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A system and method for competitive bid selection from a plurality print and other customized information product vendors based on a database of vendor records, each record identifying a vendor, one or more buyers who approves the vendor for receipt of invitations to bid, and a vendor capability dat

A system and method for competitive bid selection from a plurality print and other customized information product vendors based on a database of vendor records, each record identifying a vendor, one or more buyers who approves the vendor for receipt of invitations to bid, and a vendor capability data representing production and economic capabilities of the vendor. A buyer's invitation for bid data is received, representing a specific print and other customized information product or service and an invitation to bid on that product or service, and a data identifying vendor requirements for producing the product is calculated. An vendor's invitation to bid is transmitted to the vendors from among those approved by the buyer associated with the buyer's invitation for bid having a vendor capability data meeting the calculated vendor requirements. Responding bids from the vendors are input into the database and ranked in order of price. The lowest price bid is identified and an order is issued to the selected vendor. Further, a bid information data is transmitted to each of the non-selected vendors, representing the identity of the selected vendor and the rank order value of the bids.

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1. A method for competitive bidding by print information product vendors comprising steps of: inputting a plurality of vendor records into a storage of a general purpose computer, each of said vendor records having a data field identifying a print information product vendor and a buyer identificatio

1. A method for competitive bidding by print information product vendors comprising steps of: inputting a plurality of vendor records into a storage of a general purpose computer, each of said vendor records having a data field identifying a print information product vendor and a buyer identification data field identifying a buyer that said vendor is associated with, at least one of said vendor records having a vendor capability data representing a set of vendor manufacturing capabilities of the vendor identified by said record; inputting a buyer's invitation-for-bid data into said general purpose computer, said buyer's invitation-for-bid data having a buyer identification data, and having an invitation for bid on a print information product job from said buyer; calculating a vendor requirement data from said buyer's invitation-for-bid data, said vendor requirement data representing a set of vendor manufacturing capabilities required for performing said print information product job; comparing said vendor requirement data to a plurality of said vendor records having a buyer identification data field identifying the buyer from which said buyer's invitation-for-bid data was received; identifying at least one vendor record as qualified, based on said comparing; transmitting a vendor's invitation-for-bid data based on said buyer's invitation-for-bid data to each vendor identified by said at least one vendor record; inputting into said general purpose computer a plurality of bid data, each from one of said vendors to which said vendor's invitation-for-bid data was transmitted, each of said bid data representing a bid price; identifying a bid data from said received bid data having the lowest represented bid price; outputting a selected vendor data representing the identity of the vendor corresponding to the bid data identified by said identifying step; and transmitting an order to the vendor represented by said selected vendor data.