Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; 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
  • G06Q10/06—Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; 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
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
  • Y02P90/00—Enabling technologies with a potential contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
  • Y02P90/80—Management or planning

Definitions

• the field of industrial equipment includes business entities at several different levels, including manufacturers, dealers, third-party financiers, and end-user customers.
• the dealer maintains an inventory of a wide variety of equipment types for rental to its end-user customers (i.e., the dealer's "rental fleet").
• Some types of equipment in the dealer's rental fleet are only infrequently needed by the dealer's end-user customers. Accordingly, such seldomly used items experience a reduced utilization rate compared to other items in the rental fleet.
• the investment is entirely lost if the purchase is not consummated, and is still partially lost even if the asset is finally transferred.
• the time lag involved in obtaining the information also leads to undesirable inefficiency. For example, a purchaser may have to make a quick decision regarding whether or not to buy a first asset, which would preclude a lengthy investigation of a second asset (e.g., the first asset may be sold by the time the investigation of the second asset has been completed) . This is particularly inefficient if the second asset is a better "fit" for the purchaser than the first asset .
• Figure 4 is a simplified diagrammatic view of a screen output of the system of Figure 1, showing detailed fleet information
• FIG. 1 is a simplified diagrammatic and block diagram view showing an electronic system 20 for managing, tracking and conducting electronic commerce, with respect to a plurality of assets designated 22 x , ..., 22 n .
• the assets 22 ⁇ , ..., 22 n are illustrated as being a plurality of pieces of movable industrial equipment, such as a plurality of conventional forklifts or similar machinery, used in the manufacture of goods in a typical factory environment. It should be understood, however, that system 20 is configured for operation with a wide variety of assets.
• System 20 is further configured to manage, and facilitate commercial transactions involving other assets (i.e., those not tracked) that are consigned or otherwise made available on an electronic market established by system 20.
• Electronic system 20 overcomes a problem identified in the Background, namely, the inability of prior systems to significantly facilitate business transactions that could increase utilization of infrequently rented assets in a user's rental fleet.
• Electronic system 20 includes functionality that allows users, in-effect, to consign assets on an electronic market in a manner that makes detailed information, such as maintenance history, readily available.
• users of system 20 having under-utilized equipment may use system 20 to "post" such equipment on the electronic market for rental, lease, or the like by other users of the system.
• Web server 30, application server 32, and database server 34 define a multi-tiered computing environment configured to achieve and implement the functionality to be described in greater detail hereinafter. It should be understood that alternate architectures may be employed, achieving the same functionality, yet remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
• "clicking" the "Add Asset” button causes a dialog box to be presented to the user having four tabs labeled “basic”, “additional”, “usage” and “performance”. The user moves from tab to tab, filling out respective forms, comprising input boxes and pull down menus When complete, the user "clicks" on a "SAVE” link. The method then proceeds to step 138.
• module 52 obtains "additional" asset specification data, which m the illustrated embodiment of a forklift may include a mast type (e.g., quad, standard, STD, TSU, etc.), a tire type (e.g., cushion, foam filled, non-marking, pneumatic, polyurethane, etc.), a "fuel type", a mast height, a tilt selection, an attachment description, an asset description, a condition, and an accounting system asset identification (ID) number, and a lease ID number.
• a mast type e.g., quad, standard, STD, TSU, etc.
• a tire type e.g., cushion, foam filled, non-marking, pneumatic, polyurethane, etc.
• ID accounting system asset identification
• reporting and analysis module 62 generates reports that include financial parameters, on both a per-asset and a per-fleet basis (e.g., average monthly cost) .
• step 146 current fleet module 52 obtains the next item of maintenance history data for the asset being configured.
• Figure 6 shows a screen output generated by current fleet module 52 for a configured asset .
• the configured asset comprises asset specification data 154 including maintenance history data 156.
• the user reaches the screen of Figure 6 by "clicking" on link 132 in Figure 4.
• Step 170 involves generating a bid definition from further input data from the first user.
• the bid definition 184 defines the bounds of the sale, rental or lease transaction involving the asset.
• Bid definition module 64 (best shown in Figure 2) is configured to generate the bid definition 184 as follows.
• bid definition module 64 when invoked by the user, prompts the user for a bid date 190, an availability date 192, and information defining the classes of users allowed to bid on the asset 194.
• the bid date 190 establishes the date when the asset is available for other users to bid on.
• the availability date 192 defines the date when the asset can be delivered.
• the bid definition module 64 executes a bid definition wizard.
• the information obtained from the first user to populate the fields described above is obtained through a step-by-step process, which leads the user along, allowing the user to click on checkboxes to select the classes of users who will be allowed to bid, as well as what respective transactions will be available to that class of user.
• the bid definition wizard as executed by bid definition module 64, allows direct entry of dates, and pricing, where appropriate .
• electronic system 20 allows a user, such as a dealer, to consign an asset to an electronic market for rental, lease, and/or sale by a second user, such as another dealer.
• This functionality enables the first dealer to increase utilization of infrequently used pieces of equipment by making those pieces of equipment available to a larger audience of dealers and end-user customers.
• the second dealer realizes an increased virtual inventory of equipment from which to, preferably, rent (with a view towards sub-renting to an end-user customer) .
• bid module 60 is further configured to prompt the user to select a lease term, a lease type, and a monthly lease amount offered for the selected asset.
• the lease term may be input through a pull down menu 254
• the lease type may be input through pull down menu 256
• the monthly lease amount may be entered (e.g., keyboard) in box 258.
• the lease term may be one of a 24 month, 36 month, 48 month, 60 month, and 72 month term.
• the add-to-fleet feature of market search module 58 may be used.
• the further method for adding assets to a fantasy fleet involves conducting a market search, using market search module 56, as illustrated in Figure 10. Then, the user adds assets by selecting the desired destination fantasy fleet through pull down menu 244, and "clicking" on the Add button 242. Through this approach, items available in market database 36 may be added to the fantasy fleet.
• a user may use the fleet builder wizard to create a fantasy fleet and configure and add assets.
• the fleet builder wizard may be invoked by "clicking" on the "Fleet Builder” button 86 on the user's start page 66.
• This step-by-step entry system leads the user along, prompting for a fleet name, and location, an indication that it is a fantasy fleet, and prompts to add an asset.
• the add asset feature of the "fleet builder" dialog is substantially the same as the "add asset” feature of the current fleet module 52, described above (e.g., Figure 5) .
• Figure 14 shows a report 274 generated by reporting and analysis module 62.
• each asset listed in the report has an associated plurality of parameters, such as average monthly usage hours, total maintenance cost, hourly maintenance cost, total lease cost, total operating cost, total hourly cost, percent utilization, etc.
• a user can invoke the reporting and analysis module 62 by selecting the Reporting button 92 from the "start" page 66 shown in Figure 3. The user may then select the target fleet (existing or fantasy) for which the report (s) will be generated.
• a user can evaluate changes made to an existing fleet by generating a report for an existing fleet, configuring a simulated fleet reflecting the proposed changes, and then generating a second report.

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• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
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• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• Human Resources & Organizations (AREA)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
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• Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
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• Tourism & Hospitality (AREA)
• Quality & Reliability (AREA)
• Operations Research (AREA)
• Game Theory and Decision Science (AREA)
• Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (15)

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• 2000
  • 2000-11-15 WO PCT/US2000/031426 patent/WO2001037118A2/en not_active Ceased
  • 2000-11-15 AU AU16133/01A patent/AU1613301A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-11-15 EP EP00978701A patent/EP1242906A2/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2000-11-16 AU AU17707/01A patent/AU1770701A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2000-11-16 WO PCT/US2000/031551 patent/WO2001037121A2/en not_active Ceased
  • 2000-11-16 EP EP00980448A patent/EP1259889A2/de not_active Withdrawn

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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