System and method for airline purchasing program management
First Claim
1. A contract management method, comprising the steps of:
- acquiring data from contracts and communicating said contract data to a yield management system;
generating selling instructions based on said contract data;
communicating said selling instructions to a booking system, wherein said booking system facilitates reservations in accordance with said selling instructions;
receiving reservation booking activity data from said booking system;
updating said yield, management system with said booking activity data;
comparing said booking activity data to said contract, data; and
revising said selling instructions based on said comparison.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system for air carrier contract management and optimization is disclosed. In particular, a system is described that facilitates travel contract optimization by generating contract terms and conditions desirable for optimizing client expenditure. Once the contract terms and conditions are determined, a yield management system facilitates compliance with contract terms and conditions by generating and providing selling instructions to booking systems to facilitate compliance with contract terms by travelers. Booking activity is provided back to yield management system to update contract compliance system and to revise selling instructions accordingly.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A contract management method, comprising the steps of:
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acquiring data from contracts and communicating said contract data to a yield management system;
generating selling instructions based on said contract data;
communicating said selling instructions to a booking system, wherein said booking system facilitates reservations in accordance with said selling instructions;
receiving reservation booking activity data from said booking system;
updating said yield, management system with said booking activity data;
comparing said booking activity data to said contract, data; and
revising said selling instructions based on said comparison. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A contract management system comprising:
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a central host system configured to communicate with a booking system, said host system further comprising a database system and a server;
contract compliance software associated with said host system, wherein said contract compliance software is configured to acquire contract data, generate selling instructions in accordance with said contract data, accept booking activity data from a booking system, and revise said selling instructions in accordance with said booking activity data; and
a communication system associated with said host system configured to facilitate communication of said selling instructions from said host system to said booking system and communication of said booking activity data from said booking system to said host system. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A contract optimization method comprising the steps of:
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accepting client historical data;
receiving airline data from a travel information provider;
performing a capacity analysis to determine a corporation'"'"'s historical expenditures by airline compared with each airline'"'"'s revenue potential;
analyzing the amount of expenditures that can be covered by different airline combinations;
facilitating the choice of a particular city pair by user;
analyzing the price per segment paid for said city pair;
identifying the amount of expenditure flown on other airlines in said city pair;
performing a shift analysis to determine the maximum amount of revenue that can be shifted to a airline; and
deriving contract terms and conditions to optimize expenditure.
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22. A contract optimization system comprising:
a computer server and database system further comprising;
a first module configured to facilitate a capacity analysis, wherein said capacity analysis is configured to provide a corporation'"'"'s historical expenditures by airline compared with each airline'"'"'s revenue potential;
a second module configured to facilitate a shift analysis, wherein said shift analysis determines the maximum amount of revenue that is capable of being shifted to a airline; and
a third module configured to facilitate a savings analysis, wherein, said savings analysis estimates the level of savings and overall effective discount of each supplier contract.
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23. An airline contract management system comprising the steps of;
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receiving a corporation'"'"'s historical travel data;
receiving airline data from a travel information provider;
performing a capacity analysis to determine historical expenditures by airline compared with each airline'"'"'s revenue potential;
analyzing the amount of expenditures that can be covered by different airline combinations;
facilitating the choice of a particular city pair by user;
analyzing the price per segment paid for said city pair;
identifying the amount of expenditure flown on other airlines in said city pair;
performing a shift analysis to determine the maximum amount of revenue that can be shifted between airlines;
evaluating contract terms and conditions to optimize expenditure;
assimilate said terms and conditions into a yield management system, wherein said management system generates selling instructions;
communicating said selling instructions to one or more booking systems to facilitate contract compliance;
receiving booking activity information from said booking system; and
revising selling instructions according to said booking activity.
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Specification