WORKFLOW SYSTEM AND NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE IN SOCIAL BUSINESS TO BUSINESS MARKETPLACE SYSTEM AND METHOD

Peter Koch

David Tso

Mehjabeen Anwar Awan

Priority Claim/Related Application

This application claims priority under 35 USC 120 of US Patent Application Serial

No. 13/584,654 filed on August 13, 2012 and is a continuation in part of US Patent Application Serial No. 13/197,669 ('"669 Application") filed on August 3, 201 1 , which is incorporated herein by reference.

Appendix

Appendix A (37 pages) contains examples of the user interface of workflow system and notification procedure in social business to business marketplace system with workflow management. Appendix A forms a part of the specification and is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Field

The disclosure relates generally to a workflow system and notification procedure that can be incorporated into a system and method of a business to business (B2B) marketplace and social networking in the B2B marketplace;

Background

Productivity enhancement systems and tools are well known for various industries. However, the wholesale market between manufacturer/brands and retailer/boutiques is still behind when it comes to productivity enhancement software. Most of the market participants have systems which are actually just typical customer relationship management (CRM) systems, online stores for consumers or sharing linesheets over aged systems or proprietary EDI integration to large retail chains. On the boutique/retailer side, the productivity software is focused around store point of sale (POS) systems with integrated inventory management, but without any integration with sellers. When it comes to managing their orders, users are mostly left to coordinate their duties by calendar system or by remembering dates, based on loose sent emails from tradeshows or sales representatives. Often, these existing procedures do not offer proper workflow management for the seller side or the buyer side which causes to loses of efficiency and even money. Thus, it is desirable to provide a workflow system and notification procedure in social business to business marketplace system and method and it is to this end that the disclosure is directed.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 illustrates a social business to business (B2B) network marketplace platform that may implement a workflow system and method;

Figure 2 is a more detailed view of the social business to business (B2B) network marketplace of one private b2b network that may implemented the workflow system and method;

Figure 3A is a block diagram of a social marketplace unit that is used to manage the social business to business (B2B) marketpJace and may implement the workflow system and method;

Figure 3B is a block diagram of the workflow management system that may be incorporated into the social marketplace unit;

Figure 4 illustrates a workflow session that is managed by the workflow management system and method leveraging the social marketplace system;

Figure 5 illustrates an example of a workflow activity seller stream based on the workflow management system and method leveraging the social marketplace system;

Figure 6 illustrates an example of a workflow activity buyer stream based on the workflow management system and method leveraging the social marketplace system;

Figures 7 A and 7B and 8A and 8B illustrate two other examples of the workflow sessions managed by the workflow management system;

Figure 9 illustrates an example of overlapping collection workflows in the system; and

Figure 10 illustrates an example of a workflow activity buyer stream generated by the workflow management system and method leveraging the social marketplace system.

Detailed Description of One or More Embodiments

The disclosure is particularly applicable to a workflow system and method implemented on the Balluun network marketplace system and it is in this context that the disclosure will be described. It will be appreciated, however, that the system and method has greater utility since the workflow system and method may be implemented on other systems and using other known technology and those other implementations are within the scope of the disclosure.

Figure 1 illustrates a social business to business (B2B) network marketplace 100 in which a plurality of social B2B networks 102 (that may be typical B2B networks or other types of B2B market networks) are brought together with a social aspect (described below) to facilitate social interactions between the participants in each of the social B2B market networks 102 and between one participants and other participants. Figure 2 is a more detailed view of a social business to business (B2B) network and in particular illustrates an example of one social B2B network 102 shown in Figure 1. Each social B2B network 102 has a social network marketplace unit and connections/links 104 that interconnects one or more participants 106 in a private B2B network 108. When each social B2B market network 102 is connected to each other in the social business to business (B2B) marketplace 100, the dedicated private networks 102 are maintained, but a public forum (which each participant to opt to participate in at various levels) is also created that allows social interaction using the social network marketplace unit and connections/links 104 while maintaining the private B2B networks 102 as described below in more detail.

The resulting system 100 provides multilevel feeding of social interaction and conversations including: a business to many other business conversation/activity (public and private), a intra compan conversation/activity using the private B2B network, a person to person or person to many person conversion/activity within a private network, a private business to business conversion/activity over a private network, a private business to business personal conversion/activity over a private network, a private business to business object related conversation/activity using a private B2B network about goods/services being negotiated, bought or sold, a private business to business object related conversation using a private B2B network about business opportunities, a private business to business object related conversation using a private B2B network about a service/good order, a private business to business object related conversation using a private B2B network about managing a goods/services order and/or a private business to business object related conversation using a private B2B network about customer service. Each of these different types of

conversions interactions are facilitated by the system and method that are now described in more detail. Also a private message system spanning across the connected companies to communicate in a private messaging style (similar to Facebook or linkedin's messaging service) is also enabled allowing participants to write private messages beside the social feed by utilizing the social b2b relationship.

The social B2B network marketplace system provides beside a storefront concept for seller companies to sell and buyer companies to buy a microblogging capability to all participants of the social marketplace B2B system. The microblogging capability allows the participants to have the communications, engagement, collaboration, activity and conversations above with each other. The systems and units that enable the microblogging are now described in more detail.

Figure 3Λ is a block diagram of a social marketplace unit 104 that is used to manage the social business to business (B2B) network marketplace. One or more computing devices 1 10 (such as a seller account computing device 1 10b and a buyer account computing device 1 10a) can connect to the social marketplace unit 104 using well known protocols (whether secure or not) over a link that may be wired or wireless. In some embodiment, each seller account may be accessed by one or more employees of the seller (employee 1 , employee2,, .., employee n) and each employee may have their own computing device 1 10. Similarly, each buyer account may be accessed by one or more employees (employee! , empIoyee2,..., employee n) of the buyer and each employee may have their own computing device 1 10. Thus, the social marketplace unit 104 can be connected to by a plurality of sellers and buyers and a plurality of computing devices 1 10. Each computing device 1 10 may be a processing unit based device with a display, processing power and memory to be able to interact with the social marketplace unit 104. For example, each computing device may be a personal computer, a terminal, a laptop computer, a smartphone (Apple iPhone, RIM Blackberry device, HTC device or Palm device), a mobile phone with a digital data capability, a tablet computer and the like. In one embodiment, the computing device has an operating system and manages the functioning of the computing device and the computing device may also have a well known browser application (Mozilla, Safari, etc.) that is stored in the memory of the computing device and executed by a processor of the computing device to establish a connection with the social marketplace unit 104 and interact with the social marketplace unit 104 by exchanging data, images, video, web pages and the like.

The social marketplace unit 104 may further comprise one or more well known application servers 1 12 with one or more well known database servers 1 14 for scalability, troubleshooting and security reasons. The above components also provide load balancing as is known. In one embodiment, both the database and application servers 1 12, 1 14 may be running Linux - Red Hat Enterprise operating system software 1 16 as shown. The social b2b network marketplace unit 104 may further comprise a well known Apache Web Server 1 18, a known PHP 5.2.13 120 installed as well as a well known MySQL 5.0.77 122 and these provide the operating environment for the social B2B network marketplace that is running a social unified database 124 which allows the system to provide an integrated combination of a transaction enabled storefront and marketplace combined with the social connectivity and communication structure to provide an integrated connectivity service between companies and a communication service within a company account on the system but also between companies and filtered depending on the demand of level of privacy and integrity.

The system, in one embodiment, may be a software-as-a-service (SaaS) in the cloud and is protected by Firewall(s) and SSL encryption. The Firewall(s) may be a Cisco ASA5500 series firewall and the SSL Service is a Versign SSL encryption license and may encrypt every single page of the social B2B marketplace for security reasons. The system may also be implemented using other architectures such as a client server model, a hosted model, a cloud server model, a mainframe/terminal model and the like and is not limited to any particular architecture.

To provide the transaction-enabled storefront and marketplace combined with the social communication structure, the social network and marketplace unit 104 may further comprise one or more units 126 and an executive services unit 128 that provide the services and features. In one embodiment, each of the units 126 and the executive services unit 128 may be implemented as a plurality of lines of computer code that are executed by the one or more applications servers and database servers of the system. The units 126 may include a registration unit 126a that handles the registration of one to many users per company accounts and accounts of the system, a connectivity unit 126b that handles the connections between 2 or more companies on Balluun to create a private b2b network 102, a profile pages unit 126c that handles the company profiles pages as described below, a multilevel feeds unit 126d that handles the multilevel feeds as described below in more detail, a storefront unit 126e that generates and manages the storefront of each company on the social b2b marketplace, an inventory management unit 126f that manages products of a companies storefront and it's inventory, a shopping cart unit 126g that generates and manages the shopping cart between a buyer account and a seller account to allow the buyer to buy from a dedicated seller company storefront on balluun, a checkout unit 126h that generates and manages the checkout process of a shopping cart of a buyer from dedicated seller storefront, a CRM unit 126i that provides CRM services and features to the seller account based on his storefront as described below, a manage order unit 126j that manages orders for services and goods of the transactions (seller and buyer view) and provides a dynamic order template for ordering, a payment unit 126k that manages the payment process between seller and buyer on the social b2b marketplace with the API's into 3 ^rd party payment solutions (PayPal and other comparable third party payment solutions), a business intelligence unit 1261 that provides typical business intelligence features to the marketplace, a recommendation engine that matches companies based on database records together. For example, the recommendation engine provides company matching based on a recommendation algorithm (for instance: build a

recommendation service - seller > clothing > street wear to buyer > clothing > street wear for instance) + social relationship (social graph) of 1 st, 2nd and 3rd degree of relationships.) The units 126 further may include an activity streams unit 126m that generates and manages the activity streams (described in more detail with reference to Figures 13 and 19-20 in US Patent Application Serial No. 13/197,669 ("'669 Application") filed on August 3, 201 1 which is incorporated herein by reference) and a private messaging unit 126n that generates and manages the private messaging that is described in more detail with reference to Figures 21 - 33 in the '669 Application.) The units 126 and executive unit 128 combine a mix of features and functionality to provide the service. Each of the features and functionality takes advantage of the unified social database of social, company, product and transaction related data and delivers the required feature output as a user interface to the user. The structure filters the service and provides the required subset of the features as a buyer account, a seller account and a master/admin account (balluun master account) or just based on the features subscribed which are described below in more detail.

Using the social B2B network marketplace, a company or company division can create a company account with one to MANY employees under this company account. In other words, each company account on the system consists of a Company Profile and a sub Profile structure for every single employee as well. The relationship between employees within one company are therefore all related with each other and represent one company on the system. Employees can be added to a company account at any time. Furthermore, a company can invite and connect with any company which has an account on the social B2B system. The system, for example, can connect a manufacturer-manufacturer relationship, a manufacturer-wholesaler relationship, a wholesaler-wholesaler relationship, a wholesaler- retailer relationship, a wholesaler-reseller relationship, a retailer/retailer relationship, a reseller-reseller relationship and/or a wholesaler-retailer/reseller relationship.

The connect works by one company inviting another company (see Figures 34-39 of the '669 Application for examples of the process for inviting a new company) and the invited company confirms the invitation request (see Figures 40-42 of the '669 Application for examples of this process). With the system, as soon as two companies are connected, they can communicate with each other using the multi-level feeding structure and/or private messaging or conduct business with each other (ecommerce transactions). In this process, the activity notifications (described below in more detail) are being generated to each company based on the required connectivity. Some of the announcement activity streams can also go to an unconnected crowd of people known as the 'public'. In addition, a company which invited multiple companies to join it's network is maintaining it's own B2B community on the system as well. Furthermore, there can be many independent B2B communities relative to a given company. The community can be all connected businesses or a sub-group of coworkers and/or it's employees grouped into a dedicated group.

The B2B network marketplace has the multi-level feeding structure. In the Company Wall of the B2B network marketplace (for inter and intra company conversations), the system may provide to post: a public filter that.filters for everyone on Balluun (twitter like advertising/blogging); a partner filter for Business 2 many Businesses (all my business connections); and a coworker filter for intra company conversation (all my coworkers). In the My Wall portion of the B2B network marketplace (for inter & intra conversation (P2P, P2manyP) for post's, the system may provide: a public filter that filters for everyone on Balluun (twitter like advertising/blogging); a partner filter that filters for business 2 many Businesses (all my business connections); and a coworkers filter that filters for intra company conversations (all my coworkers). The My Co Worker Wall portion of the B2B network marketplace is for inter & intra conversation (P2P, P2manyP) with only threads towards or with that particular coworker involved). The system also provides a Partner Wall in a My Partner portion that is for inter conversation (private B2B) for only threats between me or my company with that particular partner. The system also has an Employee Wall that is part of the My Partner portion of the system that contains messages about inter conversation (private B2B personal) with only threads between me or my coworker with that particular partner employee. The system also has an ecommerce shopping cart check out process that provides inter conversation (private B2B object-related) which are conversations between seller and buyer related to this transaction. The system also provides My Company Opportunity that provides inter conversation (private B2B object-related) which are conversations between seller and buyer related to this opportunity. The system also have ecommerce myorders feeds that are inter conversation (private B2B object-related) between seller and buyer related to this order and orders/manage orders feeds that are inter conversation (private B2B object- related) between seller and buyer related to this order. The system may also have a customer Service feed that is an inter conversation (private B2B object-related) between seller and buyer related to this transaction. The system may also provide filtering of the messages that is described below with reference to Figures 15-16 of the '669 Application. The B2B network marketplace also has the multi-level activity streams. Activity streams are user generated activities which arc mixed into the social feed. Users can respond to activity streams as they can to postings, which makes activity stream an integrated part of social feeds and allows engagement. In more detail, when a user is doing something or 2 companies are connecting or transacting, the system creates activity streams which flow into the social feed structure indicating what is happening on the system based on activity. The activity stream is part of the social feed structure allowing users to even respond back with a response feed to an activity stream and cause interaction with other users. Examples of the multi-level activity streams are:

^• Company Wall

- Global B2B (Community/Public) - "Company X' just joined

Balluun', - 'Company X just added a product to it's storefront' (privacy setting of Product is 'Public', 'Company Y just activated it's storefront'

- Partner (Business Connection) - 'Company X just added a

product to it's storefront' (privacy setting of Product is 'Partners')

- Transaction - 'Company' A just created a shopping cart with you',

'Company A just submitted order to you', etc (a private object-related activity stream between seller and buyer)

- Company (Co- Worker) - 'Coworker B just joined your team on Balluun, - 'Company X just added a product to it's storefront' (privacy setting of Product is 'Coworker', 'Coworker B just uploaded a new logo for your company'

^• My Wall

- 'You just joined Company Z on Balluun'

• Co Worker Wall

- 'Coworker B joined your team on Balluun', 'Coworker B uploaded a new logo for your company'

• My Partner > Partner Wall

- 'Company X added a product to it's storefront' (privacy setting of Product is 'Partners')

• My Partner > Employee Wall only threats

- "Partner Employee Name' uploaded a new image to his wall'

• E-Commerce > shopping cart / checkout process

- 'You added product xyz to your cart at Company A'

• My Company > Opportunity

- 'Company X just created a shopping cart on your storefront'

• E-Commerce > My Orders

- 'Company X just submitted purchase order to you'

• Orders > Manage Order

- 'Company X just made payment to purchase order xyz'

• Customer Service (future)

- 'Company X just flagged transaction for customer service review'

The social network marketplace unit provides social networking in and among the uscrs/partners/buyer/sellcrs of the social marketplace unit and all of the other

users/partners/buyer/sellers of the social marketplace unit. The social marketplace unit enables private messages between one or more of the parties. The social marketplace unit 'also' enables a message broadcast to all partners of a user so that, for example, Company A can broadcast messages to Company B, Company C and Company D and these also permit all of the parties involved in the broadcast message to respond to all of the other parties.

The social network marketplace unit also enables communications between a partner and another partner. For example, Company A can communicate with Company B, but Company C cannot gain access to the messages between Company A and Company B. Thus, the social marketplace unit enables private conversations between users of the social marketplace unit (private B to B).

Figure 3B is a block diagram of the workflow management system that may be incorporated into the social marketplace unit 104. The workflow management system utilizes the same components of the social marketplace unit 104 as shown, such as the database, underlying architecture, units 126 and the like. In addition, the workflow management system may have one or more units, implemented in a plurality of lines of computer code in one embodiment that execute on the one or more processors of the social marketplace unit 104 or implemented in hardware in other embodiments, that perform the various workflow management functions described below in more detail. The workflow management system may have a workflow management unit 130, a workflow notification generation unit 132 and a workflow activity unit 134. The workflow management unit 130 coordinates and management the workflow process (for example as shown in Figures 7A-8B) and generates the user interfaces for the workflow process, the notification generator 132 generates and communicates the notifications that are part of the workflow process and the activity unit 134 generates and communicates the activities that are part of the workflow process. Examples of the workflow process, these notifications and activities and the user interfaces for the workflow are shown in more detail in Figures 7A-7B and described in detail below.

The workflow management system and method may utilize the system and method for a business to business marketplace and social networking described in the '669 Application to generate and manage workflows. The workflow management system and method, in one implementation, may be used to manage the wholesale market between manufacturer/brands and retailer/boutiques using an launch collection and expire collection and an activity and notification system which keeps seller and buyer in the loop and makes sure that no deadlines or important dates are missed. The workflow management system permits the overlap of potential duration of one collection with another one (that happens typically in the fashion industry). So, for example, when in January a collection for Fall is in preparation and the end date when this Fall collection would be removed can overlap with another collection which starts in May (for Winter collection). As another example, a sport brand offers multiple collections almost at the same time (collection of long boards and another collection of board shorts). The collection may also be used in sports and used similar to "series" which refers to related finished products.

The workflow management system with activities and notifications can structure the notification needs and call to action needs in a marketplace environment where seller and buyers are trading with each other. While email notifications or reminder status in tools are known, the organization of a holistic workflow from reminding seller to upload a new product/collection of products to his storefront over the notification to a connected buyer to get alert of an announced collection or uploaded/edited product in sellers storefront on a social marketplace environment is new. The workflow system may be used with value chain/ supply chain order systems with strong human interaction like in the wholesale space, which is currently getting done at tradeshows, over phone, email and fax and addresses issues of an extremely inefficient engagement between seller companies and buyer companies. In addition, since most of the market participants are in the small to midsize business with low job training, there is a lot of unstructured tasks and activities getting done which would be desirable to be organized with an activity workflow management system. The workflow management system and method assumes that managing a calendar for this user base will be no longer be required since the system will manage their lifecycle tasks and activities between seller and buyer. In other words, the activity that a seller is initiating will cause a call to action to buyer and if buyer is doing an activity, seller is getting reminders. Based on time settings, certain tasks are getting executed (for example seller is launching a collection 2 weeks down the road and this task causes a time stamp setting in his launch collection settings and will cause a launch activity stream with a reminder to buyer to start ordering to be generated).

Figure 4 illustrates a workflow session 150 that is managed by the workflow management system and method leveraging the social marketplace system. The workflow session manages the workflow from the initial reminder and activity system to make a workflow management between seller and buyer work. In Figure 4, a wholesale industry workflow is used as an example, but it should be understood that the workflow management system and method can be used with various different workflows and industries. The workflow may be used for any wholesale industry for finished goods that have a series of products for a period of time. For example, the workflow may be used for the fashion industry, but can also be equally used in the sports, outdoor or home & decor industries. Furthermore, any industry that introduces a series/collection at some point, sells the collection/series for some period of time, has an expiration of the collection/series and has to sell left overs from the collection/series as immediates in a sales cycle may utilize the workflow described herein.

Wholesale Implementation

In wholesale, the workflow may involve a seasonal schedule or a repeating schedule to launch new or updated products. Based on the industry segment, the schedule can be pre- schedulcd based on tradeshow dates or based on set schedule the seller can set. The system allows a seller to define how often she he wants to get reminded to upload new products or a whole product collection, if the seller does not know or have a specific reminder date, the seller can set default and the workflow system will remind the seller when a key event is coming up. For example, if a tradeshow is coming up, the tool of the workflow management system will assume that the seller has products that the seller wants to launch at the tradeshow and on his wholesale store on the social b2b marketplace system that is described in the '669 Application that is incorporated herein by reference. The reminders can occur in the form of an email notification (with a link) issued by the social b2b marketplace system, can be an activity stream on sellers wall, a notification in the reminder system or a combination of each/all of them. The link provided in an email will take the seller directly to the location on his account at which to manage collections. The reminders can be triggered by the measured attention the seller is giving to his notifications. If no reaction is triggered, reminders can occur if seller has notification reminders turned on a notification settings page of the system. An example of the various actions, items, streams, reminders 152 for a designer of a collection and the workflow system and then the various actions, items, streams, reminders 154 for a buyer of the collections are shown in Figure 4. The workflow shown in Figure 4 is automatically generated by the workflow system. The Workflow is partially generated by one party and the other one is getting the result reminder/activity, also by creating the collection seller is entering several dates which are running as timer in the background that is shown in more detail in Figures 7A-8B that are described below in more detail. Figure 5 illustrates an example of a workflow activity seller stream based on the workflow management system and method leveraging the social marketplace system and Figure 6 illustrates an example of a workflow activity buyer stream based on the workflow management system and method leveraging the social marketplace system.

Other Examples of the Workflow

Figures 7A and 7B are an example of another workflow 150 that is managed by the the workflow management system between the seller workflow 152 and the buyer workflow 154. The workflow starts in Figure 7A and continues onto Figure 7B. In this diagram, the workflow processes/actions/notifications that are automatically created by the workflow management system, such as a 1 , a2, a7-a8, b 1 -b2, b5, etc. in Figures 7A and 7B, are shown as arrows with solid lines while the processes/actions/notifications that are generated by either the seller or buyer, such as a3, a5-a6, al I , b6, b8, blO and b! 2 in Figures 7A and 7B are shown as arrows with dotted lines. In Figures 7A and 7B, the direction of each arrow (towards the seller or towards the buyer) indicates which party the

processes/actions/notifications is directed to. For example, the system suggesting to the seller to upload the new collection is directed to the seller. Furthermore, some of the user interfaces for the processes/actions/notifications shown in Figures 7A and 7B are contained in Appendix A that is incorporated herein by reference. The example user interface screens in Appcdix A have the same processes/actions/notifications designation (al , a2, b l, etc) as those shown in Figures 7A and 7B. For example, the first user interface in Appendix A is an example of the user interface for processes al and a2 shown in Figures 7A and 7B.

In the workflow process, a seller is going to be selling a new collection/series of items and the workflow management system facilitates the development, release, ordering, sales and immediate sales of the items in the collection for the seller with a buyer. The details of the activities/notifications shown in Figure 7A and 7B are described in further detail below.

Figures 8A and 8B arc an example of another workflow that is managed by the the workflow management system. This is the same workflow as shown in Figures 7A and 7B with the same nomenclature and references. As with Figures 7A and 7B, the workflow starts on Figure 8A and then extends to Figure 8B. In these figures, the phases actions of the seller and of the buyer are shown in greater detail.

Retail Implementation

In retail business, retail buyers or retail business owners are re-stocking their stores on a regular base with merchandise from their sellers. Currently, the planning of the budget is executed manually season by season or time period by time period (once a month, once a quarter, etc.) The workflow system with the social b2b marketplace system allows buyers to schedule a reminder system and a planning system for entering their budget per order period. Depending on the settings of the buyer, the buyer can schedule reminders to enter a new budget into the social b2b marketplace system (bl in Figures 7A and 8 A) to plan and control spending against the budget. If the buyer does not set specific periods, the system will send reminders based on industry specific seasons with the suggestion to enter and start planning and control ordering against budget.

The workflow system is able to track ordered values against budget so that buyer will no longer overspend. The buyer is also able to enter all of the orders into the system and then be able to measure purchase orders against budget. The workflow system permits the buyer to have multiple purchase order forms in preparation managed by the system and the buyer can verify order volume against the budget. The workflow system may also send alerts for overspending if the social b2b marketplace system has recognized abnormal order behavior against previous order periods. The system also allows a buyer to subtract from total budget by entering the amount of the budget that the buyer has already spent outside of the system.

For a seller, the workflow management system suggests that the seller upload a new collection (al in Figures 7A and 8B) and then may remind the seller to upload the new collection (a2 in Figures 7A and 8A.) When a seller decides to upload a collection, the seller defines certain time values when collection should get started, how products are visible (to partner only or public), last order date, shipping from to shipping to dates and expiration date of collection (a3 in Figures 7A and 8A.) The dates are important time stamps which are running in the background timer of the social b2b marketplace system (and workflow system) and will calculate the launch date, expiration date, etc. For example, when one day before launch date is reached, the seller is notified that the collection is getting launched next day. At this point, the seller has a last opportunity to make changes to the collection or products in the collection that the seller is about to launch (a4 reminder in Figures 7A and 8A). If the launch date is reached, the workflow system, using the social b2b marketplace system, sends an activity stream, email notification reminder (weekly or daily-separate depending on notification settings user were choosing) to all connections in social b2b marketplace system or to all industry participants in an industry segment if public launch was chosen. In other words, buyers arc getting exposed to the launched merchandise. The integrated collection photo album allows the buyer to click through the merchandise with the integrated order form, wholesale price and MSRP.

Λ buyer receives an email notification to place orders on the social b2b marketplace as soon as at least one seller was uploading a new collection to the social b2b marketplace (b2 and b3 notification in Figures 7 A and 8A.). Since information of a new collection are proprietary before an official launch date, the collection is, of course, invisible for third party users on the marketplace system, even for connected businesses. In other words, every addition or edit of a product in a hidden collection before launch is only generating reminder notifications to the seller about an unfinished collection setup (e.g., not to the buyers.)

If a seller is adding a product after a launch date to the launched collection (activity a5 in Figures 7A and 8A), the workflow system generates activity streams (activity b4 in Figures 7A and 8A) to the users who have visibility to the collection. If a seller is editing a product after launch date to the launched collection (activity a6 in Figures 7A and 8A), the system generates activity streams (activity b5 in Figures 7A and 8A) to the users who have visibility to the collection, too. The system may also generate alerts to buyer if the edited products are currently in a purchase process for attention. Since products can be linked on social b2b marketplace and commented on, the seller, as well as other buyers in sellers distribution network, can receive comments and like notifications (activity b6, b7 and a7 in Figures 7Λ and 8A), which supports social proof of other buyers about a product.

As soon as a buyer is adding a product in a sellers cart on social b2b marketplace (activity b8 in Figures 7A and 8A), the seller is getting notified about the open opportunities in his opportunity management tool (activity a8 in Figures 7A and 8A). This, and all of the other activities, can be notifications, activity stream as well as email notification.

The seller can revie purchase order form from buyer and engage with buyer through the social feed (activity a9 and b9 in Figures 7A and 8A) which opens a direct

communication path between seller and buyer on this object (purchase order). By the seller engaging with the buyer, the buyer will receive notification and posts on his wall and his cart feed about questions or comments. If buyer has overdrawn his percentage order volume against other sellers, buyer will get a notification to verify order volume.

When buyer is submitting a purchase order form, seller gets notification of buyer submitted order (email notification, activity stream and notification in activity bl O and al O in Figures 7A and 8A). Buyer had already had the opportunity to enter his desired terms with submitting the order. Seller can confirm order as is or submit revised terms to buyer (activity al 1 and bl 1 in Figures 7A and 8A). This causes another string of notification between seller and buyer until the order is completely confirmed between both seller and buyer (activity a 12, bl 2 and bl 3 in Figures 7A and 8A).

Because seller was setting an order end date to a collection, the workflow system in conjunction with the social b2b marketplace will remind seller about the expiration date (activity a l 3 in Figures 7A and 8A) and the buyer (activity bl4 in Figures 7A and 8A). This can be important in the seasonal wholesale business since seller will only accept orders before a cut-off date (typical in fashion industry) or for industries where a series is only available for a period of time. Because the seller got reminded by the system of the expiration date, the seller can decide to extend the last order date (activity al in Figures 7Λ and 8A). If the seller extends the expiration date, buyers will receive notifications of extension of collection (activity bl 5 in Figures 7A and 8A) with a new exposure of the collection. With an approaching expiration date of a collection, the buyer may receive a reminder that the last order date is approaching and the buyer can take this as an opportunity to place an order now and will know that after last order date there might not be a chance for ordering the merchandise anymore (activity a 15, a 16, bl 6, bl 7 in Figures 7A and 8A). If seller was changing the last order date to another date, buyer will receive notification of an extended order window'. On the day of last order for a collection was reached, buyers and seller may be notified by the system that the order window is closed. With the closure of the order window, the social b2b marketplace will notify seller about total orders received and total volume broken dowii in ordered items (activity al 5, al 6, bl6, bl 7 in Figures 7A and 8Λ).

Since seller was providing shipping from-to dates, the workflow system in conjunction with the social b2b marketplace may remind the seller to prepare merchandise for shipment (activity al 7 in Figures 7A and 8A). Seller has now the opportunity to request full or partial payment from buyer. The seller can go into a manage order tool and request payment from the buyer. Buyer may then get notified by the system that invoice needs to paid (activity b 19 in Figures 7A and 8A). The buyer can pay the invoice in social b2b marketplace (activity b21 in Figures 7A and 8A). Once paid, the social b2b marketplace sends notifications to buyer and seller with payment confirmation (activity a l 9 in Figures 7A and 8A). Seller can go into the system and mark order as shipped (activity a21 , b22 and b23 in Figures 7A and 8A) which triggers a new notification to buyer about merchandise on its way. The system can also provide additional notification about shipping date from-to to seller and buyer to remind them about activities which are due and they would need to prepare. If the seller wants to launch part of the collection available as immediate products, which means they are available in stock, then the seller can do this as well as shown in Figures 4-6 (activity a24,a25 and b25 in Figures 7A and 8A). This event would cause a new activity stream to buyer indicating about the products seller made available as immediate. Since seller also will set a time stamp for expiring of immediate merchandise or by setting an available amount per item, there is a timer running in the background to schedule a notification to buyer once immediate merchandise has expired. Also, since seller set a collection visibility end date, the timer in the background may send notifications to buyers and seller to inform them when a collection is no longer in sellers store. This is the typical flow of the workflow management between seller and buyer throughout a season from launching to having a collection expire. Of course, there can be multiple collections running the same time or overlapping partially because they were launched at different times as shown in Figure 9. Ultimately, this system can coordinate better business between seller and buyers on the b2b wholesale level. As shown in Figure 9, one or more collection workflows that overlap are managed by the workflow management system.

Figure 10 illustrates an example of a workflow activity buyer stream generated by the workflow management system and method leveraging the social marketplace system.

While the foregoing has been with reference to a particular embodiment of the invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes in this embodiment may be made without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims.

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a3: Seller creates collection and specifies dates

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Seller has launched a new collection "Spring 2013'

a5 + a6: Seller adds/edits products in

collection "Spring 2013'

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b5 + b6: Seller adds/edits products in collection "Spring 2013' - buyer view

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a+b9: Buyer and seller communicating on the transaction v -43i-sible on the wall

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alO: Buyer submits order notification

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Order Summary

Product Details

Bella Wrap Effect Jersey

bl3: Order Summary

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ftefa.1 r (ieAr0pn>iu :in>m Belle Paradise. Your broer will be shipped soon. You can view .de^f^ ship lhgnnictdVig. UifiMmaticiii oh thislorder. ^' in your order ^' r_story. Your order should arrive. In 5 business days.

Please see details below on the products included in this shipment.

Order Summary

Confirmation # 2d08d37b

Prodiict Details

Bella Wrap Effect Jersey

Product Attribute' Ordered Shipped _/ Unit Price

Navy S, 5 0 $69.00

Navy .M 5 0 $69.00

Navy L, 5 0 $69.00.

White s 5' 01 $69.00

White 5 0 $69 00;

WWtei 5 0 $69.00

Status: UNPAID

Subtotal: $2,070.00

Tax: $0.00

Sftppirtg: $30,00

Total: $2,100.00 balluun.com.

PS - We're hereto help. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

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al4: Place to change last order date

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bl5: Notification that seller extended order window

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