AGEEPS: an agent-based electronic purchasing system
Abstract
In many organizations the purchasing function is of substantial strategic importance-all
purchase decisions should be done right and in a timely fashion. Due to advancements in
technology, organizations have started noticing the enormous potential benefits of applying
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to thisfunction. Ofspecial interest is the use
of agent-based technologies in implementing purchasing solutions and ensuring that this is
implemented on suitable stages or phases of the purchasing process. So as to reach as many
suppliers as possible and ensure competitiveness is purchasing decisions, a web-based
electronic purchasing solution is desirable. Due to the open nature of the web, technologies that
are amenable to this open nature should help develop applications that would naturally fit this
important business activity. Agent technology holds a lot of promise in this respect when
carefully deployed insome stages of thepurchasing process.
In an effort to address the application of agent-based technology in electronic purchasing, this
project report discusses some of the agent properties that make them suitable for electronic
purchasing, approaches used to implement agent-based systems and market-based approaches
to electronic purchasing which can be used by agents to support this important activity. This
culminates in aframework for agent-based systemsfor buyer-centric electronic purchasing. To
achieve this, a case study is done with JKUAT-it looks at the current purchasing process and
recommends on how it can be enhanced using agents.
Beside the research, this project also involves the development of an agent-based electronic
purchasing system (AGEEPS) prototype to test the framework. The prototype system was
created using Java and Java Agent Development Framework (JADE)for programming, MySQL
for the database and Protege for ontology development. The prototype and research were
successfully achieved though not without a few hiccups like technological factors and tool
support.
Publisher
School of Computing and Informatics
Description
MSc