all the quotation information 6 is merged, and the buyer company 3 browses as the merged quotation information 9 (step S8).
9). Then, the buyer's company 3 compares the estimation information 6 (step S10), finally determines which seller's company 4 to place an order, and places an order with a specific seller's company 4 (step S10). Step S11).

FIG. 3 shows an example of the format of the quote request 5 submitted based on the data exchange format 7 by the buyer company in FIG. An example of the format of the estimation request 5 is described in an XML format language. In the contents of the quote request, tags are defined for basic parts such as a company code 11, a company name 12, a submission date 13, a response time limit 14, and a classification code 15. Further, the classification code 15 is defined for each material.

On the other hand, with regard to condition 16, only the tag <condition> is negotiated. Therefore, the buyer company can freely define the conditions. The example of FIG. 3 shows an example in which the condition of a desired product is specified using AND and OR as the condition contents. For example,
"Model number", "Memory", "Monitor", "Price" etc. are A
ND conditions are specified. In addition, it is also possible to specify conditions in sentences. Therefore, a request for quote 10 specifying complicated conditions of various patterns at once
It is possible to send to a plurality of seller-side companies 4, and as a result, the number of exchanges from ordering to obtaining quote information can be reduced to a very small number, and the time from ordering to estimation can be shortened. Becomes possible.

As described above, the estimation method by the computer system according to the present invention realizes the estimation of the material price by constructing a virtual market using the Internet and XML. In contrast, there are various features as described below.

That is, on the virtual market, the exchange of information between the buyer company and the seller company requires X
Uses ML file. The content is divided into a fixed information part and a freely descriptable part. In the fixed information portion, the name of the ordering company, the name of the product to be ordered, the number, the delivery date, and the like can be written. On the other hand, in the portion that can be freely described, various conditions regarding the product can be described.

However, in the system of the conventional estimating method, since the description format is in HTML, only simple conditions can be specified, and in order to obtain estimate information of products that sufficiently satisfy the conditions of the buyer company. It was necessary to exchange information multiple times between the buyer company and the seller company.

On the other hand, when the estimation method according to the present invention is used, it is possible to freely specify very complicated conditions by XML when requesting an estimate of a material, and to extract estimation information of various patterns at once. Can be. As a result, the number of exchanges between the buyer company and the seller company from the submission of the quote request to the acquisition of the estimate information on the materials that sufficiently satisfies the conditions can be suppressed to a very small number, and the order from the order to the quote can be reduced. It is possible to significantly reduce the time, and at the same time, reduce the cost for estimation.

Further, the buyer company only sends one quote request to the virtual market on the Internet, and simultaneously sends the quote request to a specified number of seller companies participating in the virtual market. can do. For this reason, in the past, when a buyer company performed an estimate request to a seller company, it performed an estimate request only for the number of seller companies, According to the estimation method of the present invention, desired estimation information can be obtained only by registering one estimation request in the virtual market.

The embodiment described above is an example for explaining the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention. is there. For example, in the above-mentioned virtual market, it is possible to manage the quote request information in the database, notify the seller company only that the quote request information has been registered, and browse the data on the virtual market from the seller company It is. In addition, estimate information is managed in the database,
The buyer company can also browse at any time or extract the merged quote information.

[0036]

As described above, the electronic quotation system of the present invention is a quotation system using a computer system that constructs a virtual market using the Internet and XML. In this electronic quotation system, in material procurement, a buyer company simply registers one quote request in a virtual market on the Internet, and obtains quotation information from many seller companies participating in the virtual market. Can be obtained, and in a short period of time, good estimation information can be found. Also,
Issuing a quote request that describes complex conditions in various patterns in a free format allows you to obtain many quote information that meets the conditions with a single quote, and from ordering to obtaining quote information. The number of exchanges between the buyer company and the seller company can be reduced to a very small number, and the time from ordering to quotation can be shortened, and at the same time, the cost for quotation can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a virtual market for explaining an electronic quotation system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing in a virtual market shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an example of a data exchange format of a quote request of a buyer company in FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Internet 2 Virtual Market 3 Buyer Company 4 Seller Company 5 Estimation Request 6 Estimation Information 7 Data Exchange Format 8 Database 9 Merged Estimation Information 11 Company Code 12 Company Name 13 Submission Date 14 Response Deadline 15 Classification Code 16 Condition

Claims (8)

[Claims] An electronic quotation system in which a buyer company and a seller company exist on the Internet, and which estimates a product or service between the buyer company and the seller company using a computer network. In the above, a virtual market for exchanging quote information between the buyer company and the seller company is constructed on the Internet, and the quote information exchanged in the virtual market is X
An electronic quotation system, wherein an XML file described in an ML format is used, and wherein the buyer company and the seller company perform estimation using a data exchange format based on the XML file. 2. Quotation information described in the XML file includes: fixed quotation information defined in advance in the data conversion format; and a buyer and a seller. , And the buyer-side company and the seller-side company describe the variable quotation information in the XML file and execute estimation of desired conditions. The electronic quotation system according to claim 1, wherein 3. A plurality of seller-side companies exist for one buyer-side company, and each piece of quotation information submitted from the plurality of seller-side companies is pooled in the virtual market. 3. The electronic quotation system according to claim 2, wherein a company accesses the virtual market to obtain desired quotation information from among a plurality of quotation information pooled in the virtual market. 4. All the quotation information submitted from the plurality of seller-side companies is accumulated in a database provided in the virtual market, and the buyer-side company can browse and withdraw desired quotation information from the database. The electronic quotation system according to claim 3, wherein the electronic quotation system is enabled. 5. The quote request information submitted by the buyer-side company is stored in a database provided in the virtual market, and the seller-side company can browse desired quote request information from the database. The electronic quotation system according to claim 3 or 4, wherein: 6. There is a buyer company and a seller company on the Internet, and an electronic quotation for estimating goods or services between the buyer company and the seller company using a computer network. In the method, the buyer company and the seller company register with the virtual market, and the buyer company submits quote request information to the virtual market using an XML file. A procedure in which the virtual market distributes quote request information to the seller company; and the seller company uses the XML file based on the received quote request information for the virtual market. A procedure for submitting the created quotation reply information, and the buyer-side company selects a desired quotation time from the quotation reply information distributed to the virtual market. Through a procedure for acquiring the information, how an electronic quote, characterized in that estimate between the buyer company and the seller-side firms are executed. 7. The quotation request information and the quotation reply information described in the XML file include: fixed information defined in advance in a data conversion format; The buyer-side company and the seller-side company describe variable information in the XML file and execute estimation of desired conditions. The electronic quotation method according to claim 6, wherein: 8. A buyer-side company and a seller-side company exist on the Internet, and a computer network is used to support estimation of a product or service between the buyer-side company and the seller-side company. A computer-readable recording medium, wherein the buyer company and the seller company register in the virtual market; and the buyer company estimates the virtual market using an XML file. A step of submitting request information, a step in which the virtual market distributes quote request information to the seller side company, and a step in which the seller side company receives the quote request information with respect to the virtual market. Submitting the quote answer information created using the XML file, and Of answer information, computer-readable recording medium characterized by recording a program for executing the steps of obtaining a desired estimation reply information to the computer.