Advertisement selection technique
First Claim
1. A method for formulating advertising information for delivery to a client organization, the advertising information relating to an item associated with an acquisition plan of the client organization, the method comprising:
- maintaining a centralized advertising data base at a centralized advertising server, the centralized advertising data base comprising a plurality of advertising records, each of said advertising records being associated with at least one item and a supplier for the at least one item, wherein the plurality of advertising records is associated with a plurality of suppliers, and wherein the centralized advertising server is configured to serve multiple client terminals operated by multiple client organizations, and wherein the plurality of advertising records comprises one or more subsets of advertising records such that each subset of advertising records relates to an item having multiple alternative suppliers;
maintaining inventory records for the client organization, each inventory record indicating an inventory level of an item in the client organization'"'"'s inventory;
providing an acquirement planning program for use by the client organization, the acquirement planning program being configured to generate an item list containing at least one item to be acquired by the client organization in accordance with the acquisition plan, wherein the generating of the item list comprises;
receiving the acquisition plan from the client organizationdetermining net requirements of the client organization based on the acquisition plan and the inventory records for the client organization; and
generating the item list based on the determined net requirements;
conveying the item list to the centralized advertising server;
retrieving, from the advertising data base, at least one advertising record which is associated with at least one item contained in the generated item list, wherein, for an item having multiple alternative suppliers, the centralized advertising server selects one of the multiple alternative suppliers;
selecting advertising information by the centralized advertising server based on at least one retrieved advertising record;
delivering the formulated advertising information to the client organization; and
combining the delivered advertising information with other information provided by the acquirement planning program to generate a client-specific business report, wherein said combining is controlled by the acquirement planning program;
wherein the acquisition plan includes information indicating at least one item to be acquired in the future by the client organization which is determined based on at least one product to be delivered by the client organization in the future.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for delivering advertising information (AI) from a server site (S) to a client (C). The including steps of 1) maintaining an advertising data base (ADB) comprising advertising records, each advertising record being associated with at least one item and/or category; 2) generating an item list (PL) containing at least one item to be acquired by the client (C); 3) retrieving, from the advertising data base (ADB), at least one advertising record which is associated with at least one item contained in the item list (PL) or a category of the item; and 4) using the retrieved advertising record for delivering advertising information (AI) from the server site (S) to the client (C).
16 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method for formulating advertising information for delivery to a client organization, the advertising information relating to an item associated with an acquisition plan of the client organization, the method comprising:
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maintaining a centralized advertising data base at a centralized advertising server, the centralized advertising data base comprising a plurality of advertising records, each of said advertising records being associated with at least one item and a supplier for the at least one item, wherein the plurality of advertising records is associated with a plurality of suppliers, and wherein the centralized advertising server is configured to serve multiple client terminals operated by multiple client organizations, and wherein the plurality of advertising records comprises one or more subsets of advertising records such that each subset of advertising records relates to an item having multiple alternative suppliers; maintaining inventory records for the client organization, each inventory record indicating an inventory level of an item in the client organization'"'"'s inventory; providing an acquirement planning program for use by the client organization, the acquirement planning program being configured to generate an item list containing at least one item to be acquired by the client organization in accordance with the acquisition plan, wherein the generating of the item list comprises; receiving the acquisition plan from the client organization determining net requirements of the client organization based on the acquisition plan and the inventory records for the client organization; and generating the item list based on the determined net requirements; conveying the item list to the centralized advertising server; retrieving, from the advertising data base, at least one advertising record which is associated with at least one item contained in the generated item list, wherein, for an item having multiple alternative suppliers, the centralized advertising server selects one of the multiple alternative suppliers; selecting advertising information by the centralized advertising server based on at least one retrieved advertising record; delivering the formulated advertising information to the client organization; and combining the delivered advertising information with other information provided by the acquirement planning program to generate a client-specific business report, wherein said combining is controlled by the acquirement planning program; wherein the acquisition plan includes information indicating at least one item to be acquired in the future by the client organization which is determined based on at least one product to be delivered by the client organization in the future. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system for formulating advertising information for delivery to a client organization, the advertising information relating to an item associated with an acquisition plan of the client organization, the system comprising:
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centralized memory including an advertising data base comprising a plurality of advertising records, each of said advertising records being associated with at least one item and a supplier for the at least one item, wherein the plurality of advertising records is associated with a plurality of suppliers and wherein the centralized memory is configured to serve multiple client terminals operated by multiple client organizations, and wherein, the plurality of advertising records comprises one or more subsets of advertising records such that each subset of advertising records relates to an item having multiple alternative suppliers; memory including a database of inventory records for the client organization, each inventory record indicating an inventory level of an item in the client organization'"'"'s inventory; memory including an acquirement planning program to be executed on a processor, the acquirement planning program comprising software configured to generate an item list containing at least one item to be acquired by the client organization in accordance with the acquisition plan, wherein the software configured to generate the item list comprises; means for receiving the acquisition plan from the client organization; means for determining net requirements of the client organization based on the acquisition plan and inventory records for the client organization; and means for generating the item list based on the determined net requirements; memory including means for retrieving, from the advertising data base, at least one advertising record which is associated with at least one item contained in the generated item list, wherein, for an item having multiple alternative suppliers, one of the multiple alternative suppliers is selected; memory including means for formulating advertising information based on at least one retrieved advertising record; memory including means for delivering the formulated advertising information to the client organization; and memory including means for combining the delivered advertising information with other information provided by the acquirement planning program to generate a client-specific business report, wherein the combining is controlled by the acquirement planning program, wherein the acquisition plan includes information indicating at least one item to be acquired in the future by the client organization which is determined based on at least one product to be delivered by the client organization in the future. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A computer program product, stored on a computer readable medium and executable in a computer system, the computer program product being configured to formulate advertising information for delivery to a client organization, the advertising information relating to an item associated with an acquisition plan of the client organization, the computer program product comprising program code for carrying out the following steps when the program product is executed in the computer system:
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maintaining centralized advertising data base at an centralized advertising server, the centralized advertising data base comprising a plurality of advertising records, each of said advertising records being associated with at least one item and a supplier for the at least one item, wherein the plurality of advertising records is associated with a plurality of suppliers, and wherein the centralized advertising server is configured to serve multiple client terminals operated by multiple client organizations and, wherein, the plurality of advertising records comprises one or more subsets of advertising records such that each subset of advertising records relates to an item having multiple alternative suppliers; maintaining inventory records for the client organization, each inventory record indicating an inventory level of an item in the client organization'"'"'s inventory; maintaining an acquirement planning program, the acquirement planning program being configured to generate an item list containing at least one item to be acquired by the client organization in accordance with the acquisition plan of the client organization, wherein said generating the item list comprises; receiving the acquisition plan from the client organization comprising information related to future requirements of the client organization; determining net requirements of the client organization based on the acquisition plan and the inventory records for the client organization; and generating the item list based on the determined net requirements; conveying the item list to the centralized advertising server; retrieving, from the centralized advertising data base, at least one advertising record which is associated with at least one item contained in the generated item list, wherein, for an item having multiple alternative suppliers, the centralized advertising server selects one of the multiple alternative suppliers; formulating advertising information based on at least one retrieved advertising record; delivering the formulated advertising information to the client organization; and combining the delivered advertising information with other information provided by the acquirement planning program to generate a client-specific business report, wherein said combining is controlled by the acquirement planning program, wherein the acquisition plan includes information indicating at least one item to be acquired in the future by the client organization which is determined based on at least one product to be delivered by the client organization in the future. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification