Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce Clearinghouse

Abstract

A business-to-business transaction clearinghouse integrates the traditional point-to-point business supply chain at the clearinghouse. The clearinghouse provides cost effective access to a wide variety of members and includes value-added services. Members of the clearinghouse can include trading members, members that help the trading members ship their products, and banking members. The clearinghouse facilitates business among the trading members by providing a single point of contact for all transactions. The clearinghouse can be specific to an industry, such as the chemical industry. Multiple industry specific clearinghouses may form a network clearinghouses to effectively create one larger and more general business-to-business electronic commerce community.

1 .- 34 . (canceled) 
     
     
         35 . A system to facilitate business-to-business transactions comprising:
 a clearinghouse computer server coupled to a plurality of member businesses through a network, the clearinghouse computer server configured to receive and forward electronic messages transmitted between the member businesses, wherein the messages comprise messages to initiate supplier transactions and at least one of messages for order fulfillment for the supplier transactions or messages for payment processing for the supplier transactions;   at least one connection between the clearinghouse computer server and a web browser associated with at least one member business for the at least one member business to generate and transmit data to the clearinghouse computer server in a format compatible with a clearinghouse format;   at least one connection between the clearinghouse computer server and an enterprise resource planning system configured to manage supply chain activities of at least one member business, wherein the enterprise resource planning system is configured to generate and transmit data to the clearinghouse computer server in a format compatible with the clearinghouse format;   at least one connection between the clearinghouse computer server and a translation server, wherein the translation server is coupled to an enterprise resource planning system configured to manage supply chain activities of at least one member business, wherein the translation server is configured to convert data generated by the translation server-coupled enterprise resource planning system into a clearinghouse-compatible format for the clearinghouse computer server.   
     
     
         36 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the messages comprise both messages for order fulfillment for the supplier transactions or messages for payment processing for the supplier transactions. 
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the messages include purchase orders, purchaser order acknowledgments, and invoices. 
     
     
         38 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the messages comprise extensible markup language (XML) messages. 
     
     
         39 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the clearinghouse computer server includes a supplier managed inventory component configured to monitor an inventory of a first trading member, and in response to the inventory reaching a preset level, to generate and transmit a purchase order to a second trading member. 
     
     
         40 . The system of  claim 39 , wherein the second trading member was pre-designated as a supplier for the first trading member. 
     
     
         41 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the member businesses comprise at least one shipping company and the clearinghouse computer server includes a shipment tracking component configured to receive shipment tracking information from the shipping company and to send the shipment tracking information to the member businesses. 
     
     
         42 . The system of  claim 41 , wherein the shipment tracking component is configured to automatically send the shipment tracking information if a product shipment falls behind schedule. 
     
     
         43 . The system of  claim 41 , wherein the shipment tracking component is configured to send the shipment tracking information in response to a request from one of the members businesses. 
     
     
         44 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the member businesses comprise a plurality of shipping companies and the clearinghouse computer server includes a logistics procurement component configured to receive shipment requests from trading members and forward shipment proposals from the shipping members to the trading members. 
     
     
         45 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the clearinghouse computer server includes a business intelligence component configured to aggregate data passing through the clearinghouse computer server and mine the aggregated data for information requested by the member businesses. 
     
     
         46 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the clearinghouse computer server includes a product catalog component configured to store a product catalog of products available for sale from at least one of the member businesses and forward results of search requests of the product catalog to the member businesses. 
     
     
         47 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the clearinghouse computer includes a regulatory reporting component configured to receive information relating to a required regulatory report from at least one of the member businesses, to generate a regulatory report for the at least one member, and to transmit the report to an appropriate regulatory authority. 
     
     
         48 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the clearinghouse computer includes a regulatory reporting component configured to receive information relating to a required regulatory report from at least one of the member businesses, to generate a regulatory report for the at least one member, and to transmit the report to an appropriate regulatory authority. 
     
     
         49 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the supplier transactions comprise chemical supplier transactions. 
     
     
         50 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the messages comprise invoices and the clearinghouse computer server is configured to forward the invoice to a pre-designated banking member. 
     
     
         51 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the translation server comprises translating software implemented in the translation server-coupled enterprise resource planning computer system. 
     
     
         52 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the translation server comprises a stand alone computer server. 
     
     
         53 . The system of  claim 35 , wherein the translation server-coupled enterprise resource planning computer system uses an EDI system. 
     
     
         54 . A system to facilitate business-to-business transactions comprising:
 a clearinghouse computer server coupled to a plurality of member businesses through a network, the clearinghouse computer server configured to receive and forward electronic messages transmitted between the member businesses, wherein the messages comprise purchase orders, purchaser order acknowledgments, and invoices for the supplier transactions;   connections between the clearinghouse computer server and web browsers associated with respective member business for the respective member business to generate and transmit data to the clearinghouse computer server in a format compatible with a clearinghouse format;   data connections between the clearinghouse computer server and a plurality of enterprise resource planning systems configured to manage supply chain activities of respective member businesses;   wherein at least one of the data connections comprises a translation server coupled to at least one of the enterprise resource planning systems, wherein the translation server is configured to convert data generated by the at least one enterprise resource planning system into the clearinghouse-compatible format; and   wherein at least one of the enterprise resource planning systems is configured to operate using a message format compatible with the clearinghouse format without a translation server.   
     
     
         55 . The system of  claim 54 , wherein the messages comprise extensible markup language (XML) messages. 
     
     
         56 . The system of  claim 54 , wherein the clearinghouse computer server includes a supplier managed inventory component configured to monitor an inventory of a first trading member, and in response to the inventory reaching a preset level, to generate and transmit a purchase order to a pre-designated second trading member. 
     
     
         57 . The system of  claim 54 , wherein the member businesses comprise at least one shipping company and the clearinghouse computer server includes a shipment tracking component configured to receive shipment tracking information from the shipping company and to send the shipment tracking information to the member businesses, wherein the shipment tracking component is configured to automatically send the shipment tracking information if a product shipment falls behind schedule, and wherein the shipment tracking component is configured to send the shipment tracking information in response to a request from one of the members businesses. 
     
     
         58 . The system of  claim 54 , wherein the clearinghouse computer server includes a business intelligence component configured to aggregate data passing through the clearinghouse computer server and mine the aggregated data for information requested by the member businesses. 
     
     
         59 . The system of  claim 54 , wherein the translation server comprises translating software implemented in the at least one translation server-coupled enterprise resource planning computer system.