Enhancing sales for service providers utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in schedule of services (time, location)

• US 20020099593A1
• Filed: 01/25/2001
• Published: 07/25/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kraft, Reiner, Ruvolo, Joann
• Granted Patent: US 7,337,125 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Sales associated with service providers is increased using an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule or services (time, location). Windows of opportunity (time, physical location) are automatically identified, and once such a window of opportunity is detected, the people affected directly from the change of a schedule are identified. This information is then used by services providers to act quickly, in order to enhance sales. Heuristics to determine a window of opportunity are based only on schedule changes (which are associated with a rule database), and without knowing who the affected people are or what their preferences (profile data) are.

Claims

1. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, said system comprising:

an event retriever, said event retriever generating an event pair which comprises a target value and an actual value associated with said schedule of services;

an event observer, said event observer receiving said event pairs from said event retriever, calculating the difference between said actual and target value, and based on one or more rules from a first set of rules, identifying and notifying a window of opportunity detector regarding potential windows of opportunities;

said window of opportunity detector, which receives said potential windows opportunities, detects, based on one or more rules from a set of second rules, if a window of opportunity exists, and if so, matches said detected windows of opportunities with service providers for the purposes of enhancing sales.

2. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said event retriever further utilizes service provider schema informnation stored in a service provider schema database to generate said event pairs.

3. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 2, wherein said service provider schema is a document type definition (DTD).

4. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 2, wherein said service provider schema is an XML schema.

5. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said one or more rules from said set of first rules is a threshold rule, and said potential windows of opportunities are identified based on comparing said difference between said actual and target value against said threshold.

6. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said one or more rules from said set of second rules are provided externally by said service providers.

7. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said system further accesses a subscription management service wherein said events and schedules are defined for tracking.

8. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said one more rules of said set of first and one or more rules of a set of second rules are stored in a rule database.

9. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said events are Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar) events.

10. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said event retriever further comprises:

an enhanced gatherer, which dynamically receives information from service providers over a network using simulated user interaction, and

a pattern matcher, which extracts said event pair from said received information based on matching the structure of said received information with that of a stored schema of said service providers.

11. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 10, wherein said enhanced gatherer is a web crawler.

12. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 10, wherein said network comprises any of the following:

local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), wireless networks, or the Internet.

13. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said received event pairs are extracted from a markup language form.

15. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 14, wherein said step of detecting a window of opportunity comprises of:

detecting an unexpected change in said schedule;

checking if people are blocked due to said unexpected change in schedule;

checking if service providers benefit from said blocked scenario, and

wherein said window of opportunity is detected if said service providers are going to benefit from said blocked scenario.

16. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 15, wherein said step of detecting an unexpected change in said schedule further comprises:

simulating user interaction via data gathering software to request data from service providers via a network;

receiving information from said service providers via said network;

accessing a service provider schema database and reading schema regarding said service providers;

matching said received information with said read schema associated with said service providers, and

extracting data events, comprising actual and target data, based on said matching step.

17. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 16, wherein said network comprises any of the following:

local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), wireless networks, or the Internet.

18. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 15, wherein said data gathering software comprises data mining software.

19. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 15, wherein said extracted data events are iCalendar events.

14. An e-commerce method for enhancing sales to potential customers, one or more steps of said method performed over a network, said method comprising:

electronically acquiring service schedules of one or more service providers;

detecting one or more thresholds of opportunity for sales to said potential customers based on periods of time of customer inactivity within said service schedules;

providing notification of said opportunity to said service provider, and

wherein said service providers offer sales to said potential customers during said period of inactivity.

20. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, wherein said method comprising:

extracting standardized event data comprising an actual event value and a target value, from said travel service provider via a network;

comparing, based on one or more rules from a set of first rules, the difference of said actual value and target value against a threshold value;

detecting a window of opportunity based on one or more rules from a set of second rules, and

distributing said window of opportunity information to said service providers for enhancing said service provider'"'"'s sales, if said detection of window of opportunity occurs.

21. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 20, wherein said travel services comprises any of:

airlines, trains, or buses.

22. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 20, wherein said event data is arrival or departure times and locations associated with said specific airline.

23. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 20, wherein said one or more rules from said set of first rules is based on said difference of actual and target values being above or below a predetermined threshold.

24. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 20, wherein said one or more rules from said set of second rules is based on rules provided by service providers.

25. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 24, wherein said rules provided by service providers are stored in a rules database.

26. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 20, wherein said step of extracting standardized event data further comprises:

accessing said travel service provider'"'"'s webpage over a network;

posting data regarding a specific travel provider in said webpage and querying for information regarding schedule of said specific travel service;

receiving a web document from said travel service provider regarding said schedule of said specific travel provider;

accessing a service provider schema database and reading a schema associated with said travel service provider;

matching said received web document with said read schema and extracting event data, and

standardizing said extracted event data.

27. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 24, wherein said network comprises any of the following:

local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), wireless networks, or the Internet.

28. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 26, wherein said step of posting data is accomplished using a HTTP POST command.

29. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 26, wherein said web document is of any of following formats:

HTML, SGML, or XML.

30. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 26, wherein said read schema is an XML schema.

31. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 26, wherein said read schema is a DTD.

32. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 26, wherein said step of standardizing involves standardizing based on iCalendar standard.

33. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable code embodied therein which provides for a e-commerce method for enhancing sales to potential customers, said article comprising:

computer readable code electronically acquiring service schedules of one or more service providers;

computer readable code detecting one or more thresholds of opportunity for sales to said potential customers based on periods of time of customer inactivity within said service schedules;

computer readable code providing notification of said opportunity to said service provider, and wherein said service providers offer sales to said potential customers during said period of inactivity.