Towards automated procurement via agent-aware nogotiation support

Negotiation events in industrial procurement involving multiple, highly customisable goods pose serious challenges to buyers when trying to determine the best set of providers? offers. Typically, a buyer?s decision involves a large variety of constraints that may involve attributes of a very same item as well as attributes of different, multiple items. In this paper we present the winner determination capabilities of iBundler[10], an agent-aware decision support service offered to buyers to help them determine the optimal bundle of received offers based on their constraints and preferences. In this way, buyers are relieved with the burden of solving too hard a problem, and thus concentrate on strategic issues. iBundler is intended as a negotiation service for buying agents and as a winner determination service for reverse combinatorial auctions with side constraints. Source URL: https://www.iiia.csic.es/en/node/54883