Argumentation-based agents for eProcurement

Procurement is the complete process of obtaining goods and services – from preparation and processing of a requisition through to receipt and approval of the invoice for payment. The support for eProcurement is important for realising agent-based eBusiness applications. This paper proposes the use of argumentation-based agents to support the selection of suppliers for goods and services within the negotiation phase of procurement. Argumentation is used to compare candidate suppliers and identify the one that best meets the buyer’s business-specific needs. The use of argumentationbased technology presents important advantages over traditional procurement methods such as competitive bidding, direct negotiation or single-source acquisition in that it can cope with qualitative uncertainty and preferences as well as the construction of contracts. We apply the method to the industrial procurement of an eOrdering system.