ABSolute: An intelligent decision making framework for e-sourcing

Abstract

Efficient selection of bids and product offerings is a key requirement in today's procurement processes. Purchasing managers have to make comprehensible selections among hundreds of alternatives considering several dozens of criteria. Selection problems like this are challenging, because they require the balancing of multiple, often conflicting objectives. Traditional approaches to multi-attribute decision making (MADM) are often insufficient in situations with a large number of attributes and alternatives. ABSolute is an application framework for electronic sourcing. The core component of ABSolute is an intelligent decision analysis engine for electronic procurement, which is designed for large amounts of alternatives and attributes. ABSolute enhances traditional approaches to decision making with advanced visualization capabilities and WORA, a new technique for weight assessment based on ordinal rankings of alternatives.