On-line selection of service providers in distributed provision of services on demand

• US 7,225,220 B2
• Filed: 07/19/2001
• Issued: 05/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Gonzalez, Manuel, Roche, Alex
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar; Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ismail; Shawki
• Application Number:
  US09/907,583
• Publication Number:
  US 20020019786A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,140 Days
• Field of Search: 705/8, 705/26, 705/400, 709202-203, 709/206, 709217-219, 709223-224, 709238-242, 358/1.15
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

An electronic control apparatus configured for use in routing customer orders, received over the internet, to a service provider such as a print service provider selected from a plurality of competing print service providers, comprises an electronic interface configured to receive and acknowledge customer orders; first processing means configured to compare the requirements of a received order with pre-stored information specific to each of the competing service providers; responsive means configured to establish a list of the service providers determined to be able to fulfill requirements of the received order; and processing means configurable, for a received order, to make the selection from the list and to route the received order to the selected service provider. Advantageously by applying a series of filters an optimum service provider is selected by a gateway device assigning a printing order to a print service provider taking into account geographical criteria, and attempts to minimize the final price, in particular the shipping costs. While minimizing costs to the end customer, the gateway device seeks to ensure that a print service provider having competitive prices still receives work.

Claims

1. An electronic control apparatus configured for use in routing customer orders received over an electronic network to a service provider selectable from a plurality of service providers, said apparatus comprising:

an electronic interface configured to receive and acknowledge said customer orders;

first processing means configured to compare the requirements of a said received customer order with pre-stored information specific to each of said plurality of service providers;

a memory configured to store a list of said service providers determined to be able to fulfill the requirements of a said received order; and

further processing means configurable, for a received order, to make a said selection of at least one service provider from said list, and to route said received order to said selected service provider,

wherein the further processing means is configurable to make the said selection comprising;

determining a final threshold price based on one or more indicated prices of one or more of the said service providers in the list and a pre-established mark-up;

discarding from the list the said service providers in the list having a said indicated price above that of the final threshold price; and

comparing printing-capacity utilization values of the said service providers remaining in the list by calculating an unutilized percentage of a contracted capacity of each of said service providers remaining in the list to determine which of the said service providers remaining in the list has a highest capacity.

2. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first processing means is configured to identify and discard service providers which do not support a particular service requested in a said customer order.

3. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first processing means is configured to identify, via transmissions of a status signal, if a said service provider is currently in operation or unavailable.

4. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said status signal is transmitted periodically.

5. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said further processing means comprises list sorting means configured to sort said list of service providers according to a cost parameter associated with delivery of a product from a said service provider, to a said customer.

6. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, configured to receive price parameter values associated with delivery of a product resulting from a said received customer order to a said customer, said received values being provided by individual ones of said plurality of listed service providers.

7. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein if no service provider is selected, then a signal is transmitted to alert an operator of said apparatus that a said order being processed must be routed by manual intervention of the operator.

8. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, operating to allocate an order to a fictitious service provider, if said list contains no service providers.

9. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said farther processing means is configured to read delivery price information associated with a said order, said information being accessible by said apparatus from a database or other suitable data storage medium.

10. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, configured to receive a query message for pending jobs from a service provider.

11. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, configured to transmit a message to a service provider, said message comprising a list of jobs available for the service provider to complete.

12. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, configured to receive a job completion signal from a service provider upon completion of an allocated job.

13. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, configured to transmit an order message to a service provider.

14. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, configured to receive a quote message from a service provider upon a request for costs associated with a given service to be completed being requested.

15. An electronic control apparatus as claimed in claim 1, configured to store data comprising a list of service providers, a list of service provider contracts, and data in respect of the printing capabilities of said service providers.

16. A method of automatically selecting a service provider from a plurality of service providers operating to complete customer orders received over an electronic network said method comprising the steps of:

comparing the requirements of a received order with pre-stored information specific to each of said service providers and in response to said comparison establishing a list of said service providers able to fulfill the requirements of said received order; and

making selection of at least one said service provider from said list; and

routing said received order to said selected service provider,

wherein the step of making selection comprises;

determining a final threshold price based on one or more indicated prices of one or more of the said service providers in the list and a pre-established mark-up;

discarding from the list the said service providers in the list having a said indicated price above that of the final threshold price; and

comparing printing-capacity utilization values of the said service providers remaining in the list by calculating an unutilized percentage of a contracted capacity of each of said service providers remaining in the list to determine which of the said service providers remaining in the list has a highest printing capacity.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising the step of:

identifying and discarding service providers which do not support a particular service requested in a said customer order.

18. The method as claimed in claim 16, comprising the step of:

identifying via transmissions of a status signal, if a said service provider is currently in operation or unavailable.

19. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein said step of determining the final threshold price is farther based on one or more pre-agreed delivery price data of the one or more said service providers in the list.

20. The method as chimed in claim 19, further comprising:

storing the pre-agreed delivery price data.

21. The method as claimed in claim 16, comprising:

receiving a query message for pending jobs from a said service provider.

22. The method as claimed in claim 16, comprising:

storing data comprising a list of service providers, said data comprising;

a plurality of contracts governing a business relationship with a said service provider;

a set of capability data describing capabilities of said service providers.

23. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein said capability data comprises a list of web site association data.

31. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the act of comparing printing-capacity utilization values comprises determining printing-capacity utilization values for each of the said service providers remaining in the list.

32. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein calculating an unutilized percentage of a contracted capacity comprises calculating a percentage of a printing capacity not utilized by a current workload for each of the said service providers remaining in the list.

24. A method of allocation of online print services, supplied by a plurality of print service provider entities said method comprising the steps of:

storing data describing a plurality of print service provider entities;

automatically selecting a print service provider for fulfillment of an order received online; and

sending said order to said print service provider for fulfillment by said selected service provider,

wherein the step of automatically selecting comprises;

determining a final threshold price based on one or more indicated prices of one or more of the plurality of print service provider entities and a pre-established mark-up; and

selecting the said print service provider that has a said indicated price within the final threshold price and a lowest printing-capacity utilization value of the said print service providers that have a said indicated price within the final threshold price, the lowest printing-capacity utilization value determined based on a percentage utilization of a contracted capacity of each of said print service providers that have a said indicated price within the final threshold price wherein the said lowest printing-printing capacity utilization value is a highest-percentage-free printing capacity.

25. A method of allocation of online print services, supplied by a plurality of print service provider entities said method comprising the steps of:

determining a final threshold price for a print order received over an electronic network based on a pre-established mark-up and one or more prices for the print order from service providers that are able to fulfill the print order and based on stored data describing the service providers;

selecting from the service providers that are able to fulfill the print order a service provider;

having a price within the threshold price;

a highest free printing capacity, the highest free printing capacity determined by calculating an unutilized percentage of a contracted capacity of each of said service providers that are able to fulfill the print order and have a price within the threshold price, and

enabling fulfillment of the print order by the selected service provider by sending the print order to the selected service provider or by indicating that the selected service provider is selected to fulfill the print order.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

comparing requirements of the print order with information specific to each of the service providers effective to determine which of the service providers are able to fulfill the requirements.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising determining the highest free printing capacity using a contracted daily printing capacity and a current printing workload for each of the service providers that are able to fulfill the print order.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the ac of determining the final threshold price comprises adding the pre-established mark-up to a lowest process for the print order from the service providers that are able to fulfill the print orders.

29. The method of claim 25, further comprising sending the print order to the selected service provider for fulfillment by the selected service provider.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein each of the one or more prices for the print order from the service providers that are able to fulfill the print order comprises:

a printing cost quoted by one of the service providers; and

a shipping cost to ship the fulfilled print order from that service provider to a location associated with the print order.