System and method for enhancing sales for service providers utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in schedule of services

• US 7,337,125 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2001
• Issued: 02/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kraft, Reiner, Ruvolo, Joann
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; Jeffrey A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Misiaszek; Michael
• Application Number:
  US09/768,458
• Publication Number:
  US 20020099593A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,588 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/10
• US Class Current: 705/7.16
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Sales associated with service providers is increased using an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule or services (time, location). Windows of opportunity (time, physical location) are automatically identified, and once such a window of opportunity is detected, the people affected directly from the change of a schedule are identified. This information is then used by services providers to act quickly, in order to enhance sales. Heuristics to determine a window of opportunity are based only on schedule changes (which are associated with a rule database), and without knowing who the affected people are or what their preferences (profile data) are.

Claims

1. A computer-based system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, said system comprising:

an event retriever component, said event retriever component generating an event pair from a set of events which comprises a target value and an actual value associated with said schedule of services;

an event observer component, said event observer component receiving said event pair from said event retriever component, calculating the difference between said actual value and said target value, and based on one or more rules from a first set of rules, identifying and notifying a window of opportunity detector component regarding potential windows of opportunity, wherein each potential window of opportunity defines a time period of customer inactivity;

a distribution channel analyzer component analyzing said detected windows of opportunity by checking if said service providers benefit from said windows of opportunity;

said window of opportunity detector component, which receives said potential windows opportunity, detects, based on one or more rules from a set of second rules, if a window of opportunity exists, and if so, matches, based on the analysis of said distribution channel analyzer component, said detected windows of opportunity with service providers, said service providers offering a new product or a service separate from said scheduled service during said window of opportunity.

2. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said event retriever further utilizes service provider schema information stored in a service provider schema database to generate said event pairs.

3. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 2, wherein said service provider schema is a document type definition (DTD).

4. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 2, wherein said service provider schema is an XML schema.

5. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said one or more rules from said set of first rules is a threshold rule, and said potential windows of opportunities are identified based on comparing said difference between said actual and target value against said threshold.

6. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said one or more rules from said set of second rules are provided externally by said service providers.

7. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said system further accesses a subscription management service wherein said events and schedules are defined for tracking.

8. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said one more rules of said set of first rules and one or more rules of a set of second rules are stored in a rule database.

9. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said events are Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar) events.

10. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said event retriever further comprises:

an enhanced gatherer component, which dynamically receives information from service providers over a network using simulated user interaction, and

a pattern matcher component, which extracts said event pair from said received information based on matching the structure of said received information with that of a stored schema of said service providers.

11. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 10, wherein said enhanced gatherer component is a web crawler.

12. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 10, wherein said network comprises any of the following:

local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), wireless networks, or the Internet.

13. A system for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 1, wherein said received event pairs are extracted from a markup language form.

14. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, comprising:

electronically acquiring at least one service schedules of one or more service providers;

detecting an unexpected change in said schedule;

checking if potential customers are blocked due to said unexpected change in schedule, said blocking defining a period of inactivity;

detecting one or more potential windows of opportunity for sales to said potential customers;

checking if service providers benefit from said detected potential windows of opportunity, and

providing notification regarding said potential windows of opportunities opportunity to service providers who benefit from such information, and

wherein said service providers offer a new product or service separate from said scheduled service to said potential customer during said period of inactivity.

15. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 14, wherein said step of detecting an unexpected change in said schedule further comprises:

simulating user interaction via data gathering software to request data from service providers via a network;

receiving information from said service providers via said network;

accessing a service provider schema database and reading schema regarding said service providers;

matching said received information with said read schema associated with said service providers, and

extracting data events, comprising actual and target data, based on said matching step.

16. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 15, wherein said network comprises any of the following:

local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), wireless networks, or the Internet.

17. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 15, wherein said data gathering software comprises data mining software.

18. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of service, as per claim 15, wherein said extracted data events are iCalendar events.

19. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, wherein said method comprising:

extracting standardized event data comprising an actual event value and a target value from said travel service provider via a network;

comparing, based on one or more rules from a set of first rules, the difference of said actual value and target value against a threshold value;

detecting a window of opportunity based on one or more rules from a set of second rules;

checking if service providers benefit from said detected window of opportunity;

distributing said window of opportunity information to said service providers for enhancing said service provider'"'"'s sales, based on said checking; and

when said detection of a window of opportunity occurs said sales providers providing a new product or a new service separate from said scheduled service, during said window of opportunity.

20. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 19, wherein said travel services comprises any of:

airlines, trains, or buses.

21. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 19, wherein said event data is arrival or departure times and locations associated with a specific airline.

22. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 19, wherein said one or more rules from said set of first rules is based on said difference between actual and target values being above or below a predetermined threshold.

23. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 19, wherein said one or more rules from said set of second rules is based on rules provided by service providers.

24. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 23, wherein said rules provided by service providers are stored in a rules database.

25. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 19, wherein said step of extracting standardized event data further comprises:

accessing a webpage of said travel service provider over a network;

posting data regarding a specific travel provider in said webpage and querying for information regarding schedule of said specific travel service;

receiving a web document from said travel service provider regarding said schedule of said specific travel provider;

accessing a service provider schema database and reading a schema associated with said travel service provider;

matching said received web document with said read schema and extracting event data; and

standardizing said extracted event data.

26. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 23, wherein said network comprises any of the following:

local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), wireless networks, or the Internet.

27. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 25, wherein said step of posting data is accomplished using a HTTP POST command.

28. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 25, wherein said web document is of any of following formats:

HTML, SGML, orXML.

29. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 25, wherein said read schema is an XML schema.

30. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 25, wherein said read schema is a DTD.

31. A method for enhancing sales for service providers by utilizing an opportunistic approach based on an unexpected change in a schedule of travel services, as per claim 25, wherein said standardizing involves standardizing based on iCalendar standard.

32. An article of manufacture comprising a computer user medium having computer readable code embodied therein which provides for a e-commerce method for enhancing sales to potential customers, said article comprising:

computer readable code electronically acquiring at least one service schedules of one or more service providers;

computer readable code detecting an unexpected change in said schedule;

computer readable code checking if potential customers are blocked due to said unexpected change in schedule, said blocking defining a period of inactivity;

computer readable code detecting one or more windows of opportunities for sales to said potential customers;

computer readable code checking if service providers benefit from said detected potential windows of opportunities, and

computer readable code providing notification regarding said potential windows of opportunities to service providers who benefit from such information, wherein said service providers offer a new product or service separate from said scheduled service to said potential customers during said period of inactivity.