SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR INTERFACING SOFTWARE ENGINES

• US 20130091014A1
• Filed: 10/01/2012
• Published: 04/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Four Charm Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: KSMI Decisions, LLC
• Inventors: Kellogg, Rawdon W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,954,367 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.54
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0627 using item specifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A system, method and computer program product for interfacing a decision engine and a marketing engine in order to provide vendor-related data in response to decision-related data is disclosed. In at least one embodiment, the system and method may include providing a decision engine on a user-accessible network; interfacing a marketing engine with the decision engine on the network; receiving a plurality of user inputs with the decision engine; processing decision-related data with the decision engine in accordance with the plurality of user inputs; sharing the decision-related data with the marketing engine; processing the decision-related data with the marketing engine; and transmitting vendor-related data via the network.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing vendor-related data, comprising:

receiving modified decision-related data from a decision engine, the modified decision-related data being generated by the decision engine by applying at least one user input to decision-related data, wherein the decision-related data is at least one factor used as a criteria in selecting at least one decision option, the at least one decision option being an output of the decision engine in response to the application of the at least one user input to the decision-related data;

retrieving vendor-related data from a marketing database based on one or more properties of the modified decision-related data, the retrieving including matching the at least one factor to at least one vendor factor associated with the vendor-related data and obtaining vendor-related data associated with at least a subset of the at least one vendor factor, wherein the at least one vendor factor is a criteria used in selecting the vendor-related data;

processing the modified decision-related data to modify the at least one vendor factor; and

selecting a subset of the vendor-related data based on the modified at least one vendor factor.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the selected subset of vendor-related data to the user.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising triggering a marketing engine associated with the marketing database to provide the selected subset of vendor-related data to the user.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the selected subset of vendor-related data to a marketing engine associated with the marketing database as a recommendation of vendor-related data to provide to the user, the marketing engine utilizing the recommendation to provide vendor-related data to the user.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the modified decision-related data includes at least one factor having a weighted score, the weighted score of the at least one factor determined by at least an importance assigned to the at least one factor by the user.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving the vendor-related data includes:

selecting the marketing database corresponding to a vendor; and

retrieving the vendor-related data from the selected at least one marketing database.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein selecting the marketing database corresponding to the vendor includes selecting the vendor based on whether or not goods and/or services provided by the vendor correspond to the decision-related data.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the modified decision-related data includes ranking the vendor-related data by applying weighted scores associated with the decision-related data to the vendor factors and selecting a subset of the ranked vendor-related data.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein selecting the subset of ranked vendor-related data includes selecting the subset based on an advertisement subscription of a vendor associated with the vendor-related data.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein providing the vendor-related data to the user includes presenting the vendor-related data along with at least one decision option, the at least one decision option presented to the user by the decision engine utilizing the modified decision-related data.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one decision option is product and/or service related data.

12. A system for providing vendor-related data, comprising:

one or more processors on a network;

an interface, provided on the one or more processors, configured to receive modified decision-related data from a decision engine, the modified decision-related data being generated by the decision engine by applying at least one user input to decision-related data, wherein the decision-related data is at least one factor used as a criteria in selecting at least one decision option, the at least one decision option being an output of the decision engine in response to the application of the at least one user input to the decision-related data;

a retrieving module, provided on the one or more processors, configured to retrieve vendor-related data from a marketing database based on one or more properties of the modified decision-related data, the retrieving module further configured to match the at least one factor to at least one vendor factor associated with the vendor-related data and obtain vendor-related data associated with at least a subset of the at least one vendor factor, wherein the at least one vendor factor is a criteria used in selecting the vendor-related data;

a selection module, provided on the one or more processors, configured to process the modified decision-related data to modify the at least one vendor factor; and

the selection module further configured to select a subset of the vendor-related data based on the modified at least one vendor factor.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the interface is further configured to provide the selected subset of vendor-related data to the user.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the interface is further configured to trigger a marketing engine associated with the marketing database to provide the selected subset of vendor-related data to the user.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the interface is further configured to provide the selected subset of vendor-related data to a marketing engine associated with the marketing database as a recommendation of vendor-related data to provide to the user, the marketing engine utilizing the recommendation to provide vendor-related data to the user.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the modified decision-related data includes at least one factor having a weighted score, the weighted score of the at least one factor determined by at least an importance assigned to the at least one factor by the user.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the retrieving module is further configured to:

select the marketing database corresponding to a vendor; and

retrieve the vendor-related data from the selected at least one marketing database.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the retrieving module is further configured to select the vendor based on whether or not goods and/or services provided by the vendor correspond to the decision-related data.

19. The system of claim 12 wherein the selecting module is includes a ranking module configured to rank the vendor-related data by applying weighted scores associated with the decision-related data to the vendor factors and the selecting module is further configured to select a subset of the ranked vendor-related data.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the selecting module is further configured to select the subset of the ranked vendor-related data based on an advertisement subscription of a vendor associated with the vendor-related data.

21. The system of claim 12 further comprising a presenting module configured to provide the vendor-related data along with at least one decision option, the at least one decision option presented to the user by the decision engine utilizing the modified decision-related data.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one decision option is product and/or service related data.

23. A computer-implemented method for providing vendor-related data, comprising:

receiving modified decision-related data from a decision engine, the modified decision-related data being generated by the decision engine by applying at least one user input to decision related data;

retrieving vendor-related data from a marketing database based on one or more properties of the modified decision-related data;

processing the modified decision-related data to modify at least one vendor factor associated with the retrieved vendor-related data; and

selecting a subset of the retrieved vendor-related data based on the modified at least one vendor factor.