A multi-agent-based system for e-procurement

E-procurement has become an important function of enterprise information systems. The process of e-procurement includes automatic definition of product requirements, search and selection for suppliers, negotiation and contracting with suppliers. In this paper, we propose a novel agentbased architecture for e-procurement system, in which various agents take such responsibilities as negotiating and contracting. Moreover, the architecture that we propose can monitor transaction status and enhance the flexibility to handle unexpected exceptions, thus leading to agile procurement management.