1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: at a server hosting an electronic procurement system that facilitates transactions among a plurality of purchasing organizations and a plurality of suppliers over an electronic network, the server including one or more processors and a memory storing programs for execution by the processors: receiving over the electronic network supplier catalog data from the plurality of respective suppliers, where the supplier catalog data is in a plurality of formats; obtaining from a business rules database business rules associated with the plurality of respective suppliers; in accordance with the business rules, automatically converting the supplier catalog data from the respective plurality of formats to respective common format catalog data; storing in the memory of the server information linking respective common format catalog data to corresponding respective supplier catalog data; adding the respective common format catalog data to a staging database; enabling by the staging database a development environment in which the suppliers upload their respective data blocks into a supplier catalog and test its operation; and in response to initiation of a syndication operation for syndicating data blocks into a supplier catalog: transferring respective common format catalog data in the staging database to a live catalog database associated with the supplier catalog and accessible by purchaser users of the system; activating at least part of the transferred common format catalog data as a live catalog; and enabling a purchaser buyer from the purchasing organizations to select and purchase items provided by the plurality of suppliers from the live catalog, including presenting the live catalog via the electronic network to the purchaser buyer from the purchasing organizations.