On-line selection of service providers in distributed provision of services on demand
First Claim
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 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
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.
-
Citations
32 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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
- an electronic interface configured to receive and acknowledge said customer orders;
-
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. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 31, 32)
-
-
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. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
Specification