Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F16—ENGINEERING ELEMENTS AND UNITS; GENERAL MEASURES FOR PRODUCING AND MAINTAINING EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OF MACHINES OR INSTALLATIONS; THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
  • F16L—PIPES; JOINTS OR FITTINGS FOR PIPES; SUPPORTS FOR PIPES, CABLES OR PROTECTIVE TUBING; MEANS FOR THERMAL INSULATION IN GENERAL
  • F16L35/00—Special arrangements used in connection with end fittings of hoses, e.g. safety or protecting devices
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/08—Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
  • G06Q10/087—Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Definitions

• DESCRIPTION TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates generally to apparatus and method for matching buyers and sellers of products and services. More particularly, it pertains to automated, and usually computerized methods and systems for creating a depository for sellers to indicate inventory availability and a source for buyers to access to review those seller's inventories for purchase purposes.
• the system may be used by a single entity to manage assets where multiple users require the ability to independently access the management system, often times from remote and varying locations.
• a fundamental need of sellers of merchandise and providers of services is an effective means for communicating inventory availabilities to potential buyers.
• effective and persuasive means for communicating information to buyers is a paramount concern for providers.
• the advent of broadcast media provided a revolutionary step and improvement in the ability to disseminate information to purchasers. Broadcast communications, however, are unidirectional in that sellers are able to disseminate information to potential buyers, but those buyers who receive the information are not able to react in a direct manner and "broadcast" a response.
• radio and television has made it easier for a seller to distribute product and service information to a broader audience than traditional print media, it has not provided a highly effective means for selecting the receivers of the information, nor does it provide a closed environment within which the parties may review the needs and abilities of the other.
• Some sellers choose systems in which information about their merchandise is made available to potential purchasers, but it is the purchaser that originates a transaction by accessing the information and initiating a purchase.
• this type of system there is almost a 100 % percent certainty that the potential purchaser at least has a need for the product, and because they are actively seeking to review available products and services that will meet their needs, they are also likely to affect and complete a purchase.
• the problem of such a system is providing an environment within which the providers information is conveniently deposited and held until selectively accessed by interested buyers.
• catalogs of merchandise available from a provider have been printed and which may in turn be requested by buyers interested in those types of products. Without some advertising of the availability of these catalogs, however, it is unlikely that many purchasers will either know about the catalog's availability, or how to order and receive one.
• a related system is disclosed in United States Patent 5,402,336 that discloses a system and method for allocating resources of a retailer among multiple wholesalers. This system provides a means by which information may be provided about a plurality of wholesalers and their inventories and purchases made by retailers based on those retailers' collective needs.
• This invention includes features and/or components that have been invented and selected for their individual and combined benefits and superior performance as an automated and independently accessible inventory information exchange system.
• the system includes multiple aspects that individually and collectively provide new and novel features in and of themselves.
• Each of the individual components or processes, however, work in association with, and are optimally mated to the others. Together, they yield an overall information management system that has superior collective effectiveness in providing an automated and independently accessible inventory information exchange system.
• the method includes the steps of establishing a host operated information management system wherein the information management system is a computer having information processing and storage capabilities.
• the host also has electronic communication connections such as modems that permit third parties to electronically connect with the information management system for exchanging information therewith.
• Host approved sellers of products and services are granted limited electronic access to the information management system so that each approved seller then has a self-initiated capability to exclusively access that seller's inventory information that is maintained on the information management system for adding, amending and deleting portions of the seller's inventory information.
• the seller's inventory information is analyzed and assimilated into a buyers listing of products and services available through the information management system to potential buyers.
• Host approved buyers of products and services are granted limited electronic access to the information management system so that each approved buyer has a self-tnitiatable capability to access the buyers listing for reviewing products and services of interest to that buyer.
• the capability is provided for a purchase transaction to be initiated by an approved buyer who electronically designates a product or service of interest for purchase from the buyers listing.
• a seller is assessed a service charge determined by the amount of inventory information stored on the seller's behalf in the host information management system.
• the seller is assessed a transactional service charge, the amount of that service charge being determined by the sale price of the item sold in a sale transaction completed on the host information management system.
• the seller is assessed a uniform transactional service charge per sale transaction completed on the host information management system.
• Each approved buyer's capability to access the buyers listing for reviewing products further comprises the capability to filter the buyers listing so that only products or services meeting that buyer's specified criteria are listed for review.
• the host system may alter the status of a selected item upon its designation by a buyer for purchase so that the item is subsequently removed from display on the buyers listing.
• the selected item designated by a buyer for purchase may be blocked from future selection by that or other buyers until the item's previous "available" status is restored.
• Each seller and each buyer is issued a unique identifier utilized by the host information management system to identify each upon their log in into the host information management system.
• This log in identifier such as a company identification number and/or password will be recognized and recorded by the host information management system for usage tracking, billing, and other purposes.
• the host operated information management system is interfaced to the sellers and the buyers as a site accessible through the Internet. Easy access is provided to the host Internet site to the sellers and buyers, each of whom may access the host site upon their own initiative remotely through an Internet access provider of their choice. Because this preferred embodiment operates within the framework of the
• the system is substantially continuously available to a plurality of sellers and a plurality of buyers, except during very brief times during which system maintenance is performed.
• the host information management system operates in a database format in which information pertaining to a particular product or service item is maintained as one of a plurality of records of the database and the buyers listing is produced through a report that surveys the plurality of records and compiles the buyers listing from selected information contained within those records.
• each record is assigned a unique identifier for tracking and processing purposes. Since each record usually reflects a discrete item of product or a particular service, the record identifier, such as an identification number, also serves to identify individual products or services among the possibly many that are maintained not only by a particular seller, but also among the several sellers' inventories.
• Each record is formatted to a base template that has a plurality of fields wherein each field is intended to contain a specific type of information about the product or service item of that record. Because each seller is identified upon log in into the host system, a customized template may be created for each seller wherein each field that is likely to contain the same information for each product or service record of that seller is partially pre-completed to facilitate the entry of product and service information into the host information management system by the seller. Therefore, instead of displaying a generic template to a seller when his or her inventories are being manipulated to add, change or delete items, their customized template may be displayed for making the manipulation process go more quickly and with less effort.
• This same or abbreviated version of the template may be displayed to a buyer upon log in. That buyer may then complete chosen fields with information to be used in a matching process with like fields in the sellers' inventory records for filtering product and service information to be listed on the buyers listing to that information which meets the buyer's specified filter criteria. As an option to the buyer, the buyer's filtered product and service information to be listed on the buyers listing may be further condensed so that multiple items of like or similar products and services meeting certain host or buyer specified criteria are reduced to single entries on that buyer's listing for brevity and simplification purposes to the reviewing buyer.
• Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the inventory information exchange system.
• Figure 2 is a flowcharted representation of the method of utilizing the automated and independently accessible inventory information exchange system of the present invention as employed by a plurality of buyers and sellers in an Internet environment.
• Figure 3 is a flowcharted representation of the method of utilizing the automated and independently accessible inventory information exchange system of the present invention as employed by an entity for asset management purposes wherein a plurality of users access the system via the Internet.
• the present invention provides a means by which product and service information may be made available to select buyers.
• the basic concept of the present invention is to provide a data base to which sellers and buyers have limited, but independent access for exchanging sales information.
• Each seller has the ability to access information about his or her own inventory on the system. It is contemplated that multiple sellers will have inventory information on the system in "areas" that contain their information alone. Each of those several sellers will only have access to their own inventory information, and not the information of the other sellers.
• purchasers may place an order with the host or administrator of the system who later conveys the information to an appropriate seller.
• the purchaser may place an order directly with a specific seller based on either product criteria or seller's identification, if that is made available.
• both sellers and purchasers may access their sides of the system at any time; sellers may manipulate and change their inventory information and buyers may review an updated product listing that is maintained and updated on a substantially continuous basis.
• the present invention may be maintained within any one of several available environments that allows limited user accessibility as well as processing capabilities for manipulating the information to be exchanged. Because of the compiling and assimilating features required of the administrative system, it is incumbent that the hosting system be computerized and that the sellers and buyers have a means by which they can independently gain access on their own initiative. A dedicated computer base or system having dial-up and on-line capabilities would satisfy these requirements, as would the more elaborate, but exceedingly popular Internet. Within each of these computerized systems, it is possible to partition off special areas for each sellers inventory information, and to which a particular seller has exclusive access.
• each seller's inventory area is formatted and input in such a way that the administrative portion of the system can retrieve that information and analyze and compile it with information about the inventories of other sellers.
• the information from the several sellers' areas is either continuously monitored or intermittently examined on a regular, but frequent basis to extract relevant changes about the several available inventories.
• the withdrawn information is then compiled to present a uniform product listing that may include a listing of each product of each seller, or alternatively the listing may be filtered to show a unified listing of products wherein each product has a single entry regardless of the number of sellers having that particular product for sale. This listing is typically not directly accessible by the sellers.
• a seller will have to also be authorized as a buyer to gain access to the compiled listing.
• the merchandise display domain for subscribing buyers desiring to review the information compiled from the several sellers' data bases.
• the buyer will be able to communicate with the host and specify criteria for the display listing that will limit the displayed listing to only those products and/or services of immediate interest. In this way a greater array of products may be maintained on any given system without causing confusion or becoming burdensome since the buyers can filter what is displayed at any one time on their own.
• the buyers will typically view the administrator of the system as a sole provider of the listed products and services, and not a representative of the plurality of sellers.
• the host acts as a clearing house through which information is collected from sellers and then displayed for buyers who can then place orders through the system.
• the administrator may then order appropriate product and service corresponding to the buyers' requirements.
• it is anticipated that the buyers may place orders directly with the sellers and that the host receives a commission or fee for providing the information exchange service.
• the system and process of the present invention may be differentiated from others presently known by its ability to serve as an administrator or host that coordinates between a sellers' domain and a buyers' domain with the interface therebetween being a site having an analyzed display of products and services available upon the system.
• the intermediary administrator By having the intermediary administrator, the necessity of providing interactive and simultaneous communication between the buyer and seller is eliminated. It does, however, provide continuous access to the system for both buyers and sellers.
• the system permits the buyer to order product and service through the administrator at any time, just as it permits sellers to access and amend their inventory information.
• neither party on either side of the administrator need be logged into the system at the same time.
• this system may be provided on any electronic medium capable of providing a means for limiting access to a plurality of authorized users.
• an appropriate host system may be a dedicated computer having dial-up and on-line capabilities, as well as computational capabilities.
• the system is administered in an Internet environment wherein a host site serves as the administrator and both buyers and sellers are permitted access to the site based on authorized access codes. Information for transacting actual purchases may be exchanged outside of this system in a more traditional manner of placing an order by either telephone, telecopy, or mail service from the sellers to the administrator. It is anticipated, however, that the host site will accommodate direct orders on-line by the purchaser.
• PC personal computer
• the host either a dedicated computer system, Webb site or other hosting environment will be "open" at all times and available to receive log-ins from a plurality of users, be they buyers and/or sellers, at different times, or simultaneously.
• the users will be able to effectively leave messages that are to be communicated either directly or indirectly to the users on the opposite side of the host for affecting a commercial transaction.
• the administrator of the product listing will have capabilities for reviewing and analyzing the sellers' information on a continuous basis so that the listing is always up-to-date, or at sufficiently frequent intervals that the likelihood of a buyer purchasing a product based on specifications that have been changed since the last update is minimized.
• a substantially identical information exchange system as described herein above may be utilized by a single entity for the purpose of managing certain asset and service availabilities within a particular organization or "domain".
• a system used by such an organization may be run on an identical platform to that described herein above, or there may be greater leniencies between the divisions for what has previously been described as sellers and buyers domains.
• an asset manager responsible for tracking and inventorying a company's assets will be similarly positioned to a seller. That assets manager may wish to have information about its inventories displayed to others within the organization, but to also prevent them from making unauthorized changes to the item inventories.
• the system of controls may be more relaxed wherein those who survey the inventories from a position similar to a buyer may be provided the ability to manipulate inventory entries based on that reviewing user's needs and actions taken relative to listed items.
• the basic framework of the information exchange system need not vary greatly from the buyers and sellers format.
• An example of an information exchange system according to the present invention intended to be utilized by a plurality of sellers and buyers may be seen through the following example of a domain within which oil field products and services are exchangeable.
• a host information management system is established within a computer system that manages and processes all the information entered and stored within the system, and controls the access granted to both buyers and sellers.
• a seller After a seller has been initially approved for access, he or she will communicate basic information that is common to the products and services he or she expects to be listed in the system. Based upon the nature of the domain or forum to which that seller is granted access, a template record will be created by the administrator to be used when the seller's itemized inventory information is entered into the system. This "standard" information for a particular seller's products will be amendably inserted into a seller's sample template that will be available upon log in and which is partially pre-completed with that standard information. This pre-completion facilities entry of individual items and speeds the input process.
• each record will comprise a plurality of fields, each field representing a specific type of information relevant to each piece of equipment or service.
• casing pipe of various sizes, wall thicknesses, and thread specifications may be usual products exchanged. Therefore, each of these three characteristics may be provided a field wherein the specifics about an item being entered are described. For uniformity, when a limited number of possibilities is appropriate for a field entry, those possibilities may be made displayable in "drop-down" menus common to databases.
• a similarly customized template will optionally be provided.
• the template is used by the buyer for making selection criteria entries.
• a partially completed template may be displayed to a buyer upon his or her log in that has certain pre-filled fields designated by the individual buyer when he or she subscribes to the system.
• An example would be a subscribing buyer who only supplies casing pipe for the drilling of oil wells. In that instance, the buyer would desire to have pre-filled fields that automatically specify his search criteria to be limited to tubing casing. If there are predominate features that are more often than not required by a buyer, those indications may also be pre-filled. Generally, anything that can be pre-filled and not repetitively typed will be desirable to a buyer.
• the buyer logs into the information exchange system he or she is recognized by the host based on the entered identifier and a pre-filled selection criteria template is made available for further customization before a search of the sellers' inventories is executed by the database. It is also possible that the format for display of the buyer's listing may be customized for a particular buyer based on his or her recurring needs. For instance, all casing pipe may be considered to be fungible, therefore it is not necessary for the buyer to know how many different sellers such pipe available. After the buyer listing indicating product and service availability meeting the buyer's specified criteria is displayed, the buyer reviews the same and makes decisions based thereon. It may be that a purchase decision is made and the transaction is initiated within the host system.
• the two parties may be permitted to deal directly through the host system.
• the host may remain an intermediary who conveys messages.
• the transaction may be electronically processed through the several physical connections established between the buyer and seller by way of the interface of the host system.
• Transaction that are controlled by the host may be tracked, administered, and charged for. It is possible that the host will charge transactional service fees that are unit based per transaction or proportionally based on such things as selling price and quantities.
• a seller may be assessed a fees based upon the amount of inventory maintained on the host's system. This type of pricing, however, will be more suitable to asset management systems, a use which is detailed herein below.
• the present invention provides significant benefits to both sellers and buyers in that access may be achieved from any location at which the buyer or seller can make suitable connections to the Internet. Most often, this will be accomplished through the buyers or sellers regular Internet access provider. This, however, is not a limitation in that the website of the host is "blind" to the avenue through which access is sought, other than that such access comes through the expected Internet network to the host site.
• an asset manager may desire to out-source substantially all overhead associated with in-house information management facilities.
• the above described system provides a superior solution for such a manager with very little amendment to the procedures and programming described in the example immediately above.
• the partitions otherwise provider between buyers and sellers may be relaxed .
• they may be desirably maintained so that strict controls are made available to the asset manager.
• a world wide oilfield service company may have similar needs to a market wherein a plurality of sellers and buyers operate. In such a case, the administrator or manager of the assets will act as a unified
• Each of these embodiments of the present invention are viewed as information exchange systems that may be suited for any product or service wherein information is desired in an easy to comprehend format by either (1 ) asset managers and users of the inventoried properties or (2) a plurality of purchasers and a plurality of sellers who desire access to a focused marketing medium for the products and services in which each is interested.
• the limits upon the information management system and its applications are viewed as being almost without bound and capable of providing great benefit to all participating users.
• the system operates on what is generally known as the Internet providing remote and continuous access to a plurality of persons desirng to sell products for services and others who desire to buy the same.
• the present invention finds utility in an organization wherein that organization's complexity requires sophisticated information management systems for controlling inventories within the bound of that organization.

Landscapes

• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Economics (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Quality & Reliability (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
• Human Resources & Organizations (AREA)
• Marketing (AREA)
• Operations Research (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• Strategic Management (AREA)
• Tourism & Hospitality (AREA)
• Development Economics (AREA)
• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)
• Quick-Acting Or Multi-Walled Pipe Joints (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=21787210

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (4)

Families Citing this family (21)

Family Cites Families (9)

• 1997
  • 1997-05-23 WO PCT/US1997/008750 patent/WO1997044749A1/en active Application Filing
  • 1997-05-23 EP EP97926693A patent/EP0976076A4/de not_active Ceased
  • 1997-05-23 CA CA002255905A patent/CA2255905A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1997-05-23 AU AU31402/97A patent/AU3140297A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1997-06-04 AU AU32292/97A patent/AU3229297A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1997-06-04 WO PCT/US1997/009621 patent/WO1997046822A1/en active Application Filing

Non-Patent Citations (2)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events