Multi-tenant Procurement System with Configurable Business Rules
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current e-commerce systems are inefficient and costly to customize for specific businesses or customers, requiring time-consuming hard coding and lacking a simple, customizable procurement process that can handle complex business terms and multiple vendor relationships.
Innovation Solution
A single instance, multi-tenant procurement system with an access module, search engine, transaction module, and data repository that allows for easy customization and configuration, enabling efficient and simple procurement processes across multiple organizations and vendors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If current e-commerce systems are customized for specific businesses or customers, then the system can meet specific business requirements, but the customization process becomes time-consuming and complicated requiring hard coding by developers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a multi-tenant architecture where a single system instance serves multiple organizations with different business requirements. The system provides universal functionality that can be configured for different tenants without requiring separate system instances or hard-coded customizations, thereby reducing implementation time while maintaining adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-configures multiple tenant environments with common business functionalities and templates before deployment. By preparing standardized configurations in advance that can be selectively activated, the system enables rapid customization without requiring time-consuming development work for each new business requirement.
2Adaptability or versatility
If current e-commerce systems are customized for specific businesses or customers, then the system can meet specific business requirements, but the customization incurs increases in costs
Solution Approach 1:
The multi-tenant architecture allows a single system deployment to serve multiple organizations with different requirements. By sharing common infrastructure, codebase, and maintenance resources across tenants, the system eliminates the need for separate development projects for each customization, thereby reducing development costs while maintaining the ability to meet specific business requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses configurable templates and patterns that can be copied and adapted for different tenants. Instead of developing custom solutions from scratch for each business requirement, the system provides reusable configurations that can be instantiated and modified, significantly reducing development effort and associated costs.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a procurement system processes complex business rules with multiple vendors and contractual relationships, then the system can handle diverse business terms, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments business rules and contractual relationships into discrete, configurable units that can be independently managed for each tenant and vendor relationship. By dividing complex procurement logic into modular components, the system can handle diverse business terms without creating monolithic complexity, allowing each segment to be configured and maintained separately.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamic configuration capabilities where business rules and parameters can be adjusted at runtime based on specific tenant requirements and vendor relationships. This dynamic approach allows the system to adapt to complex business scenarios through configurable parameters rather than requiring complex hard-coded logic, thereby managing system complexity while handling diverse business terms.
Data Source
AI summary
A single instance, multi-tenant procurement system, includes an access module to provide access to a plurality of end users associated with an organization to their respective accounts, each account being customized by a super user of the organization, a search engine to execute searches for products offered by one or more suppliers, a transaction module to process and track one or more requisitions generated by the plurality of end users, a business rules module to apply business rules established between the organization and the one or more suppliers to process the requisitions, and a data repository to store data generated on the system.