| US 7,552,132 B2 | ||
| Management of contract data | ||
| Kevin E. Berry, Raleigh, N.C. (US); Troy N. Ganzer, Washingtonville, N.Y. (US); Linda S. Mercer, Durham, N.C. (US); Leo D. Pudup, Wayne, N.J. (US); Bianca U. Sillers, Raleigh, N.C. (US); and Nestor Teodor-Mazilu, Wayne, N.J. (US) | ||
| Assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. (US) | ||
| Filed on Jan. 02, 2008, as Appl. No. 11/968,249. | ||
| Application 11/968249 is a continuation of application No. 09/935077, filed on Aug. 22, 2001, granted, now 7,333,996. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2008/0103808 A1, May 01, 2008 | ||
| This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer. | ||
| Int. Cl. G06F 17/30 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 707—101 [707/2; 707/6; 707/10; 707/204] | 12 Claims |
| 1. A system for managing contract data, said system comprising a processor configured to execute software at a decentralized
execution system (DES), said software when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform a method, said method
comprising:
receiving a contract datagroup DG by a decentralized execution system (DES) from a procurement contract management system (PCMS) over a data path within a computer
network, said contract datagroup DG selected from the group consisting of a contract dataset and a contract deltadataset, said contract datagroup DG identifying N purchase items purchasable from a vendor V keyed to the contract datagroup DG, said N being an integer of at least 2, said contract datagroup DG identifying the vendor V if the contract datagroup DG is the contract dataset, said DES comprising a relational database that includes contract datasets, vendor datasets having
vendors, and purchase item datasets having purchase items;
determining which, if any, of the N purchase items identified in the contract datagroup DG match a purchase item in the purchase item dataset and determining a total number K of such purchase items DG that do not so match a purchase item in the purchase item datasets, said K being an integer satisfying 0<K<N;
if the contract datagroup DG is the contract dataset then determining that the vendor V matches a vendor in the vendor datasets and adding a subset of
DG to the relational database, said subset of DG excluding the K purchase items DG;
if the contract datagroup DG is the contract deltadataset then adding to the first contract dataset in the relational database R purchase items of DG, wherein DG is keyed to a first contract dataset in the relational database, and wherein the R purchase items of DG consist or all purchase items of DG exclusive of the K purchase items of DG.
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