On-line selection of service providers in distributed provision of services on demand
First Claim
1. An electronic control apparatus configured for use in routing customer orders received over an electronic network to a service provider selectable from a plurality of service providers, said apparatus comprising:
- an electronic interface configured to receive and acknowledge said customer orders;
first processing means configured to compare the requirements of a said received customer order with pre-stored information specific to each of said plurality of service providers;
a memory configured to store a list of said service providers determined to be able to fulfil the requirements of a said received order; and
further processing means configurable, for a received order, to make a said selection of at least one service provider from said list, and to route said received order to said selected service provider.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic control apparatus configured for use in routing customer orders, received over the internet, to a service provider such as a print service provider selected from a plurality of competing print service providers, comprises an electronic interface configured to receive and acknowledge customer orders; first processing means configured to compare the requirements of a received order with pre-stored information specific to each of the competing service providers; responsive means configured to establish a list of the service providers determined to be able to fulfill requirements of the received order; and processing means configurable, for a received order, to make the selection from the list and to route the received order to the selected service provider. Advantageously by applying a series of filters an optimum service provider is selected by a gateway device assigning a printing order to a print service provider taking into account geographical criteria, and attempts to minimize the final price, in particular the shipping costs. Whilst minimizing costs to the end customer, the gateway device seeks to ensure that a print service provider having competitive prices still receives work.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. An electronic control apparatus configured for use in routing customer orders received over an electronic network to a service provider selectable from a plurality of service providers, said apparatus comprising:
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an electronic interface configured to receive and acknowledge said customer orders;
first processing means configured to compare the requirements of a said received customer order with pre-stored information specific to each of said plurality of service providers;
a memory configured to store a list of said service providers determined to be able to fulfil the requirements of a said received order; and
further processing means configurable, for a received order, to make a said selection of at least one service provider from said list, and to route said received order to said selected service provider. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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18. A method of automatically selecting a service provider from a plurality of service providers operating to complete customer orders received said method comprising the steps of:
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comparing the requirements of a received order with pre-stored information specific to each of said service providers and in response to said comparison establishing a list of said service providers able to fulfil the requirements of said received order; and
making selection of at least one said service provider from said list; and
routing said received order to said selected service provider.
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33. A method of allocation of online print services, supplied by a plurality of print service provider entities said method comprising the steps of:
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storing data describing a plurality of print service provider entities;
automatically selecting at least one print service provider for fulfillment of an order received online; and
sending said order to said print service provider for fulfillment by said selected service provider. - View Dependent Claims (34)
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Specification