System and method for facilitating bilateral and multilateral decision-making

1. A computer-implemented method 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 first class of parties in a first role and a second class of counterparties in a second role, the method comprising:

supplying to each of the parties a series of forced choice questions so as to elicit party responses;

in a first computer process that uses conjoint analysis of the party responses, determining a party preference profile for each of the parties;

supplying to each of the counterparties a series of forced choice questions so as to elicit counterparty responses;

in a second computer process that uses conjoint analysis of the counterparty responses, determining a counterparty preference profile for each of the counterparties;

in a third computer process, for a selected party, performing bilateral analyses of the selected party's preference profile and the preference profile of each of the counterparties, by computing a closeness-of-fit value based thereon; and

in a fourth computer process, using the computed closeness-of-fit values to derive and provide a list matching the selected party and at least one of the counterparties.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the list is ranked according to closeness of fit.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

supplying to at least one party or counterparty co-evaluator a series of forced choice questions so as to elicit co-evaluator responses, wherein the list matches the at least one party and at least one counterparty according to a bilateral analysis of preference profiles determined using such co-evaluator responses.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the party responses reveal, with respect to each level of each of a first series of attributes, a utility value which indicates the value that the party places on the level of the attribute.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the party responses reveal the utility values without the utility values being provided explicitly.

6. A method according to claim 4, wherein the counterparty responses reveal, with respect to each level of each of a second series of attributes that complements the first series of attributes, a utility value which indicates the value that the counterparty places on the level of the attribute.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the counterparty responses reveal the utility values without the utility values being provided explicitly.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the series of forced choice questions and the list is obtained from a remote server over a communication network.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the series of forced choice questions is supplied by making available a set of web pages providing a set of questions and permitting entry of responses thereto.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the party responses and the counterparty responses are provided to a remote server over a communication network.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein the value includes an aggregated value.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the value includes a distance value.