Transactions between vendors and customers using push/pull model

• US 20020082912A1
• Filed: 12/22/2000
• Published: 06/27/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Voxage Limited
• Original Assignee: Voxage Limited
• Inventors: Batachia, Leon, Amariei, Adrian
• Application Number:
  US09/746,984
• Publication Number:
  US 20020082912A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

An offer and acceptance method and apparatus where the vendor generates offer package for customer acceptance. The offer packages may be created and sent towards a customer (customers) according with a particular policy.

Claims

1. An offer and acceptance method comprising:

generating an offer based on policy; and

pushing the offer to a customer.

2. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a customer request for the offer.

3. The method as in claim 1, wherein generating the offer further comprises:

using an intelligent agent to generate the offer.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein generating the offer further comprises:

generating an offer package having a plurality of options.

5. The method as in claim 4, wherein generating the plurality of options further comprises:

generating the options based on customer profile.

6. The method as in claim 4, wherein generating the plurality of options further comprises:

generating the options based on customer preferences.

7. The method as in claim 4, wherein generating the plurality of options further comprises:

generating the options based on a predicted behavior of the customer.

8. The method as in claim 4, wherein generating the plurality of options further comprises:

generating the options based on a customer'"'"'s perceived value.

9. The method as in claim 4, wherein generating the plurality of options further comprises:

taking into consideration no-shows.

10. The method as in claim 1, wherein the policy is generated using a revenue management policy.

11. The method as in claim 1, wherein the policy is generated using heuristics.

12. The method as in claim 1, wherein the policy is generated using an expert system.

13. The method as in claim 1, wherein the policy is expressed in business rules.

14. The method as in claim 1, wherein generating the offer further comprises:

dynamically generating the offer.

15. The method as in claim 14, wherein dynamically generating the offer comprises:

using environmental parameters.

16. The method as in claim 4, further comprising:

generating a plurality of offer packages, each offer package directed to a target customer/customers.

17. The method as in claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a customer'"'"'s selection; and

updating a customer profile based on the selection.

18. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

negotiating the offer with a customer'"'"'s intelligent agent.

20. The apparatus as in claim 19, further comprising:

means for a customer to request the offer.

21. The apparatus as in claim 19, further comprising means for generating the policy coupled to the offer generating means.

22. The apparatus as in claim 19, wherein the offer generating means further comprises:

means for dynamically generating the offer.

23. The apparatus as in claim 19 further comprising means to transmit the offer to the customer.

24. The apparatus as in claim 19, further comprising:

means for the customer to negotiate the offer.

19. An offer and acceptance apparatus comprising:

means for generating an offer based on policy; and

means for pushing the offer to a customer.

43. An offer and acceptance system comprising:

an offer package engine to generate an offer package based on policy; and

a business rules engine to supply business rules derived from the policy that is considered in generating the offer package.

44. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 43, further comprising:

the offer package having a plurality of options.

45. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 43, further comprising:

the policy is based on a revenue management policy.

46. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 43, further comprising:

the policy is based on heuristics.

47. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 43, further comprising:

the policy is based on an expert system.

48. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 43, wherein the offer package engine is configured to push the offer package.

49. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 43, wherein the offer package engine is configured to receive a request for the offer package.

50. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 43, further comprising:

a database to store a customer profile that is considered in generating the offer package.

51. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 50, further comprising:

the customer profile includes a customer'"'"'s perceived value that is considered in generating the offer package.

52. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 50, further comprising:

the customer profile includes a predicted behavior of a customer that is considered in generating the offer package.

53. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 50, further comprising:

the customer profile includes a customer preference that is considered in generating the offer package.

54. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 50, further comprising:

the database to store a history of no-shows that is considered in generating the offer package.

55. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 43, further comprising:

the offer package engine configured to dynamically generate the offer package; and

the business rules engine configured to cause the offer package engine to dynamically generate the offer package based on environmental parameters.

56. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 50, further comprising:

the offer package engine configured to generate a plurality of offer packages, each offer package is directed to a target customer/customers based on the customer profile.

57. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 43, further comprising:

an user interface to interact with customers.

58. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 57, further comprising:

the user interface coupled to Internet.

59. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 57, further comprising:

the user interface coupled to a wireless network.

60. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 43, further comprising:

the offer package engine having a system intelligent agent that generates an offer package.

61. The offer and acceptance system as in claim 60, further comprising:

the system intelligent agent configured to interact with a customer intelligent agent to negotiate the offer package.