System and Method for Negotiating According to Improved Matching Criteria

• US 20090171856A1
• Filed: 03/11/2009
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blue Yonder Group, Inc. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: i2 Technologies US Incorporated (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tenorio, Noel
• Granted Patent: US 10,192,259 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/80
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation

Abstract

A computer-implemented system stores profiles for parties to the negotiation, each profile specifying values for one or more parameters negotiated, the values reflecting a desirable outcome of the negotiation for the associated party. A matching server accesses an offer from a first party containing values for one or more of the parameters negotiated and computes a distance between the offer values and the profile values of a second party. If the distance is acceptably small, the server causes the offer to be accepted by the second party to conclude the negotiation. If the distance is not acceptably small, the server automatically modifies one or more values in the offer such that the distances between the modified offer and the profiles of the first and second parties are acceptably small simultaneously and causes the modified offer to be accepted by the first and second parties to conclude the automatic negotiation.

Claims

1. Software for conducting a negotiation, the software embodied in a computer-readable medium and when executed using one or more computer systems is configured to:

at a first party, receive an offer generated at a second party containing values for one or more parameters being negotiated;

compute a distance between the values in the offer and the values in a profile of the first party, the profile specifying values for the parameters being negotiated to reflect a desirable outcome of the negotiation for the first party;

if the distance is acceptably small, accept the offer to conclude the negotiation; and

if the distance is not acceptably small, automatically modify one or more values in the offer such that the distance is decreased and communicate the modified offer to the second party to continue the negotiation.

2. The software of claim 1, further configured to automatically modify the values in the offer in part according to an estimated profile of the second party.

3. The software of claim 1, wherein the offer received at the first party is a counter-offer to an initial offer previously generated at the first party and communicated to the second party.

4. The software of claim 3, further configured to generate the initial offer in part according to an estimated profile of the second party.

5. The software of claim 1, wherein the values in the profile are selected from the group consisting of:

values reflecting true needs with respect to parameters being negotiated; and

values reflecting a desired outcome with respect to parameters being negotiated, the desired outcome being more favorable than the true needs.

6. The software of claim 1, wherein:

the parameters are organized into one or more subsets;

the distance between the offer values and the profile values is computed for each parameter subset; and

the software is further configured to;

for each parameter subset, apply a weight to the distance to compute a weighted distance for the subset;

compute an overall distance between the offer and the profile according to the weighted distances of the parameter subsets;

if the overall distance is acceptably small, accept the offer to conclude the negotiation; and

if the overall distance is not acceptably small, automatically modify one or more values in the offer such that the overall distance is decreased and communicate the modified offer to the second party to continue the negotiation.

7. The software of claim 6, wherein the weighted distances are summed over all the parameter subsets to compute the overall distance.

8. The software of claim 6, wherein the weight for each parameter subset is specified as part of the profile.

9. The software of claim 8, further configured to determine the weights for one or more parameter subsets based on one or more words, as opposed to numbers, within the profile.

10. The software of claim 6, wherein:

the distance for a first parameter subset is computed as an absolute error between the associated parameter values for the offer and profile;

the distance for a second parameter subset is computed as a mean-square error between the associated parameter values for the offer and profile; and

the weighted distances for the first and second parameter subsets are summed to compute the overall distance for the offer.

11. The software of claim 6, wherein the distance for a parameter subset is computed to reflect a preference selected from the group consisting of:

exact matches between the parameter values for the offer and profile and, where no exact match is possible for a parameter, a minimum difference between the values for the offer and profile for that parameter;

close matches between the parameter values for the offer and profile for all of the parameters simultaneously, an exact match not being required for any of the parameters; and

an exception prohibiting exact matches between the parameter values for the offer and profile.

12. The software of claim 1, wherein the negotiation is over parameters of one or more items selected from the group consisting of:

parts, components, products, or other tangible items;

services;

real property; and

contracts or other legal instruments.

13. The software of claim 1, wherein the first party receives the offer from an electronic marketplace that is mediating the negotiation.

14. A computer-implemented method of facilitating a negotiation, comprising:

receiving, by one or more computer systems, at a first party, an offer generated at a second party containing values for one or more parameters being negotiated;

computing, by the one or more computer systems, a distance between the values in the offer and the values in a profile of the first party, the profile specifying values for the parameters being negotiated to reflect a desirable outcome of the negotiation for the first party;

if the distance is acceptably small, accepting, by the one or more computer systems, the offer by the second party to conclude the negotiation; and

if the distance is not acceptably small, automatically modifying, by the one or more computer systems, one or more values in the offer such that the distance is decreased and communicating, by the one or more computer systems, the modified offer to the second party to continue the negotiation.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising automatically modifying the values in the offer in part according to an estimated profile of the second party.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the offer received at the first party is a counter-offer to an initial offer previously generated at the first party and communicated to the second party.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating the initial offer in part according to an estimated profile of the second party.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the values in the profile are selected from the group consisting of:

values reflecting true needs with respect to parameters being negotiated; and

values reflecting a desired outcome with respect to parameters being negotiated, the desired outcome being more favorable than the true needs.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the parameters are organized into one or more subsets;

the distance between the offer values and the profile values is computed for each parameter subset; and

the method further comprises;

for each parameter subset, applying a weight to the distance to compute a weighted distance for the subset;

computing an overall distance between the offer and the profile according to the weighted distances of the parameter subsets;

if the overall distance is acceptably small, accepting the offer to conclude the negotiation; and

if the overall distance is not acceptably small, automatically modifying one or more values in the offer such that the overall distance is decreased and communicating the modified offer to the second party to continue the negotiation.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the weighted distances are summed over all the parameter subsets to compute the overall distance.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the weight for each parameter subset is specified as part of the profile.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising determining the weights for one or more parameter subsets based on one or more words, as opposed to numbers, within the profile.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein:

the distance for a first parameter subset is computed as an absolute error between the associated parameter values for the offer and profile;

the distance for a second parameter subset is computed as a mean-square error between the associated parameter values for the offer and profile; and

the weighted distances for the first and second parameter subsets are summed to compute the overall distance for the offer.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the distance for a parameter subset is computed to reflect a preference selected from the group consisting of:

exact matches between the parameter values for the offer and profile and, where no exact match is possible for a parameter, a minimum difference between the values for the offer and profile for that parameter;

close matches between the parameter values for the offer and profile for all of the parameters simultaneously, an exact match not being required for any of the parameters; and

an exception prohibiting exact matches between the parameter values for the offer and profile.

25. The method of claim 14, wherein the negotiation is over parameters of one or more items selected from the group consisting of:

parts, components, products, or other tangible items;

services;

real property; and

contracts or other legal instruments.

26. The method of claim 14, wherein the first party receives the offer from an electronic marketplace that is mediating the negotiation.