Real time vehicle purchase request management method and system

• US 8,005,731 B1
• Filed: 01/14/1999
• Issued: 08/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AutoWeb, Inc. (California)
• Original Assignee: Autobytel Incorporated
• Inventors: Nelson, Tim E., Wagoner, Kevin J., Nottage, Douglas S., Wolfe, Don P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Colbert; Ella
• Application Number:
  US09/231,415
• Time in Patent Office: 4,604 Days
• Field of Search: 705/36, 705/37, 705 26- 28, 705/1, 705/1.1, 705/14, 705/14.1, 705/35, 705/26.62, 709/217, 707/100, 707/609
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A method and system for managing a purchase request in a Data Center system. The Data Center system receives a purchase request from a plurality of potential buyers. The Data Center system provides access to a plurality of remotely located vehicle dealer or dealer groups. The dealer accesses the purchase request and displays its details. The dealer may then assign the handling of the purchase request to a salesperson. The salesperson ascertains a purchase request property such as an immediate buyer, based upon the purchase request property. The Data Center system further contains one or more action response modules which assist the user to act in response to the ascertained purchase request property. Thus, the Data Center system assists the dealership to efficiently act upon a purchase request.

Claims

1. A purchase request management system for multiple sellers to remotely manage purchase request records, the system comprising:

a plurality of purchase request records stored in a computer system remotely accessible via a network and created from data received from potential buyers, said data including buyer contact information and product information;

a plurality of participating seller records comprising information about a plurality of participating sellers, said purchase request records and seller records stored on computer-readable medium;

a buyer-seller association software module stored on computer-readable medium and configured to assign each of said purchase request records to only a subset of the participating sellers in accordance with purchase request criteria, said purchase request criteria for each of said participating sellers predetermined in accordance with a relationship between a lead distributor and each of said plurality of participating sellers;

a seller remote access software module executed on said computer system, stored on computer-readable medium, comprising computer-executable instructions that define operations for viewing and managing said purchase request records, and configured to provide each of said participating sellers with access to said computer system such that each seller can access only the subset of purchase request records which have been assigned to said seller by said buyer-seller association software module and can invoke the operations for viewing and managing said subset of purchase request records, wherein the operations for viewing and managing said purchase request records comprise;

viewing status of purchase requests;

modifying status of purchase requests;

associating tasks with purchase requests; and

assigning tasks associated with purchase requests to individual users associated with a seller;

and

a processor in communication with said buyer-seller association software modules and said seller remote access software module and configured to execute said buyer-seller association software modules and said seller remote access software module.

2. The purchase request management system of claim 1, wherein the seller access module receives seller-entered information about at least one of the purchase requests and stores the seller-entered information in a system database.

3. The purchase request management system of claim 1, wherein information about assigned tasks is stored in a system database.

4. The purchase request management system of claim 1, wherein information about purchase request status is stored in a system database.

5. The purchase request management system of claim 1, further comprising a system database comprising a plurality of product records, each product record corresponding to at least one product sold by at least one of the sellers and comprising at least a product type and an estimated product price.

6. The purchase request management system of claim 5, wherein the system database is configured to be accessible over a computer network to at least one potential buyer using a remote terminal and to provide product information to the potential buyer.

7. The purchase request management system of claim 1, further comprising a system database comprising a plurality of predefined sales regions and each purchase request corresponds to at least one of the predefined sales regions based on at least one geographic designation associated with the buyer contact information.

8. The purchase request management system of claim 7, wherein the buyer-seller association module is configured to assign each purchase request to only one seller.

9. The purchase request management system of claim 8, wherein the geographic designation associated with the purchase request is derived from contact information of the potential buyer to whom the purchase request corresponds.

10. The purchase request management system of claim 9, wherein the geographic designation associated with the purchase request is derived from the potential buyer'"'"'s zip code.

11. The purchase request management system of claim 1, further comprising a system database comprising a plurality of exclusive database regions, each exclusive database region being reserved for a single seller and being configured to store only those purchase requests assigned to the single seller.

12. The purchase request management system of claim 11, wherein the buyer-seller association module is configured to assign each purchase request to one or more sellers by storing a copy of the purchase request in the exclusive database region of each assigned seller.

13. The purchase request management system of claim 12, wherein the seller access module provides access to each seller of only those purchase requests assigned to the seller by providing access to the seller of only the exclusive database region reserved for the seller.

14. The purchase request management system of claim 1, wherein said purchase request criteria for said plurality of participating sellers are collectively configured to ensure that the system assigns each of said purchase request records to only one of a plurality of subsets of the participating sellers that sell the product identified in the purchase request record.

15. The purchase request management system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of subsets of participating sellers for a given product includes at least one subset containing just one seller and each of the subsets of participating sellers for a given product is no more than a small number relative to the total number of participating sellers for a given product.

16. The purchase request management system of claim 1, wherein the buyer-seller association software module assigns each of said purchase request records to only a small subset of the participating sellers.

17. The purchase request management system of claim 1, wherein the buyer-seller association software module assigns each of said purchase request records to only a subset of the participating sellers, wherein the subset comprises between one and five of the participating sellers.

18. The purchase request management system of claim 1, wherein the buyer-seller association software module assigns each of said purchase request records to only a subset of the participating sellers, wherein the subset comprises between one and ten of the participating sellers.