WO2000042543A2 - Systeme de recherche de prix assiste par ordinateur - Google Patents

Systeme de recherche de prix assiste par ordinateur Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2000042543A2
WO2000042543A2 PCT/US2000/001070 US0001070W WO0042543A2 WO 2000042543 A2 WO2000042543 A2 WO 2000042543A2 US 0001070 W US0001070 W US 0001070W WO 0042543 A2 WO0042543 A2 WO 0042543A2
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WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
quotes
quote
request
merchant
information
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PCT/US2000/001070
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English (en)
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WO2000042543A8 (fr
Inventor
Eric W. W. Johnson
Raghav P. Kher
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Imandi Corporation
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Publication date
Application filed by Imandi Corporation filed Critical Imandi Corporation
Priority to AU28514/00A priority Critical patent/AU2851400A/en
Publication of WO2000042543A2 publication Critical patent/WO2000042543A2/fr
Publication of WO2000042543A8 publication Critical patent/WO2000042543A8/fr

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    • 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
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to technology-enabled retail and wholesale markets, and, in particular, to a method and system for storing, organizing, and making accessible to customers and merchants information about requests for quotes submitted by customers to merchants via technology-enabled retail and wholesale markets.
  • a customer submits a request for quotes to a number of merchants that offer a particular good or service desired by the customer.
  • the list of merchants is identified for the customer by automated technology-enabled market processes.
  • requests for quotes may be submitted by any number of different communications media, including email, fax, telephone calls, or Internet- enabled quote submission systems.
  • a merchant may respond to a customer's request for quotes via email, fax, telephone calls, or, preferably, via the Internet.
  • a customer may easily identify suitable merchants to which the customer may submit requests for quotes, and the technology-enabled market may, in addition, facilitate submission of requests for quotes by customers and the return of quotes by merchants to customers in response to requests for quotes received from customers.
  • merchants have recognized a need for tools and systems to allow merchants to easily store, organize, and process received requests for quotes from customers and that facilitate continued exchange of information related to a submitted request for quotes between a merchant and the customer who submitted the request for quotes while the request for quotes is being processed by the merchants.
  • a quote tracking system is most desirably implemented, from the standpoint of both customers and merchants, to store and organize requests for quotes in a centralized, although computationally distributed, facility so that neither customers nor merchants need concern themselves with issues related to reliability of storage and accessibility of stored requests for quotes to the different parties. It is most convenient for both customers and merchants to have access to various quote tracking tools that interface with the centralized database of submitted requests for quotes and that are provided by the quote tracking system in order to avoid redundant and inefficient implementation efforts.
  • the desirable integrated quote tracking system needs to provide different views of stored information related to particular request for quotes to the customer that submitted the requests for quote and to each merchant to which the request for quotes have been submitted.
  • Requests for quotes may have different formats and contain different information depending on the type of good or service for which a quote is requested, and the quote tracking system needs to provide flexible organization and storage in order to accommodate the different types of requests for quotes as well as flexible tools for accessing and displaying the different types of information related to different types of requests for quotes. Finally, it is desirable for the quote tracking system to accommodate additional types of information, such as email messages, documents, and automatic notification messages related to stored requests for quotes and to other technology-enabled market transactions.
  • the present invention provides a computer-aided quote tracking method and system for storing and organizing requests for quotes submitted by customers via a technology-enabled market to one or more merchants.
  • the computer-aided quote tracking system of the present invention allows both customers and merchants to access stored requests for quotes and information related to stored requests for quotes so that merchants can process stored requests for quotes and so that customers can track the progress of merchant processing of stored requests for quotes.
  • the computer-aided quote tracking system also allows customers and merchants to continually exchange information about submitted requests for quotes and to modify the submitted requests for quotes.
  • the computer-aided quote tracking method and system provides tools for merchants to use in processing requests for quotes.
  • the computer-aided quote tracking system comprises a centralized quote database and tools for accessing, retrieving, modifying, and manipulating the information stored in the centralized database.
  • the centralized database may be computationally distributed among a number of different servers.
  • the database is organized to accommodate many different types of information related to requests for quotes for many different types of products and services.
  • Certain of the information stored within the database related to a particular request for quotes is accessible, via tools provided by the CAQTS, only to the merchant to which the request for quotes was submitted, certain of the information related to a particular request for quotes may be accessible only to the customer that submitted the request for quotes via tools provided by the CAQTS, certain of the information may be accessible both to the customer and to the merchants associated with the submitted request for quotes, and certain of the information may be accessible to a wider audience of customers and merchants.
  • the CAQTS also provides organizing tools, including hierarchical folders, to both customers and merchants to allow the customers and merchants to organize different views of the stored data in meaningful ways.
  • Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the relational tables involved in a first relational database implementation of those aspects of the IMMM database related to the CAQTS.
  • Figure 2 illustrates a customer's interaction with the CAQTS in order to view the current status of a submitted request for quotes.
  • Figure 3 illustrates modification by a CAQTS client of a submitted request for quotes in a continuation of the transaction illustrated in Figure 2.
  • Figures 4-5 illustrate a continuation of the customer/CAQTS transaction illustrated in Figure 2-3.
  • FIGS 6-7 illustrate a transaction conducted by the CAQTS on behalf of an employee of the merchant "Smallville Motors.”
  • Figures 8-10 represent a transaction conducted on behalf of a manager employed by Smallville Motors by the CAQTS.
  • Figure 11 illustrates processing of a request for quotes by a sales representative of Smallville Motors.
  • Figure 12 diagrammatically illustrates the quote life cycle.
  • the present invention is related to a new type of technology-enabled marketplace that is described in detail in U.S. Patent Application No. , entitled “Intelligent Multi-Media Market,” assigned to the Imandi Corporation, and filed on January 15, 1999 that is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
  • the intelligent multi-media market (“IMMM”) facilitates quote submissions from vendors to potential customers by providing to potential customers lists of vendors that offer a particular good or service desired by the potential customer, that meet certain requirements and preferences specified by the potential customer, and that, where appropriate, are located within a reasonable geographic distance from the customer's residence.
  • One component of the IMMM is a database that is organized to contain sufficient information about vendors to enable the IMMM to construct lists of vendors appropriate for submission of a request for quotes from a potential customer seeking a particular good or service and that can be constantly updated through highly automated processes in order to contain very comprehensive, broad-based vendor information.
  • the present invention relates to an enhancement of the IMMM database that facilitates the organization, storage, retrieval, modification, and manipulation of information about requests for quotes submitted by customers.
  • the present invention provides a computer-aided quote tracking system (“CAQTS”) that allows for retrieving, modifying, enhancing, and manipulating information about requests for quotes both by customers and by merchants.
  • CAQTS computer-aided quote tracking system
  • the CAQTS provides a customer with the ability to track requests for quotes submitted by the customer as the requests for quotes are processed by merchants to which the requests for quotes are submitted by the customer, and with the ability to modify a request for quotes following submission of the request for quotes to the IMMM.
  • the CAQTS provides a merchant with the ability to store and access information related to requests for quotes submitted to the merchant by customers and provides tools that facilitate the merchant's processing of requests for quotes submitted to the merchant.
  • the present invention will be described in detail in four subsections that follow.
  • first subsection one embodiment of those portions of the IMMM database related to the present invention will be presented with sample data.
  • second subsection implementation of various CAQTS transactions will be provided with reference to the IMMM database embodiment described in the first subsection.
  • third subsection an alternative, more detailed embodiment of those portions of the IMMM database related to the present invention will be presented.
  • the fourth subsection describes the life cycle of a submitted request for quotes.
  • Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the relational tables involved in a first relational database implementation of those aspects of the IMMM database related to the CAQTS.
  • Relational tables are represented in Figure 1 as blocks, such as block 102.
  • Certain data dependencies are represented by directed edges, such as directed edge 104.
  • the relational table "Items" 102 describes each basic unit of information, such as a submitted request for quotes, contained within the portion of the IMMM database related to the CAQTS.
  • Relational table "Users" 106 describes each human user of the CAQTS, including customers and merchant employees. In the case of merchant employees, the corresponding entry for the merchant employee in the relational table "Users" contains a reference to a company indicated in Figure 1 as data dependency 108.
  • Each unit of basic information managed by the CAQTS is associated with a user, and thus each entry in the relational table item 102 contains a reference to a user, or data dependency 104.
  • a fundamental type of information managed by the CAQTS is a request for quotes, or, once submitted to the CAQTS, referred to simply as a "quote.”
  • Each quote managed by the CAQTS is described by entries in the relational table "Quotes" 110.
  • Figure 1 one such specialized table, "SUV quotes” 112, is shown.
  • Entries in both the specialized quote tables, such as relational table 112, and in the relational table "Quotes” 110 contain references to an entry in the relational table "Items" with which they are associated, described in Figure 1 as data dependency 114.
  • Relational table "Company Quotes” 116 Information related to a quote managed by the CAQTS that is used by a merchant during processing of the quote is stored in the relational table "Company Quotes" 116.
  • Each entry in the relational table “Company Quotes” 116 is associated with a particular company, a particular user, and a particular item.
  • Company information is stored in relational table "Company” 118.
  • each entry in the relational table "Company Quotes” references an entry in the relational table “Company” 118, an entry in the relational table “Items” 102, and an entry in the relational table “Users” 106, described in Figure 1 by the data dependencies 120, 122, and 124, respectively.
  • Folders may include request for quotes items, emails, messages, and other such information. Folders are described by entries in the relational table "Folders" 126. Items within folders are described by entries in the relational table "Folder Items” 128, each of which contains a reference to an entry in the relational table “Items” 102 and to an entry in the relational table “Folders” 126, described by data dependencies 130 and 132, respectively.
  • each user may create and manage a hierarchical set of folders using CAQTS tools, the hierarchical set of tools described by entries in the relational table "User Folders" 134.
  • Each entry in the relational table "User Folders” is associated with an entry in the relational table “Users” 106 and an entry in the relational table “Folders” 126, described by data dependencies 136 and 138, respectively.
  • the first embodiment of that portion of the IMMM database related to the CAQTS comprises the nine relational database tables shown in Figure 1, interrelated by the data dependencies also shown in Figure 1.
  • the relational table "Company” contains the following fields, or columns: (1) “Companyld,” a unique numerical identifier of the company; and (2) "Name.” a character-string representation of the name of the company.
  • the relational table "Items” contains the following fields, or columns: (1) “Itemld,” a numerical identifier of a particular item; (2) “ItemType,” a numerical indication of the type of item where, for example, the number “1” indicates a quote listed in the relational table “Quotes” and the numbers “2,” “3,” and “4" indicate an email, a document, and a memo, respectively; (3) “Userld,” a numerical id identifying a human user of the CAQTS; and (4) "Name,” a character-string representation of the name of the item.
  • the relational table "Users” contains the following fields, or columns: (1) “Userld,” a numerical identifier of a human user of the CAQTS; (2) “Name,” a character-string representation of the name of the user; (3) “Companyld,” the numerical identifier for a company, in the case that the user is an employee of the merchant; and (4) "Managerld,” the numerical identifer, or “Userld,” of the manager of the user described by the entry in the relational table “Users,” in the case that the entry describes an employee of a merchant.
  • Table 5 The relational table “Quotes” is presented below as Table 5:
  • the relational table "Quotes” contains the following fields, or columns: (1) “Itemld,” a numerical identifier of a particulate item; and (2) “QuoteType,” a numerical identifier of a type of quote represented by the entry, for example, the numerical identifier "1" indicating an SUV quote listed in the relational table "SUVQuotes. "
  • the relational table "SUVQuotes” contains the following fields, or columns: (1) “Itemld,” the numerical identifier of a particular item that represents the SUV quote described by the entry in the relational table "SUVQuotes”; (2) “Model,” a character- string representation of the name of the type of model of SUV represented by the entry; (3) “V8,” a Boolean value indicating whether or not the customer desires a V8 engine; (4) “RunningBoards,” a Boolean value indicating whether or not the customer desires running boards for the SUV; and (5) "TwoTone,” a Boolean value indicating whether or not the customer wants a two tone SUV.
  • the relational table "Folderltems” includes the following fields or columns: (1) “Folderld,” the unique numerical identifier of a folder represented by an entry in the relational table “Folders”; and (2) “Itemld,” the numerical identifier of an item represented by an entry in the relational table “hems.”
  • the relational table "CompanyQuotes” contains the following fields, or columns: (1) “Itemld,” a numerical identifier of an item represented in the relational table “Items” as a single entry; (2) “Companyld,” the numerical identifier of a company represented by an entry in the relational table “Company” ; (3) “Status,” a numerical representation of the status of a quote, where, for example, the status "10” represents a new request for quotes, the status "20” represents a request for quotes newly assigned to a merchant employee, the status "30” represents a request for quotes that has been acknowledged by the merchant, the status "40” represents a request for quotes waiting for further information, the status "50” represents a partially processed request for quotes, the status "60” represents a partially completed request for quotes waiting for further information solicited from a customer, the status "70” represents a completely processed request for quotes, the status "80” represents a quote that has been accepted by a customer, and the statue “90”
  • the relational table "UserFolders” contains the following columns, or fields: (1) “Folderld,” a numerical identifier of a folder represented by an entry in the relational table “Folders”; (2) “Parentld,” the numerical identifier of a folder represented by an entry in the relational table “Folders” that is the hierarchical parent for the currently described folder; (3) “Userld,” a numerical identifier of a CAQTS user represented by an entry in the relational table “Users”; and (4) "Inbox,” a Boolean value indicating whether or not the folder is the user's inbox, or, in other words, whether or not the folder is the folder in which newly received messages and notifications are placed.
  • @CurrentUserId - an integer representing the id of the user whose webbox we are displaying
  • Figure 2 illustrates a customer's interaction with the CAQTS in order to view the current status of a submitted request for quotes.
  • information displayed to a CAQTS user, and the user interaction with CAQTS are shown in the left-hand column, and indications of the direction of flow information, either from the user to a server or from a server to the user, are shown by arrows in the right-hand column 204.
  • an SQL-like statement or statements will be provided to illustrate how the information is obtained from the IMMM database.
  • step 206 a customer interacts, via the customer's personal computer and the Internet, with the CAQTS in order to obtain a display of the customer's folders stored within the IMMM database and managed by the CAQTS.
  • the SQL- like statement executed on behalf of the customer by the CAQTS in order to obtain the information for the display shown in step 206 is provided below, where the variable
  • FolderNames/Folderlds/FolderParentlds triples from the relational tables "Folder” and "UserFolders.” Using these triples, the user's folder hierarchy can be constructed for display as in step 206 in Figure 2. Referring back to Table 9 in the previous subsection, note that three of the folders for the user having Userld “1 " have Parentlds of "0,” and one of the folders associated with the user having Userld "1” has a Parentld of "3.” Thus, three of the user's folders occur at the top level of the hierarchy, and one folder occurs at a second hierarchical level below one of the top level folders.
  • step 216 the user Eric indicates, via a mouse control and cursor placement, that the user wishes to examine any items within the first folder "Quotes Submitted" 218.
  • the names and ids of those items are retrieved by the CAQTS, in step 220, via the following SQL-like statement, where the variable
  • step 226 the user indicates, by cursor placement and mouse control, that the user wishes to examine the status of the request for quotes being processed by the merchant "Suv Mart" 228.
  • step 230 the CAQTS displays to the user all relevant status related to Suv Mart's processing of the request for quotes, obtained from the relational tables "Items,” “Company,” and “CompanyQuotes” via the following SQL-like statement:
  • Figure 3 illustrates the modification by a CAQTS client of a submitted request for quotes in a continuation of the transaction illustrated in Figure 2.
  • the user through mouse control and cursor placement 304, indicates to the
  • step 305 the CAQTS retrieves from the
  • IMMM database the information originally submitted by the user that constitutes the request for quotes via the following two SQL-like statements:
  • the first of the above two statements allow the CAQTS to determine from which table to extract the customer preferences and option selections that constitute a portion of the request for quotes, and the second of the above two statements is used to extract requirements and options information from a particularized relational table that represents the relevant type of request for quotes.
  • the customer had previously selected the model "Brute" with a V8 engine, displayed by the CAQTS to the user in the display screen 306 in Figure 3.
  • step 308 through mouse control and cursor placement, the user removes the selection of the V8 engine and adds selection of two tone, after which the user indicates to the CAQTS that the request for quotes should be updated by new information appearing on the customer's screen 310.
  • FIGs 4-5 illustrate a continuation of the customer/CAQTS transaction illustrated in Figure 2-3.
  • the user "Eric" has returned to the display shown above in step 206 of Figure 2.
  • the SQL-like statements executed in order to retrieve the information that generates this display are shown above with reference to Figure 2.
  • the user indicates, through mouse control and cursor placement, that the user wishes to inspect any items in the user's inbox.
  • the CAQTS retrieves the single item in the user's inbox by executing the following SQL-like statement, where "@CuurentFolderId" conatins the value "2.”
  • step 406 an informational statement concerning this item 408 is displayed by the CAQTS.
  • This informational item 408 is obtained by the CAQTS by executing the following SQL- like statement, where "@CompanyID" contains the value "2.”
  • step 410 the user, through mouse control and cursor placement, indicates to the CAQTS that the user wishes to display the entire contents of the item within the inbox.
  • the information displayed to the user in step 412 of the CAQTS using information obtained by the following SQL-like statement:
  • step 502 the customer indicates, through mouse control and cursor placement, that the customer wishes to accept the quote represented by the displayed item from the inbox.
  • step 504 the CAQTS solicits from the customer any comments by displaying a text field 506, and, in step 508, the customer enters the message "I will be in Friday at 3 pm.” into the textbox 510 and then indicates to the
  • the CAQTS that the customer is ready to submit the completed acceptance by mouse control and cursor placement 512.
  • the CAQTS updates the entry in relational table "CompanyQuotes" that represents the quote received by the customer from the company "Smallville Motors” via the following SQL-like statement: BEGIN TRANSACTION
  • FIGs 6-7 illustrate the transaction conducted by the CAQTS on the behalf of an employee of the merchant "Smallville Motors.” In this and the following figures, it is assumed that the request for quotes submitted to Smallville Motors has not yet been processed.
  • the merchant's employee "Ted” has requested from the CAQTS a display of the employee's folders.
  • the SQL-like statement executed by the CAQTS to obtain this information is similar to that for step 206 in Figure 2, and will not be repeated in the interest of brevity.
  • the user indicates, through mouse control and cursor placement, that the user wishes to look at any items in the user's inbox.
  • the single item in the user's inbox is then displayed by the CAQTS in step 606.
  • the SQL-like statement executed by the CAQTS in order to find and display the inbox items is similar to the SQL-like statement executed by the CAQTS in step 406 in Figure 4, and will not be repeated for the sake of brevity.
  • the user indicates, through mouse control and cursor placement, that the user wishes to inspect the items in the user's folder "Reps," where the folder "Reps" contains lists of quotes assigned to various merchant representatives.
  • the CAQTS obtains the contents of the folder "Reps" and displays the information to the user after executing the following SQL-like statement:
  • step 702 the user realizes that representative "Bob” is not currently processing any requests for quotes, and uses mouse control and cursor placement to drag the quote from the inbox 704 and place it underneath representative "Bob” 706 in the folder “Reps.”
  • This operation essentially assigns the quote to Bob, and triggers the sending of a message to the user's manager "Karen” as well as a number of updates to the IMMM database, as described in the following SQL-like statements, where "@OtherUserId" contains the value "3,” corresponding to user "Ted.”
  • Figures 8-10 represent a transaction conducted on behalf of a manager employed by Smallville Motors, named Karen, by the CAQTS.
  • manager Karen requests from a CAQTS a display of manager Karen's folders.
  • the SQL-like statement executed by the CAQTS in order to obtain this information is similar to the SQL-like statement executed in step 206 in Figure 2, and will not be repeated in the interest of brevity.
  • manager Karen indicates, through mouse control and cursor placement, that she wishes to examine the contents of the folder "Analysis" 806.
  • the CAQTS displays a second-level folder "Last Month Sales" 812 within the top level folder "Analysis.” Information for this display is obtained in step 802 from the IMMM database.
  • manager Karen indicates through mouse control and cursor placement that manager Karen wishes to examine the contents of the subfolder "Last Month Sales.”
  • the CAQTS displays the contents of the subfolder "Last Month Sales" to manager Karen, the information displayed obtained by the CAQTS by executing the following SQL-like statement:
  • Managerld ⁇ CurrentUserld AND
  • manager Karen indicates through cursor placement and mouse control that manager Karen wishes to inspect the monthly sales item for representative Bob 904 and, in step 906, the CAQTS obtains that information and displays it to manager Karen.
  • manager Karen indicates through cursor placement and mouse control that manager Karen wishes to inspect the full contents of the item "SUV Quote 1" 910 corresponding to representative Bob within the folder "Reps.”
  • the CAQTS retrieves the information for "SUV Quote 1" via an SQL-like statement similar to that executed for step 230 in Figure 2.
  • manager Karen sends a marketing note to representative Bob by entering text into a text entry field 1004 displayed to manager Karen by the CAQTS and indicates, via mouse control and cursor placement 1006, that this message should be forwarded to representative Bob via the IMMM database.
  • the CAQTS enters this message into the relational table "CompanyQuotes" via the following SQL-like statements:
  • FIG 11 illustrates processing of a request for quotes by representative Bob of Smallville Motors.
  • representative Bob requests a display of Bob's folders from the CAQTS, and the CAQTS obtains and displays this information via an SQL-like statement similar to that executed by the CAQTS in Step 206 of Figure 2.
  • representative Bob indicates, through cursor placement and mouse control, that representative Bob wishes to look at any items in representative Bob's inbox.
  • the CAQTS obtains the items from Bob's inbox via an SQL-like statement similar to the SQL-like statement executed in step 406 of Figure 4.
  • representative Bob indicates, via cursor placement and mouse control, that representative Bob wishes to view the contents of the item "New Assignment - SUV Quote 1" 1110.
  • the CAQTS displays the information related to SUV Quote 1 via execution of an SQL-like statement similar to the SQL-like statement executed for step 230 of Figure 2.
  • the CAQTS provides text entry boxes and other editing controls to allow representative Bob to enter a merchant comment directed to the customer, to update the status, and to indicate a quote price.
  • the CAQTS then updates the relation table "CompanyQuotes" to reflect representative Bob's text entries via the following SQL-like statement:
  • CAQTS customer/CAQTS and merchant/CAQTS transactions related to submitted requests for quotes
  • SQL-like implementations for storing, retrieving, and modifying data within the IMMM database according to the transactions have been provided.
  • the CAQTS provides a wealth of other types of transactions to both customers and merchants.
  • an almost limitless number of different possible standard queries can be devised for facilitating customer tracking of the submitted requests for quotes and merchant processing of submitted requests for quotes.
  • the CAQTS may provide for ad hoc queries based on the information contained in the IMMM database.
  • the database embodiment presented in this subsection is designed to be partitioned across multiple SQL-like servers. Minimal information is replicated across all servers, and updated using distributed transactions, while the bulk of the information contained within the database, related to submitted requests for quotes, will reside on only one of a number of different servers. The distribution is transparent to users because the CAQTS will connect a user to the server containing the information representing the quote that the user is viewing.
  • the Quoteld encodes both a Serverld that identifies the server on which information related to the quote resides, and a quote id that uniquely identifies the request for quotes.
  • the relational tables "QuoteShared,” “Quote,” “TravelQuote,” and “CompanyQuote” together compose the data storage mechanism for information directly representing submitted requests for quotes managed by the CAQTS.
  • the relational table “QuoteShared” is replicated across all servers, while the remaining three tables are partitioned across servers.
  • the relational table “TravelQuote” is an example of a number of quote type-specific tables that contain information specific to different classes of quotes.
  • the relational table “TravelQuote” contains information related to provision of travel agency services. The type of quote is indicated by the field "QuoteCategory" in the relational table "QuoteShared.
  • the first status field represents an overall status for a submitted request for quotes, while the field “Company Status” specifies status specific to a particular merchant in relation to the submitted request for quotes.
  • the fields "QuoteCategory,” and “QuoteSubcategory” together compose a quote type, with the category and subcategory fields expanding quote categories in the same way that the IMMM specifies business categories with relation to merchant and vendor information.
  • the field "RefCount” in relational table “Quote” specifies the number of CAQTS users that currently have folders containing an item corresponding to the described quote.
  • the field "UserldAssignedTo” in the relational table “CompanyQuote” specifies the merchant employee to which the request for quotes has been assigned.
  • the relational tables "WebBoxItems,” “WebBoxFoIders. " and “WebBox” roughly corresponds to the relational tables of the first subsection “Folderltems,” “Folders,” and “UserFolders,” respectively. All three relational tables are partitioned across servers.
  • a “Group” consisting of a number of individual users.
  • the field “IsGroup” specifies whether the field "Userld” corresponds to an individual user or to a Groupld.
  • a user's folders may be protected by a set of permissions contained in the field "Permissions" of the relational table "WebBox.” Otherwise, the fields of the three folder-related tables are self explanatory.
  • the final set of tables including the relational tables "Company,” “Groups,” “Users,” “UserGroups,” and “Contacts,” are partitioned across servers and describe merchants, groups of users, and users. There are permissions associated with Users, Groups and UserGroups, contained in the field named “Permissions.”
  • the relational table “Contacts” is intended to store information known by a merchant about a user and includes the field “IsPrivateContactbit" to indicate whether the user is actually user of the CAQTS or simply a private contact maintained by the merchant.
  • the alternate embodiment As with the IMMM database embodiment provided in the first subsection, and that provided in the above-referenced related application, there are many possible variations in the alternate embodiment provided in this subsection, including additional fields within the tables presented, as well as additional tables and alternate partitionings of fields between various tables.
  • the alternate embodiment is given to emphasize distribution of the IMMM database across servers and to illustrate the nature and types of information that may be stored to represent the various types of entities, such as users, companies, and folders.
  • FIG. 12 diagrammatically illustrates the quote life cycle.
  • a user provides information to the IMMM concerning a product or service for the user desires to receive quotes from merchants.
  • the user selects from the list of merchants those merchants to which the user wishes requests for quotes to be submitted.
  • the requests for quotes are submitted to merchants, or vendors, either directly by the IMMM via the CAQTS, or by email, fax, or other means.
  • a vendor processes a submitted request for quotes. This processing may involve the use of the CAQTS, as described above, or may be accomplished by ad hoc methodology employed on a merchant-specific basis.
  • a quote is determined by the merchant, and the quote is then returned to the user in step 1212 either via the CAQTS or via direct contact methods, such as email and fax.
  • the user views the quote, either using the CAQTS, or by other means, and either accepts the quote, in step 1216, or indicates a desire for additional information in step 1218. In the case that the user accepts the quote, acceptance is forwarded to the merchant in step 1220, generally via the CAQTS.
  • the merchant processes the request for additional information in step 1224 and supplies that information back to the user in step 1226, generally using the CAQTS.
  • the CAQTS and methodologies employed by the CAQTS, may facilitate all the steps in Figure 12 following step 1204.
  • the CAQTS is able to manage very large numbers of requests for quotes submitted through the IMMM by a large number of different users to an equally large number of different merchants and vendors.
  • the large set of centralized information managed by the CAQTS may be used to generate very interesting cross-customer and cross-merchant statistics and transaction information supplied both to customers and merchants. Because the information is centralized and managed through the CAQTS, the IMMM can expose selective aspects of the information to various groups, in order to provide comprehensive tracking and analysis tools but, at the same time, protect and secure confidential information.
  • the IMMM database may be implemented as an ad hoc database, using common programming languages and operating system interfaces, or may be implemented using any of the various types of database management systems, including hierarchical, networking, relational, object-oriented, and hybrid database management systems.
  • database schemas may be designed according to the teachings of the present invention to include the required data related to requests for quotes and organized to quote tracking, as discussed above. Alternate database schemas may provide for, and accommodate for, storage of new types of quote information, or quote information formatted and represented in different ways.
  • the graphical user interfaces that display information to CAQTS users and through which CAQTS users provide information to the CAQTS can be implemented using any number of graphical user interface generation tools and language, and can have many different forms and sequences. Many different types of additional transactions, and facilities for ad hoc queries, can be incorporated into the CAQTS.

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  • Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
  • Finance (AREA)
  • Development Economics (AREA)
  • Economics (AREA)
  • Marketing (AREA)
  • Strategic Management (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
  • Information Retrieval, Db Structures And Fs Structures Therefor (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention concerne un procédé et un système de recherche de prix assisté par ordinateur, qui permet à des clients de rechercher et de modifier des demandes de prix soumises par des clients à des commerçants par l'intermédiaire de marchés facilités par des technologies, et qui offre à des commerçants des outils pour traiter des demandes de prix soumises aux commerçants par des clients par l'intermédiaire du marché facilité par des technologies. Le procédé et le système de recherche de prix assisté par ordinateur comporte un élément de base de données centralisée pour organiser et stocker des informations liées aux demandes de prix soumises et pour traiter celles-ci, ainsi que des outils présentant des vues différentes des informations aux clients et aux commerçants.
PCT/US2000/001070 1999-01-15 2000-01-18 Systeme de recherche de prix assiste par ordinateur WO2000042543A2 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AU28514/00A AU2851400A (en) 1999-01-15 2000-01-18 Computer-aided quote tracking

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US23242199A 1999-01-15 1999-01-15
US09/232,421 1999-01-15

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2000042543A2 true WO2000042543A2 (fr) 2000-07-20
WO2000042543A8 WO2000042543A8 (fr) 2002-06-06

Family

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Family Applications (1)

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PCT/US2000/001070 WO2000042543A2 (fr) 1999-01-15 2000-01-18 Systeme de recherche de prix assiste par ordinateur

Country Status (3)

Country Link
AU (1) AU2851400A (fr)
HK (1) HK1025467A2 (fr)
WO (1) WO2000042543A2 (fr)

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8145539B2 (en) 2009-10-07 2012-03-27 Daniel Allen Wiser Method, medium, and system for auditing rates using different rate requests in a database
WO2012054018A1 (fr) * 2010-10-19 2012-04-26 Lanyon, Inc. Système d'audit inversé
US8862552B2 (en) 2010-10-19 2014-10-14 Lanyon, Inc. Reverse audit system
US10643458B2 (en) 2014-11-18 2020-05-05 William Michael Smith Emergency service provision with destination-specific information

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
No Search *

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8145539B2 (en) 2009-10-07 2012-03-27 Daniel Allen Wiser Method, medium, and system for auditing rates using different rate requests in a database
WO2012054018A1 (fr) * 2010-10-19 2012-04-26 Lanyon, Inc. Système d'audit inversé
US8862552B2 (en) 2010-10-19 2014-10-14 Lanyon, Inc. Reverse audit system
US10643458B2 (en) 2014-11-18 2020-05-05 William Michael Smith Emergency service provision with destination-specific information

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
HK1025467A2 (en) 2000-10-05
AU2851400A (en) 2000-08-01
WO2000042543A8 (fr) 2002-06-06

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