AU2013263867A1

AU2013263867A1 - System for Concurrent Optimization of Business Economics and Customer Value

Info

Publication number: AU2013263867A1
Application number: AU2013263867A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Sachin Goel
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-08-18
Filing date: 2013-12-02
Publication date: 2014-01-09
Also published as: AU2013266980A1; AU2013267002A1; AU2013263869A1

Abstract

-258 A computer-implemented system and method to provide options on products to enhance customers' experience. A computer-implemented system is operated that delivers to a customer an option to utilize up to n of m selected products, where n is less than or equal to m. Information is recorded in a data store, pertaining to said option. More specifically, Fig. 16 displays the structure of a FRO value option framework (shown in Box 16.100) in any industry. The FRO value option framework is related to the value element "desire to trade-in flexibility", as shown in Box 16.110. In the initial transaction for FRO, shown by Box 16.200, a customer (shown by Box 16.210) and a company (shown by Box 16.220) transact on the FRO value option. There may be one or more Events (shown by Box 16.230) that follow the initial transaction. 2013-11-2 1,C:\UseS'ShadCeneDocumens\SPEC1FICATIONSigoe1737.climswpd,258 Fig. 1 (1.110) . (1.120) Capture Customer Dynamics: Capture Capture Company Internal demand; preferences, flexibilities and Economics: Costs, capacities, associated relative utilities constraints (1.140) Formulate value option frameworks that allow companies to capture customer dynamics and perform analysis and desired optimization (1.130) Integrate customer dynamics with company economics to enhance value for both company and their customers

Description

SYSTEM FOR CONCURRENT OPTIMIZATION OF BUSINESS ECONOMICS AND CUSTOMER VALUE FIELD OF INVENTION 5 This invention relates to a system and method for matching customer preferences with vendor products and services, and then dynamically managing the on-demand and optimally customized delivery of such business services or products, More particularly, it relates to methods and systems for customizing and optimizing a company's products 10 and services to individual customers in a way that concurrently enhances customer value and overall business performance. BACKGROUND 15 Historically, "companies" (a term defined below) and their customers often have done business across a gap, so to speak. Product or service offerings by a.company and the customers' desired product or service do not fully match. In part, this gap is a manifestation of the facts that (1) companies have an incomplete grasp of customer needs, their relative preferences and the pricing utilities customers attach to those 20 preferences (which utilities, equating to the customer's willingness to pay, are dynamic) and (2) a company's costs, profits and inventory (which may control what it can offer on a timely basis) are also dynamic. However, it is also in major part a manifestation of the lack of information technology tools, which can close the gap. To collect dynamic customer and company data and then employ those dynamic data to close the gap is a 25 complex technical problem, Generally, the customer is treated as an individual and sales terms are customized only when the cost of negotiation is justified - for very large transactions. Many products and services, though, represent complex, multi-faceted offerings and customers 30 weigh their preferences for product feAiures differently at different times. A customer -2 might care more about cost one day and more about availability or delivery time or warranty if queried a few days or weeks later, to use some basic trade-offs as examples. Generally, a company's product comprises many value elements, (explained later) all of which are bundled together to be sold as a single product, But, not every customer 5 values all the aspects of a product equally or needs all. Every customer places a different value (which may be a function of time and situation) on each aspect of a product. With features bundled together in a product, companies end up either incurring costs to sell something to a customer that he does want or lose a customer because the extra undesired value elements forced the product price too high for the customer. 10 The underlying problem is both that customer demands are incompletely understood and that such demands can change quickly, whereas a company's productive capacity or service often does not have the same dynamic time frame and is supported by a relatively fixed (in the short term) capacity and supply chain. 15 A company typically uses demand forecasts to build product quantities to match demand. However, companies' forecasts often prove imperfect, leading to shortage or excess supply in one or more product types. If a product has been sold to a customer, the sold quantity of product, generally, cannot be resold to another potential customer. 20 However, it is possible that is another potential customer who may offer a higher value for a product that has been sold, Such situations may lead to potential opportunity loss for the company, especially, if the potential customer spills over (i.e., leaves the company and goes elsewhere, such as to a competitor). In some situations, such spilled customers may be high paying customers, thus, leading to a "high value spill". The 25 situation becomes worse when the former customer returns the purchased product. The company may, thus, be left with the unsold (returned) product and loses an opportunity to sell. To overcome such situations, companies in some industries like airlines, hotels, car rental and so forth, oversell their products (i.e., sell more than the supply). 30 Consider the airline industry, where overbooking (or overselling) is very commonly practiced by several airlines across the world. To hedge against last minute -3 cancellations and no-shows (collectively referred to as CNS) and to save high revenue spill, airlines overbook their flights (i.e., sell more tickets than the flight capacity). A no show customer is defined as a customer with a confirmed ticket who does not turn up for a flight. As described above, the term "High revenue spill" refers to potential revenue 5 loss from potential high revenue paying customers who want to buy a ticket on a flight, but, may spill over to a competitor if the desired flight is not available. The airlines usually try to sell tickets (often, at high prices), even after reaching flight capacity, to not let go of any such potential high revenue paying customers. If the number of people who turn up for the flight is more than the flight capacity (i.e., a situation termed "oversale"), 10 the airlines try to bump customers (i.e., shift customers out of their currently booked flight) voluntarily and/or involuntarily, Airlines use various incentives to bump customers, such as travel vouchers, upgrades, various coupons and likewise. Consider an example. A flight has capacity of 100 seats, however, an airline overbooked 110 customers on that flight, since they expected CNS to be 10. Since, it is difficult to 15 estimate CNS accurately, often, airlines face an oversale situation, i.e., more (>100) customers turn up for the flight, or a "spoilage" situation (i.e., fewer than 100 customers turn up), An oversale situation results in costs and customer ill-will that may increase exponentially with the increase in the number of bumped customers. A spoilage situation may reflect on loss of potential revenue from spill. 20 On the other side of the screen, there is a significant portion of customers who are price sensitive, and might be willing to shift from their booked flights to other flights in return for desired incentives. For instance, in the airline industry, the customers usually buy tickets one to four weeks in advance (of the premeditated travel date) to get the low 25 fares since the fares, normally increase as the departure date of the flight approaches. They can shift/move their choice of utilizing a product to a reasonable extent if they are rewarded, In this way, those customers may trade-in their flexibility in product utility, From the above discussion, it is clear that flexibility of customers may be mapped 30 or utilized to satisfy the fixed (or less flexible) demand of other customers. In the context of the airline industry, the flexibility from some customers may be mapped or -4utilized to satisfy fixed (or less flexible) demand of other customers. But so far, there is no existing system and method, which can allow a company to accomplish this optimally. 5 Today, airlines do not have any mechanism to allow such flexibility or changes in customer tickets at an individual level at conditions that would optimally satisfy both the parties. Instead, airlines try to deal with all such customers in a rather fixed way (or one bumping/overbooking policy) leading to customer ill-will, high oversale costs and opportunity costs from potential revenue spill (and unsatisfied customer demand). 10 Besides the airline industry, there are several other industries (as mentioned above) that either do not allow flexibility or follow processes that involve high costs and/or demand significant efforts on the customer's end. What is needed is a mechanism that allows a company to map varying product 15 flexibility across different customers in way that concurrently optimizes value for the company and customers. Indeed, there is no system or method available that can be applied to all the above industries, and many more, and help companies to match the availability of their products to their customers' preferences, let alone while concurrently maximizing the benefits to both the company and its customers. 20 A technology platform (i.e., system) and methodology thus are needed for customizing, in an optimal way, a match between customers' desire to trade-in flexibility and the company value. In the context of airline industry example, a technology platform (i.e., system) and methodology thus are needed for customizing, in an optimal 25 way, a match between customers' desires to trade-in their travel flexibility and airline's value. More particularly, a system and methodology are needed which support optimal customization of service offerings in the airline and other industries. If such a match 30 could be made, both company and customer would benefit. The customer would be -5 more satisfied and the company (both in short term and long term) will be more profitable. A win-win scenario is created rather than a zero sum game. 5 SUMMARY In response to recognition of this need, shown herein is a system and method that allows businesses to determine their customers' preferences (implicitly or explicitly, in advance or in quasi-real-time) and to dynamically integrate these preferences with 10 internal company economics to concurrently maximize value for both customers (i.e., their purchase utilities) and the company (i.e., its profitability). A framework of systems and methods are shown that allows businesses to determine their customers' preferences (implicitly or explicitly, in advance or in quasi 15 real-time) for flexibility in purchasing products and to dynamically integrate these preferences with internal company operations to concurrently maximize value for both customers (individually or as a group, their purchase utilities) and the company (i.e., its profitability). 20 In general, it is an aspect of the system and method that a business determines a customer's preferences (flexibilities and associated relative utilities) in great detail and in real-time or quasi-real-time from direct inquiries (explicitly) and/or past interaction (implicitly), before or while engaging in a sales transaction. When a sales transaction is formed, those preferences are then integrated with internal company operations and 25 economics (costs, capacities, constraints, inventories, etc.). Values are then determined for product or service options to be offered to the customer based on integrated (i.e., aggregated) customer preferences and company economics. On one hand, these value options allow companies to reward or charge customers for their flexibilities with respect to preferences. On the other hand, these value options enable companies to maximize 30 their revenues and/or profitability by unbundling their products and services, and best matching the offerings with a customer's expressed preference/cost tradeoffs. Since the -6customer gets something matching more closely his or her preferences than a "one size fits all" or small, fixed choice approach, customer purchase utility is increased and the customer is pleased to receive a product or service tailored to the customer's preferences. A company may charge for the purchase of some product options. So, customers pay for 5 options made available to them and the company does not have to invest in offering everyone features that only a minority of customers want. Accordingly, there is shown a system and method for collecting such customer preference information and pricing corresponding options and presenting options to the 10 customer, receiving customer choices, and completing a sale. The collection steps may be implemented over the global Internet and its World Wide Web. However, other communication media may be used, as well, for all or part of the system or steps. For example, customer information may be taken over the phone or in person or via any other means. And a sale can similarly be completed by telephone or in person, 15 The system and method may also provide after-sale follow-up and implement execution of option terms purchased by the customer. An engine may be provided for this purpose. The engine may be a processor(s) that is programmed to execute a suitable event response algorithm. Each procedure for event response (related to a purchased 20 option) may be custom programmed to implement the desired operations of the company or there may be provided a library of procedures generally applicable to an industry. The library procedures may be used by the company with or without customization, The detection of the contingency triggering the procedure may in some instances be made automatic, as by interconnection with the company's information management systems, 25 or it may be externally or manually supplied. The FRO VOF can concurrently create benefits for at least two of the company, the customers and any other entity involved or any combination thereof. One aspect of the invention comprises a computer-implemented system and method for a company to 30 provide options on products where in a computer-implemented service is operated that provides a data store containing data representing, with respect to at least one product, at -7 least one option offered by a company and operating a computer-implemented system that delivers to a customer an option to utilize up to n of m selected products, where n is less than m. Information pertaining to said option is recorded in a data store. In addition, a system, and method performed, is operated to define each of the n Chosen 5 Products, whereby after each of the n Chosen Products is defined, the customer can utilize said Chosen Product. The infoiniation pertaining to said defined products is recorded in a data store. While an aspect of the invention may only be discussed in the context of a method or of a system, it should be understood that for any method aspect, it is intended the reader will appreciate that a corresponding system implementation will 10 exist and is implied. Likewise, if an aspect of the invention is discussed in the context of a system implementation, it should be clear that the system is carrying out a method which also constitutes a corresponding aspect of the invention. Another aspect of invention relates to a system and method for implementation of 15 FRO VOF in conjunction with other VOFs. The grouping may enhahee customers' experience, and may comprise of operating a system that delivers a first option to at least a "first customer" to utilize up to n of m selected products for said first customer, where n is less than or equal to m; operating a system that delivers a second option to at least a "second custorner" to utilize up to k of p selected products, where k is less than or equal 20 to p; recording the information pertaining to said options in a data store; operating a system to define each of the k Chosen Products, whereby after each of the k Chosen Products is defined, said "second customer" can utilize said Chosen Product; operating a system wherein a company defines t Chosen Product(s) for said "first customer" after each of said k Chosen Products is defined, wherein after each of said t products is 25 defined, said first customer can utilize said defined product, where t is less than or equal to n and recording the information pertaining to said defined products in a data store. The system may contain one or more data processors and these data processors may or may not be the same. In one implementation of the invention said company may include more than one entity. It is another aspect of the invention that the company may not be 30 the seller of any of said products, In another implementation, the company may not be the seller of any of said options. In yet another implementation, the company may offer at least one of said options. In above invention, the company may operate at least one of said systems. However, it is possible that at least one entity other than said company operates at least one of said systems. The systems for first and second options may operate independently. The systems for first and second options may also operate in 5 conjunction with each other. The above mentioned acts may be performed for a multiplicity of at least one of said first or second customers and further includes combining together at least one of each of said first and second customers to formulate at least one group with at least one complementary set of options. After delivery of any of said first or second options, at least one of said m or p products may be available for use 10 by the company. At least one of said m or p products may also be available for use by an entity other than said company. The company or an entity other than said company may define, at one or more times, at least one of said k Chosen Products. The second customer may also define, at one or more times, at least one of said k Chosen Products, The company or an entity other than said company may select, at one or more times, at 15 least one of said m or p products. However, the first customer may select, one or more times, at least one of said m products and/or the second customer may select, one or more times, at least one of said p products. At least one of the company or an entity other than said company delivers to at least one of said first or second customers, at one or more times, one or more terms and conditions associated with the first or second 20 options, respectively. It is also possible that the company may receive from at least one of the first or second customers, at one or more times, an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second options, respectively. In another implementation, said first or second customers may be same. In yet another implementation, none of the options may include a notification deadline condition. 25 However, in another implementation, at least one of said options may include at least one notification deadline condition. The notification deadline condition may be different for said first and second options. The company may allocate at least one product to at least one entity other than said company, and said entity delivers at least one of said first or second options on at least one of said allocated products. It is another aspect of the 30 invention that at least one of said n or k Chosen Products may include at least one product other than said m or p products, respectively. No payment transaction may be -9 executed between the company and any of said first or second customer in connection with the option and the selected products. In another implementation of the invention, however, at least one payment transaction may be executed between the company and at least one of said first or second customer and said payment transaction may include a 5 soft value. In some implementations of the invention, at least one of said m or k products may be released for reuse by the company. While an aspect of the invention may only be discussed in the context of a method or of a system, it should be understood that for any method aspect, it is intended the reader will appreciate that a corresponding system implementation will exist and is implied. Likewise, if an aspect of the invention is 10 discussed in the context of a system implementation, it should be clear that the system is carrying out a method which also constitutes a corresponding aspect of the invention. Another aspect of the invention comprises a computer-implemented system and method for a company to define customer preferences whereby a data store is provided 15 including relevant information regarding products; operating a computer-implemented system that defines customer preferences regarding at least utilizing up to n of m selected products, where n is less than m and recording the information pertaining to said preferences in a' data store. The system may contain one or more data processors and .these data processors may or may not be the same. A computer-implemented system is 20 operated that enables use of said preferences to concurrently optimize value for customers and a company. The preferences may be utilized in delivering at least one option to a customer to utilize up to n of m selected products, where n is less than m and operating a system to define each of said n Chosen Products, whereby after each of said n Chosen Products is defined by the company, the customer can utilize said Chosen 25 Product and recording the information pertaining to at least one of said option or said defined products in a data store. The preferences may be defined implicitly. The preferences may be also be defined explicitly by either of the customer or the company or both. The preferences may be taken at any time during the purchase of the product, prior to and/or after the product has been purchased. The optimization of value may be 30 for at least one customer other than the customers whose preferences are received. The concurrent optimization may include optimization of value for at least two of the -10 customers, a company providing said options and at least one entity other than the company providing said options. Said preferences may include one or more preferences. While an aspect of the invention may only be discussed in the context of a method or of a system, it should be understood that for any method aspect, it is intended the reader 5 will appreciate that a corresponding system implementation will exist and is implied. Likewise, if an aspect of the invention is discussed in the context of a system implementation, it should be clear that the system is carrying out a method which also constitutes a corresponding aspect of the invention. 10 In yet another aspect of the invention, a computer-implemented system and method for a company to provide options on products wherein a computer-implemented service allows a customer to receive an option to utilize each of the m selected products including at least one practically constrained product, where m is greater than or equal to 2, said m products are selected in the course of related transaction(s); it will not be 15 possible for the customer to utilize all said m products due to said practical constraints and recording the information pertaining to said option in a data store, is dealt with. The practical constraints may include the timing constraints and/or the location constraints. The system may contain one or more data processors and these data processors may or may not be the same. The related transaction may be at least one transaction. Said 20 related transaction may also include a monetary value. The customer may not be able to utilize at least one product due to practical constraints. While an aspect of the invention may only be discussed in the context of a method or of a system, it should be understood that for any method aspect, it is intended the reader will appreciate that a corresponding system implementation will exist and is implied. Likewise, if an aspect of the invention 25 is discussed in the context of a system implementation, it should be clear that the system is carrying out a method which also constitutes a corresponding aspect of the invention. Another aspect of the invention comprises of a computer-implemented system and method for a company to provide options on products wherein a computer 30 implemented service allows a customer to receive an option to utilize up to n of m selected products, where is greater than or equal to 2 and n is less than m and recording - 11 the information pertaining to said option in a data store; operating a system, whereby the company may allow the customer to utilize all the m products provided specified conditions are satisfied, said conditions including that the products are received in the course of related transaction(s) and there is at least one payment transaction between the 5 company and the customer related to said products wherein such payment is made after said option has been granted. The information is recorded pertaining to said m products in a data store. The system may contain one or more data processors and these data processors may or may not be the same. The customer may select said m products together. The customer may also select the products prior to utilizing the penultimate 10 product. The company may reserve the right to limit the customer to n products on a stated notification date, The customer may select said m products together. The payment transaction may comprise one or more transactions apart from the initial interaction if said customer utilizes all the awarded products, While an aspect of the invention may only be discussed in the context of a method or of a system, it should be understood that 15 for any method aspect, it is intended the reader will appreciate that a corresponding system implementation will exist and is implied. Likewise, if an aspect of the invention is discussed in the context of a system implementation, it should be clear that the system is carrying out a method which also constitutes a corresponding aspect of the invention. 20 One more aspect of the invention comprises a computer-implemented system and method for a company to provide options on products wherein a computer-implemented service allows a customer to receive an option to utilize up to n of m selected products, provided specified conditions are satisfied, said conditions including that the company may notify the customer, on a stated notification date, that the customer is limited to 25 utilize n out of said in products, wherein n is less than m and recording the information pertaining to said option in a data store; operating a system to define each of said n products, whereby after each of said n products is defined, the customer has the right to utilize said defined product. The information is recorded pertaining to said defined products in a data store, The system may contain one or more data processors and these 30 data processors may or may not be the same. The company may allow the customer to define said n products on or before a stated date. The company may also reserve the right -12 to take back any m minus n products after the stated date, The company may also limit the customer to n products once the customer expresses his/her preference for said n products. Said on a stated notification date includes on and before the stated notification date. However, said on a stated notification date may also include on and after the stated 5 notification date. The company may or may not limit the customer to said n products on the notification date. In case the company limits the customer, said limitation is on at least one product. However, in some other implementations, the company and/or an entity other than the company may not limit the customer to said n products on the notification date. There may be at least one notification date and the customer and/or the 10 company may determine said notification date. The company may notify the customer on or before a notification date. However, the company may also notify the customer after a notification date. While an aspect of the invention may only be discussed in the context of a method or of a system, it should be understood that for any method aspect, it is intended the reader will appreciate that a corresponding system implementation will exist 15 and is implied. Likewise, if an aspect of the invention is discussed in the context of a system implementation, it should be clear that the system is carrying out a method which also constitutes a corresponding aspect of the invention. Another aspect of the invention comprises of a computer-implemented system 20 and method for a company to provide options on products where in providing a data structure in a data store wherein are stored for a customer who may be shifted to one or more products, data including a value that may be realized if the customer is shifted; a data processor may be receives and processes said data to determine from among all or substantially all possible combinations of customers, a set of customers which may be 25 shifted; operating a system to shift at least one set of customers and information pertaining to,said shifting of customers may be recorded in a data store. The system may contain one or more data processors and these data processors may or may not be the same. In one of implementations, at least one of the set of customers which is shifted is from the combination of customers determined by said system. However, in different 30 implementations, at least one of the set of customers which is shifted is other than the combination of customers determined by said system. On detecting the occurrence of at -13 least one event, executing at least one event response algorithm which may determine a set of customers possessing options making them eligible to be shifted to one or more products and may shift at least one of said set of customers to create product availability. Said event may be an increase in the demand of at least one product. Said event may also 5 be an increase in the forecasted demand of at least one product. Said set of customers may include at least one customer. Said shifting of at least one customer may involve shifting of more than one customer. However, in different implementations, it may include more than one customer. Said shifting may involve shifting at least a first customer to at least one of the first products after at least a second customer from at least 10 one of the first products is shifted to at least one of the second product and such cascading process may continue until the last customer in the set is shifted. At least two customers may be involved in said cascading process. Shifting the customers may involve one or more interactions between the company providing said options and said group of customers. The shifting may also involve one or more interactions between an 15 entity other than the company providing said options and said group of customers. The shifting may be done at the instance of at least the company providing said options. However, in different implementations, the shifting may be done at the instance of at least an entity other than the company providing said options. The customers may be shifted to one or more products belonging to the company providing said options. 20 However, in different implementations of the FRO VOF, the customers may be shifted to one or more products belonging to an entity other than the company providing said options, The shifting may include notifying the customer about shifting within the specified notification period. The value may include cost savings for the company providing said options and/or for an entity other than the company providing said options 25 or any combination thereof. The value may also include a soft value. The decision to shift one or more set of customers may be taken to optimize value for at least one of the customer, the company providing said options and/or an entity other than the company providing said options. Said value may be a cost to the company providing said options. While an aspect of the invention may only be discussed in the context of a method or of 30 a system, it should be understood that for any method aspect, it is intended the reader will appreciate that a corresponding system implementation will exist and is implied.

-14 Likewise, if an aspect of the invention is discussed in the context of a system implementation, it should be clear that the system is carrying out a method which also constitutes a corresponding aspect of the invention. 5 In the above mentioned different aspects of the invention and in other aspects of the invention not mentioned above, company may be a seller of at least said product. In another implementation of the FRO VOF, the company may not be a seller of said product. The system may'contain one or more data processors and these data processors may or may not be the same. Delivering said option may occur in relation to a customer 10 purchasing at least one product, In another aspect of the invention, the product purchase may be for a product other than a product for which an option is delivered. Said delivery of option may be an electronic delivery of option. Delivering a said option may occur in relation to a customer purchasing at. least one product other than the product for which an option is delivered. After delivery of said option, at least one of said m products may be 15 available for use by the company. At least one of said m products may be available for use by an entity other than said company. Said i products may be selected in at least one transaction. The company may include more than one entity, The company may select at least one of said m products for the customer. In another aspect of the invention, at least one of said m products may be from more than one company. The n products (mentioned 20 above) may be defined in at least one transaction and said n products may be defined after the option is delivered to the customer. The n Chosen Products may include at least one product other than said m products. Said m and/or n products may be redefined by the company, the customer, an entity other than the company and/or any combination thereof. Similarly, value of m and/or n may be redefined by the company, the customer, 25 an entity other than the company and/or any combination thereof. In another implementation of the invention, at least one of said m products is released for reuse by the company. The Released Product may be utilized to generate revenue or other value without reusing said Released Product. 30 It is another aspect of the invention that in the system and method of this invention, at least one of the company or an entity other than said company may deliver -.15 to the customer, at one or more times, one or more terms and conditions associated with the option, Another aspect of the invention may include that the company may receive from the customer, at one or more times, an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with the option. The company may define, at one or more times, 5 one or more of the n Chosen Products. The customer may also define, at one or more times, one or more of the n Chosen Products. The company may identify to the customer at least one eligible product for the option and allows the customer to select at least one of said m products from the eligible products. to In some implementations, there may be no payment transaction executed between the company and the customer in connection with the option and the selected products. However, in another implementation, at least one payment transaction may be executed between the company and the customer and said payment transaction may include a soft value. In some other implementations, the option may not include a notification deadline 15 condition. However, in some other implementations of the FRO VOF, the option may include at least one notification deadline condition. If the customer, company, an entity other than the company and/or any combination thereof fails to satisfy a stated notification deadline condition, at least one of said m products may be defined as the Chosen Product, The customer may receive the option included in the Product Price that 20 does not separately identify a price for the inclusion of said option within the total Product Price. It is another aspect of the invention that in the system and method of this invention, the company may allocate at least one product to at least one entity other than 25 said company, and said entity delivers said option on at least one of said allocated products. In another case, the company may have allocated one or more products to another entity apart from said company, said entity may sell back at least one allocated product to said company or to at least one entity other than the company or both. The entity other than said company may deliver the option on at least one of said allocated 30 products. The allocation of products may include at least one condition requiring return of one or more products.

- 16 In one or more implementations of the FRO VOF, the above said systems may be same and at least one company may operate at least one of said systems. The customer may interact with the service via at least one web site and/or the customer may interact 5 with the system assisted by at least one operator, The customer may also interact with another entity operating the system other than the company. While an aspect of the invention may only be discussed in the context of a method or of a system, it should be understood that for any method aspect, it is intended the reader will appreciate that a corresponding system implementation will exist and is implied. Likewise, if an aspect of 10 the invention is discussed in the context of a system implementation, it should be clear that the system is carrying out a method which also constitutes a corresponding aspect of the invention. FRO VOF may be implemented in any industry, for example, let us consider the 15 airline industry. One of the implementations of the invention in the airline industry comprises a computer-implemented system and method for an airline to provide options on flights where in a computer-implemented service is operated that provides a data store containing data representing, with respect to at least one flight, at least one option offered by an airline and operating a computer-implemented system that delivers to a 20 customer an option to utilize up to n of m selected flights, where n is less than m. Information is recorded in a data store, pertaining to said option. In addition, a system is operated to define each of the n Chosen Flights, whereby after each of the n Chosen Flights is defined, the customer can utilize said Chosen Flight. The information pertaining to said defined flights is recorded in a data store. The system may contain one 25 or more data processors and these data processors may or may not be the same, While an aspect of the invention may only be discussed in the context of a method or of a system, it should be understood that for any method aspect, it is intended the reader will appreciate that A corresponding system implementation will exist and is implied. Likewise, if an aspect of the invention is discussed in the context of a system 30 implementation, it should be clear that the system is carrying out a method which also constitutes a corresponding aspect of the invention.

-17 Another example of implementation of FRO VOF in the airline industry, this system and method may comprise of operating a system that delivers a first option to at least a "first customer" to utilize up to n of m selected flights for said first customer, 5 where n is less than or equal to m; operating a system that delivers a second option to at least a "second customer" to utilize up to k of p selected flights, where k is less than or equal to p; recording the information pertaining to said options in a data store; operating a system to define each of the k Chosen Flights, whereby after each of the k Chosen Flights is defined, said "second customer" can utilize said Chosen Flight; operating a 10 system wherein an airline defines t Chosen Flight(s) for said "first customer" after each of said k Chosen Flights is defined, wherein after each of said t flights is defined, said first customer can utilize said defined flight, where t is less than or equal to n and recording the information pertaining to said defined flights in a data store. The system may contain one or more data processors and these data processors may or may not be 15 the same. While an aspect of the invention may only be discussed in the context of a method or of a system, it should be understood that for any method aspect, it is intended the reader will appreciate that a corresponding system implementation will exist and is implied. Likewise, if an aspect of the invention is discussed in the context of a system implementation, it should be clear that the system is carrying out a method which also 20. constitutes a corresponding aspect of the invention. In all the cases and aspects of the invention mentioned herein, the company may be, for example, an airline, a hotel, a car rental company, travel company and the product may, for example, correspond to a flight, a room, a Car and a Travel Package, 25 respectively. The PRO VOF may be implemented in any industry including, but not limited to, the airline, hotel, car rental, travel, media entertainment, cruise, real estate, financial services, automobile sales, computer and other retail sales. Another aspect of the invention is that one or more aspects or elements or examples mentioned herein of the invention may be combined in one or more ways to utilize the invention. 30 Also shown are a number of novel systems generated by the disclosed methodology, and related algorithms which may be implemented on the disclosed -18 platform or any other suitable platform, thus constituting new methods and systems. Only a few value option frameworks (VOFs) and their associated methods and systems for delivery of these VOFs are presented in detail, as those skilled in the art will readily appreciate how to implement other VOFs from these teachings. Other features and 5 advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various elements and limitations shown herein may be combined in ways other than those shown in the specifically illustrated examples, which are not intended to be limiting. The disclosure is intended to convey that the inventors contemplate and intend to protect these various 10 combinations and permutations of the elements which are shown, as though each of the arrangements of elements were specifically depicted. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 15 Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration, in a high-level flow chart, of a method of achieving the optionally customized sale of goods or services as taught herein; Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a system as taught herein for practicing the discussed method; Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a method to create a value option framework showing 20 collection of industry and customer dynamics; Fig. 4 and 5 are diagrammatic illustrations of the relationship between overall product utility and contributions as perceived by a customer; Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic illustration of the perceived utilities of a product by four customers; 25 Fig. 7 is a flow chart illustrating optimization of a value option framework; Fig. 8 is a partially-diagrammatic, partially-flow diagram representing the steps of a process for creating a value option framework; Fig. 9 is a diagrammatic representation of the generic structure of a value option framework; 30 Fig. 10 is a diagrammatic illustration showing creation of a value option framework indicating how cost, revenue, utility and service functions; -19 Fig. 11 is a flow chart of a process to implement value option framework; Fig. 12 is a diagrammatic illustration showing generally how an event is processed by the system and method shown, to fulfill a company's obligations to its customers as shown herein, delivering optimized results to the company and the 5 customers; Fig. 13 is a flow chart expanding Act 1280 of Fig. 12; Fig. 13A is a diagrammatic illustration of various business models; Fig. 13B is a diagrammatic illustration of one of ways of interaction between the customer and the OA and/or the company; 10 Fig. 13C is a diagrammatic illustration of one of the network system to implement the system; Fig. 13D is a diagrammatic illustration of implementation of one of the stages of a value option framework as a system; Fig. 13E is a diagrammatic illustration of implementation of event optimizer 15 stage of a value option framework as a system; Fig. 14 is a diagrammatic illustration of an exemplary set of value segments and their value elements related to the FRO VOF; Fig. 15 is a diagrammatic illustration of company economic factors and mapping between customer dynamics and company economic factors in relation to FRO VOF; 20 Fig, 16 is a partially-diagrammatic, partially-flow diagram representing the structure for creating a FRO Value Option Framework; Fig. 17 is a diagrammatic representation of FRO Flights and Initial Transaction associated with an example of FRO (2, 1) instance; Fig. 18 is a diagrammatic illustration, in a high level flowchart, of a process for 25 FRO VOF implementation; Fig. 19 is a flowchart that expands Act 100 of Fig. 18, illustrating a high level algorithm for the "Sequential Get FRO" process; Fig. 20 is a flowchart that expands Act 120 of Fig. 19, illustrating an algorithm to search for FRO Product Sets; 30 Fig. 21 is a flowchart of an algorithm for the "Concurrent Get FRO" process, an alternative process to Fig. 19; -20 Fig. 22 is a flowchart illustrating the BuyN process for a Product Set of a company that has implemented the PRO VOF; Fig. 23 is a flowchart that expands Act 110 of Fig. 22, illustrating an algorithm for the BuyN search process; 5 Fig. 24 is a flowchart that expands Act 150 of Fig, 23, illustrating an algorithm to create capacity using the Remove Y algorithm; Fig. 25 is a flowchart that expands Act 150 of Fig. 24, provides an algorithmic illustration for the RemoveY algorithm; Fig. 26 is a flow chart illustrating an example of an algorithm of Customer 10 NotIication process; Fig. 27 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an algorithm to implement grouping of A and Y type of customers; Fig, 28 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an algorithm to implement grouping of U and Y type of customers; 15 Fig. 29 is a diagrammatic illustration of an exemplary set of value segments and their value elements related to the FRO VOF in context of an airline industry; Fig. 30 is a diagrammatic illustration of airline economic factors and mapping between customer dynamics and airline economic factors in relation to FRO VOF; Fig. 31 is a partially-diagrammatic, partially-flow diagram representing the 20 structure for creating a FRO Value Option Framework in context of an airline industry; Fig, 32 is a diagrammatic representation of FRO Flights and Initial Transaction associated with an example of FRO (2, 1) instance in an airline industry; Fig. 33 is a diagrammatic illustration, in a high level flowchart, of a process for FRO VOF implementation in an airline industry; 25 Fig. 34 is a diagrammatic representation of FRO implementation in an airline industry at the Itinerary Level; Fig. 35 is a diagrammatic representation of FRO implementation in an airline industry at the Segment Level; Fig. 36 is a diagrammatic representation of PRO implementation in an airline 30 industry at the Leg level; -21 Fig. 37, 38, 39 and 40 are simulated screen shots of web screens illustrating how the Iniial Transaction for PRO may take place between an airline and a customer; Fig. 41 is a flowchart that expands Act 100 of Fig. 33, illustrating a high level algorithm for the "Sequential Get FRO" process; 5 Fig, 42 is a flowchart that expands Act 120 of Fig. 41, illustrating an algorithm to search for FRO Flight Sets; Fig. 43 is a flowchart of an algorithm for the "Concurrent Get FRO" process, an alternative process to Fig. 41; Fig. 44 is a flowchart illustrating the BuyjN process for a Flight Segment of an 10 airline that has implemented the FRO VOF; Fig. 45 is a flowchart that expands Act 110 of Fig. 44, illustrating an algorithm for the BuyjN search process; Fig. 46 is a flowchart that expands Act 150 of Fig, 45, illustrating an algorithm to create capacity using the RemoveY algorithm; 15 Fig, 47 is a flowchart that expands Act 150 of Fig, 46, provides an algorithmic illustration for the Remove-Y algorithm; Fig. 48 is a flow chart illustrating an example of an algorithm of Customer Aotification process in an airline industry; Fig. 49 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an algorithm to implement 20 grouping of A and Y type of customers in an airline industry; Fig. 50 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an algorithm to implement grouping of U and Y type of customers in an airline industry; Fig. 51 is a diagrammatic illustration of an exemplary set of value segments and their value elements related to the FRO VOF in context of the hotel industry; 25 Fig. 52 is a diagrammatic illustration of hotel economic factors and mapping between customer dynamics and hotel economic factors in relation to FRO VOF; Fig. 53 is a partially-diagrammatic, partially-flow diagram representing the structure for creating a FRO Value Option Framework in context of the hotel industry; Fig. 54 is a diagrammatic representation of FRO Rooms and Initial Transaction 30 associated with an example of FRO (2, 1) instance in the hotel industry; -22 Fig. 55 is a diagrammatic illustration, in a high level flowchart, of a process for FRO VOF implementation in the hotel industry; Fig. 56 is a diagrammatic representation of FRO implementation in the hotel industry at the Room Product Level; 5 Fig. 57 is a diagrammatic representation of FRO implementation in the hotel industry at the Room Set level; Fig. 58, 59, 60 and 61 are simulated screen shots of web screens illustrating how the Initial Transaction for FRO may take place between a hotel and a customer; Fig, 62 is a flowchart that expands Act 100 of Fig. 55, illustrating a high level 10 algorithm for the "Sequential Get FRO" process; Fig. 63 is a flowchart that expands Act 120 of Fig. 62, illustrating an algorithm to search for FRO Room Sets; Fig. 64 is a flowchart of an algorithm for the "Concurrent Get FRO" process, an alternative process to Fig. 62; 15 Fig. 65 is a flowchart illustrating the Buyj process for a Room Set of a hotel that has implemented the FRO VOF; Fig. 66 is a flowchart that expands Act 110 of Fig. 65, illustrating an algorithm for the BuyN search process; Fig. 67 is a flowchart that expands Act 150 of Fig. 66, illustrating an algorithm to 20 create capacity using the RemoveY algorithm; Fig. 68 is a flowchart that expands Act 150 of Fig. 67, provides an algorithmic illustration for the Remove_Y algorithm; Fig. 69 is a flow chart illustrating an example of an algorithm of Customer NotifIcation process in the hotel industry; 25 Fig, 70 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an algorithm to implement grouping of A and Y type of customers in the hotel industry; and Fig. 71 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an algorithm to implement grouping of U and Y type of customers in the hotel industry. 30 DETAILED DESCRIPTION -23 Selected illustrative embodiments according to the invention will now be described in detail, as the inventive concepts are further amplified and explicated. These embodiments are presented by way of example only. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide enough context to convey a 5 thorough understanding of the invention and of these embodiments. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well-known features and/or process steps have not been described in detail in order to not unnecessarily obscure the invention, One should not confuse the invention with the examples used to illustrate and explain the 10 invention. The features and advantages of the invention may be better understood with reference to the drawings and discussions that follow, The terms and definitions given below are needed to understand the following sections. Some of the key terms used in the description have been put in italics to 15 enhance the readability. The method and system taught herein connect customers directly to a manufacturer or service provider and the rest of the supply chain, herein referred to as "channel partners." The term "manufacturer" is intended to include vendors of services 20 as well as vendor of goods. Hereafter, the manufacturer and channel partners will be collectively referred to as a "company" or "companies" and all of those terms will be appreciated to include sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, option aggregators or any other legal entity or combination thereof. The term "entity" includes the singular and plural and will include individual(s), group of individuals, company, 25 companies, sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations or any other legal entity or combination or consortium thereof. The term "Option Aggregator" or "Option Aggregators" or "ON' may include, but is not limited to, a company, a group and/or consortium of companies, more than one 30 entity, any entity formed by company(s) (whether or not solely for this purpose), any -24 other entity or any combination thereof that offers options on its own products and/or other company products, The term "airline" or "airlines" includes, but is not limited to, an airline, an 5 airline's business partner, an entity which deals with an airline or an airline's business partner, a travel agent, an Option Aggregator and any entity forming a part of the chain of commerce related to airline and/or travel industry, or any combination of any two or more of the above. 10 The term "hotel" or "hotels" includes, but is not limited to, hotel, apartment hotel, bed and breakfast, capsule hotel, caravanserai, casa particular, flophouse, choultry, garden hotels, condo-hotel, holiday cottage, hostel, ice hotel, trailer home, roadhouse, ryokan, turbaza, boarding house, bungalow, condominium, dharamshalas, dormitory, inn, resorts, a group or chain of hotels, a hotel's business partner, an entity which deals 15 with a hotel or a hotel's business partner, a travel agent, an Option Aggregator, any entity forming a part of the chain of commerce related to hotel and/or travel industry, or any combination of any two or more of the above. A hotel may be referred to as an entity that provides space for hire. 20 The term "car rental company" or "car rental companies" includes, but is not limited to, a car rental company, a group of car rental companies, a car rental company's business partner, an entity which deals with a car rental company or a car rental company's business partner, a travel agent, an Option Aggregator, any entity forming a part of the chain of commerce related to car rental industry and/or travel industry, or any 25 combination of any two or more of the above. The term "travel company" or "travel companies" includes, but is not limited to, any entity forming a part of the chain of commerce related to the travel industry, a company, a group of companies, a travel company's business partner, an entity which 30 deals with a travel company or a travel company's business partner, a travel agent, an Option Aggregator, or any combination of any two or more of the above.

-25 The term "Product" refers to a product or service provided by a manufacturer or an entity, The term "Products" or "Product" may also refer to "Product Set" or "Product Sets" or "Produet Order" or "Product Orders" or any combination thereof, as and when 5 the context requires and are used interchangeably. The term "customer" here implies an entity buying or entering into a contract to buy a company's product or service, The term "optimize" is not intended to require achievement of a mathematical minimum or maximum, but to refer to improvement and/or enhancement. 10 The term "flight" refers to a single flight, a group of flights, flights with zero or more stops or any combination of the above. The tenn "Flights" or "Flight" may also sometime refer to one or more seats on said flight(s), when the context requires. The terms "flight" and "seat" are interchangeable as the context requires. The term "Flight" or "Flights" may also refer to a Flight Leg, a Flight Segment, an Itinerary, any 15 combination of two or more flights or any combination of the above, when the context requires. The term "Room" or "Rooms" in context of the hotel industry refers to a single room, a room with zero or more facilities and/or services, only facilities or services 20 offered by the hotel. A room may be referred to as a given space for a given duration of time and for a given set of one or more associated services or characteristics or any combination thereof. In the context of the hotel industry, the term "Room" and "seat" are interchangeable, as and when the context requires, For example, one may refer to a reserved seat for a show in a hotel as a reserved room. 25 The term "Car" or "Cars" refers to any means of transportation including, but not limited to, cars, vans, mini-vans, buses, trucks, trailers, pick-up trucks, scooters, motor cycles, bikes, trains, trains, boats, ships, steamers, jets, helicopters and so on, any variation or model of said means of transportation and/or services, equipments associated 30 with it or any combination(s) thereof, for a given time unit.

-26 The term "Travel Package" or "Travel Packages" or "Package" or "Packages" refers to combination of one or more services related to travel including, but not limited . to, transportation, accommodation, various facilities and so forth, Transportation may include, but is not limited to, travel by flight, train, bus, car, cruise, boat, steamer and so 5 forth. "Accommodation" may include, but is not limited to, stay in hotel or any location and services associated with it. Said "various facilities" may include, but are not limited to, sight seeing, city tours, river-raftling, mountaineering, para-gliding, food and so forth. The term "Itinerary" refers to a list of flights included in a single travel trip of a 10 customer. An Itinerary may comprise one or more "Segments" (defined below). An Itinerary can be a one-way trip (one Segment), a round-trip (two Segments) or a multi city trip (two or more Segments). A round-trip Itinerary has two Segments back and forth between two places (e.g., a trip from A to B and then back from B to A). A One Way Itinerary has only one Segment (such as travel from A to B). A Multi-City Itinerary 15 refers to an Itinerary with two or more Segments across two or more places (e.g., a trip from A to B and then from B to C). The term "Flight Segment" (or "Segment", in short) refers to a part of an Itinerary between a customer's intended origin and destination. A Segment may 20 comprise one or more "Flight Legs". The tenn "Flight Leg" (or "Leg", in short) is the most fundamental unit of an Itinerary and is defined by a single takeoff and landing of a flight. In a round-trip Itinerary (A to B and B to A), there may be 2 Flight Legs from A to B (customer flies from A to C and then C to B, two connecting flights), and similarly two Flight Legs from B to A (customer flies from B to D and then D to A, two 25 connecting flights). When a customer flies from A to 13 and the plane takes a stop in between at C, it is still considered to be two Flight Legs (A-to-C and C-to-B) even though the customer may/may not change planes between A and B and/or an airline may, or may not use the same flight number to refer to the entire Segment from A to B. 30 The term "Product Price" of a Product (in reference to one or more VOFs) refers to the price a company would charge for a Product in the absence of implementation of -27 said VOFs on said product. In the context of the airline industry, the term "Ticket Price" (in reference to one or more VOFs) refers to the price that an airline would charge in the absence of implementation of said VOFs on said flight, In the context of the hotel industry, the term "Room Price" of a room (in reference to one or more VOFs) refers to 5 the price that a hotel would charge for a room in the absence of implementation of said VOFs on said room, In the context of the car rental industry, the term "Car Rental Price" of a car (in reference to one or more VOFs) refers to the price that a car rental company would charge for a car in the absence of implementation of said VOFs on said car. In the context of the travel industry, the term "Travel Package Price" of a travel package (in 10 reference to one or more VOFs) refers to the price that a travel company would charge for a travel package in the absence of implementation of said VOFs on said travel package. The term "transaction" here implies to do, to carry or to conduct an agreement or 15 exchange. The exchange may or may not involve a price in terms of monetary or non monetary value from customer side. The parties participating in the transaction may have obligation(s) from various terms and conditions. In other words, transaction may also imply an action or activity involving two or more parties that reciprocally affect or influence each other. 20 In the context of an airline industry, the term "schedule" refers to the characteristics of a flight including, but not limited to, airline related parameters, departure/arrival parameters, service and other miscellaneous parameters. The airline related parameters may include, but are not limited to, operating carrier entity (i.e, the 25 airline that operates the flight), marketing carrier (an airline that sells the flight), any other carrier or intra/inter-carrier flight groups associated with the flight or any combination of the above. The departure/arrival parameters may include, but are not limited to, an airport and its location (city, state, country), date and time, seasonality, weather and other operational conditions, number of stops/connections, and so forth. 30 The service and other miscellaneous parameters may include, but are not limited to, type of aircraft, flight duration, in-flight or other services such as number of cabins, types of -28 seats, meal selection, check-in and luggage options, airport lounges and other facilities, and so forth, The term "schedule", in the context of car rental industry, refers to the 5 characteristics of a car including, but not limited to, car rental company related parameters, pick-up/drop-off times, service and other miscellaneous parameters. The car rental company related parameters may include, but are not limited to, operating car rental company entity (i.e. the car rental company that operates the car), owner of the car, marketing car rental company (a car rental company that rents out the car), any other car 10 rental company or intra/inter-car rental company groups associated with the car rental or any combination of the above. The pick-up/drop-off parameters may include, but are not limited to, a pick-up/drop-off location (area or street, landmark, city, state, country), date and time, seasonality and other operational conditions, and so forth. The service and other miscellaneous parameters may include, but are not limited to, type of car, car rental 15 duration, or other services, car rental company services such as insurance, additional driver, child seats, and other equipments, and so forth. The term "schedule", in context of a travel package refers to the characteristics of a travel package including, but not limited to, travel company related parameters, 20 start/end date time, service and other miscellaneous parameters including travel company related parameters. The travel company related parameters may include, but are not limited to, operating travel company (i.e. the travel company that operates the package), marketing travel company (a travel company that sells the travel package), any other travel company or intra/inter-travel company groups associated with the package or any 25 combination of the above. The start/end parameters may include, but are not limited to, a destination location (area or street, landmark, city, state, country), date and time, seasonality, weather and other operational conditions, and so forth. The service and other miscellaneous parameters may include, but are not limited to, type of flight, car, room, cruise, travel duration, or other services, travel company services such as insurance, 30 flight services, car special equipments, hotel services, cruise services, other facilities, and so forth, -29 The term "related transactions" here refers to one or more transactions that are related to each other. In a Value Option Framework, the successful interaction between the participants may happen through a number of transactions in sequence, where each of 5 the transactions in the sequence may (or may not) depend upon the outcome of the previous transaction, and this may create a chain of "related transactions". However, at least one transaction in a set of related transactions must be related to all the other transactions. The connection or reference between the transactions may be direct or indirect and/or implicit or explicit. The related transactions may be contingent to each 10 other or rely or require the aid of the other to support. The transactions may be fully and/or partly related to each other to be construed as related transactions. For example, the price of a transaction may be modified if the customer has already bought a product in a previous transaction, which makes the two transaction related to each other. In another example, the customer is given availability in a flight since he or she has already 15 purchased a ticket in another flight; which makes both the transactions related to each other. For the transactions to be called as related transactions, some dependency and/or nexus between the transactions has to be established. The transactions may become related transaction in one or more transactions. Related transaction may include, but is not limited to, a transaction with monetary value, a transaction without monetary value 20 and so forth. The term "default" here implies a situation or condition that turns up in the absence of active intervention from the users in a contract. In such situation, a particular setting or value (termed "Default Settings" or "Default Value") for one/more exchange 25 variables is/are assigned automatically. These Default Settings/Default Values remain in effect unless intervened. The term "payment" here implies the act of paying or the state of being paid. The term "payment" here implies an amount of money or any other consideration paid at a 30 given time or which has been received in the past but for which the benefit of the same is realized now, may be in part or in totality. "Payment" may also refer to a transfer of -30 something of value to compensate for products or services that have been, or will be, received. Payment may be made in cash, on credit or any other consideration. The payment may have monetary or non-monetary (soft) value. The payment can be from company and/or any other entity to customer or from customer to company and/or any 5 other entity or both. The tetm "significant period of time" here implies a time period that is large enough with respect to the total utility time for the customer that it may affect the behavior of a transaction. 10 The term "anytime" or "any other time " here refers to any point of time that lies between a time period starting from the initial interaction of a customer with an airline (for any ticket purchase or any other event) for a particular journey and ending when said customer completes said journey and/or any other journey related to said journey. 15 The term "selected" or "select" or "selects" refers to, without limitation, selecting, selecting and purchasing, purchasing, defining, choosing, expressing a preference or any combination thereof The term "receiving" or "receives" here refers to, without limitation, purchasing, utilizing, receiving for free, receiving without 20 requirement of a physical delivery or any combination thereof. In some situations, said terms (related to "select") may also refer to, without limitation, receiving, purchasing or any combination thereof (including any grammatical forms of these terms such as noun, adjective, verb etc,). Said terms (related to "select") are used interchangeably as and when the context requires. 25 The phrase "selecting a Product" for option purposes includes selecting one or more products within the same or a different product level (or a section or compartment) within the same product category. In context of the hotel industry, the phrase "selecting a Room" for option purposes includes, but not limited to, selecting one or more rooms 30 within the same or a different hotel or any combination thereof. In the context of a car rental company, the phrase "selecting a Car" or "renting a Car" or-"purchasing a Car" for -31 option purposes includes, but not limited to, selecting one or more cars or car types or equipments associated with the car from the same or a different car rental company or any combination thereof. In context of travel industry, the phrase "selecting a Travel Package" for option purposes includes, but not limited to, selecting one or more travel 5 packages within the same or a different travel company or any combination thereof. The terms "Set" and "Product Set" refers to a collection of Products and are used interchangeably. A Set may have one or more Products. In the airline industry context, a Flight Segment is equivalent to a Set and each Leg within a Segment is equivalent to a 10 Product. A Segment may comprise one or more Flight Legs (Products). In the hotel industry context, a Room Set is equivalent to a Set and each Room Product within a Room Set is equivalent to a Product A Room Set may comprise one or more Room Products. In context of car rental industry, a Car Set is equivalent to a Set and each Car Product within a Car Set is equivalent to a Car Product. A Car Set may comprise one or 15 more Car Products. In context of travel industry, a Travel Package Set is equivalent to a Set and each Travel Package Product within a Travel Package Set is equivalent to a Product. A Travel Package Set may comprise one or more Travel Package Products. A company may (or may not) impose a restriction that all the Products of a Set must be used together unless a change is made to the Order (described later). 20 The term "Order" may comprise one or more Sets, where each Set may comprise one or more Products. In the context of the airline industry, an Itinerary is equivalent to an Order. In context of hotel industry, a Room Order is equivalent to an Order. In context of car rental industry, a Car Order is equivalent to an Order. In context of travel industry, 25 a Travel Package Order is equivalent to an Order. The term "Initial Product Set" (or IPS, in short) refers to a Set purchased by a customer. For example, in the airline industry context, the term Initial Flight Segment (defined below) is equivalent to IPS. The term "Initial Plight Segment" (or IFS, in short) 30 refers to a flight Segment purchased by a customer. For example, consider an itinerary with two Segments, A to B and B to A. Each of the two segments is referred to as IFS.

-32 In context of hotel industry, "Initial Room Set" is equivalent to IPS. The term "Initial Room Set" (or IRS, in short) refers to a Room Set purchased by a customer. In context of car rental industry, "Initial Car Set' is equivalent to IPS. The term "Initial Car Set" (or ICS, in short) refers to a Car Set purchased by a customer. In context of travel industry, 5 "Initial Travel Package Set" is equivalent to IPS, The term "Initial Travel Package Set" (or ITS, in short) refers to a Travel Package Set purchased by a customer. The term "Option Product Set" (or OPS, in short) refers to a Set received by the customer as part of a FRO. In the airline industry context, OFS is equivalent to OPS. 10 The term "Option Flight Segment" (or OFS, in short) refers to a flight Segment selected as part of a PRO option on a given IFS in the context of the airline industry. There can be one or more OFS for a specific IFS. The term "Option Room Set" (or ORS, in short) refers to a Room Set selected as part of a FRO option on a given IRS in the context of the hotel industry. There can be one or more ORS for a specific IRS. The term "Option 15 Car Set" (or OCS, in short) refers to a Car Set selected as part of a FRO option on a given ICS in the context of the car rental industry. There can be one or more OCS for a specific ICS. The term "Option Travel Package Set" (or OTS, in short) refers to a Travel Package Set selected as part of a FRO option on a given ITS in the context of the travel industry. There can be one or more OTS for a specific ITS. 20 The term "Y" refers to a type of customer who has received a FRO. In the context of FRO VOF, the term "N" refers to the type of customer who has not received a FRO. N also refers to those Y customers for whom FRO has been exercised completely. The term "Y Status" refers to the status of a Y customer in a given IPS or OPSs. Y 25 status are of two types: Accounted (Ya) and Awaiting (Yw). When a Y customer is counted as holding (or using or blocking) a unit of capacity of a Product in a Set (IPS or OPS), his/her status is called Accounted with respect to each of the Products in that Set. The corresponding Set is termed 30 'AccountedSet' for the Y customer, who is having a status of Ya with respect to that Accounted Set and Products included in this Set, -33 When a Y customer is not counted as holding (or using or blocking) a unit of capacity of the Products in a Set (IPS or OPS), his/her status is called Awaiting with respect to that Set and each of the Products in the set. The corresponding Set is termed 5 AwaitingSet for the Y customer and the customer is Yw with respect to that Awaiting_Set and Products included in this Set, At any given time, a customer may (or may not) be accounted to only one Set and is awaiting in the rest of the related Sets. The term "AC" refers the available capacity of a Product and is defined as: AC= 10 C - N, where N is defined a's the sum of N type of customers. The term "EAC"-refers to the effective available capacity of a Product and is defined as : EAC = AC - YA, where YA is the number of customers who are of Ya status in that Product. 15 The term "shifting", with respect to shifting of a customer from a product A to a product B, refers to reassignment of at least one customer from at least a product A to at least a product B or reassignment of at least a product B to a customer in place of at least a product A. Shifting may imply transfer and/or movement of one or more customers 20 from one or more products to another. It may also refer to, without limitation, substitution of one or more products in lieu of other products, Let's consider an example in the airline industry. A customer may be booked on Flight F1 and may receive FRO to, be shifted to Flight F2. So, now shifting may imply reassignment or substitution of Flight F2 in place of Flight F1 for said customer. Let's now consider an example in the hotel 25 industry. A customer may have booked Room RI and may receive FRO to be shifted to Room R2. So, now shifting may imply reassignment or substitution of Room R2 in place of Room R1 for said customer. Now, consider an example in the car rental industry, A customer may have rented Car CI and may receive FRO to be shifted to Car C2. So, now shifting may imply reassignment or substitution of Car C2 in place of Car C1 for said 30 customer. An example in the travel industry is now considered. A customer may be booked on Travel Package TI and may receive FRO to be shifted to Travel Package T2.

-34 So, now shifting may imply reassignment or substitution of Travel Package T2 in place of Travel Package TI for said customer. The term "RemoveY" refers to a recursive algorithm for which the necessary 5 parameters are defined as follows: input parameters: Collection of ParentY (or COPY, in short), Collection of Parent Product (or COPP, in short), CallerY, Initiator Product, Initiator_Y, Benefit; and output parameters: a YSeries collection. Definition of all the parameters are given below. 10 The term "Collection of ParentY" (or COPY, in short) refers to a collection of Ya customers fcr which the Remove -Y algorithm has already been called within a cascade of RemoveY calls. The corresponding customer is referred to as ParentY. The term "Collection of Parent Product" (or COPP, in short) refers to a collection 15 of Products for which the Remove -Y algorithm has already been called within a cascade of RemoveY calls to generate Capacity. The corresponding Product is called Parent Product. The term "CallerY" refers to the Ya customer, which is to be shifted from its 20 Accounted-Set to Awaiting Set by calling the Remove Y algorithm. The term "InitiatorProduct" refers to the Product from which Caller-Y is to be shifted by using the RemoveY algorithm to generate capacity. 25 The term "InitiatorY" refers to a customer whose wants to capture a unit of capacity of the Initiator,_Product, and thus, derives the need to create its capacity by using the RemoveY algorithm to shift the Caller Y from the Initiator Product. The term "Benefit" refers to a benefit that the company may realize by creating 30 capacity in Initiator'Product.

- 35 -~ The term "ChildY" refers to a V customer who was shifted in the cascading route of Remove-Y calls. A ChildY element comprises the following entities: Collection of Initiator, Initial AccountedSet, Final AccountedSet and Cost of ChildY. 5 The term "Collection of Initiator" (or COI, in short) refers to a collection of one or more members, where each member in the collection comprises the following: InitiatorProduct and InitiatorY, where said InitiatorY derives a need to create capacity in said InitiatorProduct, 10 The term "InitialAccounted-Set" refers to the Set where the ChildY is accounted before he or she is shifted in the RemoveY process. The term "FinalAccounted-Set" refers to the Set where the ChildY is accounted after being shifted by the RemoveY algorithm from the InitialAccountedSet. i5 The term "Cost of ChildY" (or CCY, in short) refers to the cost to shift the current ChildY from its InitialAccountedSet to the Final-AccountedSet. The term "SeriesElement' refers to a feasible route generated when Remove Y 20 is called to shift a Caller Y from its AccountedSet to its AwaitingSet. A Series-Element comprises the following entities: Collection of ChildY (COCY), Collection of EndProduct (COEP); and Cost of the SeriesElement (CSE). The term "Collection of ChildY" (or COCY, in short) refers to a collection of all 25 the ChildY, which have been shifted by the RemoveY algorithm within a Series-Element. The term "EndProduct" refers to a Product with enough units of EAC to accommodate a CallerY. The cascading route of Remove Y reaches one end when it 30 approaches an EndProduct. An End-Product comprises AC and Collection of Ya (or -36 COYA, in short). COYA includes all the Ya that are accounted in the EndProduct (includes existing Ya and ChildY that are shifted to End-Product). The term "Collection of End_.Product" (or COP, in short) refers to a collection 5 of all the End-Products involved within a SeriesElement The term "Cost of the Series_.Element" (or CSE, in short) refers to the total of CCY of all the ChildY associated with a Series-Element, 10 The term "Series" refers to a collection of the SeriesElements. The term "YSeries" refers to a collection of the Series Elements, which is returned as output by the Remove-Y algorithm. The term "P_Series" refers to a collection of the SeriesElements at the Product level. A P Series collection is obtained from the Y Series collections of all Ya in the Product. The term "S Series" refers to a collection 15 of the Series_Elements at the Set level. As used herein, the term "processor" includes, without limitation, any one or more devices for processing information. Specifically, a processor may include a distributed processing mechanism. Without limitation, a processor may include 20 hardware, software, or combinations thereof; general purpose digital computing elements and special purpose digital computing elements and likewise included. A single processor may perform numerous functions and may be considered a separate processor when implementing each function. The terms "database" and "data store" may have been used interchangeably as and when the context requires and both may refer to any 25 form of storing the data, including but not limited to, storing the data in a structured form, storing the data in an unstructured form and so forth. General Method Description: Kernel 30 Referring now to Fig, 1, there is shown a high-level flow-chart style diagram of a method to achieve the optimally customized sale of products or services to "close the gap." It involves the following steps or acts: In Act 1.110, certain inputs are captured, -37 including customer dynamics and important value segments, their demand, preferences, flexibilities and associated relative utilities. Company economics and important economic factors such as, for example, costs, capacities and constraints are captured in Act 1.120. The customer information from Act 1.110 and the company economics from 5 Act 1.120 are then in Act 1.130, "integrated" in a way that will permit optimization of value for both the company (e.g., its profitability) and customers (e.g., their individual and collective purchase utilities). In Act 1.140, value options are formulated that permit the capturing of individual customer preferences in way that can be used in the optimal customization of the sale process illustrated. These same steps can be used in one or 10 more permutations or combinations or iteratively. At a high level, the system is operated and the method of Fig. 1 is executed to (1) to dynamically interact with the customers to determine detailed customer demand for the product and options, (2) receive a real-time assessment of company economics, ie., 15 capacities, constraints, and costs, (3) optimize across demands and preferences of all customers, and company economies, and (4) formulate value options for customers. To take advantage of this system, a company has to obtain information about customer demand and preferences before (and/or during) a purchase, in a structured 20 manner that can be easily understood and translated into satisfaction for customers and also can be used to optimize internal operations for companies. This data can then be integrated with the company's internal resources and capacities to enhance and improve its operations. A company can "optimally customize" its products and processes to enhance the value for customers, while simultaneously maximizing its business 25 profitability. Customers also benefit from the fact that they spend less time researching products, can be assured that their priorities are known in case of change or contingency events occurring, can enhance their purchased products/services and get more perceived value for their purchase price. 30 At a high level, a block diagram of a typical system for implementing this methodology is shown in Fig. 2. The data for driving the system, from both the customer -38 side and the company side, is stored in a data store (or database) shown in Box 2,210 (or multiple data stores or databases), which may be of any suitable database design and may be a commercially available database product configured for this application. The "heart" of the system is a platform, typically one or more servers, shown in Box 2.220, 5 which provides the processing capability to implement three modules, shown in Boxes 2.230, 2.240 and 2.250. The Customer Engine module (shown in Box 2.230) controls the interfacing with the customer via whatever media are selected by the company, For example, the company may use one or more of a web site (shown in Box 2.232), a call center (shown in Box 2.234) and/or live customer service "counter" personnel (shown in 10 Box 2.236) (e.g., at a point-of-sale location). The Value Option Creator module (shown in Box 2.240) is a software program(s) that performs the functions of allowing a company to design, create and configure different value option frameworks and corresponding value options that can be offered to customer to capture their needs and preferences in detail and in a way that can be used to optimize across company 15 operations. The Event Optimizer module (shown in Box 2.250) comprises a program or programs that (a) monitor company business performance and provide information about business data (such as available capacities, costs, sales, inventory and so forth) as well as other relevant factors that may vary from installation to installation; and (b) monitor for the occurrence of events related to the value options which customers have bought, and 20 which then execute pre-designed protocols when a related event occurs (e.g., a re booking algorithm is activated when a flight cancellation event occurs). Process to use the new system and method in an industry 25 The following sections describe in detail how this system and method may be used in any particular industry. Industries and companies best suited to use and benefit from the invention are those with large number of customers and wherein those customers would have varied utilities for aspects of a product offering, especially if those aspects were unbundled and some made optional. 30 -39 To get maximum benefit from the herein disclosed system and method requires the use of human judgment. It should be emphasized, therefore, that there is shown a "platform" technology and a variety of non-exhaustive ways of using the platform. Those who make use of this platform in their companies will make decisions and 5 exercise their judgment so that each instantiation or practice is likely to be unique, at least to a degree. In addition to disclosing the platform, via the given examples we also disclose certain instantiations of the system and method which themselves are believed to have value but the system and method are not intended to be limited to these instantiations except as they may be expressly claimed. 10 Using the discussed system and method in any industry involves a two-staged approach. The selection of an industry is assumed. The industry provides a context. Starting in Fig. 3, in the first stage of the method, a set of value option frameworks (to be associated with a company's offerings) is created. It is immaterial, for the current 15 discussion, how one obtains the information used to construct a value option framework. Implicitly or explicitly, a value option framework reflects some sort of analysis of customer dynamics and company economics. Thus, to construct a value option framework for a particular type of transaction, one needs to arrive (however one chooses) at a list of components the customer may select when buying a product, and their prices. 20 For example, in a simple case there may be delivery options and warranty options and maybe training options. Each option is assigned a price, whether statically, quasi statically, or dynamically. Static pricing is assigned at very infrequent intervals. Dynamic pricing (determined by an algorithm invoked by the Event Optimizer is assigned either on an on-demand basis for a particular transaction or at frequent intervals 25 so as to yield pricing based on near (i.e., quasi) real time company performance data. Quasi-static pricing would be somewhere between the former two situations, such as pricing done quarterly or monthly based on then-current information about the company. Pricing may involve running financial analysis based on known data to optimally set the conditions and pricing in the value option framework associated with the company 30 offerings.

-40 The second stage, as depicted in Fig. 11, involves a detailed interaction with the customer who has approached the company (Act 11.1110). Approaching the company may involve accessing a web site or calling a call center or any other way of commencing a transaction. The interaction (Act 11.1120) occurs in a structured format 5 to capture the customer's expressed needs, preferences, flexibilities and relative utilities. As a preliminary matter, it is possible the customer may previously have registered a profile containing default selections of needs, preferences, etc. So, the data store or database 2.210 is interrogated to determine whether a profile exists and, if so, to retrieve it (Act 11.1 120A). The customer is presented with questions and/or value options (Act 10 11.11 20B) and in response he/she supplies answers and select options that suit him/her (Act 11.1 120C). The second Act in the second stage is executed by the Event Optimizer module 2.250. A summary of the algorithmic flow of the Event Optimizer presented in Box 15 11.1130. The Event Optimizer is alerted to, or detects, the occurrence of an event (shown in Box 11.1132 and 11,1134) for which an event-response procedure (program) has been pre-stored. Each event-response procedure is designed by the company to effect selected action(s) in response to detection of its corresponding event. Depending on the nature of the event, an event-response procedure may invoke an optimization 20 algorithm (shown in Box 11.1140), assess the company operations (possibly in real time) and analyze, across company operations (shown in Box 11.1138) and customer information (shown in Box 11.1136), potential results to determine results that concurrently maximize the benefits for the company and the customer. The optimization may or may not modify the company product offerings to better suit the customer while 25 simultaneously maximizing the company operations (shown in Box 11.1150). Both of the stages and the steps involved wilI now be discussed in detail. First Stage: Formulation of Value Option Framework 30 Turning to Fig. 3, it will be assumed that the inventive method and system are to be adapted to a particular industry or company. One may develop a generic instance for -41 an industry or particularize it to an individual company. Some considerations will inherently be generic to an industry. Thus, to formulate a value option framework, one begins by selecting the industry. Act 3.310. Next, the customer and company dynamics are captured. Act 3.320. To capture customer dynamics, one needs to understand the 5 value segments and value elements that are important for the customer. To assess company dynamics, one needs to assess the economic factors that are crucial to the company's profitability and performance. (1) Capturing Customer Dynamics - Act 3.320A 10 A customer derives certain utility by purchasing a particular product. The purchase utility value, typically, can be separated into many value segments, Customers value these segments (which include core qualities of the offering as well as options and contingent options i.e,, options dependent on options) from the perspective of what is 15 important to the customer through the whole buying and usage experience, starting from, searching for a product, placing a particular order and using the product throughout its lifecycle. To go further, it will be helpful to define two terms: value segment and value element. A "value element" is a distinct aspect/characteristic of a product's buying and usage experience that may affect the utility of the product to the customer. A "value 20 segment" is a particular category of such value elements. While value segments may vary from industry to industry and will have to be selected by the individual or team that implements a particular instance of this system and method, for many industries, the four most important value segments are (a) product design value, (b) product delivery value, (o) product price value, and (d) service value. See boxes 3.320B to 3.320E. These value 25 elements are shown in Figs. 4 and 5, which are simply alternative views of the same information and will be discussed below. It should be noted, however, that these value segments are just provided for illustration purposes. Industries that can benefit from the system and method of the invention may have more or fewer than the listed value segments and/or a different list of value segments. Each value segment may have one or 30 more value elements, Further, the actual number of value elements in each value segment may vary with the industry, the level of detail in the business model, and even -42 the customers. The system implementer can choose the number of value elements in each value segment. Total Value for Customers 5 A customer derives unique value from each value segment; the total utility value of the product to a customer (shown in Figs. 4 and 5) is the combination of values derived from each of the value segments. A customer would benefit the most if the total expected value of his/her utility were maximized. Another important aspect to note is 10 that every customer also has an acceptable range (e.g., equals, exceeds, or disappoints, minimum or maximum) for each individual parameter value. Even if a particular product has high overall value, a customer may not desire the product if it scores below the minimum level (i.e., low enough to reject the product) for any one or more of the value segments or value element, A company may use any method for calculating utility. 15 Concept of Tiered Value Perception Different customers may derive different utility from different aspects of the same product. As shown in Fig. 6, four different customers 610A - 610D may compute 20 to the same (total) overall utility even though they assign different utility values to each of the value segments. For example, a human resource manager, who has scheduled interviews with candidates, would value the timely ticket to his destination much more than a vacationer, who may be flexible. Consequently, the company needs, in some way, to define and learn about these value parameters for individual customers, along with 25 relative preferences and utilities associated with each parameter. This will be illustrated below using the previously listed value segments. A web-based questionnaire is one excellent way to collect this information. The collected information is then stored in a customer profile or Itinerary in a data store or database, such as database 2.210. 30 (a) Product Design Value - 43 The "product design" segment refers to the value elements relating to the design features and characteristics of a product that the customer actually buys. Each customer places his or her own values on these different design value elements. 5 (b) Product Delivery Value The "product delivery" segment refers to the value elements relating delivery or time-frame related aspects like, for example, lead-time and delivery schedule from the time the customer places an order. Again, each customer may place his or her own 10 values on each of these value elements. The company collects detailed information on the product delivery needs of the customers, (c) Product Price Value 15 The "product price" segment refers to the groups of value elements related to the price a customer pays to buy/use a product. Value elements in this segment may include total product price, delivery costs, warranty or after-sales service costs, and any other relevant costs incurred by the customer in buying and using the product. Some times, addition of all these price elements is also termed total cost of ownership (TCO). A 20 customer derives maximum price value by paying the most desired price for a product. Any price paid either lower or higher than the desired price may change the value the customer gets from the price of the product. The company collects information on the product price needs of the customers. 25 (d) Service Value The "service value" segment refers to a group of value elements related to the service a customer receives from pre-sales and post-sales services offered by the company to facilitate the use of the products sold, Pre-sales services include services 30 provided by a company to help its customers decide and choose products based on their requirements. Post-sales or after-sales service refers to the warranty, product support, -44 maintenance support and other relevant activities that may help a customer to use the product effectively, A customer will derive maximum service value from a product if the services provided by the company completely match or exceed those desired by the customer. The company utilizing the invention collects information not only on the 5 service needs of its customers, but also on customer preferences on different possible events that might occur during or after the purchase. Summary of Capturing Customer Dynamics 10 Based on the method described above, the first Act for a company is to establish the value segments and value elements it will present to the customer for tile customer's decision. It may establish these value segments and value elements in any way it chooses. A company may want to use market research or other mechanisms to analyze the value segments and value elements that are important to customers. An industry 15 expert may choose to avoid such research and, instead to rely on experience. (2) Assessment of company economics The next Act in the first stage, as shown in Fig. 3, is to assess the crucial 20 economic factors that affect the bottom-line and top-line of the company, Act 3.330A. For example, these factors may include but are not limited to revenues, fixed costs, inventory, available and scheduled capacity, constraints on product availability and total and marginal values for current direct and indirect product (and/or services) costs. For illustration purposes only, Fig. 3 shows the grouping of such factors into five major 25 categories 3.330B-F, including costs, revenue, service, competition and other. It might be beneficial if a company utilizing the inventive system and method were able to express cost elements in a real-time or quasi-real-time (i.e., up to date) dynamic fashion so that such information can then be used to assess the profitability or 30 contribution of each product sale opportunity, and to facilitate the operation of the Event Optimizer (so that offers and actions can be based on real-time or near-real-time -45 information). Certainly that is not always required and would not be required in an industry where there is little change in cost elements over a significant time interval. (3) Integration of Customer dynamics with company economic factors 5 A third Act, shown in Box 340 of Fig. 3, is to take the information collected from the previous two steps, analyze this data and find important value segments and elements that directly affect the crucial economic factors for the company. This operation involves creating a mapping between company factors and customer value segments, to 10 establish direct and indirect relationships between the two. (4) Formation of value option framework The formation of a value option framework involves certain steps illustrated in 15 Fig. 8. The value option framework is formed around important mapped value elements, allowing capture of detailed individual, customer-level data expressing needs, preferences, flexibilities and relative utilities so as to positively impact the company operations, while simultaneously enhancing the overall product utility for the customer. A value option framework (VOF) must allow the company to capture a customer's 20 demand, preferences, flexibilities and relative utilities at an individual level in a format that can allow that information to be used to produce a cost savings or revenue enhancement for company operations while concurrently enhancing customer utility, The structure of a value option framework is defined in detail later. 25 The process to create a value option framework is shown in greater detail in Fig. 8. In Act 8.8 10, the process starts from that list. From this list, the company may select a list of mapped value elements which fulfill the criteria listed above, Act 8.820, and a value option framework is built around those value elements. One could build a value option framework around almost every mapped relationship, so the decision criteria to 30 choose or reject any such relationship is simply pragmatics. It is probably to be desired to limit the number of relationships to keep the value option framework manageable, -46 computationally and otherwise. In Fig. 8, there are three VOFs shown at 8.830, namely A, B and C. The number of value option frameworks shown is for illustration purposes only and could be fewer or more, depending on factors such as the industry selected and user discretion. As explained in detail later, each value option framework is related to a 5 corresponding value element and one or more related event(s). For illustration purpose, in the Box 8.840, value option framework A is related to a value element VA and two related events, EA, and Ea. In most situations, after the initial interaction between the customer and company related to a particular value element, one or more related events (or a series of events) would take place. The structure of a value option framework is 10 defined below in detail. Structure of a Value Option Framework Fig. 9 defines the structure of a Value Option Framework. The Box 9.910 shows 15 a value option framework A. Every value option framework may be related to one or more value elements. As shown in the Box 9,910, value option framework A is related to value element VA. One can create one or more instances of a value option framework as shown by the two value options (Ai and A 2 ). The Box 9.920 shows the initial interaction between the customer and company where the company offers the value 20 option Al to the customer. Every value option has an initial costs/savings and other benefits and conditions to the customer; and revenue/costs and other benefits and conditions to the company. The Initial Transaction is successful if the customer selects the given value option. Every successful transaction may be succeeded by one or more related events (or a series of events as shown by the Boxes 9.930 (Level I events) and 25 9.940 (Level 2 events). Just like the initial Transaction, each event may also have costs/savings and benefits and conditions to the customer, and revenue/costs and benefits and conditions to the company, as shown by the linked arrows from Event EAS to both the customer and company. 30 The Initial Transaction may comprise one or more acts. One or more products may be selected, at one or more times, before, after, during the Initial Transaction, or -47 any combination thereof. The Initial Transaction or any of the following events may have temis and conditions applicable to the customer, the company, another entity or any combination thereof. These terms and conditions may be set, preferably, to concurrently benefit both parties. 5 Consider, again, the process of formulating a value option framework. For each value option framework, the company-user also preferably categorizes its population of customers into one or more segments based on one or more criteria. Customer segmentation is based on customer behavior and needs. Individual customers are not 10 necessarily segmented or grouped; a particular customer may fall within different customer segments at different times. It is the customer behaviors and needs that are segmented. To provide an example, in the 3ox 860 in Fig. 8, all of the company customers are categorized into three customer segments, namely, C'A. C 2 A, C 3 A for the value option framework A. The number of customer segments could vary depending on 15 the industry and value option framework, and this method does not put a limit on the number of customer segments. The number of customer segments shown is for illustration purposes only and could be fewer than or more depending on industry selected, value option framework and user discretion. Further, a company may segment its customers differently for different value option frameworks or they may use the same 20 customer segmentation for a few or all value option frameworks. The customer segmentation is done because the customer behavior can be subdivided into different groups and customer showing similar behavior could be dealt in a similar fashion. After formulating one or more sets of value option framework(s) around the 25 selected value elements, the user creates one or more value options for each set of value option frameworks. In Fig. 8, the value options A, A 2 and A 3 are created in box 8.850 for the value option framework A. The number of value options shown is for illustration purposes only and could be fewer or more depending on industry selected, value option framework and user discretion. 30 -48 For each value option created, the user defines parameters for option pricing, benefits and conditions to the customer, as well as revenue, costs and option conditions to the company, under -which the option would be used. If necessary, a user may also need to create a separate questionnaire to be completed by customers, pertaining to each 5 value option. There may or may not be any payment transaction related to the Initial Transaction and/or other event related to the Initial Transaction and/or Value Option Framework. A price may include, but is not limited to, a set of one or more Product 10 Prices, a set of one or more option prices, any other price or any combination of the above. The price may comprise a monetary value or a soft value (e.g., benefits, coupons or exchange of another service) or other consideration. The prike may be fixed or variable, with or without bounds. The company may set permissible range(s) or boundary limit(s) within which the price can vary, or it may offer the customer a set of 15 prices to choose from. Since price conditions may depend upon various factors, which may or may not be variable, the same may be decided at anytime. The price conditions may be determined by the customer, the company, a third entity, or any combination thereof, at one or more times. 20 As shown in Fig. 8, the user creates value options for each particular customer segment (Act 8.870). In Fig. 8, the structure for value option conditions for Value Option A 2 tailored to customer segment C 3 A is shown in the Box 8.880. Similarly, the user creates conditions and parameter values for each value option for each customer segment. 25 For one type of value option, one or more parameters for different customer segfhents may be the same. Across multiple value options (within the same value option framework), one or more parameter values may be the same for one or more different customer segments. It is possible that one or more value options may not be valid for a 30 particular customer segment or a sub-segment within a customer segment.

-49 Turning to Fig. 10, for each value option created for a specific customer segment, the user creates the following functions as shown in the Box 10,1030. (The number and type of functions shown is for illustration purposes only and could be fewer than or more depending on the industry selected, the value option framework and user discretion.) 5 First, there is a Cost Function to the company, C(X). This function expresses the cost elements to the company related to usage of a specific value option. For illustration purposes, Fig. 10 displays the cost function [Cr (A2-C'A)] to the company when a customer (within customer segment C 3 A) selects the value option A 2 . This function expresses the costs to the company initially when the user selects the value option A2, 10 and also for each of the related events if and when those related events take place. Next, there is a Revenue Function to the company, R 1 (X). This function expresses the revenue elements to the company related to usage of a specific value option. For illustration purposes, Fig. 10 displays the revenue function [Rf (A2-C 3 A)] to the company when a customer (within customer segment CA) uses the value option A 2 . This function 15 expresses the revenue to the company initially when the user selects the value option A2, and also for each of the related events if and when those related events take place. Then there is a Customer Service Function to the company. This function expresses the customer service function to the company related to usage of a specific value option. For illustration purposes, Fig. 10 displays the customer service function [Sr (A2-C 3 A)] to the 20 company when a customer (within customer segment C 3 A) uses the value option A 2 . This function expresses the customer service level a company provides initially when the user selects the value option A 2 , and also for each of the related events, if and when those related event take place. Finally, there is a Utility function to the customer, This function expresses the utility to the customer from use of a specific value option. For 25 illustration purposes, Fig. 10 displays the utility function [Ur (A 2

-C

3 )] to a customer (within customer segment C) when he or she uses the value option A 2 . This function expresses the utility to a customer initially when he/she selects the value option A 2 , and also for each of the related events if and when those related events take place. 30 To obtain the overall costs, revenue and service benefit for a particular value option framework, all the individual functions for each value option-customer segment - S50 combination are combined to determine the total overall costs and revenue benefits to the company and the service and utility benefits to customers. Benefits from all the value option frameworks can be simply added together to calculate total overall benefit values to the company. 5 (5) Optimization of Value Options As an optional last Act in the first stage, as shown in Fig. 7, a financial analysis may be performed on the value option framework using the existing company and 10 customer data to determine optimum pricing values and conditions of the value options. In other words, a company using the system and method can build utility functions based on cost and benefit equations of various options, and then can optimize across any one or combination of such functions. Any standard non-linear constrained optimization software tool can be used to run iterations to determine optimized pricing and benefit 15 values for different value options. Using standard sensitivity and scenario analysis techniques, a user can run what-if scenarios to determine the robustness of the value option framework. It is not necessary to perform this optimization to generate benefit from the new method and system taught above. However, performing optimization at this level may tend to increase the benefit derived. 20 Second Stage: Using Value Option Framework After completing the first stage of the method, the user has been able to create important value option frameworks and specific value options within those frameworks. 25 The user has also segmented customers to be associated with each specific value option that may be applicable to each customer segment. The company is fully prepared now to use a structured format comprising value options and questionnaire to interact with its customers in real time to generate benefits for both customer and company. 30 The second stage of the new system and method, as depicted in Fig. 11, involves using the value option framework to interact with the customer to capture his or her requirements in detail. Once the customer selects a particular option, the system moves - 51 to the Event Optimizer stage, 11.1130, where the system reacts based on the event that may take place. The Event Optimizer, depending on the event, invokes an optimization algorithm, assesses the company operations in real time and optimizes across company operations and customer information to produce results that concurrently maximize the 5 benefits for the company and the customer. The optimization may or may not modify the company product offerings to better suit the customer while simultaneously maximizing the company operations. Both of these steps will now be discussed in detail, 1. Dynamic Interaction to determine customer demand in detail (Act 11.1120) 10 In this Act, the company interacts with its customers in a structured format asking questions and/or offering value options. Preferably, this interaction occurs using a web based data collection system. As stated above while an 'Internet based interaction is probably the most cost-effective approach to data collection, other methods may be 15 employed, if preferred, or a combination of methods may be used. . On a browser, which accesses the seller's (i.e., company's) web site, a series of questions are presented to the customer and the customer supplies answers. These questions may also present value options and ask the customer to answer and select the 20 options that suit them the best, enabling the company to determine detailed preferences and flexibilities in customer needs. The questions/value options are supplied from the database 2.210 based on the value option framework created in the first stage to deal with different customer segments. 25 2. Event Optimizer Once the customer selects a value option, the system goes to the Event Optimizer phase where different steps are executed depending on the event that may occur. The event(s) is(are) related to the value option selected in the first Act. Turning to Fig. 12, 30 the typical Event Optimizer architecture is.shown. An Event Analyzer 12.1220 is a module that receives notifications of events and notes when a monitored event occurs.

-52 Event Optimizer analyzes 12.121-0 the event and invokes an optimization algorithm specific to the event that is detected. Using that algorithm, the Event Optimizer collects the information on related customers and assesses the company operations in real time. A third Act takes the information collected from the previous two steps and uses pre 5 determined criteria to optimize company operations along with customer demand. In this Act, the various scenarios are generated which optimize the total product value for the customer and profits and gains for the company. More details on the Event Optimizer are provided in the System Architecture section. 10 A user may create a value option framework, which includes a series of events. fn this case, the Event Optimizer, after optimizing the result for the first event, may offer the results to the customer. The customer may or may not accept the results. If the customer does not accept the result, the Event Optimizer may move on to handle other subsequent related events, and may again come back to the customer with more results. 15 This process could be repeated several times depending on industry selected, the configuration and type of value option framework, and customer behavior. Summary of Second stage 20 In the second stage of the new method and system, the company interacts with the customer in a structured format to capture customer needs, preferences, flexibilities and relative utilities in detail. The next stage involves an Event Optimizer as explained above. The customers associated with the event are enlisted and sorted by pro-defined criteria. The Event Optimizer collects customer information from the data store and also 25 assesses company operations in real time before integrating this information to produce one or more optimized results that concurrently maximize the benefits for the customer and company. System Architecture: To use and implement an instance of the method 30 - 53 The system architecture as shown in Fig, 2 may be used to implement the new system and method taught above. The Value Option Creator (Box 2.240) allows the user to create and configure different value options that can be offered to the customers to capture their needs and preferences in detail and in a way that can be used to optimize 5 across company operations, The Event Optimizer (Box 2.250) allows the company to optimize across company operations and customer needs when an event is triggered to provide a product offering that maximizes both customer utility and company profitability. A company would use the Customer Engine (Box 2.230) to interact with its customers via different channels. Each of these three sections is defined below in detail. 10 Customer Engine The Customer Engine provides different interfaces that a company maintains at different channels, which are utilized to interact with the customers. These channels may 15 include, but are not limited to, the company's website via the Internet, the company's call center via phone, and the company's retail outlet via in-person. The Customer Engine enables the company to ask questions and/or offer value options to customers in a pre-configured structured format, The Customer Engine generates its interfaces based on the data stored in the data store and populated by the Value Option Creator, The 20 customers provide their responses and select value options that suit them. The Customer Engine then communicates back and stores customer responses and selections in the data store. The Customer Engine also may communicate the optimized results to the customer as and when generated by the Event Optimizer. 25 Value Option Creator (VOC) The Value Option Creator allows a company to design, create and configure different value option frameworks and corresponding value options that can be offered to a customer to capture his or her needs and preferences in detail and in a way that can be 30 used to achieve optimization across Company operations, A company would use the Value Option Creator moduLe to perform some or all of the following: -54 * Develop various value option frameworks based on selected value elements and corresponding company economic factors. o Segment customers by one or more criteria. A customer segment may include 5 one or more customers. * Develop costs, revenue and service functions based on a company's operations prior to using the herein-described system and method. The company may prefer to express cost elements in a real-time (i.e., up to date) dynamic fashion in order to be able to fully assess the profitability or contribution of each product sale 10 opportunity, * Develop various value options within each value option framework. * Configure each value option differently (or keep it the same) for different customer segments. This involves choosing pricing, benefit conditions and the proper questionnaire for each value option for different customers. 15 a Develop costs, revenue and service functions after the user (company) has designed and configured various value option frameworks. a To measure in real time or in quasi-real time the value benefit created for the passenger and/or company by implementing the new system and method in part .or in full. 20 9 Optimize each value option framework and associated value options to determine optimized pricing and benefit schemes for the value options, in order to maximize the benefit for both the company and customers. What-if scenarios may be run to test the robustness of the value option frameworks' models. 25 The Value Option Creator (VOC) intakes the cost functions (marginal and total), revenue functions, utility functions, customer segments, capacity (scheduled and available) functions and other economic factor functions of the company. The VOC can be configured to store various customer value segments on which a user may want to build value option framework and associated value options. A user can also enter the 30 constraints and ranges to perform pricing optimization to determine optimum pricing and the benefits of various options.

-55 Ideally, a user may be able to create a Value Option Creator that is industry and company-independent and can be used in several industries. Due to time and resource constraints, however, it is perfectly satisfactory for a user to build a less scalable and 5 flexible industry-specific Value Option Creator, Event Optimizer The Event Optimizer allows the company to optimize its "bottom line" across 10 company operations and customer needs, when an event is triggered. This is achieved by providing a product offering that maximizes both customer utility and company profitability. A suitable system architecture (i.e., overall flow) for the Event Optimizer in shown in Fig. 12. The following describes each Act in detail: 15 The Event Optimizer may start its functioning when a particular event is triggered (i.e., occurs and is detected at the time of purchase or later), Act 12.1210. The Event Analyzer (12.1220) analyzes the type and category of the triggered event by matching it with the list of events listed in data store 12.210. Once the event type is determined, the Event Analyzer searches the data store for an optimization algorithm that 20 is associated with the triggered event, and executes that algorithm. (Such algorithms, naturally, have been developed and stored in the data store at an earlier time.) The algorithm collects from the data store a list of the customers that arc associated with the triggered event, Act 12.1240, and sorts them based on pre-defined criteria listed in the value option framework associated with the event, Act 12.1250. The first customer is 25 taken from the sorted list and his or her preferences and value option selection are retrieved from the data store. Act 12.1260. The algorithm then makes a real-time assessment of the company operations to get up-to-date costs, capacities and constraints. Act 12,1270. The information collected in the above two steps is then integrated (Act 12.1280) and, based on a pre-defined criteria, the algorithm optimizes across the 30 company information and customer preferences to produce one or more results that concurrently maximize the benefit for both the company and the customer. The results -56 are preferably communicated to the Customer Engine and to data store 12.210, Act 12.1290, These steps are repeated until all the customers have been taken care of Steps 12,1252, 12.1254 and 12.1295, 5 Fig. 13 expands the Act 12.1280 to show the detailed sub-steps, The first Act (Act 13.13 10) is to search the company data, based on pre-defined criteria, to determine and store all EventResults that meet or exceed the customer conditions (based on the value option selected and other preferences). An EventResult is a potential resultant output of an event to the customer and the company. Tlhe next Act 13.1320 is to 10 determine from the stored list, those EventResults that are most beneficial to the company. If needed, another Act (13.1330) is performed to determine from the selected EventResults from the Act 13.1320, those results that best suit the customer. Depending on the event type and related value option framework, the event 15 specific algorithm may communicate optimized results to the customer one or more times, depending on the algorithm and customer behavior. Business Model to implement Value Option Frameworks related to the invention 20 Different business models may be used to implement a value option framework as described in the current invention. The business models mentioned below, without limitation, may be used to implement any value option framework in any industry. As an example, a company may choose to implement a FRO VOF (explained latex) individually or in conjunction with one or more partners and/or other companies. 25 The OA and the company may engage in a business agreement to implement one or more value option frameworks. The business agreement may divide the total benefit generated by said value option framework between the two parties using any mechanism or criteria as desired. The total benefit may be shared between the two parties. The 30 company may allocate one or more products to the OA. One or more companies may allocate only a part of or their entire product inventory to the OA to offer those products -57-~ to the customers by way of regular and/or as options. In return, the OA may offer some revenue orfee to the company for all or a portion of the products allocated. This fee may be given only for the products that the OA is able to utilize or for all the allocated products, The lending fee may be a lump sum amount, may depend upon the number of 5 products allocated or may depend on one or more factors as desired. The agreement may include a provision where the OA may return the allocated products back to the company at a certain time and date. There may be one or more conditions associated with the return of unused options and/or regular products, including, but not limited to, returning the same product, returning a higher value product and so on. The company may allot 10 OA at least one product and said OA may deliver option on at least one of said allocated products. The OA may or may not enter into an agreement with the company to provide such option on its products. The OA may sell back at least one allocated product to said company or to at least one entity other than the company or both. 15 An OA may formulate an agreement with one or more companies on one or more VOls to offer a combination of VOFs to customers. Said VOF may include different terms and conditions. For example, a customer may receive option price only from the company even if he/she is receiving products and/or options from the OA. Similarly, the customer may receive option price only from the OA even if lie or she selected the 20 products and/or received the options from the companies. The condition may also be set for a customer to make one or more payments to the company for the products and receive one or more payments from the company for the options received from that company, and to make one or more payments to the OA for the products and receive one or more payments from the OA for the options received from that OA, The condition 25 may allow the customer to receive partial payments from the company and the rest from the OA or vice versa, the basis of which distribution may depend upon various factors, including, but are not limited to, the factors of company's choosing, the arrangement between the OA and the company and so on. In another example, the customer may receive the option price from the third party or may receive the option price from any of 30 the combination of the entities mentioned above, -58.~ A company may allocate some inventory of one or more products to another entity such as an OA or Option Aggregator, The term "allocation of product inventory" "allocation of product(s)" implies, without limitation, assigning one or more units of one or more products to an entity for any purpose or use by the entity either exclusively or 5 non-exclusively. The allocation of product may be conditional. For example, one of the conditions may require a return of at least one allocated product within a specified time period and/or other consideration(s). The customer may receive products and/or options from one or more of the 10 company or OA or any combination thereof. For example, the Fig. 13A displays one example where three different companies choose to allocate one or more products to another entity (i.e., OA in this example). The OA may use the allocated products to operate a service to satisfy different needs of the customers. In Fig. 13A, the companies and their products are designated as Company 1/Product 01, Company 2/Product e2 and 15 Company 3 /Product c3 as shown by the Boxes 13A.130, 13A.170, 13A.140, respectively. In another arrangement, Company I and Company 2 may act together to implement the value option framework and may allocate one or more products to the OA which may on its own or together with either one or both the companies and may operate the service to offer said value option framework to the customers. Box 13A.1 10 20 represents Customer I receiving product cl and c2 from Company 1 and an option ol from the OA. The Box 13A.120 represents Customer 3 receiving product c3 from Company 3 and products c1 and c2 from the OA and options o2 and o3 from Company 3. In Box 13A.160, Customer 2 receives product c1 from the OA and options ol, o2 and o3 from OA, Company 2 and Company 3 respectively. In Box 13A.150, Customer 4 25 receives products c2 and c3 and also option ol from the OA. In Box 13A.180, customer receives both product c2 and option o1 from Company 2. There may be more combinations and arrangements among one or more companies, the OA and/or the customers. The companies and the OA may, without 30 limitation, work together as partners, joint ventures, all together separate entities, partnerships etc., to offer and.implement the value option frameworks related to the - 59 novel invention, The business model may be used with all the value option frameworks of the current invention which may involve some customization for the specific value option framework, 5 The customers may approach OA in many different ways and the same may depend on one or more factors including, but not limited to, way of implementation, type of implementation, one or more factors of choice of the company, OA, third entity and/or any combination thereof In one of the ways customer may approach OA through phone as shown in Box 13B,140 and Box 13B.130 of Fig. 13B to avail services from the OA, In 10 another instance as shown in Box 13B.110, the customer may approach OA through Internet, The customer may use other vays of approaching the OA, which may include, but not limited to, fax, telex, mail and personal contact. In one of the implementations of the OA Business model, the OA may validate the Order with which a customer wishes to avail an option and it may be validated in coordination with the company from whom the 15 customer has received said Order as shown in Boxes 13B.150 and 13B.160. Order validation process runs to validate the Order from the company server and the data store may be updated accordingly as shown in the Boxes 13B.150, 13B.160 and 13B.170. The validation process may involve back and forth interaction between the data store and/or servers of the OA and/or the company and/or any third party. There may be updates in 20 the data store even if the Order is not validated. The company server may also provide OA with the information of its inventory. If the Order is validated, the process may request the customer to enter the search criteria. Search is made corresponding to the search criteria entered by the customer (Box 25 138.180). The server application may be used to provide a given set of Options corresponding to the search criteria (Box 1313.190). To provide the set of options, the server application may interact back and forth with OA server and/or OA option data store. 30 Next, if the customer opts for one or more options (Box 13B.210) and finalizes the same (Box 13B.230), various databases relating to the company, OA and/or any third - 60.

party may be updated and the relevant transaction along with other information may be stored and/or updated as per Boxes 1313.170 and 13B.200. Once the databases are updated on finalization of the option, the control goes to Box 1313.300, where the process ends. 5 If the customer does not opt for the options presented, another test is performed to determine whether the customer wants to re-enter, modify and/or repeat the search criteria (Box 13B.220). If so, the process loops back to Box 13B.180, where the customer may be required to re-enter, modify and/or repeat the search criteria, 10 If the order is not validated or if the customer wishes not to re-enter/modif and/or repeat the search criteria, the control goes to Box 131.300, where the process ends. 15 In one of the implementations of this business model and system, the servers and/or the data stores may belong only to the company, OA, third entity and/or any combination thereof. Information Technology System for the value option framework 20 A client-server architecture may be used to implement the value option framework. However, a company may use a computer hardware and software infrastructure of its choosing to implement a particular value option framework for achieving concurrent optimization. 25 One or more servers may be used for the system and one or more medium of communications may be used between the customer and the company and/or the OA and vice versa including, but not limited to, a highly secured VPN and Internet. There may be a cluster of servers to implement the system. One or more of such servers may be 30 located at the premises of the company, OA, third entity and/or any combination thereof. Such premises may also be an offshore location which may or may not be accessible -61 remotely, One or more databases may be involved and may be updated on a real time basis. The Fig. 13C shows one of the ways by which the different entities involved and 5 participating in the value option framework, interact and may participate in the value option framework. There may be other ways for implementing the value option framework which may depend upon including, but not limited to, the scale of the implementation, business requirements and number of entities involved. The entities may interact through a series of hardware products and services with the OA/company 10 server(s). The OA may or may not be different than the company and the OA server may be the same as that of the company server. One of the entities shown in Fig. 13C is customer (Box 13C.110), who uses input device (Box 13C.120) to enter the requirements. The customer inputs are processed through the CPU (Box 13C.150) and one or more Hard Disk Drives (Box 13C.160). RAM (configuration of which may 15 depend upon different factors) is used as memory device (Box 13C.140) while processing the customer input. The customer may approach the OA and/or the company through one or more series of Routers, Internet, Firewall and other hardware (Boxes 130.330, 13C.335, 13C.340 respectively). The interactions between the company and/or the OA and the customer may pass through one or more load balancers (Box 13C.360) 20 that distributes load across one or more servers as shown in Boxes 13C.300, 13C.310 and 13C.320. OA servers may update one or more primary database as shown in Boxes 13C.270, 13C.280, 13C.290. There may be one or more secondary databases (Box 13C.390) that may only be in the "Read Only" form (Box 13C.400) and may be updated through one or more replication servers (Box 13C.380). Alternatively, the company may 25 have one or more separate temporary database structure wherein the entries are updated and stored until the final update is made in one or more main databases. One the final update is done, the entries in these temporary databases may be removed. OA may interact with the application through Internet (Box 13C.350). OA 30 application servers may also distribute load between one or more servers of OA and/or the company through one or more load balancers. Agent (Box 13C.260) may interact -62 through input device as shown in the Box 13C.250. Input information may be processed by the CPU as shown in the Box 13C.180 with the use of one or more RAM, Hard Disk Drives (HDD) as shown in the Box 13C.200 and 13C.170 respectively. It may interact with the company through the Intranet (Boxes 13C.210 and 13C.220). The company and 5 the OA may interact through a series of routers, firewalls and Internet (Boxes 13C.330, 13C.335 and 13C.340). There may be another agent on behalf of the OA (Box 13C.410) which may input through one or more input devices (Box 13C.420). The information may be processed 10 through the monitor, one or more hard disk drives, RAM and CPU as shown in Boxes 13C430, 13C.440, 13C.460 and 13C.450 respectively). One of the ways in which said agent may interact with OA is through highly secured Intranet as shown in Box 13C,370, The entire process may run at the premises of OA, company and/or any third 15 entity or any combination thereof. It may also be possible to run a part of the system at one place and rest at one or more other places. The system may also be implemented even if one or more servers may be kept off-shore locations and may be accessed remotely. The geographical locations of one or more hardware product and/or services may be different depending upon including, but not limited to, the factors of company's 20 choice, ease of accessibility, infrastructure facilities. The structure or the interaction architecture of the system may vary depending on factors including, but not limited to, the set up of the company, changes in the technology and with the introduction of new and better technology enhancing the interaction process. 25 Information technology is a part and parcel of the novel invention. The value option framework as a system may require integration with various hardware and/or network services. This is illustrated in Fig. 13D where a detailed implementation of one of the stages of value option framework is described duly integrated with the hardware products and services. 30 - 63 The customer inputs search criteria as shown in the Box 13D.100, The web page and/or the application may be hosted on the company's server, OA's server, any third entity's server and/or any combination thereof. Such a server may be located at the premises of the company, OA, any third entity location and/or any combination thereof 5 and such a location may include an offshore location. The customer may approach the web (server) application of the company through Internet and one or more Firewall etc. as shown in the Boxes 13D.1 10 and 13D.120. The medium by which a customer reaches (approaches) the company web (server) application may vary depending on different conditions which may include, but not limited to, the best available communication 10 medium at a particular time, scale and type of implementation of the value option framework and factors of company's choice. - Server application runs the search algorithms (Box 13D.130) corresponding to the customer requirements in association with one or more servers of the company as 15 shown in the Boxes 13D.150, 13D.160, 13D.170 respectively. The servers may include, but are not limited to, web servers, application servers, database servers and networking servers. Said application may be hosted internally on one or more servers and databases either by the company and/or the OA or may be hosted on any third party's server. The servers may also be the servers of the OA or the servers may be run jointly by the 20 company, OA and/or a third entity. Load balancer (Box 13D.140) may be utilized to distribute load across one or more company servers, The search algorithm may interact back and forth with one or more database including, but not limited to, mail database, option database, inventory database, customer database, company database as shown in Boxes 13D.230, 13D.240, 13D.250 and 13D.260. 25 A test is performed to determine whether the outcome of the search algorithm is positive as shown in the Box 13D.180. If the outcome is negative, customer may be asked to re-enter/modify the search criteria (Box 13D.210). If the outcome of the search algorithm is positive, the customer is provided with a list of options as shown in the Box 30 13D.190. Once the customer is provided with a list of options to choose from, another test is performed to determine whether the customer has opted for one or more options - 64 (Box 13D.200), If customer has not opted for an option, then customer may be asked to re-enter/modify the search criteria (Box 13D.210), If the customer re-enters the search criteria, the control loops back to Box 13D. 130 wherein the server application runs the search algorithm on the basis of the inputs received from the customer. 5 If the customer opts for an option and the option is finalized, at least one payment transaction is executed (if any) (Box 13D.300) and one or more databases may be updated (Box 13D.270) through internet, firewall as shown in Box 13D.320 and 13D,330. Said updates may also be done through one or more routers, highly secured 10 VPN Network etc. Said primary databases including, but not limited to, email database, customer database, inventory database, option database may be updated correspondingly as shown by the Boxes 13D.230, 13D.240, 13D.250 and 13D.260, There may be corresponding updates in the secondary databases also (which are in "Read Only" format) as shown in Box 13D.290 through one or more replication servers (Box 15 13D;280). Alternatively, the company may have one or more separate temporary database structure wherein the entries are updated and stored until the final update is made in one or more main databases. One the final update is done, the entries in these temporary databases may be removed/deleted/discarded. 20 The algorithm ends after the needed updates are made in one or more databases and/or one or more severs or if the customer desires not to re-enter/modify the search criteria (Box 13D.400). Second stage in the value option framework is achieving concurrent optimization 25 for at least two of the company, customer, OA, third entity or any combination thereof on occurrence of an event. Fig. 13E describes one of the ways of using the information network system in which interaction between OA, company and event (which may be triggered by the company, OA, customer, any third entity or any combination thereof) takes place. 30 -65 Fig. 13E presents a diagrammatic representation of a chain of actions that takes place corresponding to occurrence of an event. There may be one or more different ways in which said action may take place and may depend upon the factors including, but not limited to, the arrangement between the OA and the company, factors of OA and/or 5 company's choosing and one or more mediums of technology utilized in the system. If an event is reported to an OA (Box 13E.110 and Box 13E.120), one or more load balancers (Box 13E.130) may be used to distribute the load across one or more servers (Boxes 13E.140, 13E.150 and 13E.160). One or more different databases (of OA, 10 third entity, the company and/or any combination thereof) may also be updated as per the requirement and the nature of the event. Information is processed through the servers using one or more RAM, Hard Disk Drives and other hardware products and corresponding to the occurrence of the event, updates are made in one or more databases as shown by the Boxes 13B.170, 13E.180 and 13E.190. One or more company servers 15 and databases (shown by Boxes 13E.300, 13B.310 and 13EK320 and Boxes 1313.330, 1313.340 and 13E.350 respectively) may also be updated using external communication medium/port (Box 13H.280). The servers may include, but not limited to web servers, application servers, database servers and networking servers. One or more said databases include, but are not limited to, email database, option database, customer database. 20 Next, a test is performed to determine whether the Event Optimization process has been triggered by the occurrence of the event as shown in the Box 1313.200. If the Event Optimization process has been triggered, the process goes to the Optimization server (Box 13E.210). If the Event Optimization process has not been triggered, the 25 process ends at Box 13E.400. The Optimization server interacts with one or more databases including, but not limited to, the optimization rule database and customer rule database as shown in the Boxes 13E.170, 13E,180 and 1313.190. One or more optimization algorithm may be run 30 within the optimization server using one or more RAM, Hard Disk Drives. As a result of optimization algorithm, the Optimization server may give one or more possible optimum -66 solutions depending on the factors and rules determined by the company, OA and/or any third entity or any combination thereof, as shown in the Box 13E.220. A set of possible optimum solutions, then, passes through one or more databases including, but not limited to, constraints rule database and constraints (or validation) database as shown by the 5 Boxes 13E.250 and 1313.260 respectively. While interacting with said database, the OA agent may also be approached as shown in Box 13E.260. Next, a test is performed to determine whether the constraints are fulfilled and/or payment transaction is executed (if any) (Box 13E.270). If the constraints are fulfilled 10 and the payment transaction is also executed (if required), a series of database updates as shown by the Boxes 13E.170, 13E.180 and 13E.190 may be done. Once one or more database are updated, the Customer Notification Process (Box 13E.390) takes place, in which the customer is notified, and the algorithm then ends in Box 13E.400. If the constraints are not fulfilled and/or payment transaction (if needed) is not executed, the 15 process ends at Box 13E.400. One or more such kind of information technology system may be implemented for the specific value option framework. The system may be customized as per the specific requirements of the company, value option framework, OA, any third entity, 20 customers and/or any combination thereof. Benefit of using the system and method Through this method, a new efficient approach is introduced for managing 25 customer relationships, sales cycles, marketing, customer service, market research and customer feedback, It eliminates manual, time-consuming processes and replaces those with an efficient, automatic process. By maximizing total value for its customers, a company can greatly improve its 30 overall business prospects. The company can look to build very high customer retention rates and also increase the number of new customers gained per unit time. It can help to -67 increase the overall sales and thus help increase the overall business value. The company may distribute a portion of additional value gained back to its customers to further strengthen its relationships with them, if it wishes. 5 A company may encourage customers to "opt in" to this system and provide the customer's preferences by giving rewards to customers to provide these preferences and commit early. The value options may be created and priced to motivate customers to make choices that both satisfy their needs and simultaneously allow the company to improve its operations. 10 This method further adds new dimensions to business parameters like inventory. Previously, for a company, inventory was either "Committed" or "Available." This method adds a new dimension of "flexibility". With the customer preferences and needs taken beforehand, we add the dimension of flexibility to the inventory. For example, a 15 booked flight seat would conventionally be called committed inventory. But now within the new methodology, if the ticket-holding customer is flexible, his ticket may fall into a pool of flexible inventory availability, which may be sold to other customers, if necessary. 20 Another advantage is that the method creates a new type of inventory, called customer inventory. Once the method had been used for some period of time, a company, by using its powerful value option framework, would be able to capture its customers' and potential customers' future needs in advance, In other words, within the realm of company product offerings, the company would collect information on which 25 customers want to purchase what products, when and with what specifications or parameters. Combining this individual customer data across thousands of customers would generate a customer needs and preference database with appropriate classification and parameters. The needs (and/or preferences) of this database could be classified as customer inventory wherein the items in inventory are the needs of several groups of 30 customer with similar needs. Once the company has built such a database, they can use - 68 the customer inventory as and when needed in optimizing their internal operations to maximize value for both the company and the customers. The method allows a company to move from a knowledge-based system to an 5 expert system, which optimizes the decisions based on customer preferences and company economics. The method allows the companies to market a whole new paradigm of services and products surrounded around their original product offerings. This is achieved partly by unbundling formally bundled components of existing products, into components offered to the customer and partly by building new products 10 and services. This allows the customers to choose product features they wish to purchase and saves the company from making investments and incurring costs in providing product components to those who don't want or desire those components. In surmnary, it can be said this method accomplishes the following: (1) makes a 15 business more attractive to customers by enabling customers to express their preferences; (2) makes a business more efficient and reduces costs; (3) allows a company to handle problems and disruptions in a quick, efficient manner to generate high customer satisfaction and keep their costs low; (4) helps a company to increase and strengthen its customer base, improve sales per customer, and customer retention, and (5) helps to 20 increase the value customers gain from the purchased products. The above method may be applied to several industries including, without limitation, airlines, hotels, automobiles, media, entertainment (television, radio, internet, etc.), furniture, insurance, computer hardware, travel (e.g., vacations, car rentals, 25 cruises), events (such as theatre, movies, sports games etc.). There may be several other industries that may benefit by using the new system and method. Some value option frameworks related to the invention were described in full detail in each of international applications PCT/US2007/014654 and 30 PCT/US2007/014653. Discussions of these VOFs may be omitted or abridged herein; -69 however these other applications may prove helpful for a fuller appreciation of the invention. A few value option frameworks will now be described in detail. 5 Flexibility Reward Option (FRO) Value Option Framework The creation and utilization (in two stages or acts) of another value option framework will now be discussed. This is the Flexibility Reward Option (PRO) VOF. A company may implement the FRO VOF in any industry. The customer desire to trade-in 10 flexibility (defined below) is used as the targeted value element. A detailed demonstration of the FRO VOF is presented followed by a few examples of applying the PRO VOF within other industries. The first stage in the FRO VOF involves steps (or acts) of: capturing customer 15 dynamics, assessing company operations and economic factors, integrating customer dynamics with company economic factors, formulating the VOF and optimizing the VOF. The second stage involves carrying out a dynamic interaction with the customer and then executing an Event Optimizer process. The specific detailed steps with respect to the FRO VOF will now be discussed. 20 First Stage: Formulation of FRO Value Option Framework (1) Capturing Customer Dynamics 25 Fig. 14 shows an analysis of the value elements that are believed to matter to customers in relation to a FRO. In the design value segment, shown in Box 14.100, important value elements may include, but are not limited to, the customers' flexibility in purchasing products and their desire to trade-in their flexibility. In the price value segment, shown in Box 14.200, important value elements may include, but are not 30 limited to, Product Price and desired monetary/non-monetary reward to trade-in flexibility. In the delivery value segment, shown in Box 14.300, important value elements may include, but are not limited to, time before which a customer may be able -70 to trade-in his or her flexibility to obtain the desired reward. In the service value segment, the important value elements may include, but are not limited to, the ease to trade-in flexibility, as shown in Box 14,400. It may be important to estimate the relative preferences and utilities of these value elements to different types of customers. 5 The customers' desire to trade-in their flexibility is subjective in terms of the length of the "flexibility trade-in period" and the "range of flexibility". The term "flexibility trade-in period" refers to the time period during which a customer is willing to trade-in his or her flexibility. The term "range of flexibility" refers to a range of 10 product features and/or components across which a customer is flexible, The flexibility trade-in period, range of flexibility and reward (as desired by customers in lieu of flexibility) are subjective and may differ from customer to customer, or even for the same customer, may differ from one situation to another. 15 (2) Assessment of company economics An assessment of the crucial economic factors of a company, as indicated in Box 15.100, may reveal the factors to include, but not be limited to, fixed and variable costs, non-uniform distribution of demand across different Products under the same category 20 (or products from various categories), the difficulty to accurately forecast demand, costs and customer dissatisfaction and ill-will from oversale, opportunity loss from capacity shortages and spoilage and so forth. An assessment of the crucial economic factors of a company may be performed, 25 to determine the factors that affect the profitability, growth and goals of the company. It might be beneficial if a company utilizing the inventive system and method were able to express cost elements in a real-time or quasi-real-time (i.e., up to date) dynamic fashion so that such information may then be used to assess the profitability or contribution of each product sale opportunity, and to facilitate the operation of the Event Optimizer (so 30 that offers and actions may be based on real-time or near-real-time information).

-71 (3) Integration of customer dynamics with company economic factors Fig. 15 also illustrates an example of how a mapping may be done, between the customer and company profiles, for the PRO VOP in any industry. On one side, there 5 are customers who have flexibility and desire to trade-in their flexibility in lieu of rewards or benefits. However, customers are also concerned about any hassles, delays, frustration that one may go through if they participate in such an exchange. On the other side, a company faces an unbalanced demand that is difficult to forecast accurately. It would be certainly very helpful for a company to know the relative flexibilities of 10 customers to receive different products. The FRO VOF is created based on the value element "desire to trade-in flexibility". More specifically, as shown in the interaction between the Box 15.200 and Box 15.300, a mapping is performed between important customer value elements and the 15 company economic factors. The value element "desire to trade-in flexibility" is extracted, as shown in Box 15.400 and a FRO value option framework is created. (4) Formulating the "FRO" Value Option Framework 20 Structure of FRO Value Option Framework in Any Industry Fig, 16 displays the structure of a FRO value option framework (shown in Box 16.100) in any industry. The FRO value option framework is related to the value element "desire to trade-in flexibility", as shown in Box 16.110. 25 In the "Initial Transaction" for FRO, shown by Box 16.200, a customer (shown by Box 16.210) and a company (shown by Box 16.220) transact on the FRO value option. There may be one or more Events (shown by Box 16.230) that follow the Initial Transaction. 30 -72 In a successful Initial Transaction for a FRO, the customer receives an option to utilize up to 'n' out of 'm' selected products (said 'm' products termed "FRO Products"). The 'n' products that are finally selected are termed "Chosen Products". After each of the 'n' Chosen Products is defined (or selected or chosen or received), the 5 customer has the right to utilize (or can utilize) said Chosen Product. Apart from the 'n' Chosen Products, the remaining 'm - n' products are termed "Released Products ". The Released Products (if any, that were probably held or blocked for said customer) may be sold to other customers as normal products or FRO Products or used for other purposes. The Released Products in relation to said option may be reused by the company before, 10 after, at or any combination thereof, the time the Released Products and/or Chosen Products are defined (or received or selected). Numerically, the value of 'm' is greater than or equal to I and the value of 'n' may vary from '0' to 'm' depending upon the specific implementation of the FRO 15 framework. The value of 'm' and/or 'n' may be known (or defined and/or re-defined) before, during or after the Initial Transaction and/or any combination thereof. The value of n may be limited to less than the value of in, or n<m (i.e., n<=im-1); however, in some situations, n may be equal to m. The value of 'n' may or may not be known (or defined and/or re-defined) at the time of the Initial Transaction. The value of 'n' products may 20 be defined in one or more transactions. The value of 'm' and/or 'n' may be defined (and/or re-defined), at one or more times, by the company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. For example, the value of n may not be defined at the time of Initial Transaction. In case the value of in is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'm' may be greater than or less than the older value of 'm, 25 Similarly, if the value of 'n' is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'n' may also be greater than or less than the older value of 'n'. In some of the cases, the value of new 'n' may be even greater than the older value of 'in'. The 'n' Chosen Products may include one or more products other than said ' products. 30 The PRO Products may be selected by the company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof, The FRO VOF may enable a company to obtain flexibility -73 from FRO customers (i.e., those who select FRO) and use said flexibility to satisfy the product needs of other customers (i.e., who have relatively fixed or strong preferences), Therefore, the company would usually have the right to select (or define) the Chosen Products. However, in different implementations of FRO VOF, the company, the 5 customer, another entity or any combination thereof may select one or more of the Chosen Products related to a FRO. The FRO Products and the Chosen Products may be selected by the same entity, different entities or any combination thereof. For example, the customer may select the FRO Products and the company may select the Chosen Products out of the FRO Products. The company may incorporate the customer 10 information and the data related to the FRO into the sales, production, inventory, other database or information system or any combination of the above. The time when an Initial Transaction is completed (i.e., the customer receives the FRO option on said m Products) is referred to as the Initial Transaction Thme (or ITT, in 15 short). One or more of said m Products may be selected, at one or more times, before, after, during, or any combination thereof, the Initial Transaction and/or the time said option is delivered to the customer (or the customer receives said option) or any combination thereof. All the PRO Products may be selected concurrently (i.e., all together in one transaction) or sequentially (i.e., in multiple transactions). 20 The delivery of an option may include, but not limited to, electronic delivery of the option, physical delivery of the option, any other mode of delivery or any combination thereof. Once said option is delivered, one or more of m products may be available for use by the company, an entity other than the company and/or any 25 combination thereof. The value of 'n' may be defined before, after or any time, the option being delivered to the customer. The delivery of option may occur in relation to the customer purchasing at least one product. The delivery of option may also occur in relation to the customer purchasing a product other than the product on which the option may be delivered. The customer may purchase a product other than the product on which 30 the option is delivered to the customer.

-74 In the sequential case, a customer may select one or more Products in one or more transactions before the Initial Transaction. Said selected Product(s) (let's say X number of them), thus, may be considered as part of said m FRO Products of the FRO (mn) transaction, and the customer may select only the remaining (m-X) number of FRO 5 Products during the Initial Transaction, All the transactions used to select (or receive) all the m FRO Products of a FRO (m,n) instance are related to each other, and hence, are considered as "related transactions" (as defined earlier). In a PRO VOF, the sequential process may comprise a number of "related 10 transactions" when all the PRO Products are received one after another by paying/receiving a price in one or more transactions or acts. The price may include, but is not limited to, a monetary value, coupons, discount vouchers, other benefits such as loyalty program benefits, or any combination of the above. The transactions may be related due to a relationship during the Initial Transaction, one or more of the previously 15 executed transactions, any other transaction or combination thereof. In the related transactions, n' may be equal to 'm' when there may be at least one payment transaction between the company and the customer related to the products wherein such payment is made after the option has been granted. Said payment transaction may be one more transaction apart from the initial interaction and/or Initial Transaction in the event said 20 customer utilizes all the 'm' products. The customer may select products prior to utilizing the penultimate product. The company, an entity other than said company and/or any combination thereof may reserve the right to limit the customer to 'n' products on, before, on or before, after, on or after or any combination thereof, a stated notification deadline date, 25 A company may choose to create one or more instances of the FRO VOF based on factors including, but not limited to, number of PRO Products, Chosen Products or Released Products, pre-determinatlon of a number of Chosen Products or Released Products, flexibility trade-in period, other factors or any combination thereof, For 30 example, a FRO based on a combination of the number of FRO Products (or m) and Chosen Products (or n) would be FRO (mn). Some FRO instances are shown in Boxes -75 16.120, 16.130, 16,140 and 16.150. For example, when the number of Chosen Products is pre-determined, the FRO (4,2) instance may imply that the customer receives 4 FRO Products, on the condition that the company may select any 2 out of 4 Products as Chosen Products. When the number of Chosen Products is not pre-determined, the FRO 5 (4,2) instance may imply that the customer receives 4 FRO Products, on the condition that the company may select none, one or 2 Chosen Products out of FRO Products. There may also be a minimum limit on n. For example, the FRO (4,n) (where 1<=n<=2) instance limits the company to select either 1 or 2 Chosen Products out of the 4 FRO Products. 10 The FRO (2,1) instance, two FRO Products and one Chosen Product, is used here as an example to demonstrate the details of the structure of a FRO VOF. Box 16.200 refers to the Initial Transaction between the customer and the company, in which they transact on a PRO (2,1) value option. In a successful Initial Transaction for FRO 15 (2,1), the customer selects two FRO Products and the company may select any 'one' of those two Products as the Chosen Product. The Initial Transaction may have terms and conditions applicable to the customer or the company or both. These terms and conditions may be set, preferably, to 20 concurrently benefit both parties. The connections between Box 16.200 and 16.220, and Box 16.200 and 16.210 refer to the terms and conditions to the company and the customer, respectively. The FRO VOF may or may not include any constraints on the PRO Products, 25 For example, a company may restrict FRO applicability and availability on Products that satisfy specific criteria. The two PRO Products may or may not include practically constrained Products. Practical constraints may include one or more constraints that wilt prevent a customer to utilize one or more given Products or prevent the customer from utilizing all the PRO Products. Such constraints may include, but are not limited to, time 30 constraints, location constraints and so forth. In other words, it may or may not be -76 practically possible for a customer to utilize both the selected Products due to at least one practical constraint. A customer may select (or receive) FRO Products in several ways; through 5 mutual agreement (e.g., during a direct interaction such as a Product purchase), or the company may grant the PRO Products to the customer without soliciting their interest or permission. For example, to enhance customer satisfaction or for any other purpose, a company may grant PRO Products to customers based on the past customer behavior, interaction and so on. 10 The Initial Transaction may impose one or more conditions on the company. A company may be required to explicitly notify the customer prior to or no later than a given date and time (referred to as the Notify Deadline) regarding the Chosen Product. For simplicity, it is assumed that whenever the term Notfy5 Deadline is used in the 15 following sections, the condition requires notification prior to the Noty Deadline. If there is no such explicit notification condition, the Chosen Product may be decided as per the terms and conditions of the option contract. In either case, (explicit or implicit notification), the date and time when the selection of the Chosen Product is notified to the customer is referred to as the Customer Notification Time (or CNT, in short). In the 20 current discussion, the explicit notification condition is assumed unless specifically mentioned otherwise. A company may determine one or more Notify Deadlines for a product at one or more times (e.g., before, during, after the Initial Transaction or any combination thereof) 25 using factors including, but not limited to, customer needs, expected value of the product, company profitability goals, any other factors or any combination of the above. Customer factors should also be considered in determining the Notify Deadlines, such as the flexibility trade-in periods desired by customers, or any other factor that may affect the behavior of a customer. The FRO VOF may or may not have a notification deadline 30 condition, -77 In the context of the FRO VOF, the terms "price" or "reward" or "discount" normally refer to the price which the company may offer to the customer in relation to the PRO. However, in some of the implementations of FRO VOF, the customer may also offer a price to the company in relation to the FRO. The terms "price" and "reward" 5 are used interchangeably as and when the context requires. The PRO VOF may impose additional terms and conditions on the customer. The company and/or an entity other than the company may receive from customer, at one or more times, an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with said 10 option in the FRO VOF, Similarly, at least one of said company and/or an entity other than said company may deliver to said customer, at one or mre times, one or more terms and conditions associated with said option in the FRO VOF. A customer may receive one or more rewards (or prices) in relation to the FRO. There may or may not be any payment transaction related to the Initial Transaction and/or other event related to 15 the FRO. There may be one or more prices related to the FRO. A price may include, but is not limited to, a set of one or more Product Prices, a set of one or more FRO Prices (or Rewards or Discounts) or any combination of the above. A company may choose to implement FRO Prices in many ways. For example, a customer may pay a Product Price to receive a group of products, and then, may choose to get FRO on said products and 20 thus, receive FRO reward. A company may use the method of its choosing to decide on all the Product Prices. The customer may receive one or more prices during the Initial Transaction (which is referred to as an Initial Price), at the CNT (which is referred to as an Exercise 25 Price) and/or at any other time, which may or may not be pre-determined between the customer and the company. The price may be a function of number of FRO Products and/or Chosen Product, specific products to be granted for FRO Products and/or Chosen Products, Notfy Deadline, one or more Product Prices, any other factors of company's choosing or any combination of the above. 30 -78 The price may comprise a monetary value or a soft/non-monetary value (e.g., benefits, coupons or exchange of another service) or other consideration. The FRO Price may be fixed or variable, with or without bounds. The company may set permissible range(s) or boundary limit(s) within which the FRO Price may vary, or it may offer the 5 customer a set of prices to choose from. Since price conditions may depend upon various factors, which may or may not be variable, the same may be decided at anytime. The price conditions may be determined by the customer, the company, another entity, or any combination thereof at one or more times. One or more prices (FRO Initial or FRO Exercise or any other price) may be a negative value, which reflects that instead of the 10 company rewarding the customer, the customer shall pay a price to the company to get the desired Product as the Chosen Product. Different price strategies may be implemented in the FRO (2,1) instance. For example, a single Initial Price could make it attractive and easy for the customer to 15 participate in the PRO program. One or more of the PRO prices (rewards) may be embedded with the Product Price by using a special Product Price. A customer may be presumed to accept the PRO offer while displaying the Product Price (that has the FRO Price embedded in it). These presumptions may or may not include soliciting prior interest of the customer regarding the PRO offer. In case, the FRO price is merged with 20 the Product Price, and where such price may or may not be separately identifiable, the customer may or may not receive a separate price for FRO. The Notify Deadline may be pre-determined or may be determined later (i.e,, after FRO grant) by the company, the customer or mutually by both. There may be one 25 or more NotIy Deadlines, where each Notify Deadline may have a different price associated to it. There are several ways to implement this condition. One way is given, as follows. The price associated to the first Notfy Deadline (i.e., the earliest among the Not Deadlines) may be offered if the customer is notified anytime before the first Notfy Deadline. The price associated to the second Notify Deadline (i.e., the second 30 earliest among the Notify Deadlines) may be offered if the customer is notified after the first Notfy Deadline and before the second Not iy Deadline.

-79 The terms and conditions of the PRO VOF may not allow the company to notify the customer after the last Notfy Deadline (i.e., the latest among the NotJfy Deadlines). As an operational measure, a rule may be set that if the company and/or an entity other 5 than the company fails to notify the customer before the last NotJy Deadline, the customer may select either of the FRO Products as the Chosen Product. Similarly, in one of the implementations of the FRO VOF, a rule may also be set that if the customer fails to notify the company and/or an entity other than the company before the last Notfy Deadline, the company and/or an entity other than the company may select either of the 10 PRO Products as the Chosen Product for the customer. Another approach may be (e.g., for customer/company) to designate one of the two products as a Default Product (during or after receiving the FRO) that will be selected as the Chosen Product if the company fails to notify the customer of the Product selection before the last Notify Deadline. Any entity (e.g., the company or the customer) may (or may not) be allowed to change the 15 Default Product once it is selected. The FRO Exercise Price (if any) in the default case may or may not be equal to the FRO Exercise Price for the Default Product for the last Notiy Deadline. In the current discussion, a single Notfy Deadline is assumed. The FRO Exercise Price may be a function of Notfy Deadline, FRO Products 20 and/or Chosen Product, one or more Product Prices, any other factors of company's choosing or any combination thereof. In such situations, the company may pay a price to the customer based on the selection of the Chosen Product at a given time. The FRO VOF may also include conditions imposed on the customer. A 25 customer may be under a mandatory condition to accept the Chosen Product once it is selected (for eg., by the company). A company may determine customer preferences, either explicitly or implicitly, regarding utilization of up to n of m selected Products. The preferences may also 30 include, but not limited to, customer preferences for various products and services, needs, associated relative utilities, flexibilities, preferences regarding choice of Products, -80 quality of Products, acceptable delays (relative) to receive different Products and so forth. A company may seek customer preferences on flexibility to utilize various products, desire to trade-in their product flexibility, any other parameters or any combination thereof, The company, one or more entities other than the company or any 5 combination thereof may seek customer preferences. A company may also offer FRO options to one or more customers on the basis of customer preferences, so obtained or collected. The company may offer said FRO options based on the dynamics of the company including, but not limited to, inventory, 10 operational data, revenue management data, cost data, financial data, accounting data, any other internal data, any combination thereof and so on. A company may seek such preferences from the customers prior, during or after the customer has purchased the Product or any combination thereof. These customer 15 preferences may help the company to perform concurrent optimization of value for the company, the customers, one or more entities other than the company or any combination of two or more of the above. The customers may also include the customers whose preferences have not been determined or collected to perform concurrent optimization. The data pertaining to the company, customers, one or more 20 entities other than the company, any combination thereof, may be integrated to concurrently optimize the value for at least any two of said entities. There may or may not be any payment transaction between the company, one or more other entities and/or the customers regarding seeking such customer preferences, delivering FRO options, customer participation in FRO and so on. 25 The company may operate one or more systems and/or services to monitor the company dynamics. Monitoring may include, but is not limited to, monitoring of capacity, days to utilization, return and/or potential return of Products, flexible inventory that may be created in relation to said obtained preferences, analyzing various cost, 30 revenue, operational or any other internal data and so on. The company may have one or more systems and/or services to analyze such data on a real-time or quasi real-time basis - 81 and draw conclusions on the basis of such analysis. Any of the systems and/or services may be operate by the company, one or more entities other than the company or any combination thereof. 5 A company may operate a system that defines customer preferences regarding at least utilizing up to n of m selected products, where n is less than m, operate a system that enables use of said preferences to optimize value for at least one of customers, said company and an entity other than said company. Said system may be used to enhance product selling capacity (or helps to increase the overselling limits of products). The 10 company may use such preferences to offer FRO. A company may concurrently optimize value for at least two of customers, said company and at least one entity other than said company. The company may utilize such preferences to meet its capacity shortages. These 15 customer preferences may enable the company to increase the capacity limits for its products. The company may start entertaining more requests from the customers and hence may increase the oversale limits for their Products. The company may be able to sell the Products at higher prices to the potential customers due to increase in capacity and oversale limits and thereby enhance its revenues. Such preferences may help the 20 company to allay fears of customer ill-will and dissatisfaction in case of an oversale situation. The company may utilize these preferences to deal with the oversale situation more effectively, efficiently and in timely manner. Thus, it may eventually allow the company to capture demand that may otherwise, have been spilled or turned down and thereby enhancing its revenues without having any negative impact due to increase in 25 capacity limits. A company may offer FRO to all customers or any selected customers, such selection may be based on any criterion including, but not limited to, such as those who have expressed their relative preferences, those who have not expressed any preferences. 30 By integrating the company dynamics and collected customer preferences, a company may offer appropriate incentives and terms and conditions for FRO to generate desired -82 participation. A company may exercise its right (from FRO) to define the Chosen Products for one or more FRO customers depending on company's internal need to regenerate product capacity for products with low availability or shortages. A company may be in a better position to offer appropriate FRO offers at a later stage due to many 5 factors including, but not limited to, the company having better knowledge of internal and external dynamics, a relatively better estimate on how many customers required to avoid oversale situation in the end and so on. A company may choose to handle any shortfalls in capacity using PRO or by any other method of its choosing. 10 Once the Initial Transaction is successful, there may be at least two possible related events, as shown by Box 16.230. The two events are (1) that P1 is the Chosen Product (as shown by Box 16.240) and (2) that P2 is the Chosen Product (as shown by Box 16.250). Each of these two events may be associated with various terms and conditions on the customer and/or the company. As explained above, the events may 15 take place in two ways: either the company selects the Chosen Product to satisfy its business needs, or the Chosen Product is selected based on pre-determined rules. The company may have to pay an additional exercise price at the CNT depending on the terms and conditions of the option contract. Once the Chosen Product is selected, the company and/or the customer may not change the Chosen Product except within the 20 bounds of the terms and conditions in the option contract. The company or the customer may (or may not) have the right to enforce the Chosen Product on the other party as per the terms and conditions of the option contract. The company may offer incentives to the customers to motivate them to choose 25 one or more products as Chosen Products among the FRO Products that may be more optimal for the company. A company may formulate one or more such offer (may referred to as Chosen Product Incentive Offers) and may send them to customers who have purchased PRO but not yet selected their Chosen Product via email, phone, mail or any other communication channel as per the terms and conditions of the option contract. 30 Thus, such customers may be persuaded to select said optimal product in lieu of incentives if the terms and conditions of option contract provide so.

-83 A customer who receives a FRO is termed "Y". In one implementation of FRO, a company may want to hold capacity for the customer in only one of the FRO Products, in which the status of said Y customer is termed "Ya" (i.e., Accounted) and in the other 5 FRO Product(s), the status is termed "Yw" (i.e., Awaiting) (both Ya and Yw have been defined above). A "Y" customer converts to an N customer after the CNT. Thus, at any given time, a company may have N, Ya and Yw type of customers for its products, The FRO VOF may help a company in one or more ways. For example, it may 10 help to accommodate product requests from potential customers. Any new potential customer who requests to obtain a product is assumed to be an N customer. If the available quantity for the desired product (desired by N customer) is insufficient to satisfy the request, then the company may use the quantity (if any, of desired product) that has been assigned to Ya customers, and reassign the same to said N customer, 15 Consequently, the company may then assign the Awaiting products (i.e., the products where said Ya customers have Awaiting status) to said Ya customers. By implementing such shifting or removing of Ya customers from their Accounted products to Awaiting products, a company may better serve incoming demand for products. An event where such request comes to the company for a product is termed "BuyN". The act to remove 20 (or shift) a Ya customer from its Accounted product to its Awaiting product is termed "Remove_Y". Detailed algorithms are presented below that may be used to manage a system comprising N, Ya and Yw type of customers. The above terms and conditions of the FRO VOF may be set in a way to 25 concurrently benefit the customer, the company, any other entity apart from said company involved and/or any combination thereof. The company gets to seek a way to create a flexible inventory of Products. The customer benefits from trading their flexibility for the desired rewards. The company benefits from enhanced customer satisfaction (loyalty and repeat business), incremental revenue from the high price paying 30 customers, incurring lower costs on capacity shortages and selling (reusing) the Released -84 Products, generating revenues from Released Products without actually reusing the Released Products and other operational benefits. A FRO VOF may include a right for the customer to utilize each of the m PRO 5 Products, and a right for the company to limit the Products (to fewer than m) the customer may utilize, if the company notifies the customer on a stated Notify Deadline. Said on a stated Notify Deadline may include, but not limited to, on and/or before the stated Notify Deadline, on and/or after the stated Notify Deadline, any combination thereof The right may include the condition that the company may notify the customer 10 before, at or after the stated Notify Deadline or any combination thereof. To provide some flexibility to the customers, the company may offer (or allow) the customers to express their preferences regarding the Chosen Product(s) before the stated Notf Deadline, The company may or may not exercise their right to limit the customer to utilize fewer than said m products. The right may include a condition that the company 15 may limit the customer after the customer expresses his/her preference for the Chosen Products, The company and/or an entity other than the company may have said limitation on at least one product. There may be a condition imposed on the customer to make at least one payment to the company when the customer expresses his or her preferences for the Chosen Products. The company and/or an entity other than the 20 company may allow the customers to define said 'n' products on or before a stated date. The company and/or an entity other than the company may reserve the right to take back any 'm' minus 'n' products after the stated date. The customer, the company, an entity other than the company and/or any combination thereof may determine the notification date. 25 A company may choose to define all the Chosen Products at one or more times. All Notify Deadlines may or may not be associated with each of the related PRO Products. For example, a Notify Deadline may be after the time when the Product would have been utilized or the company may choose not to offer a Notjfy Deadline on a 30 specific Product due to one or more reasons including, without limitation, high FRO Price, customer utility reasons and expected load factor. A company may select any of - 85 the selected PRO Products as the Chosen Products prior to a Notify Deadline. The company may also choose not to select any Chosen Products at one or more of the specified Notify Deadlines. 5 The costs, revenues, benefits, terms and conditions shown here are for illustration purposes only and actual values could be different depending upon specific values selected by the company for value options, customer behavior, company characteristics, Notify Deadline(s) and other relevant factors. 10 The FRO VOF structure may be implemented in several ways depending upon the terms and conditions associated with the FRO contract. The FRO VOF structure presented above for the FRO (2,1) instance can be extended to implement any other FRO instance. 15 The PRO concurrently optimizes value for both the company and its customers. The customers receive rewards for trading their flexibility in utilizing a product while the company gets the flexibility to optimally allocate products (including sold products) across various customers. The company gets to know the relative preferences and utilities of a customer for various products as some customers take this option and others 20 don't. The presumption here is that customers make a logical decision to take part in the FRO value option framework if they desire to trade-in their flexibilities. The company may benefit from higher customer loyalty, as customers may receive higher satisfaction from using the company services, and may optimize its profitability by reusing/reselling the Released Products at typically higher than average prices. 25 Example of FRO VOF structure FRO (2,1) Figure 17 demonstrates an illustrative practical example of using the FRO (2,1) instance in any industry. Consider a customer who interacts with a company to get FRO. 30 Per Act 16,200, an Initial Transaction takes place between the company and the customer. Fig. 17 displays some of the details of the Initial Transaction. The customer selects/receives two PRO Products, P1 (shown in Box 17.100) and P2 (shown in Box 17,200), and the company can select either of the Products as the Chosen Product. The customer is under the condition to accept the Chosen Product as selected by the company, 5 The customer receives a reward of $15 as the Initial FRO Price from the company while the customer pays $500 as the Product Price to the company as part of the Initial Transaction. Hence, the customer pays a net amount of $485 to the company at Initial Transaction, The Initial Transaction takes place on the 14'h day of April (i.e., 10 the ITT, shown in the second row of the Box 17.300). There is an explicit notification condition wherein the company has to select and notify the customer regarding the Chosen Product before the Notify Deadline. An example of terms and conditions included with PRO are presented. A scenario is considered with different Notify Deadlines (shown in Box 17.400) and the Notify Deadline is expressed in terms of the 15 number of days to utilization (DTU) of P1, the earlier of the two Products. Box 17.400 displays a set of FRO Exercise Prices that are a function of both the Aotify Deadline and the Chosen Product. There are four Notify Deadlines associated with the FRO, The PRO Exercise Price increases from $5 (for the first Notijy Deadline 20 of 30 DTU) to $20 (for the last Notify Deadline of 1 DTU) if the Chosen Product is P1 and from $10 to $50 if the Chosen Product is P2. If the CNT is before 30 DTU, then the customer receives $5 as the PRO Exercise Price from the company if the Chosen Product is P1, and receives $10 as the PRO Exercise Price if the Chosen Product is P2, as shown in the second column of the second and third rows in the Box 17.400, 25 respectively. If the CNT is after 30 DTU and before 7 DTU, then the customer receives a FRO Exercise Price of $10 or $25 if the Chosen Product is P1 or P2, respectively, as shown in the third column of the second and the third rows, respectively in the Box 17.400. Similarly, the customer receives a FRO Exercise Price of $15for P1 or $35 for P2, if the CNT is after 7 DTU and before 3 DTU, and $20 for P1 or $50 for P2, if the 30 CNT is after 3 DTU and before I DTU, as shown in the fourth and fifth columns of the second and the third rows in the Box 17,400, respectively.

- 87 5) Optimization of FRO VOF As mentioned earlier (shown in Fig. 7), in the form of an optional last step in the 5 first stage, a financial analysis may be performed using the existing company and customer data to determine the optimal terms and conditions of the FRO VOF, 'What-if' scenarios may be executed to determine an optimal pricing strategy. The company may want to divide customers using one or more criteria and design separate FRO VOF for each customer segment. 10 Second Stage: Using the FRO Value Option Framework After completing the first stage of the method, the company has created a FRO VOF and specific options within that framework. The company may have segmented 15 customers and designed options accordingly. The company is fully prepared to use a structured format comprising one or more FRO value options to interact with its customers in real time to generate benefits for both the company and its customers. The second stage of the FRO VOF is now presented. 20 The implementation of the FRO VOF between the company and its customer takes place through two high level acts, as shown in Fig. 18, In Act 18.100, the 'Get FRO' process, an interactive event between the customer and the company's web server, runs to carry out the initial Transaction of the FRO VOF. In this Act, a number of algorithms, may be executed (e.g., availability, FRO Price, Product Price and Notify 25 Deadline) on the company's server to optimally calculate the terms and conditions of the FRO VOF to concurrently benefit both the company and the customer. In Act 18.200, the Customer Notiflcation process (explained later) is executed. In this process, the Chosen Product is notified to the customer. The process may also comprise one or more event optimizer algorithms that may help to optimally select the Chosen Product and/or 30 to optimally use (or reuse) the Released Product.

.. 88- As explained above, the Get FRO process may be implemented via the Sequential (shown in Fig. 19) or the Concurrent (shown in Fig. 21) process. There are many ways to do the Sequential process. As an example of the Sequential process, a customer may select (or purchase) a Product/Set/Order before the Initial Transaction begins. In such 5 situations, said Product/Set/Order may be referred to as Initial Product/Initial Set/Initial Order or IP/IS/lO, in short, respectively. The Initial Set is also referred to as Initial Product Set (or IPS, in short). A customer may get a FRO, i.e., get one or more FRO Products/Sets/Orders on an IP/IPS/IO, respectively. A FRO Product/Set/Order is also referred to as Option Product/Option Set/Option Order, or OP/OS/OO, in short, 10 respectively. An Option Set is also referred to as Option Product Set (or OPS, in short). The two events (one for the Initial Product and the other for the Initial Transaction) may be executed with a minimal (one just after another) or a significant time gap (e.g., few minutes, hours, days and so forth) in between them. 15 The FRO VOF may be implemented at different levels including, but not limited to, Product, Set and Order. A company may choose to implement the FRO at any level(s). In a specific FRO interaction between a customer and the company, the implementation level should be the same for all the PRO Products, Chosen Products and Released Products. For example, if FRO is implemented at the Order level, then all the 20 FRO Products and Chosen Products would refer to FRO Orders and Chosen Orders, respectively. 1. 'Get FRO' - Dynamic interaction to capture customer demand 25 In the Get FRO process, a customer interacts with the company's server to receive a FRO, The interaction may take place (for example) via phone, in-person or on a website. The Sequential Get FRO Process is presented first along with its detailed algorithms, followed by a short summary of the Concurrent Get FRO Process. 30 Sequential Get FRO Process -89 There are several ways to implement the Sequential process. The following presents an example of the Sequential Got FRO Process when a PRO is implemented at the Set level. It is also assumed here that the customer first purchases an Initial Order with one or more IPS, and then opts to receive a FRO on any of the included IPS. 5 The following presents an algorithmic illustration of the Sequential Get PRO process. Consider Fig. 19. In Act 19.100, the customer selects (and/or purchases) an Order (with one or more IPS). Next, in Act 19.110, the customer reaches an interactive interface of the company's web server to Get PRO page, where the customer selects the 10 IPS (referred to as TargetIPS) on which a FRO is desired. Next, the customer inputs the OPS search criteria for the current TargetIPS in Act 19.115, Next, on clicking the "Search PRO Products" button, control goes to Act 19.120, where the OPS search algorithm is executed to search for an OPS. The OPS search 15 algorithm returns a list of valid OPSs, along with a list of CombNDs (defined elsewhere) and associated FRO Prices (or discounts). The details of the OPS search algorithm are presented later. Next, the search results are displayed for the customer, who then selects the desired OPS and one or more associated Comb ND(s)/FRO Price(s), as shown in Act 19.130. 20 Next, in Act 19.140, a test is performed to determine whether the customer wants to get more OPSs on the current TargetjIPS or on another IPS. If the customer wants to get an OPS on another IPS, control loops back to Act 19.110, where the customer selects another IPS as the Target IPS, and then the process is repeated again for the new 25 TargetIPS. If the customer wants to get more OPSs on the current Target IPS, control loops back to Act 19.115, where the customer enters the OPS search criteria, and then the process is repeated for the new OPS search criteria. If the customer does not want to get any more OPSs, control goes to Act 19.150, where a payment transaction (if needed) may be executed. For example, a customer may need to pay a price for the Product after 30 taking into consideration the Initial FRO Price (discount, if any) using a credit card, direct bank account debit or any other payment transaction mechanism. Next, the -90 algorithm ends in Box 19.200. The computation may be performed using a processor that may calculate results in optimal time. OPS Search 5 The following algorithm (shown in Fig. 20) determines and validates an OPS for a given set of conditions including, but not limited to, availability, Notify Deadline and FRO Price. One of the ways of implementation of the OPS Search has already been discussed above along with various information technology and networking tools 10 including, but not limited to, one or more servers, database, load balancers, firewall, routers, Internet, highly secured VPN, Intranet, RAM, hard disk drives, CPUs, monitors as shown by Fig. 13D. In Act 20.100, the number of customers (IC), IPSfSet (containing all IPS in the 15 Initial Order, and all the OPSs, (if any) already selected/received along with CombND Set(s) and Comb-OP Set(s), for each IPS), Target IPS and the OPS Search parameters are input to the system. The definitions and details of CombNDSet and CombOP Set are provided later. The OPS search parameters may include, but are not limited to, date, time and location, number of Products per Set, Notify Deadline, FRO 20 Price (Initial and Exercise) and so forth as appropriate for a given product in a given industry. A customer may be allowed to input Noify Deadline and/or PRO Price on the basis of which valid OPSs (that satisfy the given criteria of Notify Deadline and/or FRO Price) may be searched for and displayed for the customer. For example, a customer may be asked to input one or more parameters, and then a set of Notfy Deadlines and 25 FRO Prices may be computed for the Products that match the given criteria. In another example, a customer may input both one or more parameters and Notify Deadline and/or PRO Price as inputs and then a search may be performed for valid OPSs. Next, control goes to Act 20.110, where an OPS Search is performed for the 30 given criteria. The search may be best performed using a processor that may calculate results in optimal time. The order in which search parameters are executed may be -91 optimized to reduce the search time, however, it may or may not affect the final outcome, A company may select any order of its choosing. In Act 20.110, Product Sets are determined that match the search criteria and the 5 resulting Sets are added to a list termed LISTOPS, Next, in Act 20.120, a list of OPS validation rules is obtained from the company's FRO VOF database and the rules are used to validate all the Sets in the LIST_.OPS list. Sets that do not satisfy the rules are discarded. Validation rules may include, but are not limited to, a Maximum Number of Products per Set Rule, a Maximum Product Price Rule and so forth. For example, a 10 Maximum Number of Products per Set Rule discards the Sets that have more Products than specified. A company may implement any validation rule of its choosing to further qualify the Sets in the LISTOPS list As a last Act in Act 20.120, the first element in the updated LIST OPS list is designated as the Current-OPS. 15 Next, control goes to Act 20.130, where a group of CombNDs is computed for the combination of the TargetIPS, all the existing OPS of the Target_IPS and the CurrentOPS, and added to a set called Comb ND-Set. Next, in Act 20.135, a test is performed to determine whether the CombNDSet obtained in the previous Act is Null. If so, control goes to Act 20.155. If not, control goes to Act 20.140, where the FRO 20 availability and FRO Price for the CombNDSet are determined, Next, in Act 20.150, another test is performed to determine whether the FRO Availability or the FRO Price is Null, If so, control goes to Act 20.155. If not, control goes to Act 20.160. In Act 20.155, the Current_OPS is discarded from the LISTOPS list, and control 25 goes to Act 20.160, where a test is perfonned to determine if more elements are left in the LISTOPS list. If so, control goes to Act 20.165. If not, control goes to Act 20.170. In Act 20.165, the next element in the LIST-OPS list is designated as the CurrentOPS and control loops back to Act 20.130 to repeat the process for the new 30 Current OPS. In Act 20.170, the updated LIST OPS list is returned as the search result, and the algorithm ends in Box 20.200.

-92 Computation of Notify Deadlines A company may set one or more Notify Deadlines of its choosing for its Products. 5 Once the Notify Deadlines have been set for each Product, the next Act is to create a framework to compute the Notify Deadlines for a group of Products (such as a Set, an Order or any other group). The following sections present an example of a framework that may be used to obtain a set of Notoy Deadlines applicable to a group of Products. A company may use any framework and algorithm of its choosing to obtain the same. 10 A set of Notify Deadlines associated with a Product, a Set and a combination of two or more Sets is called ProductNDSet, SetNDSet and CombNDSet, respectively. Each element in the ProductNDSet, Set NDSet and CombNDSet is termed ProductND, SetND and CombND, respectively. The CombNDSet may be 15 computed by combining the Set ND_.Sets of all the given Sets. A SetNDSet may be computed by combining the ProductNDSets of all the Products under that Set. The Notify Deadlines may be computed based on various parameters and factors of the company choosing. One example to compute a CombNDSet is as follows. First compute SetNDSet for all Sets. A Set NDSet is computed by first selecting earliest 20 of the Notify Deadlines of each Product within the concerned Set, and then picking the latest of those Deadlines, and noting that as the TargetDeadline. Next step is to pick all those Notify Deadlines that fall after the Target_Deadline. Notify Deadlines thus obtained may be validated using various validation rules based on company factors such as customer utility, product parameters and so forth. Similarly, the CombNDSet may 25 thus be computed by repeating the above process for SetNDSets, thus obtained for each Set, Available Capacity Check 30 The FRO capacity for an OPS may depend on one or more factors including, but not limited to, Notify Deadline, PRO Prices, expected Product value and so forth. A -93 company may use any method of its choosing to determine FRO capacity of a product. For example, a company may choose to have a fixed FRO capacity for one or more of its products. 5 An instance to compute FRO capacity is discussed below. Consider the case, when FRO Capacity is dependent on Notify Deadline. In such situation, the objective is to determine those CombNDs within the Comb NDSet on which PRO is available for the given OPS. The FRO Capacity and the Used FRO Capacity (the total number of Products on which FRO has been sold but not exercised) may be calculated for each 10 Comb ND within the CombNDSet. Available Capacity (AC) would then be the difference of FRO Capacity and Used FRO Capacity for the given Product. If the AC is greater than or equal to the number of incoming customers desiring a FRO, then the FRO capacity is available at a given CombND for the given OPS. The process may be repeated for all Notify Deadlines within Comb-NDSets. FRO may be made available 15 on a given OPS for a given Comb ND, if FRO is available on all the Products of OPS for the given CombND. Price Calculation 20 A company may set FRO Prices for a Product using any method of company's choosing. Once the FRO Prices have been set for each Product, the next Act is to create a framework to compute FRO Price for a group of Products (such as a Set, an Order or any other group) by using FRO Prices for each Product in the group. 25 The parameter ProductOP refer to FRO Price (and may or may not be corresponding to a Notify Deadline) associated with a Product. Similarly, SetOP and CombOP refer to FRO Price (may or may not be corresponding to a Notify Deadline) associated with a Set and a combination of two or more Sets, respectively. A set of ProductOPs, Set OPs and Comb_OPs is termed ProductOP Set, Set OP Set and 30 CombOP Set, respectively. The CombOPSet is computed by combining the SetOPSets of the IPS and all the OPSs (existing and new). A SetOPSet is computed - 94 by combining the ProductOP Sets of all the Products under that Set. One or more SetOPRules may be read from the company's database and applied to calculate SetOPSet for each input Segment (IPS and all OPSs) using the ProductOPSets of all the Products of said Set. A company may use any Set OPSet Rule of its choosing. 5 SetOPRules may be defined to calculate SetOP as the sum, average, highest, lowest or any other function of Product-OPs of all the Products at a given Comb ND. Similarly, a CombOP-Set comprises one or more CombOPs, and is calculated using one of the pre-determined rules, termed Comb OPRules, to combine the SetOPs of all the Sets in the combination. A company may use a CombOPRule of its choosing. 10 CombOPJRules may be defined similar to the SetOPRules. Concurrent Got FRO Process As explained above, in the Concurrent Get FRO process, a customer receives all 15 PRO Products concurrently in one transaction. An algorithmic illustration of an example of the Concurrent Get FRO process is displayed in Pig. 21. The FRO (2,1) instance is assumed here as an example. Consider a customer who desires to trade-in his/her flexibility in lieu of a price (reward) offered by the company. In Act 21.100, the customer desires for FRO are input, including, but not limited to, a search criteria for two 20 Sets according to customer's utility (may be similar to the search criteria defined above for the Sequential Get FRO process). Next, in Act 21.110, the FRO algorithm is run to determine the combinations of two Sets that satisfy inputs. A list of such search results is displayed for the customer 25 along with the associated terms and conditions including, but not limited to, Notify Deadlines, Initial FRO Price, FRO Exercise Price and Product Price for each such combination. The PRO algorithm for the Sequential Get PRO process (defined above) may also be used for the Concurrent Get FRO process. 30 Next, in Act 21.120, the customer selects a desired combination of two Sets and the associated conditions such as FRO Exercise Price/Notify Deadline. Next, in Act -95 21130, a payment transaction is executed, if needed. For example, the customer may pay the Product Price after taking into consideration the Initial FRO Price using a credit card, direct bank account debit or any other payment transaction mechanism. Next, the algorithm ends in Box 21.200. The computation may be performed using a processor 5 that may calculate results in optimal time. 2. Event Optimizer After the completion of the Get PRO process, the next stage is the Event 10 Optimizer. In this stage, the Customer Notification (or CN, in short) process as shown in Act 18.200 is executed. In this process, one or more decisions on the selection of Chosen Product(s) is notified to the customer. The details of the CN process are provided later. One of the ways of implementation of Event Optimizer stage with the help of information technology tools has already been discussed above wherein said 15 tools include, but are not limited to, one or more servers, database, load balancers, firewall, routers, Internet, highly secured VPN, Intranet, RAM, hard disk drives, CPUs, monitors as shown by Fig. 13E. The FRO VOF helps to create a flexible customer inventory. In other words, by 20 using the FRO VOF, a company may obtain rights to allocate any of the selected FRO Product to a FRO customer, and thus, said FRO customer acts like a flexible customer inventory that the company may manage at known cost and conditions. A company may design one or more uses of such flexible customer inventory, where each such use may include one or more events that follow the Initial Transaction. An example (the Buy_N 25 process) was explained earlier. In the BuyN process, a company may use the PRO VOF to accommodate requests from potential customers for products. As an example, the BuyN process may especially be used to satisfy requests for products that have already been sold or have low (or no) availability. The details for the BuyN process are presented below. 30 -96 Another example to use the PRO VOF would be to use the FRO VOF in conjunction with one or more other VOPs, for example, the APO (the Alternate Product Option) VOF (details are provided later). A company may form a group of one or more APO customers and one or more FRO customers, where the options (APO and FRO) 5 obtained by the group members are complementary in nature. As an example, consider a customer (A) who bought an APO to choose either of P1 and P2 as Chosen Product, and consider a customer (B) who received a FRO and is flexible to take any of Pl and P2 as Chosen Product. Thus, if A decides to choose P1 as the Chosen Product, the company may assign P2 as the Chosen Product for B, and vice versa. The customers A and B 10 have taken complementary options and may form a group. The company may need to hold only one unit of inventory in P1 and P2 to satisfy the needs of both A and B (assuming each A and B only need one unit of product). Such a combination of complementary options or VOFs may improve efficiency and concurrently enhance value for all the parties involved (in the given example, for A, B and the company). 15 More details on combining VOFs are provided later. The FRO VOF may also be used to reduce operational costs, constraints or other goals that are impacted by the allocation of products among different customers. For example, the FRO VOF may be used to shave off production costs by reducing 20 production capacity for one or more products that are low in demand. A company may use the FRO VOF for any other purpose of its choosing. In all such uses, the company may use a system defined below that can help to optimally allocate product capacity among customers. The following system presents an example 25 of a system (along with its methods and algorithms) that may be used to shift PRO customers within their selected FRO Products. However, a company may use any other process of its choosing to shift FRO customers within their selected FRO Products. The Buyj'N process is used as an example to demonstrate the system and its set of methods and algorithms. 30 -97 The process of shifting Y customers- (i.e., FRO customers) within their selected FRO Products is termed "Remove Y" process. The RemoveY process may allow the company to remove FRO customers from their Accounted Products and optimally shift them to one of their Awaiting Products to satisfy a pre-defined goal. 5 The company, an entity other than the company and/or any combination thereof may store the data in a data store which may include, but is not limited to, the value that may be realized if the customer is shifted, Awaiting Products to which the customer may be shifted and so forth. The company, an entity other than the company and/or any 10 combination thereof may receive and process data to determine from among all or substantially all possible combinations of customers, a set of customers which may be shifted. The company, an entity other than the company and/or any combination thereof may shift one or more set of customers that may be determined by processing the data. The company may also shift one or more set of customers other than the combination of 15 customers that may be determined by processing said data. Set of customers which may be shifted or the decision to initiate shifting may depend upon number of factors including, but not limited to, the need and urgency to shift the customers, factors of company's choosing, creation of number of units of product availability, optimizing revenues which may for at least one of the customer, company and/or an entity other 20 than said company, cost savings and so forth, The company may, on detection of occurrence of one or more events, execute one or more event response algorithm which may determine one or more set of customers possessing options making them eligible to be shifted to one or more products and may 25 shift one or more of said set of customers to create product availability. Said event may be an increase in the demand of one or more products or increase in forecasted demand of one or more products or any combination thereof or any other event. The shifting may be done at the instance of the company, an entity other than said company or any combination thereof. The set of customers, here, may include one or more customers. 30 The shifting may nvolve shifting of one or more customers, The shifting of one or more customers, as explained below in Remove Y, may involve one or more interactions - 98 between the company, an entity other than the company, the customers and/or any combination thereof, The shifting may involve shifting one or more first customers to one or more first products after one or more second customers from one or more first products are shifted to one or more second products and so forth. Such a cascading 5 process may continue until the last customer which may have to be shifted in the set is shifted and it may lead to shifting of more customers than the creation of number of units of product availability. This process may involve two or more customers. This process has been explained in detail below in the Remove Y process. The company and/or an entity other than the company may or may not notify the customer regarding said shifting 10 within the specified Notlcation Deadline. The company and/or an entity other than the company may shift one or more customers to one or more products belonging to said company, to one or more products belonging to an entity other than said company and/or any combination thereof. Shifting may create a lot of value to company and may lead to enhanced revenues and/or cost savings. However, it may also be possible that shifting 15 may sometimes be a cost to the company and a company may still apply shifting (RemoveY) for fulfillment of other goals and/or objectives of the company, BuyN Process 20 Fig, 22 displays a flow chart of an example of a BuyN algorithm, which is executed during a dynamic interaction between the customer and the company. As an example, an interaction may include a situation when a customer interacts with a company to obtain (or purchase) products, or when a company presents offerings to a customer (with or without a solicitation by the customer). A few parameters have been 25 assumed to add context and enhance understanding. It is assumed that a customer is interacting with a company to purchase products, and that PRO VOF -is implemented at the Set level. In Act 22.100, the search criteria are input. Various search parameters for a desired Product Set (as desired by the customer) are taken as the input to the system. 30 Next, in Act 22.110, a search process is executed to search for all Product Sets that satisfy inputs. The details of the search process are described later. Next, in Act -99 22.120, all the search results are displayed before the customer in an interface (such as in a web browser, a telephone operator stating the search results over the phone etc.). Control then goes to Act 22.130, where the customer selects a Set (or Product Set). The selection of the Set may be followed by a payment and/or purchase of the selected Set. 5 In Act 22.140, a test is performed to determine whether RemoveY process has been applied on the selected Set. If so, control goes to Act 22.150, where the Remove_Y process is completed for the selected Set, and control then goes to Box 22.200. If not, control goes to Box 22.200, where the algorithm exits, The completion of the 10 RemoveY process may include one or more Acts that may be executed to incorporate the fact that said Set was selected by the customer. For example, one of such acts may be to record the selection of said Set to a database and/or to change the Accounted Status for one or more FRO customers (who were affected in the Remove-Y process). 15 Fig. 23 expands Act 110 of Fig. 22 and demonstrates an example of a search algorithm that may be used to determine Product Sets that satisfy the inputs. In Act 23,100, IC (number of incoming customers), IC _Benefit (i.e., the benefit that a company may receive if the incoming customers select and/or purchase one or more Sets) and the input search criteria are taken as the input parameters to the system. The term "Incoming 20 Customers" refers to the customers who interact with the company in the current transaction (BuyN). It is assumed that each customer desire one unit of capacity and thus, total units of capacity desired is equal to the total number of incoming customers, In some situations, IC-Benefit and/or IC may not be available as an input, and may be calculated during the search process. Next, in Act 23.110, all the Sets that satisfy the 25 'search criteria' are searched from the company database. The Sets, thus obtained, are added to a list termed LISTSet. The first element in the LISTSet list is designated as CurrentSet. Next, in Act 23.120, all the Products in the CurrentSet are added to a list termed 30 LIST Product. The first element in the LIST Product list is designated as CurrentProduct. Next, in Act 23.130, a test is performed to determine whether the - 100 Available Capacity (AC) of the CurrentProduct is greater than or equal to IC. If so, control goes to Act 23.140. If not, control goes to Act 23.165. In Act 23.140, another test is performed to determine whether EAC (Effective 5 Available capacity) of the Current-Product is greater than or equal to IC. If so, control goes to Act 23.145. If not, control goes to Act 23.150, where the Remove Y algorithm is executed to determine the possibility (and associated process steps and costs) to create capacity in the CurrentSet. 10 Next, in Act 23.160, a test is performed to determine whether it is possible (by using RemoveY) to create capacity in the CurrentSet and the ICBenefit is greater than or equal to the cost to create that capacity as determined in the Act 23.150. If both conditions are true, control goes to Act 23.170. If either condition is false, control goes to Act 23.165. In Act 23.165, the Current-Set is discarded from the LIST-Set list, and 15 control then goes to Act 23.170. In Act 23.145, a test is performed to determine whether more elements are left in the LISTProduct list. If so, control goes to Act 23.135, where the next element in the LISTProduct list is designated as the CurrentProduct and control loops back to Act - 20 23.130, to repeat the process for the new Current-Product. If not, control goes to Act 23.170. In Act 23.170, another test is performed to determine whether more elements are left in the LISTSet list. If so, control goes to Act 23.175, where the next element in the 25 LISTSet list is designated as the CurrentSet and control loops back to Act 23.120, where the process for the new CurrentSet is performed. If not, control goes to Act 23.180, where the LISTSet list (the most recently updated version after discarding the invalid Sets, if any) is returned. Next, the algorithm ends at Box 23.200. 30 Fig. 24 expands Act 150 of Fig. 23 and demonstrates an example of an algorithm to apply the Remove Y algorithm to create one or more than one unit of capacity in one - 101 or more Product(s) within a Desired Set (the Set in which capacity needs to be created). In Act 24.100, various input parameters are taken in the system. Input parameters include IC, Desired-Set and Incoming Benefit (i.e., benefit a company may realize if capacity is created in the Desired-Set) 5 Next, control goes to Act 24.110, in which all the Products in the DesiredSet are listed in the LISTProduct list, The first Product in the LISTProduct list is designated as CurrentProduct. Next, in Act 24.120, a test is performed to determine whether the Available Capacity (AC) of the Current Product is greater than or equal to IC, If so, 10 control goes to Act 24.130. If not, control goes to Box 24.300, where the algorithm ends. In Act 24.130, another test is performed to determine whether EAC (Effective Available capacity) of the Current-Product is greater than or equal to IC. If so, then control goes to Act 24.140. If not, control goes to Act 24.150. 15 In Act 24.140, a PSeries is created for the CurrentProduct. Since the CurrentProduct is an End-Product, there will be only one Series-Element in the P_Series collection. The Series-Element will comprise COEP with the CurrentProduct as the only element, COCY with no elements and CSE with zero value (since no Ya needs to be removed from CurrentProduct, and hence, no cost to create capacity). Next, 20 control goes to Act 24.180. In Act 24.150, the RemoveY algorithm is called for each Ya in the CurrentProduct and the algorithm follows a recursive loop. Each of the Ya becomes CurrentYa for the corresponding RemoveY call. The necessary input parameters for 25 each of the RemoveY includes the CurrentProduct as 'COPP', CurrentYa as 'COPY', CurrentYa as 'CallerY', Current-Product as 'Initiator-Product', one of the incoming customers as 'InitiatorY' and IncomingBenefit as 'Benefit'. The Remove-Y call returns a YSeries collection for each Ya in the CurrentProduct. The details of the RemoveY algorithm are discussed in the next section. 30 - 102 Next, control goes to Act 24.160, where all the YSeries collections are obtained as returned from the Act 24,150. Next, in Act 24.170, a P Series collection for the CurrentProduct is calculated through the following operations: (1) create groups of Ya from all Ya of the Current Product for which Remove-Y was called, where the number 5 of Ya in each group is equal to "IC-EAC" (EAC of the Current_Product), (2) make combinations of the YSeries collection of all members of each group (combine each SeriesElement of each Y-Series of each member with that of each of the rest of the members of that group), (3) merge all members within each combination to formulate a merged SeriesElement, (4) collect all such merged Series-Elements, thus obtained, into 10 P_Series collection of the CurrentProduct. Details on making combinations and merging are provided later. Next, in Act 24.180, a test is performed to determine whether more elements are left in the LISTProduct list. If so, control goes to Act 24.185, where the next element in 15 the LISTProduct list is designated as the CurrentProduct and control loops back to Act 24.120 to repeat the process for the new Current-Product. If not, control goes to Act 24.190. In Act 24,190, a SSeries collection for the Desired Set is calculated from the 20 PSeries collections of all the Products using the combination and merging process (details provided later). Next, in Act 24.200, an optimal SeriesElement from the S_Series collection is determined using Optimal SeriesElement Rule (which is read from a database), Next, control goes to Act 24.210, where the optimal SeriesElement is returned and the algorithm exits at Box 24.3 00. 25 'RemoveV' Algorithm The following algorithm presents an example of an algorithm that may be used to create one unit of capacity of a Product by shifting a Ya Accounted in a Product to its 30 AwaitingSet. Fig. 25 represents an algorithmic illustration for RemoveY. The - 103 RemoveY is a recursive algorithm, which returns a collection of SeriesElement termed "Y_Series" collection for the Ya for which the algorithm has been called. In Act 25.100, a set of parameters including COPY, COPP, Caller_Y 5 Initiator Product, InitiatorY and Benefit are input to the system. Next, in Act 25.110, all the AwaitingSets of the CallerY are added to a list termed LIST-Set. The first element in the LIST-Set list is designated as CurrentSet. Next, in Act 25.120, all the Products that belong to the CurrentSet are added to another list termed PLIST. The first element in the PLIST list is designated as CurrentProduct. 10 Next, in Act 25.130, a test is performed to determine whether the CurrentProduct is present in the COPP. If so, the Current-Set is discarded in Act 25.135, and control goes to Act 25.260. If not, control goes to Act 25.140. 15 In Act 25.140, another test is performed to determine whether the Current-Product is present in the AccountedSet of the CallerY. If so, the CurrentProduct is skipped in Act 25.145, and control then goes to Act 25.190. If not, control goes to Act 25.150, where another test is performed to determine if the EAC of the Current_Product is greater than or equal to 1. If so, control goes to Act 25.220. If 20 not, control goes to Act 25.160. In Act 25.220, a new P-Series collection is created with only one Series-Element, since the CurrentProduct is an EndProduct, The SeriesElement will comprise COEP with the CurrentProduct as the only element, COCY with no elements 25 and CSE with zero value. Next, control goes to Act 25.190. In Act 25.160, the algorithm enters into a recursive loop where the Remove_Y algorithm is called for each of the Ya in the Current Product that is not present in the COPY. Each of the Ya becomes CurrentYa for the corresponding RemoveY call. The 30 necessary input parameters for each of the RemoveY includes 'COPP' (includes the COPP of one level up RemoveY and the Current-Product), 'COPY' (includes the -104 COPY of one level up Remove _Y and the Current Ya), the CurrentYa as 'CallerY', the CurrentProduct as 'Initiator Product', CallerY of one level up RemoveY as 'InitiatorY' and benefit of the highest level RemoveY as 'Benefit'. Each of the RemoveY call returns a YSeries collection for every Ya for which RemoveY was 5 called. Next, in Act 25.170, the algorithm receives the returned YSeries collection from all the RemoveY algorithm calls in Act 25.160. Control then goes to Act 25,180, where a P-Series collection for the CurrentProduct is calculated by adding all the 10 Series_Elements from all the returned Y Series collection obtained in Act 25.170. Control then goes to Act 25.190. In Act 25.190, a test is performed to determine whether more Products are left in the PLIST list. If so, control branches out to Act 25.200, where the next Product in the 15 PLIST list is designated as the Current Product, and control then goes to Act 25.130 where the process is repeated for the new Current-Product. If not, control goes to Act 25.230. In Act 25.230, the SSeries collection is calculated for the CurrentSet by 20 combining and merging all the PSeries collection of all the Products (not taking the skipped Product(s) into consideration, if any). Next, in Act 25.240, a new ChildY is created using the Caller Y. The ChildY comprises COI (where the current InitiatorProduct is designated as InitiatorProduct and the current Initiator Y is designated as InitiatorY), AccountedSet of the CallerY designated as the 25 InitialAccountedSet, current AwaitingSet designated as the Final- Accounted Set, and the cost to shift current CallerY from the Initial Accounted Set to the FinalAccountedSet designated as the CCY, The ChildY, thus created, is added to every SeriesElement in the S-Series collection and the CCY of the same ChildY is added to the CSE (Cost of SeriesElement) of every Series-Element. Control then goes 30 to Act 25.250.

-105 In Act 25.250, a QualifySeries-Element rule is read from the company's database and is applied to validate all the Series Elements in the SSeries collection, The invalid SeriesElements are discarded from the SSeries collection. A company may select any rule of its choosing, For example, a QualifySeriesElement rule may 5 only qualify those SeriesElements for which the CSB is less than or equal to the 'Benefit'. Next, control goes to Act 25.260. In Act 25.260, a test is performed to determine whether more Sets are left in the LIST-Set list, If so, control branches out to Act 25.295, where the next element in the 10 LIST Set list is designated as the Current Set, and then control loops back to Act 25.120, where the process is repeated for the new Current_Set. If not, control goes to Act 25.270, where the YSeries collection is obtained by adding all the Series Elements of all the SSeries collections for all the Awaiting_Sets of the CallerY. Next, the Y_Series collection is returned in Act 25,280, and the algorithm ends in Box 25.300. 15 Combinations of PSeries in order to formulate SSeries are calculated by cross multlplication of SeriesElements (of each PSeries). A company may choose to implement any method of its choosing to make combinations. One method is as follows. Consider n number of Series; say Si, 82, 83... S, with k1, k2, k3... kn number of 20 Series Element respectively. Each Combination is a collection of the SeriesElements. For instance, Cl = (Si[l], 82[1], 83[1], ...S[1]), where, S,[1] denotes the first SeriesElement of pol Series; C2= { Si[ 2 ], 82[11, 841..S1] }, and so on. Here is an example of the above method. Consider 2 Series, A and B, where A= [A], A2], i.e., with Al and A2 as two Series-Elements; and where B= [B1, B2, B3], ie., with B1, B2, 25 B3 as three SeriesElements. If cross multiplication method is applied, then the total number of Combinations generated is 6 (= 2*3) as follows, C1= (At, 1), C2= (Al, B2), C3= {Al, B3), C4= (A2, B1), C5= {A2, 132) and C6= {A2, B3). The above method of making combinations may also be used when making combinations of YSeries to formulate a PSeries. 30 - 106 Merging of a given number of SeriesElbments is done in a sequential process, where two given Series-Elemnts are merged together in one Act to obtain a single merged SeriesElement (let's say M), and then the merged element, M, is merged with the third given SeriesElement to obtain a new merged element, and so on. The main 5 objective of merging is to ensure that the Series Elements created are valid and synchronized with each other with respect to capacity utilization of various products involved. A given unit of product capacity at any given point must only be accounted for one customer, otherwise, it may lead to a shortage situation, where one product is allocated to more than one customer leading to dissatisfaction for customers. A 10 company may choose any method of its choosing to perform merging of Series-Elements, and specifically to perform merging of two SeriesElements. The method of merging chosen may affect the total value realized, One example of such a method is given. In one approach, a company may choose to discard all merged Series-Elements that have either one or more common ChildY or common End Product. 15 A common ChildY in two SeriesElements suggest that in both Series Elements shifting of one specific Ya is needed. If each Series-Element requires shifting of Ya to two different Sets, it may present a contradictory situation. Similarly, a common EndProduct in two or more Series-Elements (that are to be merged together) may require to shift more than one Ya customer to a specific Product, which may or may not 20 be feasible depending on the AC (and EAC) of that product. Thus, a common End-Product may also represent one or more contradictory or invalid situations. A company may use any set of rules to validate or invalidate one or more constituents of any of the merged components. For example, a merged Series Element, 25 M, obtained from merging of two Series-Elements SI and S2, may comprise the COEP (addition of COEP of S1 and S2), COCY (addition of COCY of Si and 82)and CSE (addition of CSE of SI and 82). RemoveY and Buy_N processes may generate value for the company, an entity 30 other than the company, customers and/or any combination thereof. The value may include, but is not limited to cost savings for the company, an entity other than said -107 company, any combination thereof. The value generated may also include, but is not limited to, soft value, value attributable to customer goodwill, satisfaction and loyalty. The value so generated may optimize revenue of at least one entity other than said company. 5 Customer Notification Process In the customer notification (CN) process, a decision for the Chosen Product is notified to the customer. As mentioned earlier, the Chosen Product may be defined by 10 the company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. However, the company may want to keep the right to select (or define) the Chosen Product in the FRO VOF. A company may use any method of its choosing to define the Chosen Product. A company may use a software application built on the method defined above to optimally define the Chosen Product to FRO customer. 15 Fig. 26 displays an example of an algorithm that may be used to execute the Customer Notification process. In Act 26.100, a group of (one or more) customers is taken as input. Next, in Act 26.110, a set of one or more Customer Notify Rules may be used to define the Chosen Product. A company may choose any Customer Notify Rule 20 of its choosing. The Customer Notify Rules may depend upon expected value of tlie Product, expected sales volume and so forth. For example, a company may choose a Customer Notify Rule which selects the Product with the higher value as the Chosen Product. Alternatively, a rule may be chosen which selects the Product with the lower value as the Chosen Product. While defining the Chosen Product, a company may also 25 want to use the Remove Y algorithm (as used in the BuyN process given above) to determine the optimal Chosen Product that satisfies a pre-determined goal. Thus, during the CN process, one or more Ya may be shifted in the process of selecting the optimal Chosen Product. A Customer Notify Rule may also select the Product with the higher sales volume as the Chosen Product. A Customer Notify Rule may specify that if FRO 30 VOF is used in conjunction with any other VOP (such as APO VOF and so on), then the Grouping Rules (defined later) may govern the selection of the Chosen Product.

~ 108 Next, in Act 26.120, the Customer Notify Rules, thus obtained from the company's database, are used to define Chosen Product(s). Next, in Act 26,130, the customers are notified about their Chosen Product(s), and the algorithm then ends in Box 5 26.200. Implementation of FRO VOF in conjunction with other VOFs FRO VOF may be used in conjunction with one or more other VOFs, for 10 example, the APO (the Alternate Product Option) VOF. A customer who receives an APO is termed "A" type of customer. A company may form a group of one or more APO customers and one or more FRO customers, where the options (APO and FRO) obtained by the group members are complimentary in nature. As an example, consider an A customer who bought an APO to choose either of P1 and P2 as the Chosen Product, 15 and consider a Y customer who received a PRO and is flexible to take any of P1 and P2 as the Chosen Product. Thus, if A decides to choose P1 as the Chosen Product, the company may assign P2 as the Chosen Product for Y, and vice versa. The customers A and Y have taken complimentary options and may form a group. The company may need to hold only one unit of inventory in P1 and P2 to satisfy the needs of both A and Y 20 (assuming each A and Y only need one unit of product). Such a combination of complimentary options or VOFs may improve efficiency and concurrently enhance value for all the parties involved (in the context of the current example, enhance value for A, Y and the company). 25 The implementation of the grouping of A type and Y type of customers may be done in one or more ways. One way to implement such grouping is to first have one or more Y type of customers and based on such customer(s), the company may offer complimentary APOs to customers to make groups. In another implementation, the company may first offer APO and based on such APO customer(s), company offers 30 complimentary FRO to the customers to make groups. In yet another implementation, -109 the company may offer APO and FRO separately and then define a process to make complimentary groups of A and Y customers (such groups termed "AY.Groups"). A company may choose to create AY-Groups at various group levels such as 5 implementation of grouping at Level 1, Level 2 and so on. In Level 1 grouping, an AYGroup involves one each of A and Y type of customers. An example of Level I grouping has already been given above (the two customer, A and Y, example). In Level 2 grouping, the grouping involves making complimentary groups for 10 more than 2 customers. As an example, consider an A customer who bought an APO to choose either of P1 and P3 as the Chosen Product, a Y1 customer who received a FRO and is flexible to take any of P1 and P2 as the Chosen Product and a Y2 customer who has also received a FRO and is flexible to take any of P2 and P3 as the Chosen Product, A notation A-Y1-Y2 represents this example. Thus, if A decides to choose P1 as the 15 Chosen Product, the company may assign P2 as the Chosen Product for YI and P3 as the Chosen Product for Y2. Alternatively, if A decides to choose P3 as the Chosen Product, the company may assign P1 and P2 as the Chosen Produas for YI and Y2, respectively. 20 It is assumed that a "unit" represents one unit of product (or product capacity) and each customer needs only one unit of a product. Continuing with the above example, if the company were to not consider the complimentary nature of options obtained by A, YJ and Y2 customers, the company may need to hold (or block) a total of 4 units of capacity to ensure complete satisfaction of needs of A, Yl and Y2, i.e., 2 units 25 for A (1 unit each of P1 and P3 as A could choose any product), 1 unit for YI (of either P1 or P2) and I unit for Y2 (of either P2 or P3). This implies, to satisfy a total need of 3 units of products, the company may need to hold (or block) 4 units of product capacity, . creating a redundant capacity of 1 unit that the company may not be able to use otherwise, By creating a complimentary group of A-YI-Y2, the company needs to only 30 hold (or block) 3 units of capacity (1 unit each in P1, P2 and P3), thus, freeing up 1 unit of redundant capacity. Thus, an AYGroup mechanism may create an efficient structure - 110 with minimal holding (and/or blocking) of capacity to satisfy the needs of all the concerned customers. The grouping may also be implemented at higher levels such as Level 3 5 grouping, Level 4 grouping, Level 5 grouping and so on, An example of the Level 3 grouping may be A1-Y-Y2-Y3. A company may choose to implement grouping at various product levels such as Product, Set and Order. A company may also change terms and conditions of one or 10 more option contracts of one or more FRO and/or APO customers (for e.g., price, notify deadline and so on) to solicit customer participation in FRO/APO to create more AYGroups. The company may also offer incentives to customers to choose complimentary FRO/APO offerings to enable the company to create more AYGroups. The implementation methods mentioned above for grouping are for illustration purposes 15 only and a company may choose to implement grouping in one or more other ways or by combining above said methods or by combining one or more other ways along with one or more above said methods. Fig. 27 displays a flow chart that illustrates one way of implementing grouping of 20 A and Y type of customers. In Act 27.100, sets of A and Y customers are taken as input. Next, in Act 27.110, a set of one or more Grouping Rules is read from the company's database (27.210). A grouping rule may depend upon the number of A and/or Y type of customers, desired capacity redundancy in the system, the permissible time factor to create AYGroups, any other rule of company choosing, any combination thereof and so 25 on. For example, a company may choose a Grouping Rule whereby new groups are created by first ungrouping one or more of the AYGroups (created earlier but unexercised, for example, groups for which the customer has not been notified, or if notified, the customer has not utilized the Product and the terms of option contract allows for a change in the Chosen Product) A Grouping Rule may create groups of only those 30 A and Y type of customers who have yet to be grouped and discarding all A/Y customers which have already been grouped. A company may implement any Grouping Rule to - ill formulate AYGroups. The choice to Grouping rules may enhance the overall value for the company (for example, reduce the total capacity required to satisfy product needs for all A and Y customers). Theoretically, the number of units of the Product required (or blocked) should be equal to the number of customers buying the Product (assuming each 5 customer wants one unit of product). Thus, by implementing the grouping and with the help of appropriate Grouping Rules, the company may attempt to achieve such theoretical minima. Next, in Act 27.120, the Grouping Rules, so obtained from the company's 10 database, are used to make AY_ Groups. Next, in Act 27.130, the AY Groups so created are returned along with ungrouped A/Y, if any, and the process then ends in Box 27.200. The grouping may enhance customers' experience, and may comprise operating a system that delivers a FRO to at least a "first customer" to utilize up to n of m selected 15 products for said first oustoiner, where n is less than or equal to m; operating a system that delivers an APO to at least a "second customer" to utilize up to k of p selected products, where k is less than or equal to p; operating a system to define each of the k chosen products, whereby after each of the k chosen products is defined, said second customer can utilize said chosen product; operating a system wherein a company defines 20 t chosen product(s) for said first customer after each of said k chosen products is defined, wherein after each of said t products is defined, said first customer can utilize said defined product, where t is less than or equal to n. Said t products may be a subset of n products, m products or both. Said t products or n products or both may also include one or more products not included in said m selected products. Similarly, k products may be 25 a subset of p products, or may Include one or more products other than said p products. The grouping may be performed for a multiplicity of at least one of said first or second customers and may combine together at least one of each of said first and second customers to formulate at least one group with at least one complementary set of options The grouping may enable a company, an entity other than said company and/or any 30 combination thereof to utilize at least one of said n or p products at least after delivery of any of said first or second options. The company and/or an entity other than said - 112 company may implement FRO VOF where in the first and/or second customer in said grouping may be same. The notification conditions may be different, same or any combination thereof for the first and second option. 5 Said first and/or second option may or may not include any notification deadline condition. The company, the second customer, an entity other than said company and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said k chosen products. The company, the first customer, an entity other than said company and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said p chosen 10 products, The first customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said m products. The second customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said p products. The company and/or an entity other than the company may receive from at least one of said first or second customer, at one or more times, an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second options, respectively. 15 Similarly, at least one of said company and/or an entity other than said company may deliver to at least one of said first or second customers, at one or more times, one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second option, respectively. There may or may not be any payment transaction between the company, an entity other than the company, and at least one of said first and/or second customer. 20 The FRO VOF may also be used in conjunction with one or more other VOFs, for example, the UPO VOF. A customer who received a UPO is termed "U" type of customer. A company may form a group of one or more UPO customers and one or more PRO customers, where the options (UPO and PRO) obtained by the group 25 members are complimentary in nature. The implementation of the grouping of Y type and U type of customers may be done in one or more ways. One way to implement such grouping is to first offer and secure one or more Y type of customers and based on such customer(s), the company 30 may offer complimentary TPOs to other customers to make groups. In another implementation, the company may first offer and secure UPO and based on such FRO -113 customer(s), company offers complimentary FRO to other customers to make groups. In yet another implementation, the company may offer UPO and FRO separately and then define a process to make complimentary groups of U and Y customers (such groups termed "UYGroups"). 5 A company may choose to create UY Groups at various group levels such as implementation of grouping at Level 1, Level 2 and so on. In Level 1 grouping, a UYGroup involves one each of U and Y type of customers. As an example, Level 2 grouping is given below. 10 In Level 2 grouping, the grouping involves making complimentary groups for more than 2 customers. As an example, consider three customers Y(P1, P3), Ul[up(P2), base(P3)) and U2[up(P1), base(P2)]. The notation Y(Pl, P3) implies a customer Y who has received a FRO and is flexible to have either P1 or P2 as the Chosen Product. The 15 notation U1[up(P2), base(P3)] implies a customer U1 who received a UPO and wishes to get an upgrade from P3 (i.e., the base product) to P2 (i.e., the up product), and U2[up(P1), base(P2)] implies a customer U2 who received a UPO and wishes to get an upgrade from P2 (i.e., the base product) to P1 (i.e., the up product). A notation Y-U1-U2 represents this example. Thus, there are three products P1, P2, and P3 and they are 20 occupied by Y, U2, and UI respectively. The three customers have different value needs. The customer Y is flexible on either P1 or P3 if he/she receives a desired reward for trading-in his/her flexibility. The customer U1 has a base product P3 and wishes to get P2 as the Up Product. If a company is able to upgrade Ul to P2 from P3, it may generate incremental value for both the customer and the company. But in the existing framework 25 (i.e., without using conjunction of more than one VOFs), the company may not be able to achieve this without an available capacity on product P2, Similarly, U2 has a base product P2 and wishes to get P1 as the Up Product. A company may customize the desired values for the three customers by leveraging on Y's flexibility and upgrading UI and U2. The company may assign P3 as Chosen Product to Y, upgrade U2 from P2 to 30 P1, and upgrade UI from P3 to P2. The company may be able to generate customer surpluses in the process of U1 and U2 upgrades, which would not have been possible -114 normally. Thus, a company may be able to generate incremental value for all the parties involved and satisfy the desired needs to a level of customization. Such a combination of complimentary options or VOFs may improve efficiency and concurrently enhance value for all the parties involved (in the context of the current example, enhance value for Y, 5 U1, U2 and the company). It is assumed that a "unit" represents one product (or product capacity) and each customer needs only one product, Continuing with the above example, if the company were to not consider the complimentary nature of options obtained by Y, U1 and U32 10 customers, the company may need to hold (or block) more than 3 units of capacity to ensure complete satisfaction of needs of Y, U1 and U2. This implies, to satisfy a total need of 3 products, the company may need to hold (or block) more than 3 products, creating a redundant capacity of at least one product that the company may not be able to use otherwise, By creating a complimentary group of Y-Ul-U2, the company does not 15 need to hold any capacity, thus freeing up the redundant capacity. Thus, a UY_.Group mechanism may create an efficient structure with minimal holding (and/or blocking) of capacity to satisfy the needs of all the concerned customers. The grouping may also be implemented at higher levels such as Level 3 20 grouping, Level 4 grouping, Level 5 grouping and so on. An example of the Level 3 grouping may be Y-U 1.-U2-U3. A company may choose to implement grouping at various levels. A company may also change terms and conditions of one or more option contracts of one or more 25 UPO and/or FRO customers (for e.g., price, notify deadline and so on) to solicit customer participation in UPO/FRO to create more UY Groups. The company may also offer incentives to customers to choose complimentary UPO/FRO offerings to enable the company to create more UYiGroups. The implementation methods mentioned above for grouping are for illustration purposes only and a company may choose to implement 30 grouping in one or more other ways or by combining above said methods. or by combining one or more other ways along with one or more above said methods.

-115 Fig. 28 displays a flow chart that illustrates one way of implementing grouping of U and Y type of customers. In Act 28.100, sets of U and Y customers arc taken as input. Next, in Act 28.110, a set of one or more Grouping Rules is read from the company's 5 database (28.210), A grouping rule may depend upon the number of U and/or Y type of customers, desired capacity redundancy in the system, the permissible time factor to create UY Groups, any other rule of company choosing, any combination thereof and so on. For example, a company may choose a Grouping Rule whereby new groups are created by first ungrouping one or more of the UY Groups (created earlier but 10 unexercised, for example, groups for which the customer has not been notified, or if notified, the customer has not utilized the product and the terms of option contract allows a change in the Chosen Product). In another example, a Grouping Rule may create groups of only those U and Y type of customers who are yet to be grouped and discarding all U/Y customers, which have already been grouped. A company may 15 implement any Grouping Rule to formulate UY Groups. The choice to Grouping rules may enhance the overall value for the company (for example, reduce the total capacity required to satisfy product needs for all U and Y customers). Theoretically, the number of units of the product required (or blocked) should be equal to the number of units the customers shall be eventually utilizing. Thus, by implementing the grouping and with the 20 help of appropriate Grouping Rules, the company may attempt to achieve such theoretical minima. Next, in Act 28.120, the Grouping Rules, so obtained from the company's database, are used to make UYGroups. Next, in Act 28.130, the UY -Groups so created 25 are returned along with ungrouped U/Y, if any, and the process then ends in Box 28.200. The grouping may enhance customers' experience, and may comprise operating a system that delivers a UPO to at least a "first customer" to utilize up to n of mn selected products for said first customer, and n is less than or equal to in; operating a system that 30 delivers a PRO to at least a "second customer" to utilize up to k of p selected products, and k is less than or equal to p; operating a system to define each of the k Chosen - 116 Products, whereby after each of the k Chosen Products is defined, said "second customer" can utilize said Chosen Product; operating a system wherein a company defines t Chosen Product(s) for said "first customer" after each of said k Chosen Products is defined, wherein after each of said t products is defined, said first customer 5 can utilize said defined product, where t is less than or equal to n. Said t products may be a subset of n products, m products or both, Said t products or n products or both may also include one or more products not included in said m selected products. Similarly, k products may be a subset of p products, or may include one or more products other than said p products. The grouping may be performed for a multiplicity of at least one of said 10 first or second customers and may combine together at least one of each of said first and second customers to formulate at least one group with at least one complementary set of options. The grouping may enable a company, an entity other than said company and/or any combination thereof to utilize at least one of said m or p products at least after delivery of any of said first or second options. The company and/or an entity other than 15 said company may implement FRO VOF where in the first and/or second customer in said grouping may be same. The notification conditions may be different, same or any combination thereof for the first and second option. Said first and/or second option may or may not include any notification deadline 20 condition. The company, the second customer, an entity other than said company and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said k chosen products. The company, the.first customer, an entity other than said company and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said p chosen products. The first customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said m 25 products. The second customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said p products. The company and/or an entity other than the company may receive from at least one of said first or second customer, at one or more times, an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second options, respectively. Similarly, at least one of said company and/or an entity other than said company may 30 deliver to at least one of said first or second customers, at one or more times, one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second option, respectively.

- 117 There may or may not be any payment transaction between the company, an entity other than the company, and at least one of said first and/or second customer. Business Model to implement FRO 5 Different business models may be used to implement a FRO VOF, The business models mentioned below, without limitation, may be used to implement the FRO VOF in any industry. As an example, a company may choose to implement a FRO VOF individually or in conjunction with one or more partners and/or other companies. 10 As mentioned in the above sections, for example, an entity may use the allocated products to offer FRO to customers and/or to sell the products as regular products. The allocation of product may be conditional. For example, one of the conditions may require a retun.of at least one allocated product within a specified time period and/or 15 other consideration(s). The customer may select or purchase one or more products from the company and/or said entity and then interact with said entity to receive one or more PRO Products in relation to said (already purchased) products. Said entity may also receive product 20 allocation from more than one company, and thus, offer products from multiple companies to a single customer during the Initial Transaction for FRO. The OA may use those products and operate a service to offer FRO to the customers. As explained above in Fig. 13A, a customer may select one or more products 25 from the OA, and then receive FRO on those selected products from the OA. Another approach would be for a customer to select one or more products from the company and then receive FRO on those selected products from the OA. In another example, a customer may select one or more products from both the company and the OA, and then receive the FRO option on those selected products from the OA, It is also possible that 30 the customer receives FRO from the company or both from the company and the OA on a given set of selected products, ~118 The OA and the company may simultaneously offer PRO to the customers, i.e., a customer may either approach the company or the OA to receive FRO on desired products. In another model, the OA may operate as the sole provider of FRO to all the 5 customers of a company. In yet another model, the OA and the company may choose to work together and jointly offer FRO to the customers. The OA or the company may offer FRO to customers using either or both of the Sequential or the Concurrent Get FRO processes. 10 As explained in Fig. 13A above, an OA may be able to offer FRO on products from one or multiple companies. An OA may receive allocation of products from two or more companies. A customer may purchase one or more products from one or more companies and/or from the OA, and then receive FRO on those selected products from the GA. Even if the OA may not be entitled to or does not receive product allocation 15 from a company, it may still be able to formulate an agreement with one or more companies to offer FRO on the products of said companies. Thus, a customer may be able t6 receive PRO on products from multiple companies, giving the customer more value to trade-in their flexibility and variety to choose from, For example, a customer may receive PRO on two products from two different companies, and the OA and/or any 20 one or all of the companies will then notify the customer about the Chosen Product within the terms and conditions of the option contract. This may provide a lot of value to the customers for trading their flexibility, especially when the desired product(s) is provided by a few companies. An OA may be able to thus create a multi-company FRO VOF Framework, which may tremendously enhance the value to the customers, All the 25 participating companies that allocate products to and/or partner with the OA to offer PRO may also gain from the FRO network (benefits include reduced revenue spill, higher revenues from selling the FRO Products at higher prices, and/or to sell FRO on those products, enhanced overall customer satisfaction and/or other operational benefits). Either or both of the OA and the company may process the Chosen Products associated 30 with FRO received by the customer. A customer may receive products from the OA or the company for the products related to the PRO grant, Any entity (the OA and the -119 company) may process products offered only by that entity or by either of the two entities. The OA and the company may engage in a business agreement to implement the 5 FRO program, The business agreement may divide the total benefit generated by the FRO program between the two parties using any mechanism or criteria as desired. The total PRO Revenue Benefit may be shared between the two parties. The company may allocate products to the OA, One or more companies may allocate only part of or their entire product inventory to the OA to offer those products to the customers by way of 10 regular and/or FRO Products. In return, the OA may offer some revenue or fee to the company for all or a portion of the products allocated. This fee may be given only for the products that the OA is able to utilize or for all the allocated products. The lending fee may be a lump sum amount, may depend upon the number of products allocated or may depend on one or more factors as desired. The agreement may include a provision 15 where the OA may return the allocated products back to the company at a certain time and date. There may be one or more conditions associated with the return of unused FRO products and/or products from the Released Products, including, but not limited to, returning the same product, returning a higher value product and so on. The company may allot OA at least one product and said OA may deliver FRO on at least one of said 20 allocated products. The OA may or may not enter into an agreement with the company to provide such option on its products. The GA may sell back at least one allocated product to said company or to at least one entity other than the company or both. An OA may offer a company flexible customer inventory (generated from PRO) 25 at one or more terms and conditions. The company may be able to use this flexibility to generate benefit from one or more ways, such as the Buy.N process, reducing operational costs and so forth. Some of these examples'have been explained earlier, An OA may formulate an agreement with one or more companies on one or more 30 VOFs, such as on both APO and FRO VOPs, to offer a combination of VOFs to customers.

-120 The FRO VOF may include different conditions regarding the payment of prices related to the FRO, For example, a customer may receive FRO Price only from the company even if he/she is receiving products and/or options from the OA. Similarly, the 5 customer may receive FRO Price only from the OA even if he or she selected the products and/or received the options from the companies. The condition may also be set for a customer to make one or more payments to the company for the products and receive one or more payments from the company for the options received from that company, and to make one or more payments to the OA for the products and receive one 10 or more payments from the OA for the options received from that OA, The condition may allow the customer to receive partial payments from the company and the rest from the OA or vice versa, the basis of which distribution may depend upon various factors, including, but are not limited to, the factors of company's choosing, the arrangement between the OA and the company and so on. In another example, the customer may 15 receive the FRO Price from the third party or may receive FRO Price from any of the combination of the entities mentioned above. Information Technology System for FRO 20 A client-server architecture may be used to implement the FRO VOF. However, a company may use a computer hardware and software infrastructure of its choosing to implement a PRO VOF. The FRO VOF may be best implemented using one or more computer 25 implemented methods to operate a computer-implemented service to offer FRO to the customers, that includes, but not limited to, recording the information pertaining to the offered and/or used FRO in a database. It may also include operating a computer implemented service (and/or system) or other service (and/or system) to define the Chosen Products, and recording said Chosen Products (or defined Products) and all the 30 Products related to a FRO in a database.

- 121 For the stage one (i.e., to formulate the FRO VOF), an application server may be used along with a database (e.g., a relational database) that stores all the information relevant to the company and the customer. The database may include all the relevant information sufficient to identify Products the company chooses to make eligible for 5 FRO. One or more users (e.g., a business analyst or manager) may have full access to this server through Intranet or highly secured VPN environment to design an optimal value option framework. The database shall also store all the information pertaining to all the acts (in stage one) used by the company while formulating the FRO VOF. 10 A similar or a different application server and/or a cluster of application servers (functioning concurrently) along with one or more web servers and a set of one or more database servers may be used for the Get FRO as explained in Fig. 13D above and CN (Customer Notification) processes in the stage two of the PRO VOF. The application server communicates with a web server and the database (e.g., a relational database 15 either the same database used for stage one or a different one). This database (for stage two) stores all the relevant information pertaining to all the acts executed during and in relation to the processes and algorithms run for stage two. All the algorithms mentioned earlier for both the Get FRO process and the Event Optimizer processes may be computer-implemented as explained and discussed above in Fig. 13D and 13E. All the 20 customer interactions and the related information such as customer needs, inputs, payment transactions etc. are stored in this database, including information pertaining to the interactions with those customers who may not receive FRO. The systems for stage two and stage one should be maintained in a synchronized environment so that each system has access to the most current information and can communicate with each other. 25 As discussed above, there may be other ways for implementing the PRO VOF which may depend upon including, but not limited to, the scale of the implementation, business requirements and number of entities involved. The entities may interact through a series of hardware products and services with the OA/company server(s). The OA may 30 or may not be different than the company and the OA server may be the same as that of the company server. The information technology and network system to implement

FRO

- - 122 VOF may include tools, without limitation, such as one or more CPUs, Hard Disk Drives, RAM, one or more series of Routers, Internet, Firewall, highly secured VPN, Intranet, load balancers, servers, primary databases, secondary databases and so forth. 5 As discussed and explained above, there may be one or more secondary databases that may only be in the "Read Only" form and may be updated through one or more replication servers. Alternatively, the company may have one or more separate temporary database structure wherein the entries are updated and stored until the final update is made in one or more main databases. One the final update is done, the entries 10 in these temporary databases may be removed. The entire system may run at the premises of OA, company and/or any third entity or any combination thereof. It may also be possible to run a part of the system at one place and rest at one or more other places. The system may also be implemented 15 even if one or more servers may be kept off-shore locations and may be accessed remotely. The geographical locations of one or more hardware product and/or services may be different depending upon including, but not limited to, the factors of company's choice, ease of accessibility, infrastructure facilities. The structure or the interaction architecture of the system may vary depending on factors including, but not limited to, 20 the set up of the company, changes in the technology and with the introduction of new and better technology enhancing the interaction process. A customer may interact with either one or more of the Get FRO, BuyN, the CN processes either directly or indirectly using a local or a remote terminal (e.g., a computer 25 with a browser and an access to the Internet) that is able to access the web server(s) that host the Get FRO and CN processes. A customer may also interact with an operator (or a computer operator) using any communication mechanism (e.g., in-person, phone, using email, Internet chat, text messaging system) who then communicates with the web server through the Intranet and/or Internet. 30 - 123 The system for the stage one and/or stage two may be hosted and run by the company, an OA, a third party service provider or any combination of the above. In the model, where the OA receives Product allocation from the company and offers FRO to the customers directly, the web server, application serVer and database for both stage one 5 and stage two shall be managed by the OA. The OA may also have partial (or complete) access to the company database and systems through a highly secured environment (for example, a virtual private network). In the model, when an OA and a company tie-up together to offer FRO, all the computer hardware and software infrastructure for both stage one and stage two may be hosted by and/or property of either or both (mutually) of 10 the sides depending upon the business agreement between them. The above system and architecture may be explained and used for any industry. Each company using the system and method taught herein can make its own choices as to how extensively to deploy the method. For example, a company can implement as 15 few or as many of the foregoing options as it desires; or it may perceive and implement one or more other options. Flexibility Reward Option (FRO) Value Option Framework in the airline industry 20 As explained above, FRO VOF can be implemented in any industry. The implementation of FRO in airline industry is discussed herein, Within the airline industry, the customer desire to trade-in travel flexibility (defined below) is used as the targeted value element. A detailed demonstration of applying the FRO VOF within the 25 airline industry is presented. The first stage in the PRO VOF involves steps (or acts) of: capturing customer dynamics, assessing airline operations and economic factors, integrating customer dynamics with airline economic factors, formulating the VOF and optimizing the VOF. 30 The second stage involves carrying out a dynamic interaction with the customer and then -124 executing an Event Optimizer process. The specific detailed steps with respect to the FRO VOF within the airline industry will now be discussed. First Stage: Formulation of FRO Value Option Framework 5 (1) Capturing Customer Dynamics Fig. 29 shows an analysis of the value elements that are believed to matter to customers in relation to a FRO. In the design value segment, shown in Box 29.100, 10 important value elements may include, but are not limited to, the customers' flexibility in purchasing tickets and their desire to trade-in their travel flexibility. In the price value segment, shown in Box 29.200, important value elements may include, but are not limited to, Ticket Price and desired monetary/non-monetary reward to trade-in travel flexibility. In the delivery value segment, shown in Box 29.300, important value 15 elements may include, but are not limited to, time before which a customer may be able to trade-in his or her travel flexibility to obtain the desired reward. In the service value segment, the important value elements may include, but are not limited to, the ease to trade-in travel flexibility, as shown in Box 29.400. It may be important to estimate the relative preferences and utilities of these value elements to different types of customers. 20 The customers' desire to trade-in their travel flexibility is subjective in terms of the length of the "travel flexibility trade-in period" and the "range of travel flexibility". The term "travel flexibility trade-in period" refers to the time period during which a customer is willing to trade-in his or her travel flexibility. The term "range of travel 25 flexibility" refers to a range of travel features and/or components across which a customer is flexible. For example, the range of travel flexibility may be expressed in terms of the periods for departure, arrival and stay, range of depart and/or arrival cities, flight services/amenities needed during travel and so forti. The travel flexibility trade-in period, range of travel flexibility and reward (as desired by customers in lieu of travel 30 flexibility) are subjective and may differ from customer to customer, or even for the same customer, may differ from one situation to another.

- 125 (2) Assessment of airline economics An assessment of the crucial economic factors of an airline, as indicated in Box .5 30.100, may reveal the factors to include, but not be limited to, high fixed costs, the varying and unbalanced demand across different flights, the difficulty to accurately forecast demand, the inability or difficulty to shift customers from overloaded flights to low-demand flights, spill-de mand from customers who are denied seats, opportunity loss from capacity shortages or spoilage, regulatory requirements from government or other 10 regulatory bodies regarding overbooking and overbooking compensation, an exponential increase in over-sale costs and customer ill-will due to increase in the overbooking limit, the pressure to process customers in an organized manner under time-constrained conditions at the airport, increased competition from the low cost carriers, the need to develop sustainable competitive advantages, customer attrition rate, and the 15 commoditization of the airline industry. An assessment of the crucial economic factors of an airline may be performed, to determine the factors that affect the profitability, growth and goals of the airline. It might be beneficial if an airline utilizing the inventive system and method were able to express 20 cost elements in a real-time or quasi-real-time (i.e., up to date) dynamic fashion so that, such information can then be used to assess the profitability or contribution of each product sale opportunity, and to facilitate the operation of the Event Optimizer (so that offers and actions can be based on real-time or near-real-time information). 25 (3) Integration of customer dynamics with airline economic factors Fig. 30 also illustrates an example of how a mapping may be done, between the customer and airline profiles, for the FRO VOF in the airline industry. On one side, there are customers who have flexibility and desire to trade-in their travel flexibility in 30 lieu of rewards or benefits. However, customers are also concerned about any hassles, delays, frustration that one may go through if they participate in such an exchange. On -126 the other side, an airline faces an unbalanced demand that is difficult to forecast accurately. It would certainly be very helpful for an airline to know the relative travel flexibilities of customers to receive different flights, For example, an airline may benefit from knowing the relative flexibility of a customer to fly on a flight within a given set of 5 flights. Airlines usually have a higher aggregate capacity than aggregate demand. However, the demand is non-uniform and often leads to over-sale, revenue spili or spoilage or any combination thereof, in flights. The issue of last minute cancellations 10 and no-shows (CNS) father complicates the issue. To deal with the revenue spills and spoilages, and to concurrently hedge against the CNS, the airlines overbook flights. Overbooking is a risky proposition due to associated costs, customer ill will and/or regulatory or government rules. If a flight takes off with one or more empty seats, that condition probably represents the loss of potential revenue for that airline. The airline 15 may have turned down potential customers due to the risk of high cost of overbooking in the concerned flight or other flights (of the same or different airline). The overbooking factor in flights other than said flight represent potential revenue loss because there may be one or more customers on such other flights who could have been willing to be shifted to the flight with empty seats in lieu of reward, and thus, releasing capacity for new 20 potential customers (who may be willing to pay a lot higher) in said other flights, However, today there is no framework that allows companies to do so in an optimal fashion such that both airline and the customer benefit at the same time. An opportunity, thus, exists to concurrently generate an incremental revenue benefit for the airline, and to maximize the purchase utilities for the customers (includes those who want to trade-in 25 flexibility and those who want to obtain specific flights even at higher prices). The FRO VOF is created based on the value element "desire to trade-in travel flexibility". More specifically, as shown in the interaction between the Box 30.200 and Box 30.300, a mapping is performed between important customer value elements and the 30 airline economic factors. The value element "desire to trade-in travel flexibility" is extracted, as shown in Box 30,400 and a FRO value option framework is created.

-127 (4) Formulating the "FRO" Value Option Framework Structure of FRO Value Option Framework in an Airline Industry 5 Fig. 31 displays the structure of a PRO value option framework (shown in Box 31.100) in the airline industry. The FRO value option framework is related to the value element "desire to trade-in travel flexibility", as shown in Box i$ 110. 10 In the "Initial Transaction" for FRO, shown by Box 31.200, a customer (shown by Box 31210) and an airline (shown by Box 31.220) transact on the PRO value option. There may be one or more Events (shown by Box 31.230) that follow the Initial Transaction. 15 In a successful Initial Transaction for a FRO, the customer receives an option to utilize up to 'n' out of 'm' selected flights (said 'm' flights termed "FRO Flights"). The 'n' flights that are finally selected are termed "Chosen Flights". After each of the 'n' Chosen Flights is defined (or selected or chosen or received), the customer has the right to utilize (or can utilize) said Chosen Flight. Apart from the 'a' Chosen Flights, the 20 remaining 'm - n' flights are termed "Released Flights". The Released Flights (if any, that were probably held or blocked for said customer) may be sold to other customers as normal flights or FRO Flights or used for other purposes. The Released Flights in relation to said option may be reused by the airline before, after, at or any combination thereof, the time the Released Flights and/or Chosen Flights are defined (or received or 25 selected). Numerically, the value of 'In' is greater than or equal to 1 and the value of 'n' may vary from '0' to m' depending upon the specific implementation of the PRO framework. The value of 'm' and/or *n' may be known (or defined and/or re-defined) 30 before, during or after the Initial Transaction and/or any combination thereof The value of n may be limited to less than the value of m, or n<m (i.e., n<=m- 1);.however, in some - 128 situations, n may be equal to m. The value of 'n' may or may not be known (or defined and/or re-defined) at the time of the Initial Transaction. The value of 'n' Flights may be defined in one or more transactions. The value of 'm' and/or 'n' may be defined and/or re-defined, at one or more times, by the airline, the customer, another entity or any 5 combination thereof. For example, the value of n may not be defined at the time of Initial Transaction. In case the value of m is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'W' may be greater than or less than the older value of 'i', Similarly, if the value of 'n' is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'n' may also be greater than or less than the older value of 'n'. In some of the 10 cases, the value of new 'n' may be even greater than the older value of 'm'. The 'n' Chosen Flights may include one or more flights other than said 'in' flights. The FRO Flights may be selected by the airline, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. The FRO VOF may enable an airline to obtain travel 15 flexibility from FRO customers (i.e., those who select FRO) and use said travel flexibility to satisfy the travel needs of other customers (i.e., who have relatively fixed or strong preferences). Therefore, the airline would usually have the right to select (or define) the Chosen Flights. However, in different implementations of FRO VOF, the airline, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof may select one or more 20 of the Chosen Flights related to a FRO. The FRO Flights and the Chosen Flights may be selected by the same entity, different entities or any combination thereof. For example, the customer may select the FRO Flights and the airline may select the Chosen Flights out of the FRO Flights. The airline may incorporate the customer information and the data related to the FRO into the sales, production, inventory, other database or 25 information system or any combination of the above. The time when an Initial Transaction is completed (i.e., the customer receives the FRO option on said in Flights) is referred to as the Initial Transaction Time (or ITT, in short). One or more of said m Flights may be selected, at one or more times, before, 30 after, during, or any combination thereof, the Initial Transaction and/or the time said option is delivered to the customer (or the customer receives said option) or any - 129 combination thereof. All the FRO Flights may be selected concurrently (i.e., all together in one transaction) or sequentially (i.e., in multiple transactions). The delivery of an option may include, but not limited to, electronic delivery of 5 the option, physical delivery of the option, any other mode of delivery or any combination thereof. Once said option is delivered, one or more of m flights may be available for use by the airline, an entity other than the airline and/or any combination thereof The value of 'n' may be defined before, after or any time, the option being delivered to the customer, The delivery of option may occur in relation to the customer 10 purchasing at least one ticket for a flight. The delivery of option may also occur in relation to the customer purchasing a ticket for a flight other than the flight on which the option may be delivered. The customer may purchase a ticket for a flight other than the flight on which the option is delivered to the customer. 15 In the sequential case, a customer may select one or more Flights in one or more transactions before the Initial Transaction. Said selected Flight(s) (let's say X number of them), thus, may be considered as part of said m PRO Flights of the PRO (m, n) transaction, and the customer may select only the remaining (m - X) number of FRO Flights during the Initial Transaction. All the transactions used to select (or receive) all 20 the n FRO Flights of a PRO (m, n) instance are related to each other, and hence, are considered as "related transactions" (as defined earlier). In a FRO VOF, the sequential process may comprise a number of "related transactions" when all the FRO Flights are received one after another by 25 paying/receiving a price in one or more transactions or acts. The price may include, but is not limited to, a monetary value, coupons, discount vouchers, other benefits such as loyalty program benefits, or any combination of the above. The transactions may be related due to a relationship during the Initial Transaction, one or more of the previously executed transactions, any other transaction or combination thereof. In the related 30 transactions, n' may be equal to 'm' when there may be at least one payment transaction between the airline and the customer related to the flights wherein such payment is made - 130 after the option has been granted. Said payment transaction may be one more transaction apart from the initial interaction and/or Initial Transaction in the event said customer utilizes all the 'm' Flights. The customer may select flights prior to utilizing the penultimate flight. The airline, an entity other than said airline and/or any combination 5 thereof may reserve the right to limit the customer to 'n' flights on, before, on or before, after, on or after or any combination thereof, a stated notification deadline date. An airline may choose to create one or more instances of the FRO VOF based on factors including, but not limited to, number of FRO Flights, Chosen Flights or Released 10 Flights, pre-determination of a number of Chosen Flights or Released Flights, travel flexibility trade-in period, other factors or any combination thereof. For example, a FRO based on a combination of the number of FRO Flights (or m) and Chosen Flights (or n) would be FRO (m, n). Some FRO instances are shown in Boxes 31.120, 31.130, 31.140 and 31.150. For example, when the number of Chosen Flights is pre-determined, the 15 FRO (4, 2) instance may imply that the customer receives 4 FRO Flights, on the condition that the airline may select any 2 out of 4 Flights as Chosen Flights. When the number of Chosen Flights is not pre-determined, the FRO (4, 2) instance may imply that the customer receives 4 FRO Flights, on the condition that the airline may select none, one or 2 Chosen Flights out of FRO Flights. There may also be a minimum limit on n. 20 For example, the FRO (4, n) (where 1<=n<=2) instance limits the airline to select either 1 or 2 Chosen Flights out of the 4 FRO Flights. The FRO (2, 1) instance, two FRO Flights and one Chosen Flight, is used here as an example to demonstrate the details of the structure of a PRO VOF. Box 31.200 refers 25 to the Initial Transaction between the customer and the airline, in which they transact on a PRO (2, 1) value option. In a successful Initial Transaction for FRO (2, 1), the customer selects two FRO Flights and the airline may select any 'one' of those two Flights as the Chosen Flight. For example, a customer may get PRO for different departure dates. A customer gets FRO to depart either on 51" or 7t of the month. The 30 airline gets the right to notify the customer, about his Final Flight before 4 th of the month about the Chosen Flight.

-131 The Initial Transaction may have terms and conditions applicable to the customer, or the airline or both, These terms and conditions may be set, preferably, to concurrently benefit both parties. The connections between Box 31.200 and 31.220, and 5 Box 31.200 and 31.210 refer to the terms and conditions to the airline and the customer, respectively. The FRO VOF may or may not include any constraints on the PRO Flights. For example, an airline may restrict FRO applicability and availability on Flights that satisfy 10 specific criteria. The two PRO Flights may or may not include practically constrained Flights. Practical constraints may include one or more constraints that will prevent a customer to fly on one or more given Flights or prevent the customer from flying on all the FRO Flights. Such constraints may include, but are not limited to, time constraints, location constraints and so forth. In other words, it may or may not be practically 15 possible for a customer to fly on both the selected Flights due to at least one practical constraint, For example, one flight may be scheduled to be airborne when the other flight is scheduled to depart, thus not allowing any customer on the former flight to take the latter flight, or the distance between the departure airports of the two flights may prevent customers from flying on both flights (that depart within hours of each other). 20 A customer may select (or receive) FRO Plights in several ways; through mutual agreement (eg., during a direct interaction such as a Flight purchase), or the airline may grant the FRO Flights to the customer without soliciting their interest or permission. For example, to enhance customer satisfaction or for any other purpose, an airline may grant 25 FRO Flights to customers based on the past customer behavior, interaction and so on. The Initial Transaction may impose one or more conditions on the airline, An airline may be required to explicitly notify the customer prior to or no later than a given date and time (referred to as the Notify Deadline) regarding the Chosen Flight. For 30 simplicity, it is assumed that whenever the ter Notify. Deadline is used in the following sections, the condition requires notification prior to the Notify Deadline. If there is no - 132 such explicit notification condition, the Chosen Flight may be decided as per the terms and conditions of the option contract. In either case (explicit or implicit notification), the date and time when the selection of the Chosen Flight is notified to the customer is referred to as the Customer NotIfication Tine (or PNT, in short). In the current 5 discussion, the explicit notification condition is assumed unless specifically mentioned otherwise. An airline may determine one or more Notfy Deadlines for a flight at one or more times (e.g., before, during, after the Initial Transaction or any combination thereof) 10 using factors includihg, but not limited to, customer needs, -expected value of the seat in a flight, airline profitability goals, any other factors or any combination of the above. Customer factors should also be considered in determining the Notify Deadlines, such as the travel flexibility trade-in periods desired by customers, or any other factor that may affect the behavior of a customer. The FRO VOF may or may not have a notification 15 deadline condition. An airline may provide an option of booking 'in' Flights with condition of canceling at least one of them. In such case, the airline may have authority to decide booking of which Flights is to be cancelled. The airline may reward the customer for 20 his/her travel flexibility. Consider an example. A customer may book two Flights at $200 each for two different dates 2 "d May and 5 '1 May. Three cases may follow this event - a) high demand for Flight on 2 "d May, the airline may cancel the booking of the Flight for 2 "d May and the customer may be refunded $205 (Ticket Price + Flexibility Reward); b) high demand for Flight on 5" May, the airline may cancel the booking of the 25 Flight for 5 1h May and the customer may be refunded $205 (Ticket Price + Flexibility Reward); c) regular demand (i.e. no high demand) for the Flights on both the dates, the airline may cancel the booking of any of the Flights as per its choosing or as per the terms of the option contract and the customer may be refunded $203 (Ticket Price + Flexibility Reward which may be lower in this case). 30 -133 In the context of the FRO VOF in the airline industry, the terms "price" or "reward" or "discount" normally refer to the price which the airline may offer to the customer in relation to the PRO. However, in one of the implementations of FRO VOF, the customer may also offer a price to the airline in relation to the FRO. The terms 5 "price" and "reward" are used interchangeably as and when the context requires. The PRO VOF may impose additional terms and conditions on the customer. The airline and/or an entity other than the airline may receive from customer, at one or more times, an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with said 10 option in the FRO VOF. Similarly, at least one of said airline and/or an entity other than said airline may deliver to said customer, at one or more times, one or more terms and conditions associated with said option in the FRO YOF. A customer may receive one or more rewards (or prices) in relation to the FRO. There may or may not be any payment transaction related to the Initial Transaction and/or other event related to the FRO. 15 There may be one or more prices related to the FRO. A price may include, but is not limited to, a set of one or more Ticket Prices, a set of one or more FRO Prices (or Rewards or Discounts) or any combination of the above. An airline may choose to implement FRO Prices in many ways. For example, a customer may pay a Ticket Price to receive a group of flights, and then, may choose to get FRO on said flights and thus, 20 receive PRO reward. An airline may use the method of its choosing to decide on all the Ticket Prices, The customer may receive one or more prices during the Initial Transaction (which is referred to as an Initial Price), at the CNT (which is referred to as an Exercise 25 Price) and/or at any other time, which may or may not be pre-determined. The price may be a function of number of FRO Flights and/or Chosen Flights, specific flights to be granted for FRO Flights and/or Chosen Flights, Notfy Deadline, one or more Ticket Prices, any other factors of airline's choosing or any combination of the above. 30 The price may comprise a monetary value or a soft/non-monetary value (e.g,, benefits, coupons or exchange of another service) or other consideration. The FRO Price - 134 may be fixed or variable, with or without bounds. The airline may set permissible range(s) or boundary limit(s) within which the FRO Price can vary, or it may offer the customer a set of prices to choose from. Since price conditions may depend upon various factors, which may or may not be variable, the same may be decided at anytime. 5 The price conditions may be determined by the customer, the airline, another entity, or any combination thereof at one or more times. One or more prices (FRO Initial or FRO Exercise or any other price) may be a negative value, which reflects that instead of the airline rewarding the customer, the customer shall pay a price to the airline to get the desired Flight as the Chosen Flight. 10 Different price strategies may be implemented in the PRO (2,1) instance. For example, a single Initial Price could make it attractive and easy for the customer to participate in the FRO program. One or more of the PRO prices (rewards) may be embedded with the Ticket Price by using a special Ticket Price. A customer may be 15 presumed to accept the PRO offer while displaying the Ticket Price (that has the FRO Price embedded in it). These presumptions may or may not include soliciting prior interest of the customer regarding the FRO offer. In case, the PRO price is merged with the Ticket Price, and where such price may or may not be separately identifiable, the customer may or may not receive a separate price for FRO. 20 The Notfy Deadline may be pre-determined or may be determined later (i.e., after FRO grant) by the airline, the customer or mutually by both. There may be one or more Notf Deadlines, where each Notify Deadline may have a different price associated to it. There are several ways to implement this condition. One way is given, as follows. 25 The price associated to the first Notify Deadline (i.e., the earliest among the Notify Deadlines) may be offered if the customer is notified anytime before the first Notify Deadline. The price associated to the second Notfy Deadline (i.e., the second earliest among the Notify Deadlines) may be offered if the customer is notified after the first Notify Deadline and before the second Notfy Deadline. 30 - 135 The terms and conditions of the FRO VOF may not allow the airline to notify the customer after the last Notify Deadline (i.e., the latest among the Notify Deadlines). As an operational measure, a rule may be set that if the airline and/or an entity other than the airline fails to notify the customer before the last Notify Deadline, the customer may 5 select either of the FRO Flights as the Chosen Flight. Similarly, in one of the implementations of the FRO VOF, a rule may also be set that if the customer fails to notify the airline and/or an entity other than the airline before the last Notfy Deadline, the airline and/or an entity other than the airline may select either of the FRO Flights as the Chosen Flight for the customer. Another approach may be (e.g., for 10 customer/airline) to designate one of the two flights as a Default Flight (during or after receiving the FRO) that will be selected as the Chosen FlIght if the airline fails to notify the customer of the Flight selection before the last Notify Deadline. Any entity (e.g., the airline or the customer) may (or may not) be allowed to change the Default Flight once it is selected. The FRO Exercise Price (if any) in the default case may or may not be equal 15 to the FRO Exercise Price for the Default Flight for the last Notify Deadline. In the current discussion, a single Not*y Deadline is assumed. The FRO Exercise Price may be a function of Notify Deadline, FRO Flights and/or Chosen Flight, one or more Ticket Prices, any other factors of airline's choosing 20 or any combination thereof. In such situations, the airline may pay a price to the customer based on the selection of the Chosen Flight at a given time. The FRO VOF may also include conditions imposed on the customer. .A customer may be under a mandatory condition to accept the Chosen Flight once it is 25 selected (for e.g., by the airline). An airline may determine customer preferences, either explicitly or implicitly, regarding utilization of up to n of m selected flights, The preferences may also include, but not limited to, customer preferences for various flights and services, needs, 30 associated relative utilities, travel flexibilities, preferences regarding choice of flights, quality of flights, acceptable delays (relative) to receive different flights and so forth. An - 136 airline may seek customer preferences on flexibility to utilize various flights, desire to trade-in their travel flexibility, any other parameters or any combination thereof. The airline, one or more entities other than the airline or any combination thereof may seek customer preferences. 5 An airline may also offer FRO options to one or more customers on the basis of customer preferences, so obtained or collected. The airline may offer said FRO options based on the dynamics of the airline including, but not limited to, inventory, operational data, revenue management data, cost data, financial data, accounting data, any other 10 internal data, any combination thereof and so on. An airline may seek such preferences from the customers prior, during or after the customer has purchased the flights or any combination thereof These customer preferences may help the airline to perform concurrent optimization of value for the 15 airline, the customers, and one or more entities other than the airline or any combination of two or more of the above, The customers may also include the customers whose preferences have not been determined or collected to perform concurrent optimization. The data pertaining to the airline, customers, one or more entities other than the airline, any combination thereof, may be integrated to concurrently optimize the value for at 20 least any two of said entities. There may or may not be any payment transaction between the airline, one or more other entities and/or the customers regarding seeking such customer preferences, delivering FRO options, customer participation in FRO and so on. The airline may operate one or more systems and/or services to monitor the 25 airline dynamics. Monitoring may include, but is not limited to, monitoring of capacity, days to utilization, return and/or potential return of flights, flexible inventory that may be created in relation to said obtained preferences, analyzing various cost, revenue, operational or any other internal data and so on. The airline may have one or more systems and/or services to analyze such data on a real-time or quasi real-time basis and 30 draw conclusions on the basis of such analysis. Any of the systems and/or services may - 137 be operated by the airline, one or more entities other than the airline or any combination thereof, An airline may operate a system that defines customer preferences regarding at 5 least utilizing up to n of m selected flights, where n is less than m, operate a system that enables use of said preferences to optimize value for at least one of customers, said airline and an entity other than said airline. Said system may be used to enhance flight selling capacity (or helps to increase the overselling limits of flights). The airline may use such preferences to offer FRO. An airline may concurrently optimize value for at 10 least two of customers, said airline and at least one entity other than said airline. The airline may utilize such preferences to meet its capacity shortages. These customer preferences may enable the airline to increase the capacity limits for its flights. The airline may start entertaining more requests from the customers and hence may 15 increase the oversale limits for their flights. The airline may be able to sell the flights at higher prices to the potential customers due to increase in capacity and oversale limits and thereby enhance its revenues. Such preferences may help the airline to allay fears of customer ill-will and dissatisfaction in case of an oversale situation. The airline may utilize these preferences to deal with the oversale situation more effectively, efficiently 20 and in timely manner. Thus, it may eventually allow the airline to capture demand that may otherwise, have been spilled or turned down and thereby enhancing its revenues without having any negative impact due to increase in capacity limits. An airline may offer FRO to all customers or any selected customers, such 25 selection may be based on any criterion including, but not limited to, such as those who have expressed their relative preferences, those who have not expressed any preferences, By integrating the airline dynamics and collected customer preferences, an airline may offer appropriate incentives and terms and conditions for FRO to generate desired participation. An airline may exercise its right (from FRO) to define the Chosen Flights 30 for one or more FRO customers depending on airline's internal need to regenerate flight capacity for flights with low availability or shortages. An airline may be in a better - 138 position to offer appropriate FRO offers at a later stage due to many factors including, but not limited to, the airline having better knowledge of internal and external dynamics, a relatively better estimate on how many customers required to avoid oversale situation in the end and so on. An airline may choose to handle any shortfalls in capacity using 5 FRO or by any other method of its choosing. Once the Initial Transaction is successful, there may be at least two possible related events, as shown by Box 31.230. The two events are (1) that Fl is the Chosen Flight (as shown by Box 31.240) and (2) that F2 is the Chosen Flight (as shown by Box 10 31.250). Each of these two events may be associated with various terms and conditions on the customer and/or the airline. As explained above, the events may take place in two ways; either the airline selects the Chosen Flight to satisfy its business needs, or the Chosen Flight is selected based on pre-determined rules. The airline may have to pay an additional exercise price at the CNT depending on the terms and conditions of the option 15 contract. Once the Chosen Flight is selected, the airline and/or the customer may not change the Chosen Flight except within the bounds of the terms and conditions in the option contract. The airline or the customer may (or may not) have the right to enforce the Chosen Flight on the other party as per the terms and conditions of the option contract. 20 The airline may offer incentives to the customers to motivate them to choose one or more flights as Chosen Flights among the FRO Flights that may be more optimal for the airline. An airline may formulate one or more such offer (may referred to as Chosen Flight Incentive Offers) and may send them to customers who have purchased FRO but 25 not yet selected their Chosen Flight via email, phone, mail or any other communication channel as per the terms and conditions of the option contract. Thus, such customers may be persuaded to select said optimal flight in lieu of incentives if the terms and conditions of option contract provide so. 30 In one implementation of PRO, an airline may want to hold capacity for the customer in only one of the PRO Flights, in which the status of said Y customer is - 139 termed "Ya" (i.e., Accounted) and in the other FRO Flight(s), the status is termed "Yw" (i.e., Awaiting) (both Ya and Yw have been defined above). A "Y" customer converts to an N customer after the CNT. Thus, at any given time, an airline may have N, Ya and Yw typo of customers for its flights. 5 The FRO VOF may help an airline in one or more ways. For example, it may help to accommodate flight requests from potential customers. Any new potential customer who requests to obtain a flight is assumed to be an N customer. If the available seat in the desired flight (desired by N customer) is insufficient to satisfy the request, 10 then the airline may use the seat (if any, of desired flight) that has been assigned to Ya customers, and reassign the same to said N customer. Consequently, the airline may then assign the Awaiting flights (i.e., the flights where said Ya customers have Awaiting status) to said Ya customers, By implementing such shifting or removing of Ya customers from their Accounted flights to Awaiting flights, an airline may better serve 15 incoming demand for flights. An event where such request comes to the airline for a flight is termed "BuyN". The act to remove (or shift) a Ya customer from its Accounted flight to its Awaiting flight is termed "RemoveY". Detailed algorithms are presented below that may be used to manage a system comprising N, Ya and Yw type of customers. 20 The above terms and conditions of the FRO VOF may be set in a way to concurrently benefit at least two of the customer, the airline, any other entity apart from said airline involved and/or any combination thereof. The airline gets to seek a way to create a flexible inventory of seats in the flights. The customer benefits from trading 25 their travel flexibility for the desired rewards. The airline benefits from enhanced customer satisfaction (loyalty and repeat business), incremental revenue from the high price paying customers, incurring lower costs on capacity shortages and selling (reusing) the Released Flights, generating revenues from Released Flights without actually reusing the Released Flights and other operational benefits. 30 - 140 A FRO VOF may include a right for the customer to utilize each of the m FRO Flights, and a right for the airline to limit the Flights (to fewer than m) the customer can utilize, if the airline notifies the customer on a stated Notify Deadline. Said on a stated Notify Deadline may include, but not limited to, on and/or before the stated Notify 5 Deadline; on and/or after the stated Notify Deadline, any combination thereof The right may include the condition that the airline may notify the customer before, at or after the stated Notify Deadline or any combination thereof. To provide some flexibility to the customers, the airline may offer (or allow) the customer to express their preferences regarding the Chosen Flight(s) before the stated Notify Deadline. The airline may or 10 may not exercise their right to limit the customer to utilize fewer than said n flights. The right may include a condition that the airline may limit the customer after the customer expresses his/her preference for the Chosen Flights. The airline and/or an entity other than the airline may have said limitation on at least one product. There may be a condition imposed on the customer to make at least one payment to the airline when the 15 customer expresses his or her preferences for the Chosen Flights. The airline and/or an entity other than the airline may allow the customers to define said 'n' Flights on or before a stated date. The airline and/or an entity other than the airline may reserve the right to take back any 'm' minus 'n' Flights after the stated date. The customer, the airline, an entity other than the airline and/or any combination thereof may determine the 20 notification date. An airline may choose to define all the Chosen Flights at one or more times. All Notify Deadlines may or may not be associated with each of the related FRO Flights. For example, a Notify Deadline may be after the time when the Flight would have been 25 utilized or the airline may choose not to offer a Notify Deadline on a specific Flight due to one or more reasons including, without limitation, high PRO Price, customer utility reasons and expected load factor. An airline may select any of the selected FRO Flights as the Chosen Flights prior to a Notify Deadline. The airline may also choose not to select any Chosen Flights at one or more of the specified Notif Deadlines. 30 -141 The costs, revenues, benefits, terms and conditions shown here are for illustration purposes only and actual values could be different depending upon specific values selected by the airline for value options, customer behavior, airline characteristics, Notify Deadline(s) and other relevant factors. 5 The FRO VOF structure may be implemented in several ways depending upon the terms and conditions associated with the FRO contract. The FRO VOF structure presented above for the FRO (2,1) instance can be extended to implement any other FRO instance. 10 The FRO concurrently optimizes value for both the airline and its customers. The customers receive rewards for trading their flexibility in utilizing a flight while the airline gets the flexibility to optimally allocate flights (including sold flights) across various customers. The airline gets to know the relative preferences and utilities of a 15 customer for various flights as some customers take this option and others don't. The presumption here is that customers make a logical decision to take part in the FRO value option framework if they desire to trade-in their travel flexibilities, The airline may benefit from higher customer loyalty, as customer may receive higher satisfaction from using the airline services, and may optimize its profitability by reusing/reselling the 20 Released Flighs at typically higher than average prices. Example of FRO VOF structure FRO (2,1) Figure 32 demonstrates an illustrative practical example of using the FRO (2,1) 25 instance in the airline industry. Consider a customer who interacts with an airline to get FRO, Per Act 31.200, an Initial Transaction takes place between the airline and the customer. Fig. 32 displays some of the details of the Initial Transaction. The customer selects/receives two FRO Flights, Fl (shown in Box 32.100) and F2 (shown in Box 32.200), and the airline can select either of the flights as the Chosen Flight. The 30 customer is under the condition to accept the Chosen Flight as selected by the airline, -142 The customer receives a reward of $15 as the Initial FRO Price from the airline while the customer pays $500 as the Ticket Price to the airline as part of the Initial Transaction. Hence, the customer pays a net amount of $485 to the airline at Initial Transaction, The Initial Transaction takes place on the 14* day of April (i.e., the ITT, 5 shown in the second row of the Box 32.300). There is an explicit notification condition wherein the airline has to select and notify the customer regarding the Chosen Flight before the Notify Deadline. An example of terms and conditions included with PRO are presented. A scenario is considered with different Notify Deadlines (shown in Box 32.400) and the Notify Deadline is expressed in terms of the number of days to departure 10 (DTD) of F], the earlier of the two flights, Box 32.400 displays a set of PRO Exercise Prices that are a function of both the Nopfy Deadline and the Chosen Flight. There are four Notify Deadlines associated with the FRO, The FRO Exercise Price increases from $5 (for the First Notify Deadline of 30 15 DTD) to $20 (for the Last Notify Deadline of 1 DTD) if the Chosen Flight is F1 and from $10 to $50 if the Chosen Flight is F2. If the CNT is before 30 DTD, then the customer receives $5 as the FRO Exercise Price from the airline if the Chosen Flight is Fl, and receives $10 as the FRO Exercise Price if the Chosen Flight is F2, as shown in the second column of the second and third rows in the Box 32.400, respectively. If the 20 CNT is after 30 DTD and before 7 DTD, then the customer receives a PRO Exercise Price of $10 or $25 if the Chosen Flight is F 1 or F2, respectively, as shown in the third column of the second and the third rows, respectively in the Box 32.400. Similarly, the customer receives a FRO Exercise Price of $15 for F1 or $35 for F2, if the CNT is after 7 DTD and before 3 DTD, and $20 for Fl or $50 for F2, if the CNT is after 3 DTD and 25 before I DTD, as shown in the fourth and fifth columns of the second and the third rows in the Box 32.400, respectively. 5) Optimization of FRO VOF 30 As mentioned earlier (shown in Fig. 7), in the form of an optional last step in the first stage, a financial analysis may be performed using the existing airline and customer - 143 data to determine the optimal terms and conditions of the FRO VOF. 'What-if' scenarios may be executed to determine an optimal pricing strategy. The airline may want to divide customers using one or more criteria and design separate FRO VOF for each customer segment. S Second Stage: Using the FRO Value Option Framework After completing the first stage of the method, the airline has created a FRO VOF and specific options within that framework. The airline may have segmented customers 10 and designed options accordingly. The airline is fully prepared to use a structured format comprising one or more FRO value options to interact with its customers in real time to generate benefits for both the airline and its customers. The second stage of the PRO VOF is now presented. 15 The implementation of the FRO VOF between the airline and its custoiner takes place through two high level acts, as shown in Fig. 33. In Act 33.100, the 'Get FRO' process, an interactive event between the customer and the airline's web server, runs to carry out the Initial Transaction of the FRO VOF. In this Act, a number of algorithms may be executed (e.g., availability, PRO Price, Ticket Price and Notify Deadline) on the 20 airline's server to optimally calculate the terms and conditions of the FRO VOF to concurrently benefit both the airline and the customer. In Act 33.200, the Customer Notification process (explained later) is executed. In this process, the Chosen Flight is notified to the customer. The process may also comprise one or more event optimizer algorithms that may help to optimally select the Chosen Flight and/or to optimally use 25 (or reuse) the Released Flight. As explained above, the Get FRO process may be implemented via the Sequential (shown in Fig. 41) or the Concurrent (shown in Fig. 43) process. There are many ways to do the Sequential process. In the airline industry, the terms, Leg, Segment and 30 Itinerary correspond to the terms, Product, Set and Order, respectively. As an example of the Sequential process, a customer may select (or purchase) a Leg/Segment/Itinerary - 144 before the Initial Transaction begins. In such situations, said Leg/Segment/Itinerary may be referred to as Initial Leg/Initial Segment/Initial Itinerary or IL/IS/Il, in short, respectively. The Initial Segment is also referred to as Initial Flight Segment (or IFS, in short). A customer may get a FRO, i.e., get one or more FRO Legs/Segments/Itineraries 5 on an IL/IS/II, respectively. A FRO Leg/Segment/Itinerary is also referred to as Option Leg/Option Segment/Option Itinerary, or OL/OS/OI, in short, respectively. An Option Segment is also referred to as Option Flight Segment (or OFS, in short). The two events (one for the Initial Flight and the other for the Initial Transaction) may be executed with a minimal (one just afler another) or a significant time gap (e.g., few minutes, hours, 10 days and so forth) in between them. The FRO VOF may be implemented at different levels including, but not limited to, Leg, Segment and Itinerary, Illustration of these three levels, through an example, is shown in Figures 34, 35 and 36, respectively. 15 Fig. 34 displays a practical example of implementing a FRO (2,1) at the Itinerary (Order) level. The customer selects two separate itineraries, FRO Itinerary 1 and FRO Itinerary 2 (shown in Bbxes 34.100 and 34.200), and the airline may select either of them as the Chosen Itineray. 20 Fig. 35 displays a practical example of implementing a PRO (2,1) at the Segment (Set) level. A customer selects a round-trip Itinerary with two IFS as shown in Boxes 35.100 and 35.200. The customer then takes FRO on the Onward Journey, i.e., the first IFS, as shown in Box 35.120 and the airline may select either this IFS or the related OFS 25 (Option Flight Segment) as the Chosen Flight Segment for the onward journey. Fig. 36 displays a practical example of PRO implementation at the Leg (Product) level. A customer obtains FRO on Leg 2 (i.e., Initial Flight Leg or IFL, in short) in the onward journey, and receives one Option Flight Leg (or OFL, in short) on the Leg2, as 30 shown in Box 36.200. The airline may select either the IPL or the associated OFL as the Chosen Flight Leg (or CFL, in short) for Leg2 in the onward journey.

- 145 An airline may choose to implement the PRO at any level(s). In a specific FRO interaction between a customer and the airline, the implementation level should be the same for all the PRO Flights, Chosen Flights and Released Flights. For example, if FRO 5 is implemented at the Itinerary level, then all the PRO Plights and Chosen Flights would refer to FR O Itineraries and Chosen Itineraries, respectively. 1. 'Get FRO' - Dynamic interaction to capture customer demand 10 In the Get FRO process, a customer interacts with the airline's server to receive FRO. The interaction may take place (for example) via phone, in-person or on a website. The Sequential Get FRO Process is presented first along with its detailed algorithms, followed by a short summary of the Concurrent Get FRO Process. 15 Sequential Get FRO Process There are several ways to implement the Sequential process. The following presents an example of the Sequential Get FRO Process when FRO is implemented at the Segment level. It is also assumed here that the customer first purchases an Initial 20 Itinerary with one or more IFS, and then opts to receive a FRO on any of the included IFS. As an instance of the Sequential Get FRO process in the airline industry, a customer has purchased an Itinerary and then gets a FRO through the interactive 25 interface of the web pages as shown in Figures 37, 38, 39 and 40. Fig. 37 displays the summary of the purchased Itinerary, which is made of two Segments: 1308 to ATL (onward journey) and ATL to BOS (return journey). Clicking on the marketing banner representing "Get FRO", the customer is linked to the Web page shown in Fig. 38 and a Get FRO interaction begins. 30 - 146 The series of web pages in Figures 38, 39 and 40 may (for example) be displayed in a customer's browser by an airline's web server, to facilitate the interaction between the customer and the airline when the customer comes to participate in Get FRO (during or after the Initial Itinerary is purchased). The Initial Itinerary is displayed in Fig. 38. 5 The customer may choose to Get FRO on any IFS by clicking the "Click here to Get FRO Flights" link corresponding to that IFS. Once the link is clicked, the "Search FRO Flights" section appears (shown in Fig. 38), where the customer may enter the search criteria for OFS and then click on the "Search FRO Flights" button. After the click, the Get FRO algorithm running "behind the scenes" on a server of the airline qualifies the 10 availability, applicability and price (i.e., the discount for customer) conditions on all the available OFSs (Option Flight Segments) and displays them in the screen as shown in Fig. 39. For each of the OFSs, Instant FRO Discount (Price), a set of one or more Notfy Deadlines and the corresponding FRO Exercise Discounts (Prices) are shown in the form of "Select" buttons (shown in the "FRO Notify Deadline/FRO Exercise Discount 15 (Price)" section in Fig. 39). The customer may select any desired OFS (along with the Notify Deadline and FRO Exercise Discount (Price)) by clicking on a "Select" button associated with any of the Notify Deadlines displayed in the corresponding row. Once the customer clicks the "Select" button, he/she is hyperlinked to the web page as shown in Fig. 40, where the summary of the IFS and the selected OFS is shown. 20 Next, the customer may choose to get more OFS on the same IFS, or to get FRO on another IFS in the Initial Itinerary. To receive another OFS on an IFS, the customer may repeat the OFS search process for that IFS. Once all the desired OFPs have been selected, the customer clicks the "Continue" button (shown in Fig. 40). The customer 25 receives the Instant FRO Discount (Price), and then a payment transaction is executed to complete the purchase. The following presents an algorithmic illustration of the Sequential Get FRO process. Consider Fig. 41. In Act 41.100, the customer selects (and/or purchases) an 30 Itinerary (with one or more iFS). Next, in Act 41.110, the customer reaches an interactive interface of the airline's web server to Get FRO page, where the customer -147 selects the IFS (referred to as TargetjIFS) on which a FRO is desired. Next, the customer inputs the OFS search criteria for the current TargetIFS in Act 41.115. Next, on clicking the "Search FRO Flights" button, control goes to Act 41.120, 5 where the OFS search algorithm is executed to search for OFS. The OFS search algorithm returns a list of valid OFSs, along with a list of Comb NDs (defined elsewhere) and associated FRO Prices (or discounts). The details of the OFS search algorithm are presented later, Next, the search results are displayed for the customer, who then selects the desired OFS and one or more associated Comb ND(s)/FRO 10 Price(s), as shown in Act 41.130. Next, in Act 41.140, a test is performed to determine whether the customer wants to get more OFSs on the current TargetIFS or on another IFS. If the customer wants to get an OFS on another IFS, control loops back to Act 41.110, where the customer selects 15 another IFS as the Target IFS, and then the process is repeated again for the new Target IFS. If the customer wants to get more OF8s on the current Target IFS, control loops back to Act 41.115, where the customer enters the OFS search criteria, and then the process is repeated for the new OFS search criteria. If the customer does not want to get any more QFSs, control goes to Act 41.150, where a payment transaction (if needed) 20 may be executed, For example, a customer may need to pay a price for the Flight after taking into consideration the Initial FRO Price (discount, if any) using a credit card, direct bank account debit or any other payment transaction mechanism. Next, the algorithm ends in Box 41.200. The computation may be performed using a processor that may calculate results in optimal time. 25 OFS Search The following algorithm (shown in Fig. 42) determines and validates an OFS for a given set of conditions including, but not limited to, availability, Notry Deadline and 30 FRO Price. One of the ways of the implementation of OFS Search has already been discussed above along with various information technology and networking tools -148 including, but not limited to, one or more servers, database, load balancers, firewall, routers, Internet, highly secured VPN, Intranet, RAM, hard disk drives, CPUs, monitors as shown by Fig, 13D. 5 In Act 42.100, the number of incoming customers (IC), IFS Set (containing all IFS in the Initial Itinerary, and all the OFSs, (if any) already selected/received along with CombjND..Set(s) and CombOP Set(s), for each IFS), Target IFS and the OFS Search parameters are input to the system. The definitions and details of CombNDSet and Comb 0PSet are provided later. The OFS search parameters may include, but are not 10 limited to, departure date and time, origin, destination, number of Legs per Segment, Notify Deadline, FRO Price (Initial and Exercise) and so forth. A customer may be allowed to input Notify Deadline and/or FRO Price on the b-asis of which valid OFSs (that satisfy the given criteria of Notify Deadline and/or FRO Price) may be searched for and displayed for the customer. For example, a customer may be asked to input the 15 origin and destination related parameters, and then a set of Notify Deadlines and FRO Prices may be computed for the flights that match the given criteria. In another example, a customer may input both the origin and destination and Not/fy Deadline and/or FRO Price as inputs and then a search may be performed for valid OFSs. In yet another example, a customer may input to the system, one or more flights, and/or inputs to search 20 for one or more additional flights (e.g., origin and destination, price etc.) to search for OFS that may be combined with one or more input flights (by the customer) to constitute the total set of flights for a FRO. In such situations, an airline may also validate the flights input by the customer to determine if said flights are eligible to be the PRO Flights. 25 Next, control goes to Act 42.110, where an OFS Search is performed for the given criteria. The search may be best performed using a processor that may calculate results in optimal time. The order in which search parameters are executed may be optimized to reduce the search time, however, it may or may not affect the final outcome. 30 An airline may select any order of its choosing.

- 149 In Act 42.110, Flight Segments are determined that match the search criteria and the resulting Segments are added to a list termed LIST OFS Next, in Act 42.120, a list of OFS validation rules is obtained from the airline's FRO VOF database and the rules are used to validate all the Segments in the LIST_OFS list. Segments that do not satisfy 5 the rules are discarded. Validation rules may include, but are not limited to, a Maximum Number of Legs per Segment Rule, a Maximum Ticket Price Rule and so forth. For example, a Maximum Number of Legs per Segment Rule discards the Segments that have more Legs than specified. An airline may implement any validation rule of its choosing to further qualify the Segments in the LIST_OFS list. As a last Act in Act 10 42.120, the first element in the updated LIST OFS list is designated as the Current OFS. Next, control goes to Act 42.130, where a group of CombNDs is computed for the combination of the TargetIFS, all the existing OFS of the TargetIFS and the Current_OFS, and added to a set called CombND Set. Next, in Act 42.135, a test is 15 performed to determine whether the CombNDSet obtained in the previous Act is Null. If so, control goes to Act 42.155. If not, control goes to Act 42.140, where the FRO availability and FRO Price for the CombNDSet are determined. Next, in Act 42.150, another test is performed to determine whether the FRO Availability or the FRO Price is Null. If so, control goes to Act 42,155. If not, control goes to Act 42.160. 20 In Act 42.155, the Current_OFS is discarded from the LISTOFS list, and control goes to Act 42.160, where a test is performed to determine if more elements are left in the LISTOFS list. If so, control goes to Act 42,165. If not, control goes to Act 42.170. 25 In Act 42.165, the next element in the LIST OFS list is designated as the Current_OFS and control loops back to Act 42.130 to repeat the process for the new Current OFS. In Act 42.170, the updated LIST_OFS list is returned as the search result, and the algorithm ends in Box 42.200. 30 Computation of Notify Deadlines -150 An airline may set one or more Notfy Deadlines of its choosing for its Flights. Once the Notfy Deadlines have been set for each Flight, the next Act is to create a framework to compute the Notify Deadlines for a group of Flights (such as a Segment, an Itinerary or any other group). The following sections present an example of a framework 5 that may be used to obtain a set of Notify Deadlines applicable to a group of Flights. An airline may use any framework and algorithm of its choosing to obtain the same. A set of Notfy Deadlines associated with a Leg, a Segment and a combination of two or more Segments is called Leg_NDSet, SegND Set and Comb NDSet, 10 respectively. Each element in the LegNDSet, Seg ND_Set and Comb NDSet is termed LegND, SegjND and CombND, respectively.' The Comb NDfSet may be computed by combining the Seg_NDSets of all the given Segments. A Seg N DSet may be computed by combining the Leg_ND_Sets of all the Legs under that Segment. The Notif Deadlines may be computed based on various parameters and factors of the 15 airline's choosing. One example to compute a CombND_Set is as follows. First compute SegNDSet for all Segments. A SegjD_Set is computed by first selecting earliest of the Aotify Deadlines of each Leg within the concerned Segment, and then picking the latest of those Deadlines, and noting that as the TargetDeadline. Next step Is to pick all those Notify Deadlines that fall after the TargetDeadline. Notify Deadlines 20 thus obtained may be validated using various validation rules based on airline factors such as customer utility, flight parameters and so forth. Similarly, the CombNDSet may thus be computed by repeating the above process for Seg_NDSets, thus obtain-d for each Segment. 25 Available Capacity Check The FRO capacity for an OFS may depend on one or more factors including, but not limited to, Notify Deadline, FRO Prices, expected Seat value in a flight and so forth. An airline may use any method of its choosing to determine PRO capacity of a flight, 30 For example, an airline may choose to have a fixed PRO capacity for one or more of its flights.

- 151 An instance to compute FRO capacity is discussed below. Consider the case, when FRO Capacity is'dependent on Notpy Deadline. In such situation, the objective is to determine those CombNDs within the CombND_Set on which FRO is available for 5 the given OFS. The PRO Capacity and the Used FRO Capacity (the total number of Flights on which FRO has been sold but not exercised) may be calculated for each CombND within the CombNDSet. Available Capacity (AC) would then be the difference of FRO Capacity and Used FRO Capacity for the given Flight. If the AC is greater than or equal to the number of incoming customers desiring a FRO, then the FRO 10 capacity is available at a given Comb ND for the given OFS, The process may be repeated for all Notify Deadlines within Comb_NDSets. FRO may be made available on a given OFS for a given CombND, if FRO is available on all the Flights of OFS for the given CombND. 15 Price Calculation An airline may set FRO Prices for a Flight Leg using any method of airline's choosing. Once the FRO Prices have been set for each Flight Leg, the next Act is to create a framework to compute FRO Price for a group of Flight Legs (such as a Segment, 20 an Itinerary or any other group) by using PRO Prices for each Flight Leg in the group. The parameter LegOP refer to FRO Price (and may or may not be corresponding to a Notlfy Deadline) associated with a Flight Leg. Similarly, SegOP and CombOP refer to PRO Price (may or may not be corresponding to a Notify Deadline) associated 25 with a Segment and a combination of two or more Segments, respectively, A set of Leg OPs, SegOPs and Comb OPs is termed LegOPSet, SegOP_Set and CombOPSet, respectively. The CombOPSet is computed by combining the Seg OPSets of the IFS and all the OFSs (existing and new). A SegOP_Set is computed by combining the Leg_OP_Sets of all the Flight Legs under that Segment. 30 One or more SegOPRules may be read from the airline's database and applied to calculate Seg OP Set for each input Segment (IFS and all OFSs) using the -152 Leg OP Sets of all the Flight Legs of said Segment. An airline may use any SegjOPfSet Rule of its choosing. Seg-OPRules may be defined to calculate SegOP as the sum, average, highest, lowest or any other function of Leg OPs of all the Flight Legs at a given Comb ND, Similarly, a CombOPSet comprises one or more 5 Comb OPs, and is calculated using one of the pre-determined rules, termed Comb .OPRules, to combine the SegjOPs of all the Segments in the combination. An airline may use a CombOPRule of its choosing. CombOPRules may be defined similar to the Seg OPRules. 10 Concurrent Get FRO Process As explained above, in the Concurrent Get FRO process, a customer receives all PRO Products concurrently in one transaction. An algorithmic illustration of an example of the Concurrent Get FRO process is displayed in Fig. 43. The FRO (2,1) instance is 15 assumed here as an example, Consider a customer who desires to trade-in his/her travel flexibility in lieu of a price (reward) offered by the airline. In Act 43.100, the customer desires for FRO are input, including, but not limited to, a search criteria for two Segments according to customer's utility (may be similar to the search criteria defined above for the Sequential Get FRO process). 20 Next, in Act 43.110, the FRO algorithm is run to determine the combinations of two Segments that satisfy inputs. A list of such search results is displayed for the customer along with the associated terms and conditions including, but not limited to, Notify Deadlines, Initial PRO Price, FRO Exercise Price and Ticket Price for each such 25 . combination. The FRO algorithm for the Sequential Get FRO process (defined above) may also be used for the Concurrent Get FRO process. Next, in Act 43.120, the customer selects a desired combination of two Segments and the associated conditions such as PRO Exercise Price/Notify Deadline. Next, in Act 30 43.130, a payment transaction is executed, if needed. For example, the customer may pay the Ticket Price after taking into consideration the Initial FRO Price using a credit - 153 card, direct bank account debit or any other payment transaction mechanism. Next, the algorithm ends in Box 43.200. The computation May be performed using a processor that may calculate results in optimal time. 5 2. Event Optimizer After the completion of the Get FRO process, the next stage is the Event Optimizer. In this stage, the Customer Notiflcation (or CN, in short) process as shown in Act 33.200 is executed. In this process, one or more decisions on the selection of 10 Chosen Flight(s) are notified to the customer. The details of the CN process are provided later, One of the ways of implementation of Event Optimizer stage with the help of information technology tools has already been discussed above wherein said tools include, but are not limited to, one or more servers, database, load balancers, firewall, routers, Internet, highly secured VPN, Intranet, RAM, hard disk drives, CPUs, 15 monitors as shown by Fig. 13E. The FRO VOF helps to create a flexible customer inventory. In other words, by using the FRO VOF, an airline may obtain rights to allocate any of the selected FRO Flights to a FRO customer, and thus, said PRO customer acts like a flexible customer 20 inventory that the airline may manage at known cost and conditions. An airline may design one or more uses of such flexible customer inventory, where each such use may include one or more events that follow the Initial Transaction. An example (the Buy N process) was explained earlier. In the BuyN process, an airline may use the FRO VOF to accommodate requests from potential customers for flights. As an example, the 25 Buy-N process may especially be used to satisfy requests for seats that have already been sold or have low (or no) availability. The details for the BuyN process are presented below. Another example to use the PRO VOF would be to use the FRO VOF in 30 conjunction with one or more other VOFs, for example, the AFO (the Alternate Flight Option) VOF (details are provided later). An airline may form a group of one or more -154 AFO customers and one or more FRO customers, where the options (AFO and FRO) obtained by the group members are complementary in nature. As an example, consider a customer (A) who bought an AFO to choose either of Flight F1I or Flight F2 as Chosen Flight, and consider a customer (B) who received a FRO and is flexible to take any of F1 5 and F2 as Chosen Flight. Thus, if A decides to choose F1 as the Chosen Flight, the airline may assign F2 as the Chosen Flight for B, and vice versa. The customers A and B have taken complementary options and may form a group. The airline may need to hold only one unit of inventory (or one unit of seat) in F1 and F2 to satisfy the needs of both A and B (assuming each A and B only need one unit of product, i.e., seat). Such a 10 combination of complementary options or VOFs may improve efficiency and concurrently enhance value for all the parties involved (in the given example, for A, B and the airline). More details on combining VOFs are provided later. The FRO VOF may also be used to reduce operational costs, constraints or other 15 goals that are impacted by the allocation of flights among different customers. The FRO VOF may be used to shave off production costs by reducing production capacity for one or more products that are low in demand. For example, if an airline experiences a flight with very low ticket sales, it could offer FRO to customers on that flight and thus, be able to economically and efficiently shift them to different flights and thereby be able to 20 cancel said flight to save its flying costs (such as crew costs, staffing costs like gate agents, ground mechanics, maintenance costs and so forth). If an airline wants to do the same on a low demand flight today (after booking few customers on it) without using FRO, it may be more difficult, tedious and costly affair to contact all the booked customers on that flight and/or to convince them to shift to other flights. 25 The FRO VOF structure in the airline industry may enable an airline to optimize operational levels such as flight loads (or load factors), airport congestion, flight scheduling, airport staff and crew scheduling and so forth. The FRO VOF may also enable an airline to identify the optimal aircraft sizes/structures and flight schedules on 30 specific routes. There may be many other instances of optimization an airline can - 155achieve by using FRO, thus, generating additional revenue, greater customer satisfaction and loyalty or any combination of these. An airline may use the FRO VOF for any other purpose of its choosing. In all 5 such uses, the airline may use a system defined below that can help to optimally allocate product capacity among customers. The following system presents an example of a system (along with its methods and algorithms) that may be used to shift FRO customers within their selected FRO Flights. However, an airline may use any other process of its choosing to shift FRO customers within their selected FRO Plights, The BuyN process 10 is used as an example to demonstrate the system and its set of methods and algorithms. The process of shifting Y customers (i.e., PRO customers) within their selected FRO Flights is termed "Remove Y" process. The RemoveY process may allow the airline to remove FRO customers from their Accounted Flights and optimally shift them 15 to one of their Awaiting Flights to satisfy a pre-defined goal. An airline, an entity other than the airline and/or any combination thereof may store the data in a data store which may include, but is not limited to, the value that may be realized if the customer is shifted, Awaiting Flights to which the customer may be 20 shifted and so forth. The airline, an entity other than the airline and/or any combination thereof may receive and process data to determine from among all or substantially all possible combinations of customers, a set of customers which may be shifted. The airline, an entity other than the airline and/or any combination thereof may shift one or more set of customers that may be determined by processing the data. The airline may 25 also shift one or more set of customers other than the combination of customers that may be determined by processing said data. Set of customers which may be shifted or the decision to initiate shifting may depend upon number of factors including, but not limited to, the need and urgency to shift the customers, factors of airline's choosing, creation of number of seat availability, optimizing revenues which may for at least one of 30 the customer, airline and/or an entity other than said airline, cost savings and so forth.

- 156 The airline may, on detection of occurrence of one or more events, execute one or more event response algorithm which may determine one or more set of customers possessing options making them eligible to be shifted to one or more flights and may shift one or more of said set of customers to create seat availability. Said event may be 5 an increase in the demand of one or more seats in said flight and/or other flights or increase in forecasted demand of one or more seats in said flight and/or other flights or any combination thereof or any other event, The shifting may be done at the instance of the airline, an entity other than said airline or any combination thereof. The set of customers, here, may include one or more customers. The shifting may nvolve shifting of 10 one or more customers. The shifting of one or more customers, as explained below in RemoveY, may involve one or more interactions between the airline, an entity other than the airline, the customers and/or any combination thereof. The shifting may involve shifting one or more first customers to one or more first flights after one or more second customers from one or more first flights are shifted to one or more second flights and so 15 forth. Such a cascading process may continue until the last customer which may have to be shifted in the set is shifted and it may lead to shifting of more customers than the creation of number of seats availability. This process may involve two or more customers. This process has been explained in detail below in the Remove Y process. The airline and/or an entity other than the airline may or may not notify the customer 20 regarding said shifting within the specified Notifcailon Deadline. The airline and/or an entity other than the airline may shift one or more customers to one or more flights belonging to said airline, to one or more flights belonging to an entity other than said airline and/or any combination thereof. Shifting may create a lot of value to the airline and may lead to enhanced revenues and/or cost savings. However, it may also be 25 possible that shifting may sometimes be a cost to the airline and an airline may still apply shifting (Remove_Y) for fulfillment of other goals and/or objectives of the airline. Buy-N Process 30 Fig. 44 displays a flow chart of an example of a Buy-N algorithm, which is executed during a dynamic interaction between the customer and the airline. As an - 157 example, an interaction may include a situation when a customer interacts with an airline to obtain (or purchase) tickets, or when an airline presents offerings to a customer (with or without a solicitation by the customer). It is assumed that a customer is interacting with an airline to purchase tickets, and that FRO VOF is implemented at the Segment 5 level. In Act 44.100, the search criteria are input. Various search parameters for a desired Flight Segment (as desired by the customer) are taken as the input to the system. Next, in Act 44.110, a search process is executed to search for all Flight Segments that satisfy inputs. The details of the search process are described later. Next, 10 in Act 44.120, all the search results are displayed before the customer in an interface (such as in a web browser, a telephone operator stating the search results over the phone etc.). Control then goes to Act 44.130, where the customer selects a Segment (or Flight Segment). The selection of the Segment may be followed by a payment and/or purchase of the selected Segment. 15 In Act 44.140, a test is performed to determine whether Remove.Y process has been applied on the selected Segment. If so, control goes to Act 44.150, where the RemoveY process is completed for the selected Segment, and control then goes to Box 44.200. If not, control goes to Box 44.200, where the algorithm exits. The completion 20 of the Remove Y process may include one or more Acts that may be executed to incorporate the fact that said Segment was selected by the customer. For example, one of such acts may be to record the selection of said Segment to a database and/or to change the Accounted Status for one or more FRO customers (who were affected in the RemoveY process). 25 Fig. 45 expands Act 110 of Fig. 44 and demonstrates an example of a search algorithm that may be used to determine Flight Segments that satisfy the inputs. In Act 45,100, IC (number of incoming customers), ICBenefit (i.e., the benefit that an airline may receive if the incoming customers select and/or purchase one or more Segments) 30 and the input search criteria are taken as the input parameters to the system. The term "Incoming Customers" refers to the customers who interact with the airline in the current -158 transaction (Buy_N). It is assumed that each customer desires one unit of capacity (seat) and thus, total units of capacity (seats) desired is equal to the total number of incoming customers. In some situations, ICBenefit and/or IC may not be available as an input, and may be calculated during the search process. Next, in Act 45.110, all the Segments 5 that satisfy the 'search criteria' are searched from the airline database. The Segments, thus obtained, are added to a list termed LISTSegment. The first element in the LIST-Segment list is designated as Current-Segment. Next, in Act 45.120, all the Legs in the Current Segment are added to a list 10 termed LISTLeg. The first element in the LIST-Leg list is designated as CurrentLeg. Next, in Act 45.130, a lest is performed to determine whether the Available Capacity (AC) of the Current-Leg is greater than or equal to IC. If so, control goes to Act 45.140. If not, control goes to Act 45.165. 15 In Act 45.140, another test is performed to determine whether EAC (Effective Available capacity) of the Current Leg is greater than or equal to IC. If so, control goes to Act 45.145. If not, control goes to Act 45.150, where the RemoveY algorithm is executed to determine the possibility (and associated process steps and costs) to create capacity in the CurrentSegment. 20 Next, in Act 45.160, a test is performed to determine whether it is possible (by using RemoveY) to create capacity in the Current-Segment and the ICBenefit is greater than or equal to the cost to create that capacity as determined in the Act 45.150. If both conditions are true, control goes to Act 45.170. If either condition is false, 25 control goes to Act 45.165. In Act 45.165, the CurrentSegment is discarded from the LISTSegment list, and control then goes to Act 45.170. In Act 45.145, a test is performed to determine whether more elements are left in the LIST Leg list. If so, control goes to Act 45.135, where the next element in the 30 LIST-Leg list is designated as the Current Leg and control loops back to Act 45,130, to repeat the process for the new CurrentLeg. If not, control goes to Act 45.170.

-159 In Act 45.170, another test is performed to determine whether more elements are left in the LIST-Segment list If so, control goes to Act 45.175, where the next element in the LIST Segment list is designated as the Current Segment and control loops back to 5 Act 45.120, where the process for the now Current-Segment is performed. If not, control goes to Act 45.180, where the LISTSegment list (the most recently updated version after discarding the invalid Segments, if any) is returned. Next, the algorithm ends at Box 45.200. 10 Fig. 46 expands Act 150 of Fig. 45 and demonstrates an example of an algorithm to apply the RemoveY algorithm to create one or more than one unit of capacity -(Seat) in one or more Leg(s) within a Desired Segment (the Segment in which capacity needs to be created). In Act 46.100, various input parameters are taken in the system. Input parameters include IC, DesiredSegment and IncomingBenefit (i.e., benefit an airline 15 may realize if capacity is created in the DesiredSegment) Next, control goes to Act 46.110, in which all the Legs in the Desired Segment are listed in the LISTLeg list, The first Leg in the LISTLeg list is designated as Current Leg. Next, in Act 46.120, a test is performed to determine whether the 20 Available Capacity (AC) of the Current-Leg is greater than or equal to IC. If so, control goes to Act 46.130. If not, control goes to Box 46.300, where the algorithn ends. In Act 46.130, another test is performed to determine whether EAC (Effective Available capacity) of the Current Leg is greater than or equal to IC. If so, then control goes to Act 46.140. If not, control goes to Act 46.150, 25 In Act 46.140,. a PSeries is created for the Current-Leg. Since the Current-Leg is an EndLeg, there will be only one SeriesElement in the P-Series collection. The Series-Element will comprise CORP with the Current Leg as the only element, COCY with no elements and CSE with zero value (since no Ya needs to be removed from 30 Current-Leg, and hence, no cost to create capacity). Next, control goes to Act 46.180.

- 160 In Act 46.150, the RemovejY algorithm is called for each Ya in the CurrentLeg and the algorithm follows a recursive loop. Each of the Ya becomes Current Ya for the corresponding RemoveY call. The necessary input parameters for each of the RemoveY includes the Current Leg as 'COPP', CurrentYa as 'COPY', CurrentYa as 5 'Caller_Y', CurrentLeg as 'InitiatorLeg', one of the incoming customers as 'InitiatorY' and Incoming Benefit as 'Benefit'. The RemoveY call returns YSeries collection for each Ya in the CurrentLeg. The details of the RemoveY algorithm axe discussed in the next section. 10 Next, control goes to Act 46.160, where all the Y_Series collections are obtained as returned from the Act 46.150. Next, in Act 46.170, a PSeries collection for the Current-Leg is calculated through the following operations: (1) create groups of Ya from all Ya of the Current Leg for which RemoveY was called, where the number of Ya in each group is equal to "IC-EAC" (EAC of the Current-Leg), (2) make combinations of 15 the YSeries collection of all members of each group (combine each SeriesElement of each YSeries of each member with that of each of the rest of the members of that group), (3) merge all members within each combination to formulate a merged SeriesElement, (4) collect all such merged Series_Elements, thus obtained, into P_Series collection of the CurrentLeg. Details on making combinations and merging 20 are provided later. Next, in Act 46.180, a test is performed to determine whether more elements are left in the LIST-Leg list. If so, control goes to Act 46.185, where the next element in the LIST-Leg list is designated as the Current-Leg and control loops back to Act 46.120 to 25 repeat the process for the new CurrentLeg. If not, control goes to Act 46.190, In Act 46.190, a SfSeries collection for the Desired-Segment is calculated from the P Series collections of all the Legs using the combination and merging process (details provided later), Next, in Act 46,200, an optimal SeriesElement from the 30 S-Series collection is determined using Optimal-SeriesElement Rule (which is read -161 from a database). Next, control goes to Act 46.210, where the optimal SeriesElement is returned and the algorithm exits at Box 46.300. 'Remove-Y' Algorithm 5 The following algorithm presents an example of an algorithm that may be used to create one unit of capacity (seat) of a Flight by shifting a Ya Accounted in a Flight to its AwaitingSegment, Fig. 47 represents an algorithmic illustration for RemoveY. Th'e RemoveY is a recursive algorithm, which returns a collection of Series-Element termed 10 "YSeries" collection for the Ya for which the algorithm has been called. In Act 47,100, a set of parameters including COPY, COPP, Caller_Y, InitiatorLeg, Initiator Y and Benefit are input to the system. Next, in Act 47.110, all the Awaiting_.Segments of the Caller -Y are added to a list termed LISTSegment. The 15 first element in the LISTSegment list is designated as CurrentSegment. Next, in Act 47,120, all the Legs that belong to the Current Segment are added to another list termed P_LIST. The first element in the PLIST list is designated as CurrentLeg. Next, in Act 47.130, a test is performed to determine whether the CurrentLeg is 20 present in the COPP. If so, the Current Segment is discarded in Act 47.135, and control goes to Act 47.260. If not, control goes to Act 47.140. In Act 47.140, another test is performed to determine whether the Current Leg is present in the Accounted Segment of the CallerY. If so, the CurrentLLeg is skipped in 25 Act 47.145, and control then goes to Act 47.190. If not, control goes to Act 47.150, where another test is performed to determine if the EAC of the CurrentLeg is greater than or equal to 1. If so, control goes to Act 47.220. If not, control goes to Act 47.160. In Act 47,220, a new PSeries collection is created with only one 30 Series-Element, since the Current Leg is an End-Leg. The Series-Element will -162 comprise COEP with the Current Leg as the only element, COCY with no elements and CSE with zero value. Next, control goes to Act 47.190. In Act 47.160, the algoritun enters into a recursive loop where the Remove_Y 5 algorithm is called for each of the Ya in the CurrentLeg that is not present in the COPY. Each of the Ya becomes CurrentYa for the corresponding RemoveY call. The necessary input parameters for each of the RemoveY includes 'COPP' (includes the COPP of one level up RemoveY and the CurrentLeg), 'COPY' (includes the COPY of one level up RemoveY and the Current 'Ya), the CurrentYa as 'CallerY', the 10 Current Leg as 'Initiator Leg', CallerY of one level up RemoveY as 'InitiatorY' and benefit of the highest level RemoveY as 'Benefit'. Each of the RemoveY call returns a YSeries collection for every Ya for which Remove-Y was called. Next, in Act 47.170, the algorithm receives the returned Y _Series collection from 15 all the RemoveY algorithm calls in Act 47.160. Control then goes to Act 47.180, where a PSeries collection for the Current Leg is calculated by adding all the SeriesElements from all the returned YSeries collection obtained in Act 47.170. Control then goes to Act 47.190. 20 In Act 47.190, a test is performed to determine whether more Legs are left in the PLIST list. If so, control branches out to Act 47.200, where the next Leg in the P LIST list is designated as the Current Leg, and control then goes to Act 47.130 where the process is repeated for the new Current Leg. If not, control goes to Act 47.230. 25 In Act 47.230, the SfSeries collection is calculated for.the CurrentSegmerit by combining and merging all the PSeries collection of all the Legs (not taking the skipped Leg(s) into consideration, if any). Next, in Act 47.240, a new ChildY is created using the CallerY. The ChildY comprises COI (where the current Initiator Leg is designated as Initiator Leg and the current Initiator-Y is designated as Initiator-Y), 30 AccountedSegment of the CallerY designated as the Initial Accounted Segment, current AwaitingSegment designated as the FinalAccountedSegment, and the cost to - 163 shift current CallerY from the InitialAccountedSegment to the FinalAccountedSegment designated as the CCY. The ChildY, thus created, is added to every Series-Element in the S_Series collection and the CCY of the same ChildY is added to the CSE (Cost of SeriesElement) of every SeriesElement. Control then goes 5 to Act 47.250. In Act 47.250, a QualifySeriesElement rule is read from the airline's database and is applied to validate all the Series-Elements in the SSeries collection. The invalid SeriesElements are discarded from the SSeries collection. An airline may select any 10 rule of its choosing. For example, a QualifySeries Element rule may only qualify those SeriesElements for which the CSE is less than or equal to the 'Benefit', Next, control goes to Act 47.260. In Act 47.260, a test is performed to determine whether more Segments are left in 15 the LIST-Segment list, If so, control branches out to Act 47.295, where the next element in the LIST Segment list is designated as the Current Segment, and then control loops back to Act 47.120, where the process is repeated for the new Current Segment. If not, control goes to Act 47.270, where the YSeries collection is obtained by adding all the SeriesElements of all the SSeries collections for all the AwaitingSegments of the 20 CallerY. Next, the YSeries collection is returned in Act 47.280, and the algorithm ends in Box 47.300. Combinations of PSeries in order to formulate SSeries are calculated by cross multiplication of SeriesElements (of each PSeries). An airline may choose to 25 implement any method of its choosing to make combinations. One method is as follows, Consider n number of Series; say Si, S2, S3... S,, with kl, k2, k3 . kn number of Series Element respectively. Each Combination is a collection of the Series-Elements. For instance, Cl {S[], S2[1], Safl], ... S41]}, where, Sp[1] denotes the first Series-Element of ph Series; C2 { Si[2], S2[1), 83[l],.81] }, and so on. Here is 30 an example of the above method. Consider 2 Series, A and B, where A= [Al, A2], i.e,, with Al and A2 as two SeriesElements; and where B= [B1, B2, B3], i.e., with Bi, B2, -- 164 B3 as three SeriesElements. If cross multiplication method is applied, then the total number of Combinations generated is 6 (= 2*3) as follows, Cl- (Al, Bl}, C2= {Al, B2}, C3= {A1, B3}, C4= {A2, B1}, C5= {A2, 12) and C6= {A2, B3). The above method of making combinations may also be used when making combinations of 5 YSeries to formulate a P-Series. Merging of a given number of Series_Elements is done in a sequential process, where two given SeriesElements are merged together in one Act to obtain a single merged Series Element (let's say M), and then the merged element, M, is merged with 10 the third given SeriesElement to obtain a new merged element, and so on. The main objective of merging is to ensure that the SeriesElements created are valid and synchronized with each other with respect to capacity utilization of various legs involved. A given unit of flight capacity (seat) at any given point must only be accounted for one customer, otherwise, it may lead to a shortage situation, where one 15 seat is allocated to more than one customer leading to dissatisfaction for customers. An airline may choose any method of its choosing to perform merging of SeriesElements, and specifically to perform merging of two SeriesElements. The method of merging chosen may affect the total value realized. One example of such a method is given, In one approach, an airline may choose to discard all merged SeriesElements that have 20 either one or more common ChildY or common End_Leg. A common ChildY in two Series Elements suggest that in both Series-Elements shifting of one specific Ya is needed. If each Series Element requires shifting of Ya to two different Segments, it may present a contradictory situation. Similarly, a common EndLeg in two or more SeriesElements (that are to be merged together) may require to shift more than one Ya 25 customer to a specific flight, which may or may not be feasible depending on the AC (and EAC) of that flight. Thus, a common End-Leg may also represent one or more contradictory or invalid situations. An airline may use any set of rules to validate or invalidate one or more 30 constituents of any of the merged components. For example, a merged SeriesElement, M, obtained from merging of two SeriesElements Si and S2, may comprise the COEP - 165 (addition of COEP of S1 and S2), COCY (addition of COCY of Si and S2) and CSE (addition of CSE ofS 1 and S2). RemoveY and Buy-N processes may generate value for the airline, an entity 5 other than the airline, customers and/or any combination thereof. The value may include, but is not limited to cost savings for the airline, an entity other than said airline, any combination thereof. The value generated may also include, but is not limited to, soft value, value attributable to customer goodwill, satisfaction and loyalty. The value so generated may optimize revenue of at least one entity other than said airline. 10 Customer Notification Process In the Customer Noticalon (CN) process, a decisiori for the Chosen Leg is notified to the customer. As mentioned earlier, the Chosen Flight may be defined by the 15 airline, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. However, the airline may want to keep the right to select (or define) the Chosen Flight in the FRO VOF. An airline may use any method of its choosing to define the Chosen Flight, An airline may use a software application built on the method defined above to optimally define the Chosen Flight to FRO customer. 20 Fig. 48 displays an example of an algorithm that may be used to execute the Customer Notifcation process. In Act 48.100, a group of (one or more) customers is taken as input. Next, in Act 48.110, a set of one or more Customer Notify Rules may be used to define the Chosen Flight. An airline may choose any Customer Notify Rule of 25 its choosing. The Customer Notify Rules may depend upon expected value of the Flight, expected sales volume and so forth. For example, an airline may choose a Customer Notify Rule, which selects the Flight with the higher value as the Chosen Product. Alternatively, a rule may be chosen, which selects the Flight with the lower value as the Chosen Flight. While defining the Chosen Flight, an airline may also want to use the 30 Remove Y algorithm (as used in the BuyN process given above) to determine the optimal Chosen Flight that satisfies a pre-determined goal. Thus, during the CN process, - 166.

one or more Ya may be shifted in the process of selecting the optimal Chosen Flight. A Customer Notify Rule may also select the Flight with the higher sales volume as the Chosen Flight. A Customer Notify Rule may specify that if FRO VOF is used in conjunction with any other VOF (such as APO VOF and so on), then the Grouping Rules 5 (defined later) may govern the selection of the Chosen Flight. Next, in Act 48.120, the Customer Notify Rules, thus obtained from the airline's database, are used to define Chosen Flight(s). Next, in Act 48.130, the customers are notified about their Chosen Flight(s), and the algorithm then ends in Box 48.200. 10 Implementation of FRO VOF in conjunction with other VQFs PRO VOF may be used in conjunction with one or more other VOFs, for example, the AFO (the Alternate Flight Option) VOF. A customer who receives an AFO 15 is termed "A" type of customer. An airline may form a group of one or more AFO customers and one or more FRO customers, where the options (AFO and FRO) obtained by the group members are complimentary in nature. As an example, consider an A customer who bought an AFO to choose either of F1 and F2 as the Chosen Flight, and consider a Y customer who received a FRO and is flexible to take any of F1 and F2 as 20 the Chosen Flight. Thus, if A decides to choose F1 as the Chosen Flight, the airline may assign F2 as the Chosen Flight for Y, and vice versa. The customers A and Y have taken complimentary options and may form a group. The airline may need to hold only one unit of inventory in F! and F2 to satisfy the needs of both A and Y (assuming each A and Y only need one unit of seat). Such a combination of complimentary options or VOFs 25 may improve efficiency and concurrently enhance value for all the parties involved (in the context of the current example, enhance value for A, Y and the airline). The implementation of the grouping of A type and Y type of customers may be done in one or more ways. One way to implement such grouping is to first have one or 30 more Y type of customers and based on such customer(s), the airline may offer complimentary AFOs to customers to make groups. In another implementation, the -167 airline may first offer AFO and based on such AFO customer(s), airline offers complimentary FRO to the customers to make groups. In yet another implementation, the airline may offer AFO and FRO separately and then define a process to make complimentary groups of A and Y customers (such groups termed "AY_Groups"). 5 An airline may choose to create AY Groups at various group levels such as implementation of grouping at Level 1, Level 2 and so on. In Level 1 grouping, an AY Group involves one each of A and Y type of customers. An example of Level 1 grouping has already been given above (the two customer, A and Y, example), 10 In Level 2 grouping, the grouping involves making complimentary groups for more than 2 customers. As an example, consider an A customer who bought an APO to choose either of F1 and P3 as the Chosen Flight, a YI customer who received a FRO and is flexible to take any of FI and F2 as the Chosen Flight and a Y2 customer who has also 15 received a FRO and is flexible to take any of F2 and F3 as the Chosen Flight. A notation A-Yl-Y2 represents this example. Thus, if A decides to choose F1 as the Chosen Flight, the airline may assign F2 as the Chosen Flight for Y1 and F3 as the Chosen Flight for Y2. Alternatively, if A decides to choose F3 as the Chosen Flight, the airline may assign Fl and F2 as the Chosen Flights for YI and Y2, respectively, 20 It is assumed that a "unit" represents one unit of seat (or flight capacity) and each customer needs only one unit of a seat. Continuing with the above example, if the airline were to not consider the complimentary nature of options obtained by A, Y1 and Y2 customers, the airline may need to hold (or block) a total of 4 units of capacity (seats) to 25 ensure complete satisfaction of needs of A, Y1 and Y2, i.e., 2 units for A (1 unit each of F1 and F3 as A could choose any flight), I unit (seat) for Y (of either F1 or F2) and I unit for Y2 (of either F2 or F3), This implies, to satisfy a total need of 3 units of flights, the airline may need to hold (or block) 4 units (seats) of flight capacity, creating a redundant capacity of I unit (isat) that the airline may not be able to use otherwise. By 30 creating a complimentary group of A-Y1-Y2, the airline needs to only hold (or block) 3 units of capacity (1 unit each in Fl, F2 and F3), thus, freeing up I unit of redundant -168 capacity. Thus, an AY Group mechanism may create an efficient structure with minimal holding (and/or blocking) of capacity to satisfy the needs of all the concerned customers. The grouping may also be implemented at higher levels such as Level 3 5 grouping, Level 4 grouping, Level 5 grouping and so on. An example of the Level 3 grouping may be AI-Y1-Y2-Y3. An airline may choose to implement grouping at various product levels such as Leg, Segment and Itinerary. An airline may also change terms and conditions of one or 10 more option contracts of one or more FRO and/or AFO customers (for e.g., price, notify deadline and so on) to solicit customer participation in FRO/AFO to create more AY Groups. The airline may also offer incentives to customers to choose complimentary FRO/AFO offerings to enable the airline to create more AYGroups. The implementation methods mentioned above for grouping are for illustration purposes 15 only and an airline may choose to implement grouping in one or more other ways or by combining above said methods or by combining one or more other ways along with one or more above said methods. Fig. 49 displays a flow chart that illustrates one way of implementing grouping of 20 A and Y type of customers. In Act 49.100, sets of A and Y customers are taken as input. Next, in Act 49.110, a set of one or more Grouping Rules is read from the airline's database (49.210). A grouping rule may depend upon the number of A and/or Y type of customers, desired capacity redundancy in the system, the permissible time factor to create AY Groups, any other rule of airline's choosing, any combination thereof and so 25 on. For example, an airline may choose a Grouping Rule whereby new groups are created by first ungrouping one or more of the AYGroups (created earlier but unexercised, for example, groups for which the customer has not been notified, or if notified, the customer has not flown on the Flight and the terms of option contract allows for change in the Chosen Flight). A Grouping Rule may create groups of only those A 30 and Y type of customers who have yet to be grouped and discarding all A/Y customers, which have already been grouped. An airline may implement any Grouping Rule to -169 formulate AY Groups. The choice to Grouping rules may enhance the overall value for the airline (for example, reduce the total capacity required to satisfy flight needs for all A and Y customers). Theoretically, the number of units of the seats required (or blocked) should be equal to the number of customers buying the seat (assuming each customer 5 wants one unit of seat). Thus, by implementing the grouping and with the help of appropriate Grouping Rules, the airline may attempt to achieve such theoretical minima. Next, in Act 49.120, the Grouping Rules, so obtained from the airline's database, are used to make AYGroups. Next, in Act 49.130, the AYGroups so created are 10 returned along with ungrouped A/Y, if any, and the process then ends in Box 49.200. The grouping may enhance customers' experience, and may comprise operating a system that delivers a FRO to at least a "first customer" to utilize up to n of m selected flights for said first customer, where n is less than or equal to m; operating a system that 15 delivers an APO to at least a "second customer" to utilize up to k of p selected flights, where k is less than or equal to p; operating a system to define each of the k chosen flights, whereby after each of the k chosen flights is defined, said second customer can utilize said chosen flight; operating a system wherein an airline defines t chosen flight(s) for said first customer after each of said k chosen flights is defined, wherein after each of 20 said t flights is defined, said first customer can utilize said defined flight, where t is less than or equal to n. Said t flights may be a subset of n flights, m flights or both, Said t flights or a flights or both may also include one or more flights not included in said m selected flights. Similarly, k flights may be a subset of p flights, or may include one or more flights other than said p products. The grouping may be performed for a 25 multiplicity of at least one of said first or second customers and may combine together at least one of each of said first and second customers to formulate at least one group with at least one complementary set of options. The grouping may enable an airline, an entity other than the airline and/or any combination thereof to utilize at least one of said m or p flights at least after delivery of any of said first or second options. The airline and/or an 30 entity other than the airline may implement FRO VOF where in the first and/or second - 170 customer in said grouping may be same. The notification conditions may be different, same or any combination thereof for the first and second option. Said first and/or second option may or may not include any notification deadline 5 condition. The airline, the second customer, an entity other than said airline and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said k Chosen Flights. The airline, the first customer, an entity other than said airline and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said p Chosen Flights. The first customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said m 10 Flights. The second customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said p Flights. The airline and/or an entity other than the airline may receive from at least one of said first or second customer, at one or more times, an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second options, respectively. Similarly, at least one of said airline and/or an entity other than said airline may deliver to at least one 15 of said first or second customers, at one or more times, one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second option, respectively. There may or may not be any payment transaction between the airline, an entity other than the airline, and at least one of said first and/or second customer. 20 The FRO VOF may be used in conjunction with one or more other VOFs, for example, the UFO (and/or UTO) VOF. A customer who received a UFO (and/or UTO) is termed "U'" type of customer. An airline may form a group of one or more UFO (and/or UTO) customers and one or more FRO customers, where the options (UFO and/or UTO and FRO) obtained by the group members are complimentary in nature. 25 The implementation of the grouping of Y type and U type of customers may be done in one or more ways. One way to implement such grouping is to first offer and secure one or more Y type of customers and based on such customer(s), the airline may offer complimentary UFOs (and/or UTOs) to other customers to make groups. In 30 another implementation, the airline may first offer and secure UFO (and/or UTO) and based on such PRO customer(s), airline offers complimentary FRO to other customers to - 171 make groups. In yet another implementation, the airline may offer UFO (and/or UTO) and FRO separately and then define a process to make complimentary groups of U and Y customers (such groups termed "UYGroups'). 5 An airline may choose to create UYjGroups at various group levels such as implementation of grouping at Level 1, Level 2 and so on. In Level 1 grouping, a UYGroup involves one each of U and Y type of customers. As an example, Level 2 grouping is given below. 10 In Level 2 grouping, the grouping involves making complimentary groups for more than 2 customers. As an example, consider three customers Y(FI, F3), Ul[up(F2), base(F3)] and U2{up(Fl), base(F2)]. The notation Y(FL, F3) implies a customer Y who has received a FRO and is flexible to have either Fl or F2 as the Chosen Flight. The notation U1[up(F2), base(F3)] implies a customer UI who received a UFO and wishes to 15 get an upgrade from F3 (i.e., the base flight) to F2 (i.e., the up flight), and U2tup(Fl), base(F2)] implies a customer U2 who received a TJFO and wishes to get an upgrade from F2 (i.e., the base flight) to F1 (i.e., the up flight). A notation Y-U1-U2 represents this example. Thus, there are three flights Fl, F2, and F3 and they are occupied by Y, U2, and Ut respectively. The three customers have different value needs. The customer Y is 20 flexible on either F1 or F3 if he/she receives a desired reward for trading-in his/her flexibility. The customer Ul has a base flight F3 and wishes to get F2 as the Up Flight. If an airline is able to upgrade U1 to F2 from F3, it may generate incremental value for both the customer and the airline. But in the existing framework (i.e., without using conjunction of more than one VOFs), the airline may not be able to achieve this without 25 an available capacity on flight F2. Similarly, U2 has a base flight F2 and wishes to get F1 as the Up Flight. An airline may customize the desired values for the three customers by leveraging on Y's flexibility and upgrading Ut and U2. The airline may assign F3 as Chosen Flight to Y, upgrade U2 from F2 to F1, and upgrade U1 from F3 to F2. The airline may be able to generate customer surpluses in the process of Ut and U2 upgrades, 30 which would not have been possible normally. Thus, an airline may be able to generate incremental value for all the parties involved and satisfy the desired needs to a level of - 172 customization. Such a combination of complimentary options or VOFs may improve efficiency and concurrently enhance value for all the parties involved (in the-context of the current example, enhance value for Y, U1, U2 and the airline). 5 It is assumed that a "unit" represents one flight (or flight capacity) and each customer needs only one flight. Continuing with the above example, if the airline were to not consider the complimentary nature of options obtained by Y, U1 and U2 customers, the airline may need to hold (or block) more than 3 units of capacity to ensure complete satisfaction of needs of Y, Ul and U2. This implies, to satisfy a total need of 3 10 flights, the airline may need to hold (or block) more than 3 flights, creating a redundant capacity of at least one flight that the airline may not be able to use otherwise, By creating a complimentary group of Y-U1-U2, the airline does not need to hold any capacity, thus freeing up the redundant capacity. Thus, a UY Group mechanism may create an efficient structure with minimal holding (and/or blocking) of capacity to satisfy 15 the needs of all the concerned customers. The grouping may also be implemented at higher levels such as Level 3 grouping, Level 4 grouping, Level 5 grouping and so on. An example of the Level 3 grouping may be Y-U1-U2-U3. 20 An airline may choose to implement grouping at various levels such as Leg, Segment and Itinerary. An airline may also change terms and conditions of one or more option contracts of one or more UFO (and/or UTO) and/or FRO customers (for e.g,, price, notify deadline and so on) to solicit customer participation in UFO/FRO to create 25 more UY.Groups. The airline may also offer incentives to customers to. choose complimentary UFO/FRO offerings to enable the airline to create more UY Groups. The implementation methods mentioned above for grouping are for illustration purposes only and an airline may choose to implement grouping in one or more other ways or by combining above said methods or by combining one or more other ways along with one 30 or more above said methods.

-173 Fig. 50 displays a flow chart that illustrates one way of implementing grouping of U and Y type of customers. In Act 50.100, sets of U and Y customers are taken as input. Next, in Act 50.110, a set of one or more Grouping Rules is read from the airline's database (50.210). A grouping rule may depend upon the number of U and/or Y type of 5 customers, desired capacity redundancy in the system, the permissible time factor to create UYGroups, any other rule of airline choosing, any combination thereof and so on. For example, an airline may choose a Grouping Rule whereby new groups are created by first ungrouping one or more of the UYGroups (created earlier but unexercised, for example, groups for which the customer has not been notified, or if 10 notified, the customer has not utilized the flight and the terms of option contract allows a change in the Chosen Flight). In another example, a Grouping Rule may create groups of only those U and Y type of customers who are yet to be grouped and discarding all U/Y customers, which have already been grouped. An airline may implement any Grouping Rule to formulate UY Groups. The choice to Grouping rules may enhance the 15 overall value for the airline (for example, reduce the total capacity required to satisfy flight needs for all U and Y customers). Theoretically, the number of units of the flight required (or blocked) should be equal to the number of units the customers shall be eventually utilizing, Thus, by implementing the grouping and with the help of appropriate Grouping Rules, the airline may attempt to achieve such theoretical minima. 20 Next, in Act 50.120, the Grouping Rules, so obtained from the airline's database, are used to make UYGroups. Next, in Act 50.130, the UY Groups so created are returned along with ungrouped U/Y, if any, and the process then ends in Box 50.200. 25 The grouping may enhance customers' experience, and may comprise operating a system that delivers a UFO (and/or UTO) to at least a "first customer" to utilize up to n of m selected flights for said first customer, and n is less than or equal to m; operating a system that delivers a FRO to at least a "second customer" to utilize up to k of p selected flights, and k is less than or equal to p; operating a system to define each of the k Chosen 30 Flights, whereby after each of the k Chosen Flights is defined, said "second customer" can utilize said Chosen Flight; operating a system wherein an airline defines t Chosen -174- Flight(s) for said "first customer" after each of said k Chosen Flights is defined, wherein after each of said t flights is defined, said first customer can utilize said defined flight, where t is less than or equal to n. Said t flights may be a subset of n flights, m flights or both. Said t flights or n flights or both may also include one or more flights not included 5 in said m selected flights. Similarly, k flights may be a subset of p flights, or may include one or more flights other than said p flights. The grouping may be performed for a multiplicity of at least one of said first or second customers and may combine together at least one of each of said first and second customers to formulate at least one group with at least one complementary set of options. The grouping may enable an airline, an entity 10 other than the airline and/or any combination thereof to utilize at least one of said m or p flights at least after delivery of any of said first or second options. The airline and/or an entity other than the airline may implement FRO VOF where in the first and/or second customer in said grouping may be same. The notification conditions may be different, same or any combination thereof for the first and second option. 15 Said first and/or second option may or may not include any notification deadline condition, The airline, the second customer, an entity other than said airline and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said k Chosen Flights. The airline, the first customer, an entity other than said airline and/or any 20 combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said p Chosen Flights. The first customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said m Flights. The second customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said p Flights. The airline and/or an entity other than the airline may receive from at least one of said first or second customer, at one or more times, an indication of one or more terms 25 and conditions associated with said first or second options, respectively. Similarly, at least one of said airline and/or an entity other than said airline may deliver to at least one of said first or second customers, at one or more times, one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second option, respectively. There may or may not be any payment transaction between the airline, an entity other than the airline, and at least one 30 of said first and/or second customer.

- 175 Business Model to implement FRO As discussed above, different business models may be used to implement a FRO VOF. The business models mentioned below may be used to implement FRO VOF in 5 the airline industry. An airline may choose to implement a FRO VOF individually or in conjunction with one or more partners and/or other companies. An airline may allocate some seat inventory to another entity. The term "allocation of seat(s)" or "allocation of seat inventory" "allocation of flight(s)" implies, 10 without limitation, assigning one or more seats of one or more flights to an entity for any purpose or use by the entity either exclusively or non-exclusively. As explained in the sections above, for example, an entity may use the allocated seats to offer FRO to customers and/or to sell the seats as regular seats. The allocation of seat may be conditional. For example, one of the conditions may require a return of at least one 15 allocated seat within a specified time period and/or other consideration(s). The customer may select or purchase one or more flights from the airline and/or said entity and then interact with said entity to receive one or more FRO Flights in relation to said (already purchased) flights. Said entity may also receive seat allocation 20 from more than one airline, and thus, offer flights from multiple airlines to a single customer during the Initial Transactlon for FRO. The OA may use those seats and operate a service to offer FRO to the customers. As explained above in Fig. 13A, a customer may select one or more flights from the OA, 25 and then receive FRO on those selected flights from the OA. Another approach would be for a customer to select one or more flights from the airline and then receive FRO on those selected flights from the OA. In another example, a customer may select one or more flights from both the airline and the OA, and then receive the FRO option on those selected flights from the OA. It is also possible that the customer receives FRO from the 30 airline or both from the airline and the OA on a given set of selected flights.

- 176 The OA and the airline may simultaneously offer FRO to the customers, i.e., a customer may either approach the airline or the OA to receive FRO on desired flights. In another model, the CA may operate as the sole provider of PRO to all the customers of an airline. In yet another model, the OA and the airline may choose to work together and 5 jointly offer FRO to the customers. The OA or the airline may offer FRO to customers using either or both of the Sequential or the Concurrent Get FRO processes. As explained in Fig, 13A above, an OA may be able to offer FRO on flights from one or multiple airlines. An OA may receive allocation of flight seats from two or more 10 airlines, A customer may purchase one or more flights from one or more airlines and/or from the OA, and then receive FRO on those selected flights from the OA, Even if the OA may not be entitled to or does not receive seat allocation from an airline, it may still be able to formulate an agreement with one or more airlines to offer FRO on the flights of said airlines. Thus, a customer may be able to receive FRO on flights from multiple 15 airlines, giving the customer more value to trade-in their flexibility and variety to choose from. For example, a customer may receive PRO on two flights from two different airlines, and the OA and/or any one or all of the airlines will then notify the customer about the Chosen Flight within the terms and conditions of the option contract, This may provide a lot of value to the customers for trading their travel flexibility, especially 20 when the customer itineraries include destinations only served by a few airlines. An OA may be able to thus create a multi-airline FRO VOF Framework, which may tremendously enhance the value to the customers. All the participating airlines that allocate seats to and/or partner with the OA to offer FRO may also gain from the PRO network (benefits include reduced revenue spill, higher revenues from selling the FRO 25 Flights at higher prices, and/or to sell FRO on those flights, enhanced overall customer satisfaction and/or other operational benefits). Either or both of the OA and the airline may process the tickets for the Chosen Flights associated with FRO received by the customer. A customer may receive tickets from the OA or the airline for the flights related to the FRO grant. Any entity (the OA and the airline) may process tickets for the 30 flights offered only by that entity or by either of the two entities.

- 177 The OA and the airline may engage in a business agreement to implement the FRO program. The business agreement may divide the total benefit generated by the FRO program between the two parties using any mechanism or criteria as desired. The total FRO Revenue Benefit may be shared between the two parties, The airline may 5 allocate seats to the OA. One or more airlines may allocate only part of or their entire seat inventory to the OA to offer those seats to the customers by way of regular and/or FRO seats. In return, the OA may offer some revenue or fee to the airline for all or a portion of the seats allocated. This fee may be given only for the seats that the OA is able to utilize or for all the allocated seats. The lending fee may be a lump sum amount, 10 may depend upon the number of seats allocated or may depend on one or more factors as desired. The agreement may include a provision where the OA may return the allocated seats back to the airline at a certain time and date. There may be one or more conditions associated with the return of unused FRO seats and/or seats from the Released Flights, including, but not limited to, returning the same seat, returning a higher value seat and so 15 on, The airline may allot OA at least one flight and said OA may deliver FRO on at least one of said allocated flights. The OA may or may not enter into an agreement with the airline to provide such option on its flights. The OA may sell back at least one allocated flight to said airline or to at least one entity other than the airline or both. 20 An OA may offer an airline flexible customer inventory (generated from PRO) at one or more terms and conditions. The airline may be able to use this flexibility to generate benefit from one or more ways, such as the BuyN process, reducing operational costs and so forth. Some of these examples have been explained earlier. 25 An OA may formulate an agreement with one or more airlines on one or more VOMs, such as on both APO and FRO VOPs, to offer a combination of VOFs to customers. The FRO VOF may include different conditions regarding the payment of prices 30 related to the FRO. For example, a customer may receive FRO Price only from the airline even if he/she is receiving flights and/or options from the OA. Similarly, the -178 customer may receive FRO Price only from the OA even if he or she selected the flights and/or received the options from the airlines. The condition may also be set for a customer to make one or more payments to the airline for the flights and receive one or more payments from the airline for the options received from that airline, and to make 5 one or more payments to the OA for the flights and receive one or more payments from the OA for the options received from that OA. The condition may allow the customer to receive partial payments from the airline and the rest from the OA or vice versa, the basis of which distribution may depend upon various factors, including, but are not limited to, the factors of airline's choosing, the arrangement between the OA and the airline and so 10 on. In another example, the customer may receive the FRO Price from the third party or may receive FRO Price from any of the combination of the entities mentioned above. Information Technology Sys tern for FRO 15 A client-server architecture may be used to implement the FRO VOF. However, an airline may use a computer hardware and software infrastructure of its choosing to implement a FRO VOF. The FRO VOF may be best implemented using one or more computer 20 implemented methods to operate a computer-implemented service to offer FRO to the customers, that includes, but not limited to, recording the information pertaining to the offered and/or used FRO in a database. . It may also include operating a computer implemented service (and/or system) or other service (and/or system) to define the Chosen Flights, and recording said Chosen Flights (or defined Flights) and all the Flights 25 related to a FRO in a database. For the stage one (i.e., to formulate the FRO VOF), an application server may be used along with a database (eg., a relational database) that stores all the information relevant to the airline and the customer. The database may include all the relevant 30 information sufficient to identify Flights the airline chooses to make eligible for PRO. One or more users (e.g., a business analyst or manager) may have ful access to this server through Intranet or highly secured VPN environment to design an optimal value -179 option framework, The database shall also store all the information pertaining to all the acts (in stage one) used by the airline while formulating the FRO VOF. A similar or a different application server and/or a cluster of application servers 5 (functioning concurrently) along with one or more web servers and a set of one or more database servers may be used for the Get FRO as explained in Fig. 13D above and CN (Customer Notifiation) processes in the stage two of the PRO VOP. The application server communicates with a web server and the database (e.g., a relational database either the same database used for stage one or a different one). This database (for stage 10 two) stores all the relevant information pertaining to all the acts executed during and in relation to the processes and algorithms run for stage two. All the algorithms mentioned earlier for both the Get FRO process and the Event Optimizer processes may be computer-implemented as explained and discussed above in Fig. 13D and 13E. All the customer interactions and the related information such as customer needs, inputs, 15 payment transactions etc. are stored in this database, including information pertaining to the interactions with those customers who may not receive FRO. The systems for stage two and stage one should be maintained in a synchronized environment so that each system has access to the most current information and can communicate with each other. 20 As discussed above, there may be other ways for implementing the FRO VOF which may depend upon including, but not limited to, the scale of the implementation, business requirements and number of entities involved. The entities may interact through a series of hardware products and services with the OA/airline server(s). The OA may or may not be different than the airline and the OA server may be the same as that of the 25 airline server. The information technology and network system to implement FRO VOF may include tools, without limitation, such as one or more CPUs, Hard Disk Drives, RAM, one or more series of Routers, Internet, Firewall, highly secured VPN, Intranet, load balancers, servers, primary databases, secondary databases and so forth. 30 As discussed and explained above, there may be one or more secondary databases that may only be in the "Read Only" form and may be updated through one or more - 180 replication servers. Alternatively, an airline may have one or more separate temporary database structure wherein the entries are updated and stored until the final update is made in one or more main databases. One the final update is done, the entries in these temporary databases may be removed. 5 The entire system may run at the premises of OA, airline and/or any third entity or any combination thereof, It may also be possible to run a part of the system at one place and rest at one or more other places, The system may also be implemented even if one or more servers may be kept off-shore locations and may be accessed remotely, The 10 geographical locations of one or more hardware product and/or services may be different depending upon including, but not limited to, the factors of airline's choice, ease of accessibility, infrastructure facilities. The structure or the interaction architecture of the system may vary depending on factors including, but not limited to, the set up of the airline, changes in the technology and with the introduction of new and better technology 15 enhancing the interaction process. A customer may interact with either one or more of the Get FRO, Buy N, the CN processes either directly or indirectly using a local or a remote terminal (e.g., a computer with a browser and an access to the Internet) that is able to access the web server(s) that host the Get FRO and CN processes. A customer may also interact with an operator (or 20 a computer operator) using any communication mechanism (e.g., in-person, phone, using email, Internet chat, text messaging system) who then communicates with the web server through the Intranet and/or Internet. The system for the stage one and/or stage two may be hosted and run by the 25 airline, an OA, a third party service provider or any combination of the above. In the model, where the OA receives Flight allocation from the airline and offers FRO to the customers directly, the web server, application server and database for both stage one and stage two shall be managed by the OA. The OA may also have partial (or complete) access to the airline database and systems through a highly secured environment (for 30 example, a virtual private network). In the model, when an OA and an airline tie-up together to offer FRO, all the computer hardware and software infrastructure for both - 181 stage one and stage two may be hosted by and/or property of either or both (mutually) of the sides depending upon the business agreement between them. 5 Flexibility Reward Option (FRO) Value Option Framework in the Hotel Industry As explained above, FRO VOF can be implemented in any industry. The implementation of FRO in hotel industry is discussed herein. The customer desire to trade-in accommodation flexibility (defined below) is used as the targeted value element. 10 A detailed demonstration of the FRO VOF in the hotel industry is presented below. The first stage in the FRO VOF involves steps (or acts) of: capturing customer dynamics, assessing hotel operations and economic factors, integrating customer dynamics with hotel economic factors, formulating the VOF and optimizing the VOF. 15 The second stage involves carrying out a dynamic interaction with the customer and then executing an Event Optimizer process, The specific detailed steps with respect to the FRO VOF will now be discussed. First Stage: Formulation of FRO Value Option Framework 20 (1) Capturing Customer Dynamics Fig, 51 shows an analysis of the value elements that are believed to matter to customers in relation to a FRO. In the design value segment, shown in Box 51.100, 25 important value elements may include, but are not limited to, the customers' flexibility in reserving room and their desire to trade-in their accommodation flexibility. In the price value segment, shown in Box 51.200, important value elements may include, but are not limited to, Room Price and desired monetary/non-monetary reward to trade-in accommodation flexibility. In the delivery value segment, shown in Box 51.300, 30 important value elements may include, but are not limited to, time before which a customer may be able to trade-in his or her accommodation flexibility to obtain ie - 182 desired reward. In the service value segment, the important value elements may include, but are not limited to, the ease to trade-in accommodation flexibility, as shown in Box 51.400. It may be important to estimate the relative preferences and utilities of these value elements to different types of customers. 5 The customers' desire to trade-in their accommodation flexibility is subjective in terms of the length of the "accommodation flexibility trade-in period" and the "range of accommodation flexibility". The term "accommodation flexibility trade-in period" refers to the time period during which a customer is willing to trade-in his or her 10 accommodation flexibility. The term "range of accommodation flexibility" refers to a range of Room features and/or components across which a customer is flexible. For example, the range of accommodation flexibility may be expressed in terms of the periods for check-in, check-out and stay, Room services/amenities needed during travel and so forth. The accommodation flexibility trade-in period, range of accommodation 1.5 flexibility and reward (as desired by customers in lieu of accommodation flexibility) are subjective and may differ from customer to customer, or even for the same customer, may differ from one situation to another. (2) Assessment of hotel economics 20 An assessment of the crucial economic factors of a hotel, as indicated in Box 52,100, may reveal the factors to include, but not be limited to, fixed and variable costs, non-uniform distribution of demand across different Rooms under the same category (or Rooms from various categories), the difficulty to accurately forecast demand, the 25 inability or difficulty to shift customers from overloaded Rooms to low-demand Rooms, spill-demand from customers who are denied Rooms, costs and customer dissatisfaction and ill-will from over sale, the need to develop sustainable competitive advantages, customer attrition rate, the commoditization of the hotel industry, opportunity loss from capacity shortages and spoilage and so forth. 30 - 183 An assessment of the crucial economic factors of a hotel may be performed, to determine the factors that affect the profitability, growth and goals of the hotel, It might be beneficial if a hotel utilizing the inventive system and method were able to express cost elements in a real-time or quasi-real-time (i.e., up to date) dynamic fashion so that 5 such information can then be used to assess the profitability or contribution of each product sale opportunity, and to facilitate the operation of the Event Optimizer (so that offers and actions can be based on real-time or near-real-time information). (3) Integration of customer dynamics with hotel economic factors 10 Fig. 52 also illustrates an example of how a mapping may be done, between the customer and hotel profiles, for the PRO VOF in hotel industry. On one side, there are customers who have accommodation flexibility and desire to trade-in their accommodation flexibility in lieu of rewards or benefits. However, customers are also 15 concerned about any hassles, delays, frustration that one may go through if they participate in such an exchange. On the other side, a hotel faces an unbalanced demand that is difficult to forecast accurately. It would be certainly very helpful for a hotel to know the relative flexibilities of customers to receive different Rooms. For example, in hotel industry, a hotel may benefit from knowing the relative flexibility of a customer to 20 utilize a Room within a given set of Rooms. Hotels usually have a higher aggregate capacity than aggregate demand. However, the demand is non-uniform and often leads to oversale, revenue spill or spoilage or any combination thereof, in hotels. The issue of last minute cancellations 25 and no-shows (CNS) further complicates the issue. To deal with the revenue spills and spoilages, and to concurrently hedge against the CNS, the hotels overbook Rooms. . If a hotel Room remains empty for any duration, that condition probably represents the loss of potential revenue for that hotel, The hotel may have turned down potential customers due to the risk of high cost of overbooking in the concerned Room or other Rooms (of 30 the same or different hotel). The overbooking factor in Rooms other than said Room represent potential revenue loss because there may be one or more customers on such - 184 other Room who could have been willing to be shifted to the Room with empty seats in lieu of reward, and thus, releasing capacity for new potential customers (who may be willing to pay a lot higher) in said other Room. However, today there is no framework that allows hotel to do so in an optimal fashion such that both hotel and the customer 5 benefit at the same time. An opportunity, thus, exists to concurrently generate an incremental revenue benefit for the hotel, and to maximize the purchase utilities for the customers (includes those who want to trade-in flexibility and those who want to obtain specific Rooms even at higher prices). 10 The FRO VOF is created based on the value element "desire to trade-in accommodation flexibility". More specifically, as shown in the interaction between the Box 52.200 and Box 52.300, a mapping is performed between important customer value elements and the hotel economic factors. The value element "desire to trade-in accommodation flexibility" is extracted, as shown in Box 52.400 and a FRO value option 15 framework is created. (4) Formulating the "FRO" Value Option Framework Structure of FRO Value Option Framework in the Hotel Industry 20 Fig, 53 displays the structure of a FRO value option framework (shown in Box 53.100) in hotel industry. The FRO value option framework is related to the value element "desire to trade-in accommodation flexibility", as shown in Box 53.110. 25 In the "Initial Transaction" for FRO, shown by Box 53.200, a customer (shown by Box 53.210) and a hotel (shown by Box 53.220) transact on the PRO value option. There may be one or more Events (shown by Box 53.230) that follow the Initial Transaction. 30 In a successful Initial Transaction for a FRO, the customer receives an option to utilize up to 'n' out of 'm' selected Rooms (said 'm' Rooms termed "FRO Rooms").

- 185- The 'n' Rooms that are finally selected are termed "Chosen Rooms ". After each of the 'n' Chosen Rooms is defined (or selected or chosen or received), the customer has the right to utilize (or can utilize) said Chosen Room. Apart from the 'n' Chosen Rooms, the remaining 'm - n' rooms are termed "Released Rooms". The Released Rooms 5 (especially if any, that were probably held or blocked for said customer) may be sold to other customers as normal Rooms or PRO Rooms or used for other purposes. The Released Rooms in relation to said option may be reused by the hotel before, after, at or any combination thereof, the time the Released Rooms and/or Chosen Rooms are defined (or received or selected). 10 Numerically, the value of 'm' is greater than or equal to I and the value of 'n' may vary from '0' to 'm' depending upon the specific implementation of the FRO framework. The value of 'i' and/or 'n' may be known (or defined and/or re-defined) before, during or after the Initial Transaction and/or any combination thereof. The value 15 of n may be limited to less than the value of in, or n<m (i.e., n<=n-1); however, in some situations, n may be equal to m. The value of n' may or may not be known (or defined and/or re-defined) at the time of the Initial Transaction. The value of 'n' Rooms may be defined in one or more transactions. The value of 'm' and/or 'u' may be defined (and/or re-defined), at one or more times, by the hotel, the customer, another entity or any 20 combination thereof. For example, the value of n may not be defined at the time of Initial Transaction. In case the value of in is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'm' may be greater than or less than the older value of 'n'. Similarly, if the value of 'n' is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of n' may also be greater than or less than the older value of 'n'. In some of the 25 cases, the- value of new 'n' may be even greater than the older value of 'm'. The 'n' Chosen Rooms may include one or more rooms other than said 'm' rooms. The FRO Rooms may be selected by the hotel, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. The FRO VOF may enable a hotel to obtain accommodation 30 flexibility from FRO customers (i.e,, those who select FRO) and use said accommodation flexibility to satisfy the Room needs of other customers (i.e., who have -186 relatively fixed or strong preferences). Therefore, the hotel would usually have the right to select (or define) the Chosen Rooms. However, in different implementations of FRO VOF, the hotel, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof may select one or more of the Chosen Rooms related to a FRO. The PRO Rooms and the Chosen Rooms 5 may be selected by the same entity, different entities or any combination thereof. For example, the customer may select the FRO Rooms and the hotel may select the Chosen Rooms out of the FRO Rooms. The hotel may incorporate the customer information and the data related to the PRO into the sales, production, inventory, other database or information system or any combination of the above. 10 The time when an Initial Transaction is completed (i.e., the customer receives the PRO option on said m Rooms) is referred to as the Initial Transaction Time (or ITT, in short), One or more of said m Rooms may be selected, at one or more times, before, after, during, or any combination thereof, the Initial Transaction and/or the time said 15 option is delivered to the customer (or the customer receives said option) or any combination thereof, All the FRO Rooms may be selected concurrently (i.e., all together in one transaction) or sequentially (i.e., in multiple transactions). The delivery of an option may include, but not limited to, electronic delivery of 20 the option, physical delivery of the option, any other mode of delivery or any combination thereof. Once said option is delivered, one or more of m rooms may be available for use by the hotel, an entity other than the hotel and/or any combination thereof. The value of 'n' may be defined before, after or any time, the option being delivered to the customer, The delivery of option may occur in relation to the customer 25 reserving at least one room. The delivery of option may also occur in relation to the customer reserving a room other than the room on which the option may be delivered. The customer may reserve a room other than the room on which the option is delivered to the customer. 30 In the sequential case, a customer may select one or more Rooms in one or more transactions before the Initial Transaction. Said selected Room(s) (let's say X number - 187 of them), thus, may be considered as part of said m FRO Rooms of the FRO (m, n) transaction, and the customer may select only the remaining (m-X) number of PRO Rooms during the Initial Transaction. All the transactions used to select (or receive) all the m FRO Rooms of a FRO (m, n) instance are related to each other, and hence, are 5 considered as "related transactions" (as defined earlier). In a FRO VOF, the sequential process may comprise a number of "related transactions" when all the PRO Rooms are received one after another by paying/receiving a price in one or more transactions or acts. The price may include, but 10 is not limited to, a monetary value, coupons, discount vouchers, other benefits such as loyalty program benefits, or any combination of the above. The transactions may be related due to a relationship during the Initial Transaction, one or more of the previously executed transactions, any other transaction or combination thereof. In the related transactions, 'W may be equal to 'm' when there may be at least one payment transaction 15 between the hotel and the customer related to the Rooms wherein such payment is made after the option has been granted. Said payment transaction may be one more transaction apart from the initial interaction and/or Initial Transaction in the event said customer utilizes all the 'm' Rooms. The customer may select Rooms prior to utilizing the penultimate Room. The hotel, an entity other than said hotel and/or any combination 20 thereof may reserve the right to limit the customer to 'n' Rooms on, before, on or before, afler, on or after or any combination thereof, a stated notification deadline date. A hotel may choose to create one or more instances of the FRO VOF based on factors including, but not limited to, number of PRO Rooms, Chosen Rooms or Released 25 Rooms, pre-determination of a number of Chosen Rooms or Released Rooms, flexibility trade-in period, other factors or any combination thereof. For example, a FRO based on a combination of the number of FRO Rooms (or m) and Chosen Rooms (or n) would be FRO (xn,n). Some FRO instances are shown in Boxes 53.120, 53.130, 53.140 and 53.150. For example, when the number of Chosen Rooms is pre-determined, the FRO 30 (4,2) instance may imply that the Customer receives 4 FRO Rooms, on the condition that the hotel may select any 2 out'of 4 Rooms as Chosen Rooms. When the number of -188 Chosen Rooms is not pre-determined, the PRO (4, 2) instance may imply that the customer receives 4 FRO Rooms, on the condition that the hotel may select none, one or 2 Chosen Rooms out of PRO Rooms. There may also be a minimum limit on n. For example, the FRO (4, n) (where 1<=n<=2) instance limits the hotel to select either 1 or 2 5 Chosen Rooms out of the 4 FRO Rooms. The FRO (2, 1) instance, two FRO Rooms and one Chosen Room, is used here as an example to demonstrate the details of the structure of a PRO VOF. Box 53.200 refers to the Initial Transaction between the customer and the hotel, in which they transact on a 10 FRO (2, 1) value option. In a successful Initial Transaction for FRO (2, 1), the customer selects two FRO Rooms and the hotel may select any 'one' of those two Rooms as the Chosen Room. The Initial Transaction may have terms and conditions applicable to the customer 15 or the hotel or both. These terms and conditions may be set, preferably, to concurrently benefit both parties. The connections between Box 53.200 and 53.220, and Box 53.200 and 53.210 refer to the terms and conditions to the hotel and the customer, respectively. The FRO VOF may or may not include any constraints on the FRO Rooms. For 20 example, a hotel may restrict FRO applicability and availability on rooms that satisfy specific criteria. The two PRO Rooms may or may not include practically constrained Rooms. Practical constraints may include one or more constraints that will prevent a customer to utilize one or more given Room or prevent the customer from utilizing all the FRO Rooms. Such constraints may include, but are not limited to, time constraints, 25 location constraints and so forth. In other words, it may or may not be practically possible for a customer to utilize both the selected Rooms due to at least one practical constraint. A customer may select (or receive) FRO Rooms in several ways; through mutual 30 agreement (e.g., during a direct interaction such as a Room booking), or the hotel may grant the FRO Rooms to the customer without soliciting their interest or permission. For - 189 example, to enhance customer satisfaction or for any other purpose, a hotel may grant FRO Rooms to customers based on the past customer behavior, interaction and so on. The Initial Transaction may impose one or more conditions on the hotel. A hotel 5 may be required to explicitly notify the customer prior to or no later than a given date and time (referred to as the Notify Deadline) regarding the Chosen Room. For simplicity, it is assumed that whenever the term Notify Deadline is used in the following sections, the condition requires notification prior to the Notify Deadline. If there is no such explicit notification condition, the Chosen Room may be decided as per the terms and 10 conditions of the option contract, In either case, (explicit or implicit notification), the date and time when the selection of the Chosen Room is notified to the customer is referred to as the Customer Notilcation Time (or CNT, in short). In the current discussion, the explicit notification condition is assumed unless specifically mentioned otherwise. 15 A hotel may determine one or more Notfy Deadlines for a Room at one or more times (e.g., before, during, after the Initial Transaction or any combination thereof) using factors including, but not limited to, customer needs, expected value of the Room, hotel profitability goals, any other factors or any combination of the above. Customer factors 20 should also be considered in determining the Notify Deadlines, such as the flexibility trade-in periods desired by customers, or any other factor that may affect the behavior of a customer. The PRO VOF may or may not have a notification deadline condition. A hotel may provide an option of booking 'in' Rooms with condition of 25 canceling at least one of them. In such case, the hotel may have authority to decide booking of which Room is to be cancelled. The hotel may reward the customer for his/her accommodation flexibility. Consider an example. A customer may book two Rooms at $150 each for two different dates 2 4d May and 3 rd May. Three cases may follow this event - a) high demand for Room on 2 "d May, the hotel may cancel the 30 booking of the Room for 2 "d May and the customer may be refunded $155 (Room Price + Flexibility Reward); b) high demand for Room on 3 rd May, the hotel may cancel the -190 booking of the Room for 3'd May and the customer may be refunded $155 (Room Price + Flexibility Reward); c) regular demand (i.e. no high demand) for the Rooms on both the dates, the hotel may cancel the booking of any of the Rooms as per its choosing or as per the terms of the option contract and the customer may be refunded $153 (Room Price + 5 Flexibility Reward which may be lower in this case). In the context of the FRO VOF in the hotel industry, the terms "price" or "reward" or "discount" normally refer to the price, which the hotel may offer to the customer in relation to the FRO. However, in one of the implementations of FRO VOF, 10 the customer may also offer a price to the hotel in relation to the FRO. The terms "price" and "reward" are used interchangeably as and when the context requires. The FRO VOF may impose additional terms and conditions on the customer, The hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel may receive from customer, at one or 15 more times, an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with said option in the FRO VOF. Similarly, at least one of said hotel and/or an entity other than said hotel may deliver to said customer, at one or more times, one or more terms and conditions associated with said option in the FRO VOF. A customer may receive one or more rewards (or prices) in relation to the FRO. There may or may not be any payment 20 transaction related to the Initial Transaction and/or other event related to the FRO. There may be one or more prices related to the FRO. A price may include, but is not limited to, a set of one or more Room Prices, a set of one or more FRO Prices (or Rewards or Discounts) or any combination of the above. A hotel may choose to implement PRO Prices in many ways. For example, a customer may pay a Room Price 25 to receive a group of Rooms, and then, may choose to get FRO on said Rooms and thus, receive FRO reward. A hotel may use the method of its choosing to decide on all the Room Prices. The customer may receive one or more prices during the Initial Transaction 30 (which is referred to as an Initial Price), at the CNT (which is referred to as an Exercise Price) and/or at any other time, which may or may not be pre-determined between the -191 customer and the hotel. The price may be a function of number of FRO Rooms and/or Chosen Rooms, specific Rooms to be granted for FRO Rooms and/or Chosen Rooms, Notfy Deadline, one or more Room Prices, any other factors of hotel's choosing or any combination of the above. 5 The price may comprise a monetary value or a soft/non-monetary value (e.g., benefits, coupons or exchange of another service) or other consideration. The FRO Price may be fixed or variable, with or without bounds. The hotel may set permissible range(s) or boundary limit(s) within which the FRO Price can vary, or it may offer the 10 customer a set of prices to choose from. Since price conditions may depend upon various factors, which may or may not be variable, the same may be decided at anytime. The price conditions may be determined by the customer, the hotel, another entity, or any combination thereof at one or more times. One or more prices (FRO Initial or FRO Exercise or any other price) may be a negative value, which reflects that instead of the 15 hotel rewarding the customer, the customer shall pay a price to the hotel to get the desired Room as the Chosen Room, Different price strategies may be implemented in the FRO (2, 1) instance. For example, a single Initial Price could make it attractive and easy for the customer to 20 participate in the FRO program. One or more of the FRO prices (rewards) may be embedded with the Room Price by using a special Room Price. A customer may be presumed to accept the FRO offer while displaying the Room Price (that has the FRO Price embedded in it). These presumptions may or may not include soliciting prior interest of the customer regarding the FRO offer. In case, the PRO price is merged with 25 the Room Price, and where such price may or may not be separately identifiable, the customer may or may not receive a separate price for FRO. The Notify Deadline may be pre-determined or may be determined later (i.e., after FRO grant) by the hotel, the customer or mutually by both. There may be one or 30 more Notify Deadlines, where each Notify Deadline may have a different price associated to it. There are several ways to implement this condition, One way is given, as follows.

-192 The price associated to the first Notify Deadline (i.e., the earliest among the Notfy Deadlines) may be offered if the customer is notified anytime before the first Notify Deadline. The price associated to the second Notfy Deadline (i.e., the second earliest among the Notify Deadlines) may be offered if the customer is notified after the first 5 Noifpy Deadline and before the second Notify Deadline. The terms and conditions of the PRO VOF may not allow the hotel to notify the customer after the last Notify Deadline (i.e., the latest among the Notify Deadlines). As an operational measure, a rule may be set that if the hotel and/or an entity other than the 10 hotel fails to notify the customer before the last Notify Deadline, the customer may select either of the FRO Rooms as the Chosen Room, Similarly, in one of the implementations of the PRO VOF, a rule may also be set that if the customer fails to notify the hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel before the last Notfy Deadline, the hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel may select either of the FRO Rooms as the Chosen Room for 15 the customer. Another approach may be (e.g., for customer/hotel) to designate one of the two Rooms as a Default Room (during or after receiving the PRO) that will be selected as the Chosen Room if the hotel fails to notify the customer of the Room selection before the last Notify Deadline. Any entity (e.g., the hotel or the customer) may (or may not) be allowed to change the Default Room once it is selected. The FRO Exercise Price (if any) 20 in the default case may or may not be equal to the FRO Exercise Price for the Default Room for the last Nottfy Deadline. In the current discussion, a single Notify Deadline is assumed. The FRO Exercise Price may be a function of Notify Deadline, FRO Rooms 25 and/or Chosen Room, one or more Room Prices, any other factor of hotel's choosing or any combination thereof. In such situations, the hotel may pay a price to the customer based on the selection of the Chosen Room at a given time. The FRO VOF may also include conditions imposed on the customer. A 30 customer may be under a mandatory condition to accept the Chosen Room once it is selected (for e.g., by the hotel).

-193 A hotel may determine customer preferences, either explicitly or implicitly, regarding utilization of up to n of m selected Rooms. The preferences may also include, but not limited to, customer preferences for various Rooms and services, needs, 5 associated relative utilities, flexibilities, preferences regarding choice of Rooms, quality of Rooms, acceptable delays (relative) to receive different Rooms and so forth. A hotel may seek customer preferences on flexibility to utilize various Rooms, desire to trade-in their accommodation flexibility, any other parameters or any combination thereof. The hotel, one or more entities other than the hotel or any combination thereof may seek 10 customer preferences. A hotel may also offer FRO options to one or more customers on the basis of customer preferences, so obtained or collected. The hotel may offer said FRO options based on the dynamics of the hotel including, but not limited to, inventory, operational 15 data, revenue management data, cost data, financial data, accounting data, any other internal data, any combination thereof and so on, A hotel may seek such preferences from the customer's prior, during or after the customer has booked the Room or any combination thereof. These customer preferences 20 may help the hotel to perform concurrent optimization of value for the hotel, the customers, one or more entities other than the hotel or any combination of two or more of the above, The customers may also include the customers whose preferences have not been determined or collected to perform concurrent optimization. The data pertaining to the hotel, customers, one or more entities other than the hotel, any combination thereof, 25 may be integrated to concurrently optimize the value for at least any two of said entities. There may or may not be any payment transaction between the hotel, one or more other entities and/or the customers regarding seeking such customer preferences, delivering FRO options, customer participation in PRO and so on. 30 The hotel may operate one or more systems and/or services to monitor the hotel dynamics, Monitoring may include, but is not limited to, monitoring of capacity, days to - 194 check-in, flexible inventory that may be created in relation to said obtained preferences, analyzing various cost, revenue, operational or any other internal data and so on. The hotel may have one or more systems and/or services to analyze such data on a real-time or quasi real-time basis and draw conclusions on the basis of such analysis. Any of the 5 systems and/or services may be operated by the hotel, one or more entities other than the hotel or any combination thereof. A hotel may operate a system that defines customer preferences regarding at least utilizing up to n of m selected Rooms, where n is less than m, operate a system that 10 enables use of said preferences to optimize value for at least one of customers, said hotel and an entity other than said hotel. Said system may be used to enhance room selling capacity (or helps to increase the overselling limits of Rooms). The hotel may use such preferences to offer FRO. A hotel may concurrently optimize value for at least two of customers, said hotel and at least one entity other than said hotel. 15 The hotel may utilize such preferences to meet its capacity shortages. These customer preferences may enable the hotel to increase the capacity limits for its Rooms. The hotel may start entertaining more requests from the customers and hence may increase the oversale limits for their Rooms. The hotel may be able to sell the Rooms at 20 higher prices to the potential customers due to increase in capacity and oversale limits and thereby enhance its revenues. Such preferences may help the hotel to allay fears of customer ill-will and dissatisfaction in case of an oversale situation. The hotel may utilize these preferences to deal with the oversale situation more effectively, efficiently and in timely manner. Thus, it may eventually allow the hotel to capture demand that 25 may otherwise, have been spilled or turned down and thereby enhancing its revenues without having any negative impact due to increase in capacity limits. A hotel may offer FRO to all customers or any selected customers, such selection may be based on any criterion including, but not limited to, such as those who have 30 expressed their relative preferences, those who have not expressed any preferences. By integrating the hotel dynamics and collected customer preferences, a hotel may offer - - 195appropriate incentives and terms and conditions for FRO to generate desired participation. A hotel may exercise its right (from FRO) to define the Chosen Rooms for one or more FRO customers depending on hotel's internal need to regenerate Room capacity for Rooms with low availability or shortages. A hotel may be in a better 5 position to offer appropriate FRO offers at a later stage due to many factors including, but not limited to, the hotel having better knowledge of internal and external dynamics, a relatively better estimate on how many customers required to avoid oversale situation in the end and so on. A hotel may choose to handle any shortfalls in capacity using FRO or by any other method of its choosing. 10 Once the Initial Transaction is successful, there may be at least two possible related events, as shown by Box 53.230. The two events are (1) that RI is the Chosen Room (as shown by Box 53.240) and (2) that R2 is the Chosen Room (as shown by Box 53.250). Each of these two events may be associated with various terms and conditions 15 on the customer and/or the hotel. As explained above, the events may take place in two ways: either the hotel selects the Chosen Room to satisfy its business needs, or the Chosen Room is selected based on pre-determined rules. The hotel may have to pay an additional exercise price at the CNT depending on the terms and conditions of the option contract. Once the Chosen Room is selected, the hotel and/or the customer may not 20 change the Chosen Room except within the bounds of the terms and conditions in the option contract. The hotel or the customer may (or may not) have the right to enforce the Chosen Room on the other party as per the terms and conditions of the option contract. The hotel may offer incentives to the customers to motivate them to choose one 25 or more rooms as Chosen Rooms among the FRO Rooms that may be more optimal for the hotel. A hotel may formulate one or more such offer (may referred to as Chosen Room Incentive Offers) and may send them to customers who have purchased FRO but not yet selected their Chosen Room via email, phone, mail or any other communication channel as per the terms and conditions of the option contract. Thus, such customers may 30 be persuaded to select said optimal room in lieu of incentives if the terms and conditions of option contract provide so.

-196 In one implementation of FRO, a hotel may want to hold capacity for the customer in only one of the FRO Rooms, in which the status of said Y customer is termed "Ya" (i.e., Accounted) and in the other FRO Room(s), the status is termed "Yw" 5 (i.e., Awaiting) (both Ya and Yw have been defined above). A "'" customer converts to an N customer after the CNT. Thus, at any given time, a hotel may have N, Ya and Yw type of customers for its Rooms. The FRO VOF may help a hotel in one or more ways. For example, it may help 10 to accommodate Room requests from potential customers. Any new potential customer who requests to obtain a Room is assumed to be an N customer. If the available quantity for the desired Room (desired by N customer) is insufficient to satisfy the request, then the hotel may use the quantity (if any, of desired Room) that has been assigned to Ya customers, and reassign the same to said N customer. Consequently, the hotel may then 15 assign the Awaiting Rooms (i.e,, the Rooms where said Ya customers have Awaiting status) to said Ya customers. By implementing such shifting or removing of Ya customers from their Accounted Rooms to Awaiting Rooms, a hotel may better serve incoming demand for Rooms. An event where such request comes to the hotel for a Room is termed "BuyN". The act to remove (or shift) a Ya customer from his/her 20 Accounted Room to his/her Awaiting Room is termed "Remove Y". Detailed algorithms are presented below that may be used to manage a system comprising N, Ya and Yw type of customers. The above terms and conditions of the FRO VOF may be set in a way to 25 concurrently benefit the customer, the hotel, any other entity apart from said hotel involved and/or any combination thereof. The hotel gets to seek a way to create a flexible inventory of Rooms. The customer benefits from trading their flexibility for the desired rewards. The hotel benefits from enhanced customer satisfaction (loyalty and repeat business), incremental revenue from the high price paying customers, incurring 30 lower costs on capacity shortages and selling (reusing) the Released Rooms, generating - 197 revenues from Released Rooms without actually reusing the Released Rooms and other operational benefits. A FRO VOF may include a right for the customer to utilize each of the m FRO 5 Rooms, and a right for the hotel to limit the Rooms (to fewer than n) the customer can utilize, if the hotel notifies the customer on a stated Notfy Deadline. Said on a stated NotIfy Deadline may include, but not limited to, on and/or before the stated Notify Deadline, on and/or after the stated Motify Deadline, any combination thereof The right may include the condition that the hotel may notify the customer before, at or after the 10 stated NotIfy Deadline or any combination thereof. To provide some flexibility to the customers, the hotel may offer (or allow) the customers to express their preferences regarding the Chosen Room(s) before the stated Notify Deadline. The hotel may or may not exercise their right to limit the customer to utilize fewer than said m Rooms. The right may include a condition that the hotel may limit the customer after the customer 15 expresses his/her preference for the Chosen Rooms. The hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel may have said limitation on at least one product. There may be a condition imposed on the customer to make at least one payment to the hotel when the customer expresses his or her preferences for the Chosen Rooms. The hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel may allow the customers to define said 'n' Rooms on. or before a stated 20 date. The hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel may reserve the right to take back any 'm' minus 'n' Rooms after the stated date. The customer, the hotel, an entity other than the hotel and/or any combination thereof may determine the notification date. A hotel may choose to define all the Chosen Rooms at one or more times. All 25 Notify Deadlines may or may not be associated with each of the related FRO Rooms. For example, a Notify Deadline may be after the time when the Room would have been utilized or the hotel may choose not to offer a Notfy Deadline on a specific Room due to one or more reasons including, without limitation, high FRO Price, customer utility reasons and expected load factor. A hotel may select any of the selected FRO Rooms as 30 the Chosen Rooms prior to a Notify Deadline. The hotel may also choose not to select any Chosen Rooms at one or more of the specified Notfly Deadlines.

- 198 The costs, revenues, benefits, terms and conditions shown here are for illustration purposes only and actual values could be different depending upon specific values selected by the hotel for value options, customer behavior, hotel characteristics, Notify 5 Deadline(s) and other relevant factors. The FRO VOF structure may be implemented in several ways depending upon the terms and conditions associated with the FRO contract. The FRO VOP structure presented above for the FRO (2,1) instance c.an be extended to implement any other FRO 10 instance. The FRO concurrently optimizes value for at least two of the hotel, its customers, one or more other entities and/or any combination thereof. The customers receive rewards for trading their flexibility in utilizing a Room while the hotel gets the flexibility 15 to optimally allocate Rooms (including sold Rooms) across various customers. The hotel gets to know the relative preferences and utilities of a customer for various Rooms as some customers take this option and others don't. The presumption here is that customers make a logical decision to take part in the FRO value option framework if they desire to trade-in their flexibilities. The hotel may benefit from higher customer 20 loyalty, as customer may receive higher satisfaction from using the hotel services, and may optimize its profitability by reusing/reselling the Released Rooms at typically higher than average prices. Example of FRO VOF structure FRO (2,1) 25 Figure 54 demonstrates an illustrative practical example of using the FRO (2,1) instance in the hotel industry. Consider a customer who interacts with a hotel to get FRO. Per Act 53.200, an Initial Transaction takes place between the hotel and the customer. Fig. 54 displays some of the details of the Initial Transaction. The customer 30 selects/receives two FRO Rooms, RI (shown in Box 54.100) and R2 (shown in Box -199 54.200), and the hotel can select either of the Rooms as the Chosen Room. The customer is under the condition to accept the Chosen Room as selected by the hotel. The customer receives a reward of $10 as the Initial FRO Price from the hotel 5 while the customer pays $450 as the Room Price to the hotel as part of the Initial Transaction. Hence, the customer pays a net amount of $440 to the hotel at Initial Transaction. The Initial Transaction takes place on the 10* day of November (i.e., the ITT, shown in the second row of the Box 54.300). There is an explicit notification condition wherein the hotel has to select and notify the customer regarding the Chosen 10 Room before the Nofy Deadline. An example of terms and conditions included with FRO are presented. A scenario is considered with different Notify Deadlines (shown in Box 54.400) and the Notify Deadline is expressed in terms of the number of days to check-in (DTC) of R1, the earlier of the two Rooms. 15 Box 54.400 displays a set of FRO Exercise Prices that are a function of both the Notify Deadline and the Chosen Room. There are four Notify Deadlines associated with the PRO, The PRO Exercise Price increases from $15 (for the First Notify Deadline of 5 DTC) to $40 (for the Last Notify Deadline of 1 DTC) if the Chosen Room is RI and from $10 to $50 if the Chosen Room is R2. If the CNT is before 5 DTC, then the customer 20 receives $15 as the FRO Exercise Price from the hotel if the Chosen Room is Rl, and receives $10 as the FRO Exercise Price if the Chosen Room is R2, as shown in the second column of the second and third rows in the Box 54.400, respectively. If the CNT is after 5 DTC and before 3 DTC, then the customer receives a FRO Exercise Price of $20 or $25 if the Chosen Room is R1 or R2, respectively, as shown in the third column 25 of the second and the third rows, respectively in the Box 54.400. Similarly, the customer receives a FRO Exercise Price of $30for RI or $35 for R2, if the CNT is after 3 DTC and before 2 DTC, and $40 for R1 or $50 for R2, if the CNT is after 2 DTC and before 1 DTC, as shown in the fourth and fifth columns of the second and the third rows in the Box 54,400, respectively. 30 5) Optimization of FRO VOF - 200 As mentioned earlier (shown in Fig, 7), in the form of an optional last step in the first stage, a financial analysis may be performed using the existing hotel and customer data to determine the optimal terms and conditions of the FRO VOF. 'What-if' scenarios 5 may be executed to determine an optimal pricing strategy. The hotel may want to divide customers using one or more criteria and design separate FRO VOF for each customer segment. Second Stage: Using the FRO Value Option Framework 10 After completing the first stage of the method, the hotel has created a FRO VOF and specific options within that framework. The hotel may have segmented customers and designed options accordingly. The hotel is fully prepared to use 'a structured format comprising one or more FRO value options to interact with its customers in real time to 15 generate benefits for both the hotel and its customers. The second stage of the PRO VOF is now presented. The implementation of the FRO VOF between the hotel and its customer takes place through two high level acts, as shown in Fig. 55. In Act 55.100, the 'Get PRO' 20 process, an interactive event between the customer and the hotel's web server, runs to carry out the Initial Transaction of the FRO VOF. In this Act, a number of algorithms, may be executed (e.g., availability, FRO Price, Room Price and Notify Deadline) on the hotels server to optimally calculate the terms and conditions of the FRO VOF to concurrently benefit both the hotel and the customer. In Act 55.200, the Customer 25 Notiftcation process (explained later) is executed. In this process, the Chosen Room is notified to the customer. The process may also comprise one or more event optimizer algorithms that may help to optimally select the Chosen Room and/or to optimally use (or reuse) the Released Room. 30 As explained above, the Get PRO process may be implemented via the Sequential (shown in Fig. 62) or the Concurrent (shown in Fig. 64) process. There are many ways - 201 to do the Sequential process. As an example of the Sequential process, a customer may select (or purchase) a Room Product/Room Set/Room Order before the Initial Transaction begins. In such situations, said Room Product /Room Set /Room Order may be referred to as Initial Room Product Initial Room Set /initial Room Order or IRP 5 /IRS/IRO, in short, respectively. The Initial Set is also referred to as Initial Room Set (or IRS, in short). A customer may get a FRO, i.e., get one or more FRO Room Product/Room Sets/Room Orders on an IRP/IRS/IRO, respectively. A FRO Room Product/Room Set /Room Order is also referred to as Option Room Product /Option Room Set /Option Room Order, or ORP/ORS/ORO, in short, respectively. An Option 10 Set is also referred to as Option Room Set (or ORS, in short). The two events (one for the Initial Room and the other for the Initial Transaction) may be executed with a minimal (one just after another) or a significant time gap (e.g., few minutes, hours, days and so forth) in between them. 15 The FRO VOF may be implemented at different levels including, but not limited to, Room Product, Room Set and Room Order. Illustration of Room Product and Room Set levels is given through examples in the hotel industry as shown in Figures 56 and 57 respectively. 20 Fig. 56 displays a practical example of implementing a FRO (2, 1) at the Room Product level. The customer selects a FRO on Room Product (i.e., Initial Room Product or IRP, in short) on the Room Set and receives one Option Room Product (or ORP, in short) on IRP, as shown in Boxes 56.100 and 56.200). The hotel may select either of the IRP (Non-Smoking) or the ORP (Smoking) as the Chosen Room Product. 25 Fig. 57 displays a practical example of implementing a PRO (2, 1) at the Set level. A customer selects a Room Order comprising an IRS (located at T Square, Non Smoking Room) as shown in Box 57.100. The customer gets FRO Room on the IRS, and receives one ORS (located B Square, Smoking Room) as shown in Box 57.200. The 30 hotel may select either this IRS or the ORS, as the Chosen Room for this Car Order.

- 202 A hotel may choose to implement the FRO at any level(s). In a specific FRO interaction between a customer and the hotel, the implementation level should be the same for all the FRO Rooms, Chosen Rooms and Released Rooms. For example, if FRO is implemented at the Room Set level, then all the FRO Rooms and Chosen Rooms 5 would refer to PRO Room Sets and Chosen Room Sets respectively. 1. 'Got FROi' - Dynamic interaction to capture customer demand In the Get FRO process, a customer interacts with the hotel's server to receive a 10 FRO. The interaction may take place (for example) via phone, in-person or on a website. The Sequential Get FRO Process is presented first along with its detailed algorithms, followed by a short summary of the Concurrent Get FRO Process. Sequential Get FRO Process 15 There are several ways to implement the Sequential process. The following presents an example of the Sequential Get FRO Process when a FRO is implemented at the Room Set level. It is also assuned here that the customer first purchases an Initial Room Order with one or more IRS, and then opts to receive a FRO to select one or more 20 ORS on any of the included IRS. To demonstrate the process, an example of the FRO VOF in the hotel industry is used. As an instance of the Sequential Get FRO process in the hotel industry, a customer has purchased an Room Order and then gets a FRO through the interactive interface of 25 the web pages as shown in Figures 58, 59, 60 and 61. Fig. 58 displays the summary of the purchased Room Order, which is made of Room Set comprising: Room Type as Guest Room, Check-in on Fri, Dec 8, Check-out on Mon, Dec 11. Clicking on the marketing banner representing "Get FRO", the customer is linked to the Web page shown in Fig. 59 and a Get FRO interaction begin. 30 - 203 The series of web pages in Figures 59, 60 and 61 may (for example) be displayed in a customer's browser by a hotel's web server, to facilitate the interaction between the customer and the hotel when the customer comes to participate in Get FRO (during or after the Initial Room Order is purchased), The Initial Room Order is displayed along 5 with "Search FRO Rooms" section as shown in Fig. 59, where the customer may enter the search criteria for ORS and then click on the "Search FRO Rooms" button. After the click, the Get FRO algorithm running "behind the scenes" on a server of the hotel qualifies the availability, applicability and price (i.e., the discount for customer) conditions on all the available ORSs (Option Room Sets) and displays them in the screen 10 as shown in Fig. 60. For each of the ORSs, PRO Initial (Instant) Discount (Price), a set of one or more Notfy Deadlines and the corresponding FRO Exercise Discounts (Prices) are shown in the form of "Select" buttons (shown in the "FRO Notify Deadline/FRO Exercise Discount (Price)" section in Fig. 60). The customer may select any desired ORS (along with the Notify Deadline and FRO Exercise Discount (Price)) by clicking on 15 a "Select" button associated with any of the Notify Deadlines displayed in the corresponding row. Once the customer clicks the "Select" button, he/she is hyperlinked to the web page as shown in Fig. 61, where the summary of the IRS and the selected ORS is shown. 20 Next, the customer may choose to get more ORS on the same IRS. To receive another ORS on the IRS, the customer may repeat the ORS search process for the IRS. Once all the desired ORSs have been selected, the customer clicks the "Continue" button (shown in Fig. 61). The customer receives the PRO Initial Discount (Price), and then a payment transaction is executed to complete the purchase. 25 The following presents an algorithmic illustration of the Sequential Get FRO process. Consider Fig. 62. In Act 62.100, the customer selects (and/or purchases) an Order (with one or more IRS). Next, in Act 62.110, the customer reaches an interactive interface of the hotel's web server to Get FRO page, where the customer selects the IRS 30 (referred to as TargetIRS) on which a FRO is desired. Next, the customer inputs the ORS search criteria for the current Target_IRS in Act 62.115.

- 204 Next, on clicking the "Search FRO Rooms" button, control goes to Act 62.120, where the ORS search algorithm is executed to search for an ORS. The ORS search algorithm returns a list of valid ORSs, along with a list of CombNDs (defined 5 elsewhere) and associated FRO Prices (or discounts). The details of the ORS search algorithm are presented later. Next, the search results are displayed for the customer, who then selects the desired ORS and one or more associated Comb ND(s)/FRO Price(s), as shown in Act 62.130. 10 Next, in Act 62.140, a test is performed to determine whether the customer wants to get more ORSs on the current TargetUIRS or on another IRS. If the customer wants to get an ORS on another IRS, control loops back to Act 62.110, where the customer selects another IRS as the TargetIRS, and then the process is repeated again for the new Target IRS. If the customer wants to get more ORSs on the current TargetIRS, control 15 loops back to Act 62.115, where the customer enters the ORS search criteria, and then the process is repeated for the new ORS search criteria. If the customer does not want to get any more ORSs, control goes to Act 62.150, where a payment transaction (if needed) may be executed. For example, a customer may need to pay a price for the Room after taking into consideration the Initial FRO Price (discount, if any) using a credit card, 20 direct bank account debit or any other payment transaction mechanism. Next, the algorithm ends in Box 62.200. The computation may be performed using a processor that may calculate results in optimal time. ORS Search 25 The following algorithm (shown in Fig. 63) determines and validates an ORS for a given set of conditions including, but not limited to, availability, Nohfy Deadline and PRO Price. One of the ways of implementation of ORS Search has already been discussed above along with various information technology and networking tools 30 including, but not limited to, one or more servers, database, load balancers, firewall, -205 routers, Internet, highly secured VPN, Intranet, RAM, hard disk drives, CPUs, monitors as shown by Fig. 13D. In Act 63.100, the number of customers (IC), IRS Set (containing all IRS in the 5 Initial Order, and all the ORSs, (if any) already selected/received along with Comb NDSet(s) and bombOPSet(s), for each IRS), Target IRS and the ORS Search parameters are input to the system. The definitions and details of CombNDSet and CombOPSet are provided later. The ORS search parameters may include, but are not limited to, date, time and location, number of Room Products per Room Set, Notfy 10 Deadline, FRO Price (Initial and Exercise) and so forth. A customer may be allowed to input Notfry Deadline and/or FRO Price on the basis of which valid ORSs (that satisfy the given criteria of Notify Deadline and/or PRO Price) may be searched for and displayed for the customer. In the hotel industry, for example, a customer may be asked to input the origin and destination related parameters, and then a set of Notfy Deadlines 15 and FRO Prices may be computed for the Rooms that match the given criteria. In another example, a customer may input both the origin and destination and Notify Deadline and/or FRO Price as inputs and then a search may be performed for valid ORSs. In yet another example, a customer may input to the system, one or more Rooms, and/or inputs to search for one or more additional Rooms (e.g., origin and destination, 20 price etc.) to search for ORS that may be combined with one or more input Rooms (by the customer) to constitute the total set of Rooms for a PRO. In such situations, a hotel may also validate the Rooms input by the customer to determine if said Roonis are eligible to be the FRO Rooms, 25 Next, control goes to Act 63.110, where an ORS Search is performed for the given criteria. The search may be best performed using a processor that may calculate results in optimal time. The order in which search parameters are executed may be optimized to reduce the search time, however, it may or may not affect the final outcome. A hotel may select any order of its choosing. 30 N - 206 In Act 63.110, Room Sets are determined that match the search criteria and the resulting Sets are added to a list termed LIST ORS. Next, in Act 63.120, a list of ORS validation rules is obtained from the hotels FRO VOF database and the rules are used to validate all the Sets in the LISTORS list. Sets that do not satisfy the rules are 5 discarded. Validation rules may include, but are not limited to, a Maximum Number of Room Products per Set Rule, a Maximum Room Price Rule and so forth. For example, a Maximum Number of Room Products per Set Rule discards the Sets that have more Room Products than specified. A hotel may implement any validation rule of its choosing to further qualify the Sets in the LISTORS list. As a last Act in Act 63.120, 10 the first element in the updated LISTORS list is designated as the Current_ORS. Next, control goes to Act 63.130, where a group of Comb NDs is computed for the combination of the TargetIRS, all the existing ORS of the TargetIRS and the Current ORS, and added to a set called Comb NDSet. Next, in Act 63.135, a test is 15 performed to determine whether the Comb NDSet obtained in the previous Act is Null. If so, control goes to Act 63.155. If not, control goes to Act 63.140, where the FRO availability and FRO Price for the Comb NDSet are determined. Next, in Act 63.150, another test is performed to determine whether the FRO Availability or the FRO Price is Null. If so, control goes to Act 63,155. If not, control goes to Act 63.160. 20 In Act 63.155, the CurrentORS is discarded from the LIST ORS list, and control goes to Act 63.160, where a test is performed to determine if more elements are left in the LIST-ORS list. If so, control goes to Act 63.165. If not, control goes to Act 63.170. 25 In Act 63.165, the next element in the LISTORS list is designated as the Current ORS and control loops back to Act 63.130 to repeat the process for the new Current-ORS. In Act 63.170, the updated LISTORS list is returned as the search result, and the algorithm ends in Box 63.200. 30 Computation of Notify Deadlines -207 A hotel may set one or more Notify Deadlines of its choosing for its Room Products. Once the Notify Deadlines have been set for each Room Product, the next Act is to create a framework to compute the Notify Deadlines for a group of Room Products 5 (such as a Room Set, a Room Order or any other group). The following sections present an example of a framework that may be used to obtain a set of Notify Deadlines applicable to a group of Room Products. A hotel may use any framework and algorithm of its choosing to obtain the same. 10 A set of Notify Deadlines associated with a Room Product, a Room Set and a combination of two or more Room Sets is called RoomProductNDSet, Room-SetND Set and Comb ND Set, respectively. Each element in the Room-ProductNDSet, Room-Set NDSet and Comb-NDSet is termed RoomProductND, RoomSetND and CombND, respectively. The CombNDSet 15 may be computed by combining the Room SetND Sets of all the given Room Sets. A Room Set NDSet may be computed by combining the RoomProductND-Sets of all the hotels under that Room Set. The Notfy Deadlines may be computed based on various parameters and factors of the hotel choosing. One example to compute a CombNDSet is as follows. First compute Room -Set -ND Set for all Room Sets. A 20 Room SetNDSet is computed by first selecting earliest of the Notify Deadlines of each Room Product within the concerned Room Set, and then picking the latest of those Deadlines, and noting that as the Target Deadline. Next step is to pick all those Notify Deadlines that fall after the TargetDeadline. No ffy Deadlines thus obtained may be validated using various validation rules based on hotel factors such as customer utility, 25 Room parameters and so forth, Similarly, the CombND Set may thus be computed by repeating the above process for RoomSetNDSets, thus obtained for each Room Set. Available Capacity Check 30 -The FRO capacity for an OCS may depend on one or more factors including, but not limited to, Nottfy Deadline, FRO Prices, expected hotel value and so forth. A hotel - 208 may use any method of its choosing to determine FRO capacity of a Room Product. For example, a hotel may choose to have a fixed FRO capacity for one or more of its Room Products. 5 An instance to compute FRO capacity is discussed below. Consider the case, when FRO Capacity is dependent on Notfy Deadline. In such situation, the objective is to determine those CombNDs within the Comb ND Set on which FRO is available for the given ORS. The FRO Capacity and the Used FRO Capacity (the total number of Room Products on which FRO has been sold but not exercised) may be calculated for 0 each CombND within the CombNDSet. Available Capacity (AC) would then be the difference of FRO Capacity and Used FRO Capacity for the given Room Product, If the AC is greater than or equal to the number of incoming customers desiring a FRO, then the FRO capacity is available at a given CombND for the given ORS. The process may be repeated for all NotIfy Deadlines within CombND Sets, FRO may be made available 15 on a given ORS for a given CombND, if FRO is available on all the Room Products of ORS for the given CombND. Price Calculation 20 A hotel may set FRO Prices for a Room Product using any method of hotel choosing, Once the FRO Prices hgve been set for each Room Product, the next Act is to create a framework to compute FRO Price for a group of Room Products (such as a Room Set, an Room Order or any other group) by using FRO Prices for each Room Product in the group. 25 The parameter RoomjProductOP refer to FRO Price (and may or may not be corresponding to a Notify Deadline) associated with a Room Product. Similarly, RoomSet OP and Comb-OP refer to FRO Price (may or may not be corresponding to a Notfy Deadline) associated with a Room Set and a combination of two or more Room 30 Sets, respectively. A set of RoomProduct.OPs, RoomSetOPs and Comb-OPs is termed Room ProductOP Set, Room-Set OPSet and Comb.OP-Set, respectively.

- 209 The CombOP Set is computed by combining the RoomSet_OPSets of the IRS and all the ORSs (existing and new). A Room-SetOP Set is computed by combining the Room_ProductOPSets of all the Room Products under that Room Set. One or more RoomSet OPRules may be read from the hotels database and applied to calculate 5 RoomSet OP Set for each input Room Set (IRS and all ORSs) using the Room ProductOPSets of all the Room Products of said Room Set. A hotel may use any Room_Set_OP Set Rule of its choosing, RoomSetOPRules may be defined to calculate Room-SetOP as the sum, average, highest, lowest or any other function of RoomProduct OPs of all the RoomProducts at a given Comb -ND. Similarly, a 10 CombOPSet comprises one or more Comb OPs, and is calculated using one of the pre-determined rules, termed Comb_OP_Rules, to combine the RoomSetOPs of all the Room-Sets in the combination, A hotel may use a CombOPRule of its choosing. Comb-OPRules may be defined similar to the RoomSetOPRules. 15 Concurrent Get FRO Process As explained above, in the Concurrent Get FRO process, a customer receives all PRO Rooms concurrently in one transaction. An algorithmic illustration of an example of the Concurrent Get PRO process is displayed in Fig. 64. The FRO (2, 1) instance is 20 assumed here as an example. Consider a customer who desires to trade-in his/her flexibility in lieu of a price (reward) offered by the hotel. In Act 64.100, the customer desires for FRO are input, including, but not limited to, a search criteria for two Room Sets according to customer's utility (may be similar to the search criteria defined above for the Sequential Get FRO process). 25 Next, in Act 64.110, the FRO algorithm is run to determine the combinations of two Room Sets that satisfy inputs. A list of such search results is displayed for the customer along with the associated terms and conditions including, but not limited to, Notify Deadlines, Initial FRO Price, FRO Exercise Price and Room Price for each such 30 combination. The FRO algorithm for the Sequential Get PRO process (defined above) may also be used for the Concurrent Get FRO process.

-210 Next, in Act 64.120, the customer selects a desired combination of two Room Sets and the associated conditions such as FRO Exercise Price/Notjf Deadline. Next, in Act 64.130, a payment transaction is executed, if needed. For example, the customer $ may pay the Room Price after taking into consideration the Initial PRO Price using a credit card, direct bank account debit or any other payment transaction mechanism. Next, the algorithm ends in Box 64.200. The computation may be performed using a processor that may calculate results in optimal time. 10 2. Event Optimizer After the completion of the Get FRO process, the next stage is the Event Optimizer. In this stage, the Customer Notification (or CN, in short) process as shown in Act 55.200 is executed. In this process, one or more decisions on the selection of 15 Chosen Room(s) is notified to the customer. The details of the CN process are provided later. One of the ways of implementation of Event Optimizer stage with the help of information technology tools has already been discussed above wherein said tools include, but are not limited to, one or more servers, database, load balancers, firewall, routers, Internet, highly secured VPN, Intranet, RAM, hard disk drives, CPUs, monitors 20 as shown by Fig. 13E. The PRO VOF helps to create a flexible customer inventory. In other words, by using the FRO VOF, a hotel may obtain rights to allocate any of the selected PRO Room to a PRO customer, and thus, said FRO customer acts like a flexible customer inventory 25 that the hotel may manage at known cost and conditions. A hotel may design one or more uses of such flexible customer inventory, where each such use may include one or more events that follow the Initial Transaction. An example (the BuyN process) was explained earlier. In the Buy N process, a hotel may use the FRO VOF to accommodate requests from potential customers for Rooms. As an example, the BuyjN process may 30 especially be used to satisfy requests for Rooms that have already been sold or have low (or no) availability. The details for the BuyN process are presented below.

- 211 Another example to use the FRO VOF would be to use the PRO VOF in conjunction with one or more other VOFs, for example, the ARO (the Alternate Room Option) VOF (details are provided later). A hotel may form a group of one or more 5 ARO customers and one or more FRO customers, where the options (ARO and FRO) obtained by the group members are complementary in nature. As an example, consider a customer (A) who bought an ARO to choose either of RI and R2 as Chosen Room, and consider a customer (B) who received a FRO and is flexible to take any of R1 and R2 as Chosen Room. Thus, if A decides to choose Ri as the Chosen Room, the hotel may 10 assign R2 as the Chosen Room for B, and vice versa. The customers A and B have taken complementary options and may form a group. The hotel may need to hold only one unit of inventory in RI and R2 to satisfy the needs of both A and B (assuming each A and B only need one unit of Room). Such a combination of complementary options or VOFs may improve efficiency and concurrently enhance value for all the parties involved (in 15 the given example, for A, B and the hotel), More details on combining VOFs are provided later. The FRO VOF structure in the hotel industry may enable a hotel to optimize operational levels such as Occupancy Rate, hotel staff scheduling and so forth. There 20 may be many other instances of optimization a hotel can achieve by using FRO, thus, generating additional revenue, greater customer satisfaction and loyalty or any combination of these. A hotel may use the FRO VOF for any other purpose of its choosing. In all such 25 uses, the hotel may use a system defined below that can help to optimally allocate Room capacity among customers. The following system presents an example of a system (along with its methods and algorithms) that may be used to shift FRO customers within their selected FRO Rooms. However, a hotel may use any other process of its choosing to shift FRO customers within their selected FRO Rooms. The BuyN process is used as an 30 -example to demonstrate the system and its set of methods and algorithms.

-212 The process of shifting Y customers (i.e,, PRO customers) within their selected FRO Rooms is termed "RemoveY" process. The RemoveY process may allow the hotel to remove FRO customers from their Accounted Rooms and optimally shift them to one of their Awaiting Rooms to satisfy a pre-defined goal. 5 The hotel, an entity other than the hotel and/or any combination thereof may store the data in a data store which may include, but is not limited to, the value that may be realized if the customer is shifted, Awaiting Rooms to which the customer may be shifted and so forth. The hotel, an entity other than the hotel and/or any combination 10 thereof may receive and process data to determine from among all or substantially all possible combinations of customers, a set of customers which may be shifted. The hotel, an entity other than the hotel and/or any combination thereof may shift one or more set of customers that may be determined by processing the data. The hotel may also shift one or more set of customers other than the combination of customers that may be 15 determined by processing said data. Set of customers which may be shifted or the decision to initiate shifting may depend upon number of factors including, but not limited to, the need and urgency to shift the customers, factors of hotel's choosing, creation of number of units of Room availability, optimizing revenues which may for at least one of the customer, hotel and/or an entity other than said hotel, cost savings and so 20 forth, The hotel may, on detection of occurrence of one or more events, execute one or more event response algorithm which may determine one or more set of customers possessing options making them eligible to be shifted to one or more Rooms and may 25 shift one or more of said set of customers to create Room availability. Said event may be an increase in the demnd of one or more Rooms or increase in forecasted demand of one or more Rooms or any combination thereof or any other event. The shifting may be done at the instance of the hotel, an entity other than said hotel or any combination thereof. The set of customers, here, may include one or more customers. The shifting may nvolve 30 shifting of one or more customers. The shifting of one or more customers, as explained below in RemoveY, may involve one or more interactions between the hotel, an entity -213 other than the hotel, the customers and/or any combination thereof. The shifting may involve shifting one or more first customers to one or more first Rooms after one or more second customers from one or more first Rooms are shifted to one or more second Rooms and so forth. Such a cascading process may continue until the last customer 5 which may have to be shifted in the set is shifted and it may lead to shifting of more customers than the creation of number of units of Room availability. This process may involve two or more customers. This process has been explained in detail below in the RemoveY process. The hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel may or may not notify the customer regarding said shifting within the specified Notfication Deadline. 10 The hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel may shift one or more customers to one or more Rooms belonging to said hotel, to one or more Rooms belonging to an entity other than said hotel and/or any combination thereof. Shifting may create a lot of value to the hotel and may lead to enhanced revenues and/or cost savings. However, it may also be possible that shifting may sometimes be a cost to the hotel and a hotel may still apply 15 shifting (RemoveY) for fulfillment of other goals and/or objectives of the hotel. BuyN Process Fig. 65 displays a flow chart of an example of a Buy-N algorithm, which is 20 executed during a dynamic interaction between the customer and the hotel. As an example, an interaction may include a situation when a customer interacts with a hotel to obtain (or purchase) Room Products, or when a hotel presents offerings to a customer (with or without a solicitation by the customer). A few parameters have been assumed to add context and enhance understanding. It is assumed that a customer is interacting with 25 a hotel to purchase Room Products, and that PRO VOF is implemented at the Room Set level. In Act 65.100, the search criteria are input. Various search parameters for a desired Room Set (as desired by the customer) are taken as the input to the system. Next, in Act 65.110, a search process is executed to search for all Room Sets that 30 satisfy inputs. The details of the search process are described later. Next, in Act 65.120, all the search results are displayed before the customer in an interface (such as in a web -214 browser, a telephone operator stating the search results over the phone etc.). Control then goes to Act 65.130, where the customer selects a Room Set. The selection of the Room Set may be followed by a payment and/or purchase of the selected Room Set. 5 In Act 65.140, a test is performed to determine whether RemoveY process has been applied on the selected Room Set. If so, control goes to Act 65.150, where the RemoveY process is completed for the selected Room Set, and control then goes to Box 65.200. If not, control goes to Box 65.200, where the algorithm exits. The completion of the Remove_.Y process may include one or more Acts that may be executed to 10 incorporate the fact that said Room Set was selected by the customer. For example, one of such acts may be to record the selection of said Room Set to a database and/or to change the Accounted Status for one or more FRO customers (who were affected in the RemoveY process), 15 Fig. 66 expands Act 110 of Fig. 65 and demonstrates an example of a search algorithm that may be used to determine Room Sets that satisfy the inputs. In Act 66.100, IC (number of incoming customers), IC _Benefit (i.e., the benefit that a hotel may receive if the incoming customers select and/or purchase one or more Room Sets) and the input search criteria are taken as the input parameters to the system. The term 20 "Incoming Customers" refers to the customers who interact with the hotel in the current transaction (Buy N). It is assumed that each customer desire one unit of capacity and thus, total units of capacity desired is equal to the total number of incoming customers. In some situations, ICBenefit and/or IC may not be available as an input, and may be calculated during the search process. Next, in Act 66.110, all the Room Sets that satisfy 25 the 'search criteria' are searched from the hotel database. The Room Sets, thus obtained, are added to a list termed LIST-Room-Set. The first element in the LISTRoomSet list is designated as CurrentRoomSet. Next, in Act 66.120, all the Room Products in the CurrentRoom-Set are added 30 to a list termed LISTRoomProduct. The first element in the LIST_RoomProduct list is designated as CurrentRoomProduct. Next, in Act 66.130, a-test is performed to -215 determine whether the Available Capacity (AC) of the CurrentRoomProduct is greater than or equal to IC. If so, control goes to Act 66.140. If not, control goes to Act 66.165. In Act 66.140, another test is performed to determine whether BAC (Effective 5 Available capacity) of the CurrentRoom_Product is greater than or equal to IC. If so, control goes to Act 66.145. If not, control. goes to Act 66.150, where the Remove Y algorithm is executed to determine the possibility (and associated process steps and costs) to create capacity in the CurrentRoom_Set, Next, in Act 66.160, a test is performed to determine whether it is possible (by using Remove Y) to create capacity in 10 the CurrentRoom Set and the ICBenefit is greater than or equal to the cost to create that capacity as determined in the Act 66.150. If both conditions are true, control goes to Act 66.170. If either condition is false, control goes to Act 66.165. In Act 66.165, the CurrentRoom-Set is discarded from the LIST-Room-Set list, and control then goes to Act 66.170. 15 In Act 66.145, a test is performed to determine whether more elements are left in the LISTRoomProduct list. If so, control goes to Act 66.135, where the next element in the LISTRoomProduct list is designated as the Current-RoomProduct and control loops back to Act 66.130, to repeat the process for the new CurrentRoom-Product. If 20 not, control goes to Act 66.170. In Act 66.170, another test is performed to determine whether more elements are left in the LISTRoom Set list. If so, control goes to Act 66.175, where the next element in the LISTRoomSet list is designated as the CurrentRoom_Set and control 25 loops back to Act 66.120, where the process for the new CurrentRoom Set is performed. If not, control goes to Act 66.180, where the LISTRoom_Set list (the most recently updated version after discarding the invalid Room Sets, if any) is returned, Next, the algorithm ends at Box 66.200. 30 Fig. 67 expands Act 150 of Fig. 66 and demonstrates an example of an algorithm to apply the RemoveY algorithm to create one or more than one unit of capacity in one ..216 or more Room Product (s) within a DesiredRoomSet (the Room Set in which capacity needs to be created). In Act 67.100, various input parameters are taken in the system. Input parameters include IC, DesiredRoomSet and IncomingBenefit (i.e., benefit hotel may realize if capacity is created in the DesiredRoomSet) 5 Next, control goes to Act 67.110, in which all the Room Product(s) in the DesiredRoomSet are listed in the LISTRoomProduct list. The first Room Product in the LISTRoomProduct list is designated as CurrentRoomProduct, Next, in Act 67.120, a test is performed to determine whether the Available Capacity (AC) of the 10 CurrentRoom_Product is greater than or equal to IC. If so, control goes to Act 67,130. If not, control goes to Box 67.300, where the algorithm ends. In Act 67.130, another test is performed to determine whether EAC (Effective Available capacity) of the CurrentRoom-Product is greater than or equal to IC, If so, then control goes to Act 67.140. If not, control goes to Act 67.150. 15 In Act 67.140, a P Series is created for the CurrentRoomProduct. Since the CurrentRoom Product is an EndRoom Product, there will *be only one SeriesElement in the PSeries collection, The SeriesElement will comprise COEP with the CurrentRoomProduct as the only element, COCY with no elements and CSE 20 with zero value (since no Ya needs to be removed from Current RoomProduct, and hence, no cost to create capacity). Next, control goes to Act 67.180. In Act 67.150, the RemoveY algorithm is called for each Ya in the CurrentRoomProduct and the algorithm follows a recursive loop. Each of the Ya 25 becomes Current-Ya for the corresponding RemoveY call. The necessary input parameters for each of the RemoveY includes the Current-RoomProduct as 'COPP', CurrentYa as 'COPY', CurrentYa as 'CallerY', CurrentRoomProduct as 'InitiatorRoom_Product', one of the incoming customers as 'InitiatorY' and Incoming-Benefit as 'Benefit'. The RemoveY call returns a YSeries collection for 30 each Ya in the CurrentRoom Product. The details of the RemoveY algorithm are discussed in the next section.

-217 Next, control goes to Act 67.160, where all the YSeries collections are obtained as returned from the Act 67.150. Next, in Act 67.170, a PSeries collection for the Current Room-Product is calculated through the following operations: (1) create groups 5 of Ya from all Ya of the CurrentRoomProduct for which RemoveY was called, where the number of Ya in each group is equal to "IC-EAC" (BAC of the Current Room Product), (2) make combinations of the YSeries collection of all members of each group (combine each Series-Element of each Y Series of each member with that of each of the rest of the members of that group), (3) merge all members within 10 each combination to formulate a merged Series Element, (4) collect all such merged Series-Elements, thus obtained, into P_Series collection of the CurrentRoomProduct Details on making combinations and merging are provided later, Next, in Act 67.180, a test is performed to determine whether more elements are 15 left in the LISTRoomProduct list. If so, control goes to Act 67.185, where the next element in the LISTRoomProduct list is designated as the CurrentRoomProduct and control loops back to Act 67.120 to repeat the process for the new CurrentRoom-Product. If not, control goes to Act 67.190. 20 In Act 67.190, a S Series collection for the Desired Room_Set is calculated from the P_Series collections of all the Room Products using the combination and merging process (details provided later). Next, in Act 67.200, an optimal Series_Element from the SSeries collection is determined using OptimalSeries_Element Rule (which is read from a database). Next, control goes to Act 67.210, where the optimal Series-Element is 25 returned and the algorithm exits at Box 67.300. 'RemoveY' Algorithm The following algorithm presents an example of an algorithm that may be used to 30 create one unit of capacity of a Room Product by shifting a Ya Accounted in a Room Product to its AwaitingSet. Fig. 68 represents an algorithmic illustration for -218 RemoveY. The RemoveY is a recursive algorithm, which returns a collection of Series-Element termed "YSeries" collection for the Ya for which the algorithm has been called. 5 In Act 68.100, a set of parameters including COPY, COPP, Caller_Y, Initiator Room Product, InitiatorY and Benefit are input to the system, Next, in Act 68.110, all the AwaitingSets of the CallerY are added to a list termed LIST RoomSet. The first element in the LISTRoomSet list is designated as CurrentRoomSet. Next, in Act 68.120, all the Room Products that belong to the 10 Current RoomSet are added to another list tended PLIST. The first element in the PLIST list is designated as CurrentRoomProduct. Next, in Act 68.130, a test is performed to determine whether the CurrentRoom Product is present in the COPP. If so, the CurrentRoom Set is 15 discarded in Act 68.135, and control goes to Act 68.260. If not, control goes to Act 68.140. In Act 68.140, another test is performed to determine whether the CurrentRoomProduct is present in the AccountedSet of the Caller_Y. If so, the 20 CurrentRoomProduct is skipped in Act 68.145, and control then goes to Act 68.190. If not, control goes to Act 68.150, where another test is performed to determine if the EAC of the CurrentRoomProduct is greater than or equal to 1. If so, control goes to Act 68.220. If not, control goes to Act 68.160, 25 In Act 68.220, a new PSeries collection is created with only one SeriesElement, since the Current RoomProduct is an EndRoomProduct. The SeriesElement will comprise COEP with the Current RoomProduct as the only element, COCY with no elements and CSE with zero value. Next, control goes to Act 68.190.

-219 In Act 68.160, the algorithm enters into a recursive loop where the Remove_Y algorithm is called for each of the Ya in the Current-RoomProduct that is not present in the COPY. Each of the Ya becomes CurrentLYa for the corresponding Remove-Y call. The necessary input parameters for each of the Remove Y includes 'COPP' (includes 5 the COPP of one level up Remove-Y and the CurrentRoom Product), 'COPY' (includes the COPY of one level up Remove-Y and the Current_Ya), the Current Ya as 'CallerY', the Current RoomProduct as 'Initiator Room Product', CallerY of one level up RemoveY as 'Initiator-Y' and benefit of the highest level RemoveY as 'Benefit'. Each of the RemoveY call returns a Y-Series collection for every Ya for 10 which Remove-Y was called. Next, in Act 68.170, the algorithm receives the returned Y-Series collection from all the Remove Y algorithm calls in Act 68.160. Control then goes to Act 68.180, where a PSeries collection for the Current-RoomProduct is calculated by adding all the 15 SeriesElements from all the returned YSeries collection obtained in Act 68,170. Control then goes to Act 68.190. In Act 68.190, a test is performed to determine whether more Room Products are left in the P-LIST list. If so, control branches out to Act 68.200, where the next Room 20 Products in the P_ LIST list is designated as the CurrentRoomProduct, and control then goes to Act 68.130 where the process is repeated for the new Current-RoomProduct. If not, control goes to Act 68.230. In Act 68.230, the S-Series collection is calculated for the CurrentRoom Set by 25 combining and merging all the PSeries collection of all the Room Products (not taking the skipped Room Product(s) into consideration, if any). Next, in Act 68.240, a new ChildY is created using the CallerY. The ChildY comprises COI (where the current InitiatorRoom_Product is designated as Initiator Room Pro duct and the current InitiatorY is designated as Initiator Y), Accounted -Set of the Caller Y designated as 30 the Initial-AccountedSet, current Awaiting-Set designated as the FinalAccounted-Set, and the cost to shift current CallerY from the, InitialAccountedSet to the - 220 FinalAccountedSet designated as the CCY. The ChildY, thus created, is added to every Series-Element in the SSeries collection and the CCY of the same ChildY is added to the CSE (Cost of Series Element) of every Series-Element. Control then goes to Act 68.250. 5 In Act 68.250, a QualifySeriesElement rule is read from the hotel's database and is applied to validate all the SeriesElements in the S-Series collection. The invalid SeriesElements are discarded from the S Series collection. A hotel may select any rule of its choosing. For example, a QualifySeriesElement rule may only qualify those 10 SeriesElements for which the CSE is less than or equal to the 'Benefit'. Next, control goes to Act 68.260. In Act 68.260, a test is performed to determine whether more Room Sets are left in the LIST-Room_Set list. If so, control branches out to Act 68.295, where the next 15 element in the LISTRoomSet list is designated as the Current Room-Set, and then control loops back to Act 68.120, where the process is repeated for the new CurrentRoomSet. If not, control goes to Act 68,270, where the YSeries collection is obtained by adding all the SeriesElements of all the SSeries collections for all the AwaitingSets of the CallerY. Next, the Y Series collection is returned in Act 68.280, 20 and the algorithm ends in Box 68.300. Combinations of PSeries in order to formulate SSeries are calculated by cross multiplIcation of SeriesElements (of each P Series). A hotel may choose to implement any method of its choosing to make combinations, One method is as follows. Consider 25 n number of Series; say 5, 82, 83... S, with kl, k2, k3..kn number of SeriesElement respectively. Each Combination is a collection of the Series Elements, For instance, Cl {8[1], S2[l], 83[l], ... S.[1]}, where, Spl] denotes the first SeriesElement of pth Series; C2 - { Si[23, 82[1], 83[1]. 1] }, and so on, Here is an example of the above method. Consider 2 Series, A and B, where A= [Al, A2], i.e., with Al and A2 as 30 two SeriesElements; and where B= [B1, B2, B3], i.e., with B1, B2, B3 as three SeriesElements, If cross multiplication method is applied, then the total number of -221 Combinations generated is 6 (= 2*3) as follows, C1= {AI, B1}, C2= (Al, B2), C3= {AI, B3}, C4- {A2, Bl}, CS= {A2, B2} and C6- {A2, 133). The above method of making combinations may also be used when making combinations of YSeries to formulate a P_.Series. 5 Merging of a given number of Series Elements is done in a sequential process, where two given Series Elements are merged together in one Act to obtain a single merged Series-Element (let's say M), and then the merged element, M, is merged with the third given Series Element to obtain a new merged element, and so on. The main 10 objective of merging is to ensure that the Series Elements created are valid and synchronized with each other with respect to capacity utilization of various Room Products involved. A given unit of Room Product capacity at any given point must only be accounted for one customer, otherwise, it may lead to a shortage situation, where one Room Product is allocated to more than one customer leading to dissatisfaction for 15 customers. A hotel may choose any method of its choosing to perform merging of Series Elements, and specifically to perform merging of two Series Elements. The method of merging chosen may affect the total value realized. One example of such a method is given. In one approach, a hotel may choose to discard all merged SeriesElements that have either one or more common ChildY or common 20 EndRoomProduct. A common ChildY in two SeriesElements suggest that in both Series-Elements shifting of one specific Ya is needed. If each Series Element requires shifting of Ya to two different Room Sets, it may present a contradictory situation, Similarly, a common EndRoomProduct in two or more Series Elements (that are to be merged together) may require to shift more than one Ya customer to a specific Room 25 Product, which may or may not be feasible depending on the AC (and EAC) of that Room Product. Thus, a common EndRoom._Product may also represent one or more contradictory or invalid situations. A hotel may use any set of rules to validate or invalidate one or more constituents 30 of any of the merged components. For example, a merged SeriesElement, M, obtained from merging of two SeriesElements 81 and 82, may comprise the COEP (addition of - 222 COEP of S1 and S2), COCY (addition of COCY ofSl and 82)and CSE (addition of CSE of S1 and S2). RemoveY and Buy_N processes may generate value for the hotel, an entity 5 other than the hotel, customers and/or any combination thereof. The value may include, but is not limited to cost savings for the hotel, an entity other than said hotel, any combination thereof. The value generated may also include, but is not limited to, soft value, value attributable to customer goodwill, satisfaction and loyalty. The value so generated may optimize revenue of at least one entity other than said hotel. 10 Customer Notification Process In the customer notification (CN) process, a decision for the Chosen Room is notified to the customer, As mentioned earlier, the Chosen Room may be defined by the 15 hotel, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. However, the hotel may want to keep the right to select (or define) the Chosen Room in the PRO VOF, A hotel may use any method of its choosing to define the Chosen Room. A hotel may use a software application built on the method defined above to optimally define the Chosen Room to FRO customer. 20 Fig. 69 displays an example of an algorithm that may be used to execute the Customer Notification process. In Act 69.100, a group of (one or more) customers is taken as input. Next, in Act 69.110, a set of one or more Customer Notify Rules may be used to define the Chosen Room. A hotel may choose any Customer Notify Rule of its 25 choosing. The Customer Notify Rules may depend upon expected value of the Room Product, expected sales volume and so forth. For example, a hotel may choose a Customer Notify Rule, which selects the Room Product with the higher value as the Chosen Room. Alternatively, a rule may be chosen which selects the Room Product with the lower value as the Chosen Room. While defining the Chosen Room, a hotel may also 30 want to use the RemoveY algorithm (as used in the BuyN process given above) to determine the optimal Chosen Room that satisfies a pre-determined goal. Thus, during - 223 the CN process, one or more Ya may be shifted in the process of selecting the optimal Chosen Room. A Customer Notify Rule may also select the Room Product with the higher sales volume as the Chosen Room. A Customer Notify Rule may specify that if PRO VOF is used in conjunction with any other VOF (such as APO VOF and so on), 5 then the Grouping Rules (defined later) may govem the selection of the Chosen Room. Next, in Act 69.120, the Customer Notify Rules, thus obtained from the hotels database, are used to define Chosen Rooms(s), Next, in Act 69,130, the customers are notified about their Chosen Room(s), and the algorithm then ends in Box 69.200, 10 Implementation of FRO VOF in conjunction with other VOFs FRO VOF ray be used in conjunction with one or more other VdFs, for example, the ARO (the Altemate Room Option) VOF. A customer who receives an 15 ARO is termed "A" type of customer. A hotel may form a group of one or more ARO customers and one or more PRO customers, where the options (ARO and FRO) obtained by the group members are complimentary in nature, As an example, consider an A customer who bought an ARO to choose either of R1 and R2 as the Chosen Room, and consider a Y customer who received a FRO and is flexible to take any of RI and R2 as 20 the Chosen Room. Thus, if A decides to choose RI as the Chosen Room, the hotel may assign R2 as the Chosen Room for Y, and vice versa. The customers A and Y have taken complimentary options and may form a group. The hotel may need to hold only one unit of inventory in R1 and R2 to satisfy the needs of both A and Y (assuming each A and Y only need one unit of Room Product). Such a combination of complimentary options or 25 VOFs may improve efficiency and concurrently enhance value for all the parties involved (in the context of the current example, enhance value for A, Y and the hotel). The implementation of the grouping of A type and Y type of customers may be done in one or more ways. One way to implement such grouping is to first have one or 30 more Y type of customers and based on such customer(s), the hotel may offer complimentary AROs to customers to make groups, In another implementation, the -224 hotel may first offer ARO and based on such ARO customer(s), hotel offers complimentary FRO to the customers to make groups. In yet another implementation, the hotel may offer ARO and FRO separately and then define a process to make complimentary groups of A and Y customers (such groups termed "AYGroups"), 5 A hotel may choose to create AYjGroups at various group levels such as implementation of grouping at Level 1, Level 2 and so on. In Level 1 grouping, an AYGroup involves one each of A and Y type of customers. An example of Level 1 grouping has already been given above (the two customer, A and Y, example). 10 In Level 2 grouping, the grouping involves making complimentary groups for more than 2 customers, As an example, consider an A customer who bought an ARO to choose either of R1 and R3 as the Chosen Room, a Yl customer who received a FRO and is flexible to take any of RI and R2 as the Chosen Room and a Y2 customer who has 15 also received a FRO and is flexible to take any of R2 and R3 as the Chosen Room. A notation A-Yl-Y2 represents this example. Thus, if A decides to choose R1 as the Chosen Room, the hotel may assign R2 as the Chosen Room for Y1 and R3 as the Chosen Room for Y2, Alternatively, if A decides to choose R3 as the Chosen Room, the hotel may assign R1 and R2 as the Chosen Rooms for Y1 and Y2, respectively. 20 It is assumed that a "unit" represents one unit of Room Product (or Room Product capacity) and each customer needs only one unit of a Room Product, Continuing with the above example, if the hotel were to not consider the complimentary nature of options obtained by A, Y1 and Y2 customers, the hotel may need to hold (or block) a total of 4 25 units of capacity to ensure complete satisfaction of needs of A, Y1 and Y2, i.e., 2 units for A (1 unit each of RI and R3 as A could choose any Room Product), I unit for Y1 (of either R1 or R2) and 1 unit for Y2 (of either R2 or R3). This implies, to satisfy a total need of 3 units of Room Products, the hotel may need to hold (or block) 4 units of Room Product capacity, creating a redundant capacity of I unit that the hotel may not be able to 30 use otherwise. By creating a complimentary group of A-Y1-Y2, the hotel needs to only hold (or block) 3 units of capacity (1 unit each in R1, R2 and R3), thus, freeing up 1 unit -225 of redundant capacity. Thus, an AYGroup mechanism may create an efficient structure with minimal holding (and/or blocking) of capacity to satisfy the needs of all the concerned customers. 5 The grouping may also be implemented at higher levels such as Level 3 grouping, Level 4 grouping, Level 5 grouping and so on. An example of the Level 3 grouping may be AZ-YI-Y2-Y3. A hotel may choose to implement grouping at various Room levels such as Room 10 Product, Room Set and Room Order. A hotel may also change terms and conditions of one or more option contracts of one or more PRO and/or ARO customers (for e.g., price, notify deadline and so on) to solicit customer participation in FRO/ARO to create more AYGroups. The hotel may also offer incentives to customers to choose complimentary FRO/ARO offerings to enable the hotel to create more AY Groups. The implementation 15 methods mentioned above for grouping are for illustration purposes only and a hotel may choose to implement grouping in one or more other ways or by combining above said methods or by combining one or more other ways along with one or more above said methods. 20 Fig. 70 displays a flow chart that illustrates one way of implementing grouping of A and Y type of customers. In Act 70.100, sets of A and Y customers are taken as input. Next, in Act 70.110, a set of one or more Grouping Rules is read from the hotels database (70.210). A grouping rule may depend upon the number of A and/or Y type of customers, desired capacity redundancy in the system, the permissible time factor to 25 create AYGroups, any other rule of hotel choosing, any combination thereof and so on, For example, a hotel may choose a Grouping Rule whereby new groups are created by first ungrouping one or more of the AYGroups (created earlier but unexercised, for example, groups for which the customer has not been notified, or if notified, the customer has not utilized the Room Product and the terms of option contract allows for a 30 change in the Chosen Room). A Grouping Rule may create groups of only those A and Y type of customers who have yet to be grouped and discarding all A/Y customers, -226 which have already been grouped. A hotel may implement any Grouping Rule to formulate AYGroups. The choice to Grouping rules may enhance the overall value for the hotel (for example, reduce the total capacity required to satisfy accommodation needs for all A and Y customers). Theoretically, the number of units of the Room Products 5 required (or blocked) should be equal to the number of customers reserving the Room Product (assuming each customer wants one unit of Room Product). Thus, by implementing the grouping and with the help of appropriate Grouping Rules, the hotel may attempt to achieve such theoretical minima. 10 Next, in Act 70,120, the Grouping Rules, so obtained from the hotels database, are used to make AYGroups. Next, in Act 70.130, the AYjGroups so created are returned along with ungrouped A/Y, if any, and the process then ends in Box 70.200. The grouping may enhance customers' experience, and may comprise operating a 15 system that delivers a FRO to at least a "first customer" to utilize up to n of m selected Room Products for said first customer, and n is less than or equal to m; operating a system that delivers an ARO to at least a "second customer" to utilize up to k of p selected Room Products, and k is less than or equal to p; operating a system to define each of the k chosen Room Products, whereby after each of the k chosen Room Products 20 is defined, said second customer can utilize said chosen Room Product; operating a system wherein a hotel defines t chosen Room Product(s) for said first customer after each of said k chosen Room Products is defined, wherein after each of said t Room Products is defined, said first customer can utilize said defined Room Product, where t is less than or equal to n. Said t Room Products may be a subset of n Room Products, m 25 Room Products or both. Said t Room Products or n Room Products or both may also include one or more Room Products not included in said m selected Room products. Similarly, k Room Products may be a subset of p Room Products, or may include one or more Room Products other than said p Room Products. The grouping may be performed for a multiplicity of at least one of said first or second customers and may combine 30 together at least one of each of said first and second customers to formulate at least one group with at least one complementary set of options. The grouping may enable a hotel, -227 an entity other than the hotel and/or any combination thereof to utilize at least one of said in or p Room Products at least after delivery of any of said first or second options. The hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel may implement FRO VOP where in the first and/or second customer in said grouping may be same. The notification conditions may 5 be different, same or any combination thereof for the first and second option. Said first and/or second option may or may not include any notification deadline condition. The hotel, the second customer, an entity other than said hotel and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said k Chosen 10 Rooms. The hotel, the first customer, an entity other than said hotel and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said p Chosen Rooms. The first customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said in Rooms, The second customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said p Rooms. The hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel may receive from at least one of 15 said first or second customer, at one or more times, an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second options, respectively. Similarly, at least one of said hotel and/or an entity other than said hotel may deliver to at least one of said first or second customers, at one or more times, one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second option, respectively. There may or may not be any 20 payment transaction between the hotel, an entity other than the hotel, and at least one of said first and/or second customer. The PRO VOF may be used in conjunction with one or more other VOFs, for example, the URO VOF. A customer who received a URO is termed "U" type of 25 customer. A hotel may form a group of one or more URO customers and one or more FRO customers, where the options (URO and FRO) obtained by the group members are complimentary in nature. The implementation of the grouping of Y type and U typo of customers may be 30 done in one or more ways. One way to implement such grouping is to first offer and secure one or more Y type of customers and based on such customer(s), the hotel may -228 offer complimentary UROs to other customers to make groups. In another implementation, the hotel may first offer and secure URO and based on such FRO customer(s), hotel offers complimentary FRO to other customers to make groups. In yet another implementation, the hotel may offer URO and FRO separately and then define a 5 process to make complimentary groups of U and Y customers (such groups termed "UYGroups"). A hotel may choose to create UYGroups at various group levels such as implementation of grouping at Level 1, Level 2 and so on. In Level I grouping, a 10 UYGroup involves one each of U and Y type of customers. As an example, Level 2 grouping is giVen below. In Level 2 grouping, the grouping involves making complimentary groups for more than 2 'customers. As an example, consider three customers Y(RI, R3), 15 Ul[up(R2), base(R3)] and U2[up(R1), base(R2)]. The notation Y(R1, R3) implies a customer Y who has received a FRO and is flexible to have either R1 or R2 as the Chosen Room. The notation Ul[up(R2), base(R3)] implies a customer U1 who received a URO and wishes to get an upgrade from R3 (i.e., the base room) to R2 (i.e., the up room), and U2[up(Rl), base(R2)] implies a customer U2 who received a URO and 20 wishes to get an upgrade from R2 (i.e., the base room) to R1 (i.e., the up room). A notation Y-UL-U2 represents this example. Thus, there are three rooms R1, R2, and R3 and they are occupied by Y, U2, and U1 respectively. The three customers have different value needs. The customer Y is flexible on either RI or R3 if he/she receives a desired reward for trading-in his/her flexibility. The customer U1 has a base room R3 and 25 wishes to get R2 as the Up Room. If a hotel is able to upgrade U1 from R3 to R2, it may generate incremental value for both the customer and the hotel. But in the existing framework (i.e., without using conjunction of more than one VOFs), the hotel may not be able to achieve this without an available capacity on room R2. Similarly, U2 has a base room R2 and wishes to get RI as the Up Room. A hotel may customize the desired 30 values for the three customers by leveraging on Y's flexibility and upgrading U1 and U2. The hotel may assign R3 as Chosen Room to Y, upgrade U2 from R2 to RI, and upgrade - 229 Ul from R3 to R2. The hotel may be able to generate customer surpluses in the process of U1 and U2 upgrades, which would not have been possible normally. Thus, a hotel may be able to generate incremental value for all the parties involved and satisfy the desired needs to a level of customization. Such a combination of complimentary options 5 or VOFs may improve efficiency and concurrently enhance value for all the parties involved (in the context of the current example, enhance value for Y, U1, U2 and the hotel), It is assumed that a "unit" represents one room (or room capacity) and each 10 customer needs only one room. Continuing with the above example, if the hotel were to not consider the complimentary nature of options obtained by Y, Ul and U2 customers, the hotel may need to hold (or block) more than 3 units of capacity to ensure complete satisfaction of needs of Y, U1 and U2. This implies, to satisfy a total need of 3 rooms, the hotel may need to hold (or block) more than 3 rooms, creating a redundant capacity 15 of at least one room that the hotel may not be able to use otherwise. By creating a complimentary group of Y-UI-U2, the hotel does not need to hold any capacity, thus freeing up the redundant capacity. Thus, a UYGroup mechanism may create an efficient structure with minimal holding (and/or blocking) of capacity to satisfy the needs of all the concerned customers, 20 The grouping may also be implemented at higher levels such as Level 3 grouping, Level 4 grouping, Level 5 grouping and so on. An example of the Level 3 grouping may be Y-U1-U2-U3. 25 A hotel may choose to implement grouping at various levels. A hotel may also change terms and conditions of one or more option contracts of one or more URO and/or FRO customers (for e.g., price, notify deadline and so on) to solicit customer participation in URO/FRO to create more UY Groups. The hotel may also offer incentives to customers to choose complimentary URO/FRO offerings to enable the hotel 30 to create more UY Groups. The implementation methods mentioned above for grouping are for illustration purposes only and a hotel may choose to implement grouping in one - 230 or more other ways or by combining above said methods or by combining one or more other ways along with one or more above said methods. Fig. 71 displays a flow chart that illustrates one way of implementing grouping of 5 U and Y type of customers. In Act 71.100, sets of U and Y customers are taken as input. Next, in Act 71.110, a set of one or more Grouping Rules is read from the hotel's database (71.210). A grouping rule may depend upon the number of U and/or Y type of customers, desired capacity redundancy in the system, the permissible time factor to create UYGroups, any other rule of hotel choosing, any combination thereof and so on. 10 For example, a hotel may choose a Grouping Rule whereby new groups are created by first ungrouping one or more of the UY Groups (created earlier but unexercised, for example, groups for which the customer has not been notified, or if notified, the customer has not utilized the room and the terms of option contract allows a change in the Chosen Room). In another example, a Grouping Rule may create groups of only 15 those U and Y type of customers who are yet to be grouped and discarding all U/Y customers, which have already been grouped, A hotel may implement any Grouping Rule to formulate UY Groups. The choice to Grouping rules may enhance the overall value for the hotel (for example, reduce the total capacity required to satisfy room needs for all U and Y customers). Theoretically, the number of units of the room required (or 20 blocked) should be equal to the number of units the customers shall be eventually utilizing. Thus, by implementing the grouping and with the help of appropriate Grouping Rules, the hotel may attempt to achieve such theoretical minima. Next, in Act 71,120, the Grouping Rules, so obtained from the hotel's database, 25. are used to make UY Groups. Next, in Act 71.130, the UY Groups so created are returned along with ungrouped U/Y, if any, and the process then ends in Box 71.200. The grouping may enhance customers' experience, and may comprise operating a system that delivers a URO to at least a "first customer" to utilize up to n of m selected 30 rooms for said first customer, and n is less than or equal to m; operating a system that delivers a FRO to at least a "second customer" to utilize up to k of p selected rooms, and -231 k is less than or equal to p; operating a system to define each of the k Chosen Rooms, -whereby after each of the k Chosen Rooms is defined, said "second customer' can utilize said Chosen Room; operating a system wherein a hotel defines t Chosen Room(s) for said "first customer" after each of said k Chosen Rooms is defined, wherein after each of 5 said t rooms is defined, said first customer can utilize said defined room, where t is less than or equal to n. Said t rooms may be a subset of n rooms, m rooms or both. Said t rooms or n rooms or both may also include one or more rooms not included in said m selected rooms. Similarly, k rooms may be a subset of p rooms, or may include one or more rooms other than said p rooms. The grouping may be performed for a multiplicity 10 of at least one of said first or second customers and may combine together at least one of each of said first and second customers to formulate at least one group with at least one complementary set of options. The grouping may enable a hotel, an entity other than the hotel and/or any combination thereof to utilize at least one of said m or p rooms at least after delivery of any of said first or second options. The hotel and/or an entity other than 15 the hotel may implement FRO VOF where in the first and/or second customer in said grouping may be same. The notification conditions may be different, same or any combination thereof for the first and second option. Said first and/or second option may or may not include any notification deadline 20 condition. The hotel, the second customer, an entity other than said hotel and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said k Chosen Rooms. The hotel, the first customer, an entity other than said hotel and/or any combination thereof may define, at one or more times, at least one of said p Chosen Rooms. The first customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said m 25 Rooms. The second customer may select, at one or more times, at least one of said p Rooms. The hotel and/or an entity other than the hotel may receive from at least one of said first or second customer, at one or more times, an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second options, respectively. Similarly, at least one of said hotel and/or an entity other than said hotel may deliver to at least one of 30 said first or second customers, at one or more times, one or more terms and conditions associated with said first or second option, respectively. There may or may not be any - 232 payment transaction between the hotel, an entity other than the hotel, and at least one of said first and/or second customer. Business Model to implement FRO in the Hotel Industry 5 As discussed above, different business models may be used to implement a FRO VOF. The business models mentioned below, without limitation, can be used to implement the FRO VOF in the hotel industry. A hotel may choose to implement a FRO VOP individually or in conjunction with one or more partners and/or other companies. 10 As explained in the sections above, for example, an entity may use the allocated Rooms to offer FRO to customers and/or to sell the Rooms as regular Rooms. The allocation of Rooms may be conditional. For example, one of the conditions may require a return of at least one allocated Room within a specified time period and/or other 15 considerationss. The customer may select or purchase one or more Room from the hotel and/or said entity and then interact with said entity to receive one or more FRO Rooms in relation to said (already purchased) Rooms. Said entity may also receive Room 20 allocation from more than one hotel, and thus, offer Rooms from multiple hotels to a single customer during the Initial Transaction for FRO. The OA may use those Rooms and operate a service to offer FRO to the customers. As explained above in Fig, 13A, a customer may select one or more Rooms 25 from the OA, and then receive FRO on those selected Rooms from the OA. Another approach would be for a customer to select one or more Rooms from the hotel and then receive FRO on those selected Rooms from the OA. In another example, a customer may select one or more Rooms from both the hotel and the OA, and then receive the FRO option on those selected Rooms from the OA. It is also possible that the customer 30 receives FRO from the hotel or both from the hotel and the OA on a given set of selected Rooms.

-233 The OA and the hotel may simultaneously offer FRO to the hotel customers, i.e., a customer may either approach the hotel or the OA to receive FRO on desired hotels. In another model, the OA may operate as the sole provider of FRO to all the customers of a S hotel, In yet another model, the OA and the hotel may choose to work together and jointly offer FRO to the customers. The OA or the hotel may offer FRO to customers using either or both of the Sequential or the Concurrent Get FRO processes. As explained in Fig. 13A above, an OA may be able to offer FRO on Rooms 10 from one or multiple hotels. An OA may receive allocation of Rooms from two or more hotels. A customer may purchase one or more Rooms from one or more hotels and/or from the OA, and then receive FRO on those selected Rooms from the OA. Even if the OA may not be entitled to or does not receive Room allocation from a hotel, it may still be able to formulate an agreement with one or more hotels to offer FRO on the Rooms of 15 said hotels. Thus, a customer may be able to receive FRO on Room Products from multiple hotels, giving the customer more value to trade-in their- accommodation flexibility and variety to choose from. For example, a customer may receive FRO on two Room Products from two different hotels, and the OA and/or any one or all of the hotels will then notify the customer about the Chosen Room within the terms and 20 conditions of the option contract. Au OA may be able to thus create a multi-hotel FRO VOF Framework, which may tremendously enhance the value to the customers. All the participating hotels that allocate Rooms to and/or partner with the OA to offer FRO may also gain from the FRO network (benefits include reduced revenue spill, higher revenues from selling the FRO Rooms at higher prices, and/or to sell FRO on those Rooms, 25 enhanced overall customer satisfaction and/or other operational benefits). Either or both of the OA and the hotel may process the reservation for the Chosen Rooms associated with FRO received by the customer. A customer may receive reservation from the OA or the hotel for the Rooms related to the FRO grant. An entity (the OA and the hotel) may process reservation for the Rooms offered only by that entity or by either of the two 30 entities.

-234 The OA and the hotel may engage in a business agreement to implement the FRO program. The business agreement may divide the total benefit generated by the'FRO program between the two parties using any mechanism or criteria as desired. The total FRO Revenue Benefit may be shared between the two parties. The hotel may allocate 5 Rooms to the OA, One or more hotels may allocate only a part of or their entire Room inventory to the OA to offer those Rooms to the customers by way of regular and/or FRO Rooms, The OA may offer those Rooms as FRO Rooms to customers. In return, the OA may offer some revenue or fee to the hotel for all or a portion of the Rooms allocated. This fee may be given only for the Rooms that the OA is able to utilize or for 10 all the allocated Rooms. The lending fee may be a lump sum amount, may depend upon the number of Rooms allocated or may depend on one or more factors as desired. The agreement may include a provision where the OA may return the allocated Rooms back to the hotel at a certain time and date, There may be one or more conditions associated with the return of unused FRO Rooms and/or Rooms from the Released Rooms, 15 including, but not limited to, returning the same Room, returning a higher value Room and so on. The hotel may allot OA at least one Room and said OA may deliver PRO on at least one of said allocated Rooms. The OA may or may not enter into an agreement with the hotel to provide such option on its Rooms. The OA may sell back at least one allocated Rooms to said hotel or to at least one entity other than the hotel or both. 20 An OA may offer a hotel, flexible customer inventory (generated from PRO) at one or more terms and conditions. The hotel may be able to use this flexibility to generate benefit from one or more ways, such as the BuyN process, reducing operational costs and so forth. Some of these examples have been explained earlier. 25 An OA may formulate an agreement with one or more hotels on one or more VOFs, such as on both APO and PRO VOFs, to offer a combination of VOFs to customers. 30 The FRO VOF may include different conditions regarding the payment of prices related to the FRO. For example, a customer may receive FRO Price only from the hotel -235 even if he/she is receiving Rooms and/or options from the OA. Similarly, the customer may receive FRO Price only from the OA even if he or she selected the Rooms and/or received the options from the hotel. The condition may also be set for a customer to make one or more payments to the hotel for the Rooms and receive one or more 5 payments from the hotel for the options received from that hotel, and to make one or more payments to the OA for the Rooms and receive one or more payments from the OA for the options received from that OA. The condition may allow the customer to receive partial payments from the hotel and the rest from the OA or vice versa, the basis of which distribution may depend upon various factors, including, but are not limited to, the 10 factors of hotels choosing, the arrangement between the OA and the hotel and so on, In another example, the customer may receive the FRO Price front the third party or may receive FRO Price from any of the combination of the entities mentioned above. Information Technology System for FRO 15 A client-server architecture may be used to implement the FRO VOF, However, a hotel may use a computer hardware and software infrastructure of its choosing to implement a FRO VOF. 20 The FRO VOF may be best implemented using one or more computer implemented methods to operate a computer-implemented service to offer FRO to the customers, that includes, but not limited to, recording the information pertaining to the offered and/or used FRO in a database. It may also include operating a computer implemented service (and/or system) or other service (and/or system) to define the 25 Chosen Rooms, and recording said Chosen Rooms (or defined Room Products) and all the Room Products related to a PRO in a database. For the stage one (i.e., to formulate the FRO VOF), an application server may be used along with a database (e.g., a relational database) that stores all the information 30 relevant to the hotel and the customer. The database may include all the relevant information sufficient to identify Rooms the hotel chooses to make eligible for PRO. One or more users (e.g., a business analyst or manager) may have fu access to this -236 server through Intranet or highly secured VPN environment to design an optimal value option framework. The database shall also store all the information pertaining to all the acts (in stage one) used by the hotel while fonnulating the FRO VOF. 5 A similar or a different application server and/or a cluster of application servers (functioning concurrently) along with one or more web servers and a set of one or more database servers may be used for the Get PRO as explained in Fig. 13D above and CN (Customer Noti/catlon) processes in the stage two of the FRO VOF. The application server communicates with a web server and the database (e.g., a relational database 10 either the same database used for stage one or a different one). This database (for stage two) stores all the relevant information pertaining to all the acts executed during and in relation to the processes and algorithms run for stage two. All the algorithms mentioned earlier for both the Get FRO process and the Event Optimizer processes may be computer-implemented as explained and discussed above in Fig. 13D and 13E. All the 15 customer interactions and the related information such as customer needs, inputs, payment transactions etc. are stored in this database, including information pertaining to the interactions with those customers who may not receive FRO. The systems for stage two and stage one should be maintained in a synchronized environment so that each system has access to the most current information and can communicate with each other. 20 As discussed above, there may be other ways for implementing the FRO VOF which may depend upon including, but not limited to, the scale of (he implementation, business requirements and number of entities involved. The entities may interact through a series of hardware products and services with the OA/hotel server(s). The OA may or 25 may not be different than the hotel and the OA server may be the same as that of the hotel server. The information technology and network system to implement FRO VOF may include tools, without limitation, such as one or more CPUs, Hard Disk Drives, RAM, one or more series of Routers, Internet, Firewall, highly secured VPN, Intranet, load balancers, servers, primary databases, secondary databases and so forth. 30 -237 As discussed and explained above, there may be one or more secondary databases that may only be in the "Read Only" form and may be updated through one or more replication servers. Alternatively, a hotel may have one or more separate temporary database structure wherein the entries are updated and stored until the final update is 5 made in one or more main databases. One the final update is done, the entries in these temporary databases may be removed. The entire system may run at the premises of OA, hotel and/or any third entity or any combination thereof. It may also be possible to run a part of the system at one place 10 and rest at one or more other places. The system may also be implemented even if one or more servers may be kept off-shore locations and may be accessed remotely. The geographical locations of one or more hardware product and/or services may be different depending upon including, but not limited to, the factors of hotel's choice, ease of accessibility, infrastructure facilities. The structure or the interaction architecture of the 15 system may vary depending on factors including, but not limited to, the set up of the hotel, changes in the technology and with the introduction of new and better technology enhancing the interaction process. A customer may interact with either one or more of the Get FRO, BuyN, the CN 20 processes either directly or indirectly using a local or a remote terminal (e.g., a computer with a browser and an access to the Internet) that is able to access the web server(s) that host the Get FRO and CN processes. A customer may also interact with an operator (or a computer operator) using any communication mechanism (eg., in-person, phone, using email, Internet chat, text messaging system) who then communicates with the web server 25 through the Intranet and/or Internet. The system for the stage one and/or stage two may be hosted and run by the hotel, an OA, a third party service provider or any combination of the above. In the model, where the OA receives Room allocation from the hotel and offers FRO to the 30 customers directly, the web server, application server and database for both stage one and stage two shall be managed by the OA. The OA may also have partial (or complete) -238 access to the hotel database and systems through a highly secured environment (for example, a virtual private network). In the model, when an OA and a hotel tie-up together to offer FRO, all the computer hardware and software infrastructure for both stage one and stage two may be hosted by and/or property of either or both (mutually) of 5 the sides depending upon the business agreement between them. Each hotel using the system and method taught herein can make its own choices as to how extensively to deploy the method. For example, a hotel can implement as few or as many of the foregoing options as it desires; or it may perceive and implement one 10 or more other options. Brief description of FRO VOF in the Car Rental Industry 15 In a successful Initial Transaction for a PRO, the customer receives an option to utilize up to 'n' out of 'n' selected Cars (said 'm' Cars termed "FRO Cars"). The 'n' Cars that are finally selected are termed "Chosen Cars". After each of the 'n' Chosen Cars is defined (or selected or chosen or received), the customer has the right to utilize (or can utilize) said Chosen Car. Apart from the 'n' Chosen Cars, the remaining 'm - n' 20 Cars are termed "Released Cars ". The Released Cars (if any, that were probably held or blocked for said customer) may be sold to other customers as normal Cars or FRO Cars or used for other purposes. The Released Cars in relation to said option may be reused by the car rental company before, after, at or any combination thereof, the time the Released Cars and/or Chosen Cars are defined (or received or selected). 25 Numerically, the value of 'W' is greater than or equal to 1 and the value of 'n' may vary from 'V' to 'm' depending upon the specific implementation of the FRO framework. The value of 'm' and/or 'n' may be known (or defined and/or re-defined) before, during or after the Initial Transaction and/or any combination thereof. The value 30 of n may be limited to less than the value of in, or n<m (i.e., n<=m-1); however, in some situations, n may be equal to m. The value of 'n' may or may not be known (or defined and/or re-defined) at the time of the Initial Transaction. The value of 'n' Cars may be -239 defined in one or more transactions. The value of 'm' and/or 'n' may be defined and/or re-defined, at one or more times, by the car rental company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. For example, the value of n may not be defined at the time of Initial Transactti. In case the value of m is redefined after being defined at least 5 once before, the new value of 'in' may be greater than or less than the older value of 'in'. Similarly, if the value of 'n' is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'n' may also be greater than or less than the older value of 'n'. In some of the cases, the value of new 'n' may be even greater than the older value of 'i'. The 'n' Chosen Cars may include one or more Cars other than said 'in' Cars. 10 The FRO Cars may be selected by the car rental company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. The FRO VOF may enable a car rental company to obtain travel flexibility from FRO customers (i.e., those who select FRO) and use said travel flexibility to satisfy the travel needs of other customers (i.e., who have relatively 15 fixed or strong preferences). Therefore, the car rental company would usually have the right to select (or define) the Chosen Cars. However, in different implementations of FRO VOF, the car rental company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof may select one or more of the Chosen Cars related to a FRO. The PRO Cars and the Chosen Cars may be selected by the same entity, different entities or any 20 combination thereof. For example, the customer may select the PRO Cars and the car rental company may select the Chosen Cars out of the PRO Cars. The car rental company may incorporate the customer information and the data related to the FRO into the sales, production, inventory, other database or information system or any combination of the above. 2S Various algorithms, processes discussed earlier including, but not limited to, BuyN, Customer Notification, RemoveY, Sequential Get FRO, Concurrent Get PRO may be implemented in the car rental industry. 30 A car rental company may have a higher aggregate capacity than aggregate demand. However, the demand may be non-uniform and may lead to over-sale, revenue - 240 spill or spoilage or any combination thereof, in car rentals. The issue of last minute cancellations and no-shows (CNS) may further complicate the issue. To deal with the revenue spills and spoilages, and to concurrently hedge against the CNS, the ear rental companies may overbook Cars. Overbooking is a risky proposition due to associated 5 costs, customer ill will and/or regulatory or government rules. If a Car is un-rented, that condition probably represents the loss of potential revenue for that car rental company. The car rental company may have turned down potential customers due to the risk of high cost of overbooking in the concerned Car or other Cars (of the same or different category and/or car rental company). The overbooking factor in Cars other than said Car 10 represent potential revenue loss because there may be one or more customers on such other Cars who could have been willing to be shifted to the un-rented Car in lieu of reward, and thus, releasing capacity for new potential customers (who may be willing to pay a lot higher) in said other Cars. However, today there is no framework that allows car rental companies to do so in an optimal fashion such that both car rental company 15 and the customer benefit at the same time, An opportunity, thus, exists to concurrently generate an incremental revenue benefit for the car rental company, and to maximize the purchase utilities for the customers (includes those who want to trade-in flexibility and those who want to obtain specific Cars even at higher prices). 20 For example, Sam wants to go from New York from Boston by renting a Car but is flexible to travel either on 2 na May or 5? May. The car rental company may offer him FRO, where he will be informed on 1' May that on which date he may rent a Car. The car rental company may choose to reward Sam for his travel flexibility. 25 Brief description of FRO VOF in the Travel Industry In a successful Initial Transaction for a FRO VOF between the travel company and the customer, the customer receives an option to utilize up to 'n' out of 'm' selected Travel Packages (said 'im' Travel Packages termed "FRO Travel Packages"), The 'n' 30 Travel Packages that are finally selected are termed "Chosen Travel Packages". After each of the 'n' Chosen Travel Packages is defined (or selected or chosen or received), the customer has the right to utilize (or can utilize) said Chosen Travel Packages. Apart -241 from the 'n' Chosen Travel Packages, the remaining 'm - n' Travel Packages are termed "Released Travel Packages ', The Released Travel Packages (if any, that were probably held or blocked for said customer) may be sold to other customers as normal Travel Packages or PRO Travel Packages or used for other purposes. The Released Travel 5 Packages in relation to said option may be reused by the travel company before, after, at or any combination thereof, the time the Released Travel Packages and/or Chosen Travel Packages are defined (or received or selected). Numerically, the value of 'in' is greater than or equal to I and the value of 'n' 10 may vary from '0' to 'm' depending upon the specific implementation of the FRO framework. The value of Wm' and/or 'n' may be known (or defined and/or re-defined) before, during or after the Initial Transaction and/or any combination thereof. The value of n may be limited to less than the value of m, or n<m (i.e., n<==m-1); however, in some situations, n may be equal to m. The value of 'n' may or may not be known (or defined 15 and/or re-defined) at the time of the Initial Transaction. The value of 'n' Travel Packages may be defined in one or more transactions. The value of 'm' and/or 'n' may be defined and/or re-defined, at one or more times, by the travel company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. For example, the value of n may not be defined at the time of Initial Transaction. In case the value of m is redefined after being 20 defined at least once before, the new value of 'm' may be greater than or less than the older value of 'W'. Similarly, if the value of 'a' is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'a' may also be greater than or less than the older value of a. In some of the cases, the value of new 'a' may be even greater than the older value of 'mn The 'n' Chosen Travel Packages may include one or more Travel Packages other 25 than said 'in' Travel Packages. The PRO Travel Packages may be selected by the travel company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof The FRO VOF may enable a travel company to obtain travel flexibility from FRO customers (i.e., those who select FRO) and use said 30 travel flexibility to satisfy the travel and entertainment needs of other customers (i.e., who have relatively fixed or strong preferences). Therefore, the travel company would - 242 usually have the right to select (or define) the Chosen Travel Packages. However, in different implementations of FRO VOF, the travel company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof may select one or more of the Chosen Travel Packages related to a FRO. The FRO Travel Packages and the Chosen Travel Packages may be 5 selected by the same entity, different entities or any combination thereof. For example, the customer may select the FRO Travel Packages and the travel company may select the Chosen Travel Packages out of the FRO Travel Packages. The travel company may incorporate the customer information and the data related to the FRO into the sales, production, inventory, other database or information system or any combination of the 10 above. Various algorithms, processes discussed earlier including, but not limited to, BuyN, Customer Notification, Remove_Y, Sequential Get FRO, Concurrent Get FRO may be implemented in the travel industry. 15 A travel company may have a higher aggregate capacity than aggregate demand. However, the demand may be non-uniform and may lead to over-sale, revenue spill or spoilage or any combination thereof, in Travel Packages, The issue of last minute cancellations and no-shows (CNS) may further complicate the issue. To deal with the 20 revenue spills and spoilages, and to concurrently hedge against the CN , the travel companies may overbook Travel Packages. Overbooking is a risky proposition due to associated costs, customer ill will and/or regulatory or government rules. If a Travel Package begins with one or more available capacity, that condition probably represents the loss of potential revenue for that travel company. The travel company may have 25 turned down potential customers due to the risk of high cost of overbooking in the concerned Travel Package or other Travel Packages (of the same or different travel company). The overbooking factor in Travel Packages other than said Travel Packages represent potential revenue loss because there may be one or more customers on such other Travel Packages who could have been willing to be shifted to the Travel Package 30 with available capacity in lieu of reward, and thus, releasing capacity for new potential customers (who may be willing to pay a lot higher) in said other Travel Packages.

- 243 However, today there is no framework that allows travel companies to do so in an optimal fashion such that both travel company and the customer benefit at the same time. An opportunity, thus, exists to concurrently generate an incremental revenue benefit for the travel company, and to maximize the purchase utilities for the customers (includes 5 those who want to trade-in flexibility and those who want to obtain specific Travel Packages even at higher prices). For example, Matt wants to take a Travel Package for 7 days but is flexible to travel either on 1 5 1h June or 2 2 "d June. The travel company may offer him FRO, where 10 he will be informed on 12 1h May that on which Travel Package he may have to depart. The travel company may choose to reward Matt for his travel flexibility. Brief description of FRO VOF in the Cruise Industry 15 In a successful Initial Transaction for a FRO VOF between the cruise company and the customer, the customer receives an option to utilize up to 'n' out of 'i' selected Cruise Packages (said 'm' Cruise Packages termed "PRO Cruise Packages"). The 'n' Cruise Packages that are finally selected are termed "Chosen Cruise Packages". After each of the 'n' Chosen Cruise Packages is defined (or selected or chosen or received), 20 the customer has the right to utilize (or can utilize) said Chosen Cruise Packages. Apart from the 'n Chosen Cruise Packages, the remaining 'in - n' Cruise Packages are termed "Released Cruise Packages ". The Released Cruise Packages (if any, that were probably held or blocked for said customer) may be sold to other customers as normal Cruise Packages or PRO Cruise Packages or used for other purposes. The Released Cruise 25 Packages in relation to said option may be reused by the cruise company before, after, at or any combination thereof, the time the Released Cruise Packages and/or Chosen Cruise Packages are defined (or received or selected), Numerically, the value of 'm' is greater than or equal to 1 and the value of 'n 30 may vary from '0' to 'Im' depending upon the specific implementation of the FRO framework. The value of 'm' and/or 'n' may be known (or defined and/or re-defined) before, during or after the Initial Transaction and/or any combination thereof, The value - 244 of n may be limited to less than the value of m, or n<m (i.e., n<=m-1); however, in some situations, n may be equal to m. The value of 'n' may or may not be known (or defined and/or re-defined) at the time of the Initial Transaction. The value of 'n' Cruise Packages may be defined in one or more transactions. The value of 'm' and/or 'n' may 5 be defined and/or re-defined, at one or more times, by the cruise company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. For example, the value of n may not be defined at the time of Initial Transaction. In case the value of m is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'm' may be greater than or less than the older value of 'n'. Similarly, if the value of 'n' is redefined after being defined at least 10 once before, the new value of 'n' may also be greater than or less than the older value of 'n'. In some of the cases, the value of new 'n' may be even greater than the older value of 'm'. The 'n' Chosen Cruise Packages may include one or more Cruise Packages other than said 'm' Cruise Packages. 15 The FRO Cruise Packages may be selected by the cruise company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. The FRO VOF may enable a cruise company to obtain travel flexibility from FRO customers (i.e., those who select FRO) and use said travel flexibility to satisfy the travel and entertainment needs of other customers (i.e., who have relatively fixed or strong preferences). Therefore, the cruise company would 20 usually have the right to select (or define) the Chosen Cruise Packages. However, in different implementations of FRO VOF, the cruise company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof may select one or more of the Chosen Cruise Packages related to a PRO. The FRO Cruise Packages and the Chosen Cruise Packages may be selected by the same entity, different entities or any combination thereof For example, 25 the customer may select the PRO Cruise Packages and the cruise company may select the Chosen Cruise Packages out of the PRO Cruise Packages. The cruise company may incorporate the customer information and the data related to the FRO into the sales, production, inventory, other database or information system or any combination of the above. 30 - 245 Various algorithms, processes discussed earlier including, but not limited to, BuyjN, Customer Notification, Remove._Y, Sequential Get FRO, Concurrent Get FRO may be implemented in the cruise hidustry. 5 A cruise company may have a higher aggregate capacity than aggregate demand. However, the demand may be non-uniform and may lead to over-sae, revenue spill or spoilage or any combination thereof, in Cruise Packages. The issue of last minute cancellations and no-shows (CNS) may further complicate the issue. To deal with the revenue spills and spoilages, and to concurrently hedge against the CNS, the cruise 10 companies may overbook Cruise Packages. Overbooking is a risky proposition due to associated costs, customer ill will and/or regulatory or government rules. If a cruise departs with one or more empty seats, that condition probably represents the loss of potential revenue for that cruise company. The cruise company may have turned down potential customers due to the risk of high cost of overbooking in the concerned Cruise 15 Package or other Cruise Packages (of the same or different Cruise Package). The overbooking factor in Cruise Packages other than said Cruise Packages represent potential revenue loss because there may be one or more customers on such other Cruise Packages who could have been willing to be shifted to the Cruise Package with empty slots in lieu of reward, and thus, releasing capacity for new potential customers (who 20 may be willing to pay a lot higher) in said other Cruise Packages. However, today there is no framework that allows cruise companies to do so in an optimal fashion such that both cruise company and the customer benefit at the same time. An opportunity, thus; exists to concurrently generate an incremental revenue benefit for the cruise company, and to maximize the purchase utilities for the customers (includes those who want to 25 trade-in flexibility and those who want to obtain specific Cruise Packages even at higher prices). For example, Michael wants to go from Canberra to Sydney but is flexible to travel either on 2 "d May or ' May. The cruise company may offer him FRO, where he 30 will be informed on 2 8 h April that on which date he may have to depart. The cruise company may choose to reward Michael for his travel flexibility.

- 246 Brief description of FRO VOF in the Entertainment Industry In a successful Initial Transaction for a PRO VOF between the entertainment 5 company and the customer, the customer receives an option to utilize up to 'n' out of 'm' selected Entertainment Packages (said 'in' Entertainment Packages termed "FRO Enrertainment Packages"). The 'n' Entertainment Packages that are finally selected are termed "Chosen Entertainment Packages". After each of the 'n' Chosen Entertainment Packages is defined (or selected or chosen or received), the customer has the right to 10 utilize (or can utilize) said Chosen Entertainment Packages. Apart from the 'n' Chosen Entertainment Packages, the remaining 'm n' Entertainment Packages are termed "Released Entertainment Packages ". The Released Entertainment Packages (if any, that were probably held or blocked for said customer) may be sold to other customers as normal Entertainment Packages or FRO Entertainment Packages or used for other 15 purposes. The Released Entertainment Packages in relation to said option may be reused by the entertainment company before, after, at or any combination thereof, the time the Released Entertainment Packages and/or Chosen Entertainment Packages are defined (or received or selected). 20 Numerically, the value of 'm' is greater than or equal to I and the value of 'n' may vary from 'V' to 'm' depending upon the specific implementation of the PRO framework, The value of 'in' and/or 'n' may be known (or defined and/or re-defined) before, during or after the Initial Transaction and/or any combination thereof. The value of n may be limited to less than the value of in, or n<m (i.e., n<=m-1); however, in some 25 situations, n may be equal to m. The value of 'n' may or may not be known (or defined and/or re-defined) at the time of the Initial Transaction. The value of n' Entertainment Packages may be defined in one or mote transactions. The value of 'in' and/or 'In' may be defined and/or re-defined, at one or more times, by the entertainment company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. For example, the value of n may 30 not be defined at the time of Initial Transaction. In case the value of m is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'm' may be greater than or less than the older value of 'W. Similarly, if the value of 'n' is redefined after being defined at - 247 least once before, the new value of 'n' may also be greater than or less than the older value of 'n'. In some of the cases, the value of new 'n' may be even greater than the older value of m'. The 'n' Chosen Entertainment Packages may include one or more Entertainment Packages other than said 'm' Entertainment Packages. 5 The FRO Entertainment Packages may be selected by the entertainment company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. The FRO VOF may enable an entertainment company to obtain flexibility from FRO customers (i.e., those who select FRO) and use said flexibility to satisfy the entertainment needs of other 10 customers (i.e., who have relatively fixed or strong preferences). Therefore, the entertainment company would usually have the right to select (or define) the Chosen Entertainment Packages. However, in different implementations of FRO VOF, the entertainment company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof may select one or more of the Chosen Entertainment Packages related to a FRO. The FRO 15 Entertainment Packages and the Chosen Entertainment Packages may be selected by the same entity, different entities or any combination thereof. For example, the customer may select the FRO Entertainment Packages and the entertainment company may select the Chosen Entertainment Packages out of the FRO Entertainment Packages. The entertainment company may incorporate the customer information and the data related to 20 the FRO into the sales, production, inventory, other database or information system or any combination of the above. The entertainment industry comprises of several industries including, without limitation, performing arts entertainment (including, without limitation, music theatre, 25 vaudeville, comedy, film, music, dance, drama, opera, magic, concerts), exhibition entertainment (including, but not limited to, museum, wax museums, amusement park, trade and other shows, fairs, themed retails, busking), mass media entertainment (including, but not limited to, film, film studios, movie theatres, cinemas, television broadcasting, radio broadcasting, recording companies, discotheques, news media), 30 electronic entertainment (including, but not limited to, computer games, video games, sms, internet), sporting entertainment events (including, but not limited to, tickets- for -248 baseball games, boxing matches, hockey matches, football games), advertisement slots in any of the above mentioned industries and/or companies and so forth. The FRO VOF may be implemented in one or all of the-industries mentioned above. Companies and/or customers in each of the industries mentioned above, and others not specifically 5 mentioned above, may generate benefit from the FRO VOF. Various algorithms, processes discussed earlier including, but not limited to, BuyN, Customer Notification, Remove_Y, Sequential Get FRO, Concurrent Get FRO may be implemented in the entertainment industry. 10 As an example in the entertainment industry, entertainment companies usually have a higher aggregate capacity than aggregate demand. However, the demand is non uniform and often leads to over-sale, revenue spill or spoilage or any combination thereof, in Entertainment Packages. The issue of last minute cancellations and no-shows 15 (CNS) further complicates the issue. To deal with the revenue spills and spoilages, and to concurrently hedge against the CNS, the entertainment companies overbook Entertainment Packages. Overbooking is a risky proposition due to associated costs, customer ill will and/or regulatory or government rules. If the capacity is not optimally utilized, that condition probably represents the loss of potential revenue for that 20 entertainment company. The entertainment company may have turned down potential customers due to the risk of high cost of overbooking in the concerned Entertainment Package or other Entertainment Packages (of the same or different Entertainment Package). The overbooking factor in Entertainment Packages other than said Entertainment Packages represent potential revenue loss because there may be one or 25 more customers on such other Entertainment Packages who could have been willing to be shifted to the Entertainment Package with empty slots in lieu of reward, and thus, releasing capacity for new potential customers (who may be willing to pay a lot higher) in said other Entertainment Packages. However, today there is no framework that allows entertainment companies to do so in an optimal fashion such that both entertainment 30 company and the customer benefit at the same time. An opportunity, thus, exists to concurrently generate an incremental revenue benefit for the entertainment company, and -249 to maximize the purchase utilities for the customers (includes those who want to trade-in flexibility and those who want to obtain specific Entertainment Packages even at higher prices). 5 For example, John plans to watch a movie and is flexible to watch either a 6;30 PM or a 9:30 PM show. The theatre company may offer him a FRO where he may be informed by 5:30 PM about his confirmed show timings. The entertainment company (i.e., the theatre company) may choose to reward John for his flexibility. 10 Brief description of FRO VOF in the Event Management Industry In a successful Initial Transaction for a FRO VOF between the event management company and the customer, the customer receives an option to utilize up to 'n' out of 'i' selected Packages (said 'm' Packages termed "PRO Packages"). The 'n' 15 Packages that are finally selected are termed "Chosen Packages". After each of the 'n' Chosen Packages is defined (or selected or chosen or received), the customer has the right to utilize (or can utilize) said Chosen Packages. Apart from the 'n' Chosen Packages, the remaining 'm - n' Packages are termed "Released Packages". The Released Packages (if any, that were probably held or blocked for said customer) may be 20 sold to other customers as normal Packages or FRO Packages or used for other purposes. The Released Packages in relation to said option may be reused by the event management company before, after, at or any combination thereof, the time the Released Packages and/or Chosen Packages are defined (or received or selected). 25 Numerically, the value of 'm' is greater than or equal to I and the value of 'n' may vary from '0' to 'i' depending upon the specific implementation of the FRO framework. The value of 'm' and/or 'n' may be known (or defined and/or re-defined) before, during or after the Initial Transaction and/or any combination thereof. The value of n may be limited to less than the value of m, or n<m (i.e., n<-'m-1); however, in some 30 situations, n may be equal to m. The value of 'n' may or may not be known (or defined and/or re-defined) at the time of the Initial Transaction. The value of 'n Packages may be defined in one or more transactions. The value of 'im' and/or 'n' may be defined - 250 and/or re-defined, at one or more times, by the event management company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. For example, the value of n may not be defined at the time of kniial Transaction, In case the value of m is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'in' may be greater than or less than 5 the older value of 'm'. Similarly, if the value of 'n' is redefined after being defined at least once before, the new value of 'n' may also be greater than or less than the older value of 'n'. In some of the cases, the value of new 'n' may be even greater than the older value of 'in'. The 'n' Chosen Packages may include one or more Packages other than said 'in' Packages. 10 The FRO Packages may be selected by the event management company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof. The FRO VOF may enable an event management company to obtain flexibility from FRO customers (i.e., those who select FRO) and use said flexibility to satisfy the needs of other customers (i.e., who 15 have relatively fixed or strong preferences). Therefore, the event management company would usually have the right to select (or define) the Chosen Packages. However, in different implementations of PRO VOF, the event management company, the customer, another entity or any combination thereof may select one or more of the Chosen Packages related to a PRO. The PRO Packages and the Chosen Packages may be 20 selected by the same entity, different entities or any combination thereof. For example, the customer may select the FRO Packages and the event management company may select the Chosen Packages out of the FRO Packages. The event management company may incorporate the customer information and the data related to the FRO into the sales, production, inventory, other database or information system or any combination of the 25 above. Event management comprises of several industries including, without limitation, social and cultural events, festivals, sporting events (for example, including, but not limited to, baseball, hockey, football, cricket, basketball), corporate events (including, 30 but not limited to, product launches, press conferences, corporate meetings, conferences), marketing programs (including, but not limited to, road shows, grand opening events), -251 special events (including, but not limited to, concerts, award ceremonies, film premieres, launchlrelease parties, fashion shows, private (personal) events such as weddings and bar parties, so forth). The FRO VOF may be implemented in one or all of the industries mentioned above. Companies and/or customers in each of the industries mentioned 5 above, and others not specifically mentioned above, may generate benefit from the FRO VOF. Various algorithms, processes discussed earlier including, but not limited to, BuyN, Customer Notification, RemoveY, Sequential Get FRO, Concurrent Get FRO 10 may be implemented in the event management industry. As an example in the event management industry, event management companies usually have a higher aggregate capacity than aggregate demand. However, the demand is non-uniform and often leads to over-sale, revenue spill or spoilage or any combination 15 thereof, in Packages. The issue of last minute cancellations and no-shows (CNS) further complicates the issue. To deal with the revenue spills and spoilages, and to concurrently hedge against the CNS, the event management companies overlook Packages. Overbooking is a risky proposition due to associated costs, customer ill will and/or regulatory or government rules. If the capacity is not optimally utilized, that condition 20 probably represents the loss of potential revenue for that event management company. The event management company may have turned down potential customers due to the risk of high cost of overbooking in the concerned Package or other Packages (of the same or different Package). The overbooking factor in Packages other than said Packages represent potential revenue loss because there may be one or more customers 25 on such other Packages who could have been willing to be shifted to the Package with empty slots in lieu of reward, and thus, releasing capacity for new potential customers (who may be willing to pay a lot higher) in said other Packages. However, today there is no framework that allows event management companies to do so in an optimal fashion such that both event management company and the customer benefit at the same time. 30 An opportunity, thus, exists to concurrently generate an incremental revenue benefit for the event management company, and to maximize the purchase utilities for the customers - 252 (includes those who want to trade-in flexibility and those who want to obtain specific Packages even at higher prices). For example, David wants to organize a Christmas Party for his employees on 5 24d' December in a hotel which has two different banquet halls in which the party may be organized. The event management company may offer him a FRO, where he will be informed by 22 "d December about the venue (i.e., the chosen hall) of his Christmas party. The event management company may choose to reward David for his flexibility. 10 While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised within the spirit and scope of the invention as disclosed herein, What is claimed is:

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for an airline to enhance customers' experience in dealing with an airline, comprising: a. operating a computer-implemented service that delivers to a customer an option to fly onup to n of in selected flights which satisfy at least some criteria set by the customer, and which holds at least one seat for said customer on said m flights, i. where, 1. in and n are whole numbers and

2. n<rn, and ii. recording information pertaining to at least said option in a data store; b. operating a system to define each of the n chosen flights, in response to input from a customer or an entity authorized by a customer for at least one of said ii chosen flights, whereby after each of the n chosen flights is defined, the customer can fly on said chosen flight; and c. recording information pertaining to at least said chosen flights in a data store. 2. The method of claim 1 wherein delivering a said option occurs in relation to a customer purchasing a ticket for at least one flight,

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the ticket purchase is for a flight other than a flight for which an option is delivered.

4. The method of claim I wherein said flights are selected in multiple transactions.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said flights are defined in at least one transaction.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein value of said n is defined after said option is delivered to the customer.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein operating the system to define flights includes the customer defining, at one or more times, one or more of the n chosen flights.

2013-1I-21,C:\Users\Sharlene\Docunenls\$PECIFICATIONSgoel.173 7daims.wpd,253 -254

8. The method of claim 1 wherein operating the system to define flights includes the airline defining, at one or more times, one or more of the n chosen flights.

9. The method of claim I wherein operating a computer-implemented service includes the airline receiving from the customer an indication of one or more terms and conditions associated with said option.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein operating a computer-implemented service includes the airline delivering to the customer one or more terms and conditions associated with said option.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein no payment transaction is executed between the airline and the customer in connection with the option and the selected flights.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one payment transaction is executed between the airline and the customer.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the payment transaction includes a soft value.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the option does not include a notify deadline condition.

15. The method of claim I wherein the option includes at least one notify deadline condition.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein at least one of said m flights is defined as the chosen flight if the customer fails to satisfy said notify deadline condition.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the associated seats on said m flights is released for reuse by the airline.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein said m flights are fi-om more than one airline.

19, The method of claim 1 wherein the customer interacts with the service via at least one web 2013-11-21,C:\Users\Shdene\Docuinents\SPECIFICATQNStoell? 37.caimsmpd,254 -255 site.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the delivery of option includes an electronic delivery of said option.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer interacts with another entity operating the service other than the airline.

22. The method of claim I wherein the customer receives said option included in a fare class that does not separately identify a price for the inclusion of said option within the total ticket price.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one airline operates at least one of the service or the system.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one airline and at least one other entity each operates at least one of the service or the system.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one airline identifies to the customer at least one eligible flight for said option and allows the customer to select at least one of said m flights from the eligible flights.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one airline selects at least one of said m flights for the customer.

27. The method of claim 1 wherein an airline allocates at least one seat in at least one flight to another airline or entity, which may deliver said option on at least one of said allocated flights.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein said allocation of seats includes at least one condition requiring return of one or more seats.

29. The method of claim 1 wherein operating the system to define flights includes an entity 2013-11-2I,C\UsersSharleneDocumwnIs\SPECIFCAT1ONSigoeL]737.caimipd,255 -256 other than an airline or a customer defining, at one or more times, one or more of the n chosen flights.

30. The method of claim 1 wherein delivering an option includes holding at least one more confirmed flight than said n flights for the customer.

31. A computer-implemented method for an airline to enhance a customers' experience in dealing with the airline, comprising: a. providing a data store including relevant information regarding flights, sufficient to identify flights an airline chooses to make eligible for flight options; b. using a server with which customers may interact for flight options; c. using a server to receive inputs, from at least a customer, for flight options and searching the data store for flights eligible for flight options matching all or part of the inputs received; d. displaying the search results output from the server; e. receiving selections from at least among the search results of some or all of m flights to be grouped for flight options; f, delivering to the customer an option to fly on up to n of said rn flights, on which at least one seat is held for the customer on said in flights, and recording information for at least said option in a data store, where, i. m and n are whole numbers and ii. n<m; g. operating a service to receive from a customer or an entity authorized by a customer at least one input to define at least one of the n flights among said m flights; and h. recording information pertaining to at least said n flights in a data store.

32. The method of claim 1 or claim 31 further comprising releasing the hold on seats as and when the n flights are defined.

33. A system to provide options on flights, comprising: a. a data store including relevant information regarding flights, sufficient to identify 2013-11-2 ,C:Users\Shadene\Documents\$PECFCAT0NSige.173 TcaimsNpd,256 - 257 flights an airline chooses to make eligible for flight options; b. a server with which customers may interact for flight options; c. a server being adapted to receive inputs for flight options and to search the data store for flights eligible for flight options matching all or substantially all the inputs received; d. at least one output device to output the search results from the server; e. a data processor being adapted to receive selections from at least among the search results of some or all of m flights to be grouped for flight options; f. a data processor being adapted to deliver to the customers options to fly on up to n of said m flights on which at least one seat is held for the customer on said i flights, and to record information for at least said options in a data store, where, i. m and n are whole numbers and ii. n<m; g. an input device being adapted to receive from a customer or an entity authorized by a customer at least one input to define the n flights among said m flights; and h. a data processor being adapted to record information pertaining to at least said n flights in a data store.

34. A system for providing options on flights, comprising one or more computers executing suitable program code to: a. deliver to a customer an option to fly on up to n of m selected flights which satisfy at least some criteria set by the customer, and which holds at least one seat for said customer on said m flights, i. where, 1. m and n are whole numbers and 2. n<m; b. record information pertaining to at least said option in a data store; c. receive from a customer or an entity authorized by a customer at least one input to define each of n chosen flights, whereby after each of the n chosen flights is defined, the customer can fly on said chosen flights; and d. record information pertaining to at least said chosen flights in a data store. 2013-11-2,C-UserShalene#DocmrentsSPECIFICATIONSkgoel 1737Abims.wpd,257