Computerized cost estimate system and method

• US 7,912,794 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2007
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Boutault, Romuald
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes; John W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Erb; Nathan
• Application Number:
  US11/866,381
• Publication Number:
  US 20080027884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,267 Days
• Field of Search: 705/400
• US Class Current: 705/400
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

A method and system for computing a cost estimate for a company that may be the client of a supplier providing information system equipment and consulting. An estimate is calculated according to a model with input characterizing circumstances of the client. The program collects client profile information and costs that the client knows. Other costs that the client does not know are read from a local database storing costs known by other clients with similar profiles. A remote database accessible by any client is updated by cost estimate information at each new cost estimate execution by a client.

Claims

1. A computerized method for computing a cost estimate, said method comprising the steps of:

reading from a database a set of previously known costs unknown by a current user and known by at least one previous user, the set of previously known costs having been uploaded by the at least one previous user after calculating cost estimates using the computerized method, wherein the at least one previous user has profile information similar to profile information of the current user;

calculating by a computer the cost estimate using the set of previously known costs and a currently known set of costs that are known by the current user; and

after calculating the cost estimate using the computerized method, sending by the computer a message comprising the profile information of the current user and the currently known set of costs, the message enabling updating of the database for future users.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of reading comprises the steps of:

computing, for each cost unknown by the current user, a mathematical distance between the current user profile information and profile information in each database record read; and

selecting a database record having a minimum computed mathematical distance.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the mathematical distance is a vector distance with coordinates dependent upon current user profile information, said vector distance being weighted according to cost.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the database is a relational database having a query language, and wherein the step of reading comprises a step of performing a query to find records in the relational database that include a cost unknown by said current user and known by at least one of the previous users, and including profile information closest to the profile information of the current user.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, before the step of sending, a step of marking as ‘

known’

, in the message, cost information which is currently known by the current user, and marking as ‘

unknown’

, in the message, cost information which has been read from the database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of sending is performed upon a request entered by an operator of the computer calculating a user cost estimate.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the message further comprises a result of the cost estimate calculating step and the set of previously known costs.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the message further comprises administrative information including an identification of cost estimate calculation step execution and an identification of a level of the database read for the cost estimate calculation step.

9. A computer apparatus comprising:

a memory storing a set of previously known costs unknown by a current user and known by at least one previous user, the set of previously known costs having been uploaded by the at least one previous user after calculating cost estimates; and

a processor that calculates a cost estimate using the set of previously known costs and a currently known set of costs that are known by the current user, and after calculating the cost estimate, the processor controlling sending of a message comprising the currently known set of costs currently known to the current user to enable updating of the memory for future users.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor determines the previously known costs to be used by computing, for each cost unknown by said current user, a mathematical distance between current user profile information and profile information associated with each previously known cost;

and selecting a previously known cost having minimum computed mathematical distance.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the mathematical distance is a vector distance with coordinates dependent upon current user profile information, said vector distance being weighted according to cost.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 in which the processor marks as ‘

known’

, in the message, cost information which is currently known by the user, and marks as ‘

unknown’

, in the message, cost information which has been read from the memory.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor sends the message in response to a request entered by an operator of a computer calculating a user cost estimate.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the message further comprises a result of the cost estimate calculating and the set of previously known costs.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the message further comprises administrative information including an identification of cost estimate calculation execution and an identification of a level of the memory read for the cost estimate calculation.

16. A computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program comprising:

reading code that reads from a database a set of previously known costs unknown by a current user and known by at least one previous user, the set of previously known costs having been uploaded by the at least one previous user after calculating a cost estimate using the computer program for computing the cost estimate, wherein the at least one previous user has profile information similar to profile information of the current user;

cost estimate calculator code that calculates a cost estimate using the set of previously known costs and a currently known set of costs that are known by the current user; and

transmitting code that transmits the profile information of the current user and the currently known set of costs to enable updating of the database for future users of the computer program.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 in which the transmitting code marks as ‘

known’

, in the message, cost information which is currently known by the current user, and marks as ‘

unknown’

, in the message, cost information which has been read from the memory.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the transmitting code sends the message in response to a request entered by an operator of a computer calculating a user cost estimate.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the message further comprises a result of the cost estimate calculating and the set of previously known costs.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the message further comprises administrative information including an identification of cost estimate calculation execution and an identification of a level of the memory read for the cost estimate calculation.