Method and system for resource planning for service provider

• US 9,117,223 B1
• Filed: 03/23/2006
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deem, Incorporated
• Sponsoring Entity: Deem, Incorporated
• Inventors: Handel, Sean, Grady, Patrick, Orttung, Mark, Kikinis, Dan
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gmahl, Navneet K
• Time in USPTO: 3442 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100- 14, 707200-205, 707/754
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/30528 : using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 : AdministrationManagement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 : Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement, balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 : Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons, rebates, offers or upsales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 : based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 : based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 : based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/30 : TransportationCommunications

Abstract

In one embodiment, method that can be performed on a system, is provided to take not just a person'"'"'s time and location into consideration, but also has knowledge of and takes into account their availability, their preferences, their schedule, their purpose for being at their current location, and/or their next goal or stop (not just in terms of location but also in terms of activity). One embodiment is able to take into account a real-time view of supplier inventory and deduce and make available much better-adapted offerings and support for that person'"'"'s travels and endeavors. In one embodiment, having an understanding of a rate of conversion and its relation to traffic and weather patterns allows service providers to make more accurate predictions about various items, including but not limited to, conversion rates, offer types, offer upgrades, traffic etc. In yet another aspect of the invention, the information collected from many travelers, and also information collected from airlines and weather observers, etc., can be used to forecast inventory requirements, such as obtaining and preparing fresh food and pulling from storage chilled or frozen food, as well as man power or staffing level requirements, to meet projected demands.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

generating, via a computing device, an estimate of a quantity of travelers to arrive at a destination at designated time periods;

obtaining, via the computing device, weather data related to an itinerary of the travelers;

selecting, via the computing device, services or products to be offered to the travelers, the services or products to be selected based at least in part on the weather data related to the itinerary of the travelers, wherein the weather data comprises weather data for a point of origin for a set of the travelers;

identifying, via the computing device, a quantity of services or products needed to support the offerings to the travelers, the identifying the quantity based at least in part on the estimate of the quantity of travelers and the services or products selected to be offered to the travelers;

forecasting, via the computing device, the quantity of services or products based on extrapolation of historic data including one or more of plane timeliness, plane capacity, and plane usage;

before providing a second offer to a traveler, presenting, via the computing device, a first offer to the traveler representing an attempt to up-sell, the first offer an upgrade of the second offer;

providing a notification regarding planned activity of the traveler; and

offering the traveler a discount coupon based on the planned activity to attract the traveler to at least one of a plurality of business establishments according to a priority based on merchant agreements that determine the priority among the plurality of business establishments.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the weather data comprises weather data for the destination of where the services or products are to be offered.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the weather data comprises weather data related to weather experienced or forecasted to be experienced by a set of the travelers during a traveling to the destination of where the services or products are to be offered.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating the estimate of the quantity of travelers further comprises obtaining airline data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the airline data comprises one or more of arrival and departure times for airline flights scheduled to arrive at the destination, capacity of the airline flights, and type of airplane to be used in the airline flights scheduled to arrive at the destination.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, obtaining a profile of one or more of the travelers to arrive at the destination, individual profiles identifying at least one of preferred services or preferred products of a traveler, or a history of purchased services or products of a traveler.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the selecting the services or products further comprises selecting services or products to be offered to the travelers based at least in part on the obtained profiles.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising performing the selecting of services or products, and the identifying the quantity, for multiple separate time periods.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the identifying a quantity of services or products needed to support the offerings to the travelers comprises inventory of products.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the identifying a quantity of services or products needed to support the offerings to the travelers, further comprises a quantity of personnel to support offering of the services or products.

11. A non-transitory tangible machine-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, which when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform processes comprising:

generating an estimate of a quantity of travelers to arrive at a destination at a designated time periods;

obtaining weather data related to an itinerary of the travelers;

selecting services or products to be offered to the travelers, the services or products to be selected based at least in part on the weather data related to the itinerary of the travelers, wherein the weather data comprises weather data for a point of origin for a set of the travelers;

identifying a quantity of services or products needed to support the offerings to the travelers, the identifying the quantity based at least in part on the estimate of the quantity of travelers and the services or products selected to be offered to the travelers;

forecasting the quantity of services or products based on extrapolation of historic data including one or more of plane timeliness, plane capacity, and plane usage;

before providing a second offer to a traveler, presenting a first offer to the traveler representing an attempt to up-sell, the first offer an upgrade of the second offer;

providing a notification regarding planned activity of the traveler; and

offering the traveler a discount coupon based on the planned activity to attract the traveler to at least one of a plurality of business establishments according to a priority based on merchant agreements that determine the priority among the plurality of business establishments.

12. The machine-readable of claim 11, wherein the weather data comprises weather data for the destination of where the services or products are to be offered.

13. The machine-readable of claim 11, wherein the weather data comprises weather data related to weather experienced or forecasted to be experienced by a set of the travelers during a traveling to the destination of where the services or products are to be offered.

14. The machine-readable of claim 11, wherein the generating the estimate of the quantity of travelers further comprises obtaining airline data.

15. A computer system comprising:

at least one computing device configured to;

generate an estimate of a quantity of travelers to arrive at a destination at a designated time periods;

obtain weather data related to an itinerary of the travelers;

select services or products to be offered to the travelers, the services or products to be selected based at least in part on the weather data related to the itinerary of the travelers, wherein the weather data comprises weather data for a point of origin for a set of the travelers;

identify a quantity of services or products needed to support the offerings to the travelers, the identifying the quantity based at least in part on the estimate of the quantity of travelers and the services or products selected to be offered to the travelers;

forecast the quantity of services or products based on extrapolation of historic data including one or more of plane timeliness, plane capacity, and plane usage;

before providing a second offer to a traveler, present a first offer to the traveler representing an attempt to up-sell, the first offer an upgrade of the second offer;

provide a notification regarding planned activity of the traveler; and

offer the traveler a discount coupon based on the planned activity to attract the traveler to at least one of a plurality of business establishments according to a priority based on merchant agreements that determine the priority among the plurality of business establishments.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the at least one server obtains airline data.

17. The computer system of claim 16 wherein the at least one server obtains a profile of one or more of the travelers to arrive at the destination, individual profiles identifying at least one of preferred services or preferred products of a travel, or a history of purchased services or products of a traveler, wherein the selecting the services or products further comprises selecting services or products to be offered to the travelers based at least in part on the obtained profiles.