Method and system for organizing vendor information
View Patent ↗A plurality of accounts payable items ( 14 ) are communicated over communications links ( 24 ) to a global purchasing information repository (GPIR) ( 12 ) by account servers ( 19 ) and regional servers ( 18 ). A preparation application ( 16 ) unifies the representation of the items and a GPIR application ( 20 ) associates categories ( 54 ) and buyer identifiers ( 56 ) with the items based on criteria ( 70 ). A vendor alignment tool module ( 23 ) associates vendor identifiers ( 58 ) with vendor names ( 34 ) associated with the items and with the items. The module also associates vendor groups ( 62 ) with the vendor identifiers based on relationships between the vendor identifiers. A plurality of reports ( 74 ) may be generated in response to the identifiers, groups and categories to provide information to a business regarding global expenditures and vendor relationships.
1. A method for organizing vendor information comprising:
receiving data comprising a plurality of accounts payable items, each accounts payable item having an associated first vendor name and an associated cost in a local currency, wherein the vendor name represents a business associated with a purchase transaction represented by the accounts payable item, and wherein at least one of the accounts payable items has a local currency that is different from that of at least one of the other accounts payable items;
associating a first vendor identifier and a second vendor identifier using a computer for each of the accounts payable items, wherein the first vendor identifier uniquely identifies a first vendor associated with the first vendor name and the second vendor identifier indicates an organizational business relationship between the first vendor and one or more other vendors;
converting the associated costs of each of the accounts payable items from the local currency to a global currency;
calculating a purchasing total for each first vendor name expressed in the global currency by adding the converted associated costs for each of the accounts payable items; and
determining the total expenditure for each vendor associated with said accounts payable items using the plurality of accounts payable items, the first vendor identifier, the second vendor identifier, and the purchasing total for each first vendor name.
2. The method for organizing vendor information according to claim 1 , wherein the relationship is any of a subsidiary relationship, a joint venture relationship, a partnership relationship or an ownership relationship.
3. The method for organizing vendor information according to claim 1 , wherein the first vendor identifier and second vendor identifier are associated with ones of the items in response to the first vendor name.
4. The method for organizing vendor information according to claim 3 further comprising maintaining a database associating one or more vendor identifiers with the first vendor name.
5. The method for organizing vendor information according to claim 4 , wherein the database was at least partially created in response to a database describing relationships between a plurality of vendor names.
6. The method for organizing vendor information according to claim 4 , wherein the database was created at least partially in response to relationships between vendors defined by a user of computer software associated with the database.
7. The method for organizing vendor information according to claim 1 further comprising associating a plurality of vendor identifiers with a vendor group.
8. The method for organizing vendor information according to claim 7 , wherein the vendor group comprises a plurality of vendors with a common characteristic selected from the group consisting of an industry, a product, an ownership relationship, a strategic alliance, and a joint venture.
9. The method for organizing vendor information according to claim 1 further comprising associating a third vendor identifier with ones of the accounts payable items indicating the relationship between the vendors associated with the first and second vendor identifiers.
10. A system for organizing vendor information comprising:
a computer readable storage medium;
software stored on said storage medium operable to:
receive data comprising a plurality of accounts payable items, each accounts payable item having an associated first vendor name and an associated cost in a local currency, wherein the vendor name represents a business associated with a purchase transaction represented by the accounts payable item, and wherein at least one of the accounts payable items has a local currency that is different from that of at least one of the other accounts payable items;
associate a first vendor identifier and a second vendor identifier using a computer for each of the accounts payable items, wherein the first vendor identifier uniquely identifies a first vendor associated with the first vendor name and the second vendor identifier indicates an organizational business relationship between the first vendor and one or more other vendors;
convert the associated costs of each of the accounts payable items from the local currency to a global currency;
calculate a purchasing total for each first vendor name expressed in the global currency by adding the converted associated costs for each of the accounts payable items; and
determine the total expenditure for each vendor associated with said accounts payable items using the plurality of accounts payable items, the first vendor identifier, the second vendor identifier, and the purchasing total for each first vendor name.
11. The system for organizing vendor information according to claim 10 , wherein the relationship is any of a subsidiary relationship, a joint venture relationship, a partnership relationship or an ownership relationship.
12. The system for organizing vendor information according to claim 10 , wherein the first vendor identifier and second vendor identifier are associated with ones of the items in response to the first vendor name.
13. The system for organizing vendor information according to claim 12 , wherein the software is further operable to maintain a database associating one or more vendor identifiers with the first vendor name.
14. The system for organizing vendor information according to claim 13 , wherein the database was at least partially created in response to a database describing relationships between a plurality of vendor names.
15. The system for organizing vendor information according to claim 13 , wherein the database was created at least partially in response to relationships between vendors defined by a user of computer software associated with the database.
16. The system for organizing vendor information according to claim 10 , wherein the software is further operable to associate a plurality of vendor identifiers with a vendor group.
17. The system for organizing vendor information according to claim 16 , wherein the vendor group comprises a plurality of vendors with a common characteristic selected from the group consisting of an industry, a product, an ownership relationship, a strategic alliance, and a joint venture.
18. The system for organizing vendor information according to claim 10 , wherein the software is further operable to associate a third vendor identifier with ones of the accounts payable items indicating the relationship between the vendors associated with the first and second vendor identifiers.