Abstract: Techniques for facilitating evaluation, in connection with the procurement or delivery of products or services, in a context of at least one of (i) a financial transaction and (ii) operation of an enterprise, are disclosed. The techniques involve retrieving party and counterparty preference profile data from digital storage media; performing multilateral analyses of the combined preference data by computing a closeness-of-fit value; and delivering a list matching the selected party and the at least one counterparty using the computed closeness-of-fit values.

Abstract: Techniques for facilitating evaluation, in connection with the procurement or delivery of products or services, in a context of at least one of (i) a financial transaction and (ii) operation of an enterprise, such context involving a member of a first class of parties in a first role and a member of a second class of counterparties in a second role, are disclosed. The techniques involve supplying to at least one of the parties a series of forced choice questions so as to elicit party responses; supplying to at least one of the counterparties a series of forced choice questions so as to elicit counterparty responses; and delivering a list matching the at least one party and the at least one counterparty according to analysis of preference profiles determined using conjoint analysis of the party responses and the counterparty responses.

Abstract: Techniques for facilitating evaluation, in connection with the procurement or delivery of products or services, in a context of at least one of (i) a financial transaction and (ii) operation of an enterprise, such context involving a member of a first class of parties in a first role and a member of a second class of counterparties in a second role, are disclosed. The techniques involve deriving in a first computer process using conjoint analysis, from responses to forced choice questions, such responses attributable to each party and to each counterparty, a preference profile for each such party and counterparty; and analyzing in a second computer process the preference profiles of the parties and the counterparties to derive a list by which parties and counterparties are matched according to preferences determined by conjoint analysis of responses of both the parties and the counterparties to forced choice questions.

Abstract: Techniques for evaluating the closeness of fit between various parties and counterparties utilizing bilateral and multilateral decision-making are disclosed. For each party, questions intended to reveal the preferences of the party are presented to the party and/or a co-evaluator for the party, and a preference profile is derived for the party based upon the responses to the questions. For each counterparty, questions intended to reveal the preferences of the counterparty are presented to the counterparty and/or a co-evaluator for the counterparty, and a preference profile is derived for the counterparty. The preference profiles of the parties and counterparties are analyzed to determine, for each potential pairing of party and counterparty, those providing a relatively close fit.