Method and system for configuring a set of information including a price and volume schedule for a product

• US 7,693,748 B1
• Filed: 01/24/2003
• Issued: 04/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Corporation, Valentine Communications LLC
• Original Assignee: Ewinwin Incorporated
• Inventors: Mesaros, Gregory J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Jeffrey A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Allen, William J.
• Application Number:
  US10/351,069
• Time in Patent Office: 2,629 Days
• Field of Search: 705 26- 28, 705/1, 705/37
• US Class Current: 705/26.42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0605 Supply or demand aggregation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0615 Anonymizing

Abstract

A system and method for aggregating demand is provided. At least one seller may sponsor a deal room to aggregate selling goods/services from a plurality of buyers. The demand aggregation system can include a dashboard for allowing the at least one seller to set up DealRooms, price curves, offers, products, customers, and/or customer groups, for example. The dashboard can include a plurality of wizards for configuring such information. The demand aggregation system can also include seller displays for notifying buyers of changes in prices relative to ship dates and times of order. The demand aggregation system can also include a predictive modeling and reporting function. An algorithm is employed to utilize product information to post a probability chart on a product price point.

Claims

1. A business transaction methodology, comprising:

employing at least one processor to execute computer executable instructions stored in memory to perform the following acts;

invoking a dashboard interface including a plurality of wizards;

configuring a set of information using the plurality of wizards, the set of information including a price and volume schedule for a product, wherein the schedule specifies a set of price points that vary as a function of a total quantity of products ordered by multiple buyers to provide a volume discount;

displaying the set of information to buyers based on profiles of the buyers, wherein the profiles and the set of information are distinct data sets; and

receiving orders for the product from more than one of the buyers.

2. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the plurality of wizards includes a deal room wizard that creates new groups of buyers based on at least one of geography, company size, sales, or volume.

3. The business transaction methodology of claim 2, further comprising restricting display of the set of information to buyers who are members of one or more groups identified by a seller.

4. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the plurality of wizards includes an offer wizard that creates new offers.

5. The business transaction methodology of claim 4, the new offers are created based on previous offers.

6. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the plurality of wizards includes a product wizard that adds products to an offer.

7. The business transaction methodology of claim 6, the product wizard adds a second product to the offer, the second product differs from an existing product included in the offer.

8. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the plurality of wizards includes a customer wizard that registers new users.

9. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the plurality of wizards includes a customer group wizard that creates new customer groups, reassigns customer within groups, removes customers from groups, or removes entire groups.

10. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the plurality of wizards can determine if another wizard should be invoked.

11. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the dashboard is a sales manager dashboard.

12. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the dashboard is an action manager dashboard.

13. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the set of information includes at least one of deal rooms, offers, products, customers, or customer groups.

14. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the plurality of wizards can be accessed from a standard web browser.

15. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the set of information further including a product shipping date, the schedule is further a function of the product shipping.

16. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the set of information further including a product ordering date, the schedule is further a function of the product ordering date.

17. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, further comprising varying the set of information displayed to the buyers based upon the profiles of the buyers.

18. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, the profile of a buyer comprises at least one geography information, company size or sales volume.

19. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, further comprising varying the set of information displayed to a buyer based upon at least one of a transaction history of the buyer, a number of canceled orders or a number of on-time payments.

20. The business transaction methodology of claim 1, further comprising alerting the at least one buyer when the set of information changes.

21. An Internet business transaction system, comprising:

a computer configured to host a commercial transaction over the Internet, the computer configured to provide access to buyers and sellers to carry out the commercial transaction and to utilize a dashboard interface including a plurality of wizards the plurality of wizards programmed to configure an offer for a product, the offer including a price and volume schedule comprising a set of price points that vary as a function of a total quantity ordered by multiple buyers to provide a quantity discount, and

a display configured to display the offer to buyers based on profiles of each buyer the profiles being distinct from the offer, wherein the system is configured to receive orders placed by two or more of the buyers for the product based on the offer.