A method and system for managing and evaluating commodities purchasing over a
network
of distributed computing devices. In one embodiment, the method allows a plurality
of buyers to generate one request for quote and, response to the request for quote,
receive a quote from plurality of vendors. The system of the present invention
provides a price normalization routine that allows buyers to evaluate and compare
a normalized price for commodity products having different evaluation parameters.
In an arrangement comprising a plurality of computers connected to a network said
plurality of computers including at least one server, at least one buyer client
computer and a plurality of seller client computers, the method for providing commodities
exchange services first provides a web-based browsable display describing at least
one commodities exchange service. The system then receives at least one request
for quote from the buyer. The system then receives at least one quote from different
sellers, wherein each quote may have a different price and quantity listed. The
system then compares to one or more selected metrics and normalizes the prices
received from the different quotes, thus, allowing the buyer to readily compare
the prices of a number of commodity items having inherently different values. In
one embodiment, the system of the present invention also provides a method for
multi-value cross compilation of sales transactions, iterative quote information,
and metric data for purposes of evaluation and strategy analysis.