Submitting requests with degrees of satisfaction to be used for fuzzy evaluation of responses

• US 20060080209A1
• Filed: 09/22/2004
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Moeller, Stefan J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,792,750 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for providing requests using linguistic terms to describe importance and degrees of satisfaction. For example, a user may submit a bid invitation for items and use linguistic terms to describe the importance of each item and of attributes of the items. Linguistic terms may also be used to describe degrees of satisfaction with possible values of attributes of the items. The system and method of the present invention use fuzzy logic to evaluate the offers. The evaluation provides a degree of satisfaction based on the information provided by the user.

Claims

1. A method for generating a bid invitation, comprising:

querying a prospective purchaser for an item that said prospective purchaser may want to purchase and an attribute of said item;

providing said prospective purchaser with at least one set of importance fuzzy variables to select from to describe said item or said attribute of said item;

querying said prospective purchaser for a possible value of said attribute;

providing said prospective purchaser with a set of degree of satisfaction fuzzy variables to select from to describe said possible value of said attribute;

generating said bid invitation using responses to queries and selections; and

submitting said bid invitation to possible suppliers to notify said suppliers of the opportunity to submit a bid responsive to said bid invitation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

upon receipt of a bid, generating an evaluation of said bid using said responses.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying said prospective purchaser for a second possible value of said attribute; and

generating a numerical value representing a third degree of satisfaction to describe a system generated possible value using said degree of satisfaction and said second degree of satisfaction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one set of importance fuzzy variables are provided to describe said item and said attribute of said item.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said importance fuzzy variables comprise not important, not so important, medium, important and very important.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said degree of satisfaction fuzzy variables comprise very bad, bad, medium, good, and very good.

7. A method for obtaining bids, comprising:

querying a prospective purchaser for a description of an item and an attribute of said item by providing a first set of linguistic terms to select from to describe an importance of said item or said attribute and a second set of linguistic terms to select from to describe a degree of satisfaction of a possible value of said attribute of said item;

generating a bid invitation using said description provided by said prospective purchaser;

submitting said bid invitation to bidders to obtain bids;

upon receipt of bids, evaluating said bids to obtain degrees of satisfaction for said bids; and

providing said prospective purchaser with results obtained by evaluating said bids.

8. The method of claim 8, wherein said results comprise a ranking of said degrees of satisfaction and a linguistic expression of at least one degree of satisfaction.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said prospective purchaser can modify the first set of linguistic terms and said second set of linguistic terms that are provided to said prospective purchaser.

10. A system for obtaining bids, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to said processor; and

a bid invitation generator residing in said memory and executed by said processor, said bid invitation generator comprising;

a graphical user interface generator for generating a graphical user interface having controls to accept input from a user that describes an item and degrees of satisfaction with possible values of attributes of said item using linguistic terms; and

a bid invitation generator for generating a bid invitation for potential bidders using said input from said user and for storing at least one selection of one of said degrees of satisfaction associated with said bid invitation.

11. The system of claim 11, wherein said graphical user interface has controls to accept an importance of said item or said attributes of said item.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a bid evaluation engine for evaluating a bid using fuzzy logic programming techniques to translate said linguistic terms and provide a quantitative value representing a degree of satisfaction with said bid.

13. The system of claim 13, wherein said bid evaluation engine translates said quantitative value into a linguistic expression that can be easily understood by said prospective purchaser.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said bid evaluation engine ranks said quantitative value with other quantitative values obtained by evaluating other bids.

15. Computer readable medium storing thereon program instructions that, when executed, cause an executing device to:

query a prospective purchaser for an item that said prospective purchaser may want to purchase and an attribute of said item;

provide said prospective purchaser with at least one set of importance fuzzy variables to select from to describe said item or said attribute of said item;

query said prospective purchaser for a possible value of said attribute;

provide said prospective purchaser with a set of degree of satisfaction fuzzy variables to select from to describe said possible value of said attribute;

generate said bid invitation using responses to queries and selections; and

submit said bid invitation to possible suppliers to notify said suppliers of the opportunity to submit a bid responsive to said bid invitation.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions that cause the executing device to generate an evaluation of a bid using said responses.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions that cause the executing device to:

query said prospective purchaser for a second possible value of said attribute; and

generate a numerical value representing a third degree of satisfaction to describe a system generated possible value using said degree of satisfaction and said second degree of satisfaction.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein said at least one set of importance fuzzy variables are provided to describe said item and said attribute of said item.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein said importance fuzzy variables comprise not important, not so important, medium, important and very important.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein said degree of satisfaction fuzzy variables comprise very bad, bad, medium, good, and very good.

21. Computer readable medium storing thereon program instructions that, when executed, cause an executing device to:

query a prospective purchaser for a description of an item and an attribute of said item by providing a first set of linguistic terms to select from to describe an importance of said item or said attribute and a second set of linguistic terms to select from to describe a degree of satisfaction of a possible value of said attribute of said item;

generate a bid invitation using said description provided by said prospective purchaser;

submit said bid invitation to bidders to obtain bids;

upon receipt of bids, evaluate said bids to obtain degrees of satisfaction for said bids; and

provide said prospective purchaser with results obtained by evaluating said bids.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein said results comprise a ranking of said degrees of satisfaction and a linguistic expression of at least one degree of satisfaction.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein said prospective purchaser can modify the first set of linguistic terms and said second set of linguistic terms that are provided to said prospective purchaser.