Entries |
Document | Title | Date |
20110082720 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE ANALYSIS OF PRICING DATA INCLUDING A SUSTAINABLE PRICE RANGE FOR VEHICLES AND OTHER COMMODITIES - Embodiments disclosed herein can produce and present sustainable price information to help dealers to price vehicles for sustainability and facilitate consumers in making purchase decisions. In one approach, a sustainable price range for a specific vehicle configuration may be based on an average profit margin (APM) determined utilizing historical sale prices and an estimated actual dealer cost. Other approaches may utilize some or all of the following steps: determine APM and build a model of distribution of profit margins by APM, build a model to adjust APM by certain variables, identify sustainable levels for the inventory, production, and incentives variables feeding into the APM model, plug those in to get the averages for those sustainable levels, identify sustainable percentile cutoffs for a given profit margin, then use this relationship with the now identified sustainable levels as inputs to find the overall sustainable profit margin. | 04-07-2011 |
20110093312 | MODELING WHOLESALE PRICE SCHEDULES TO REDUCE DOUBLE MARGINALIZATION - One embodiment is a method that determines, for a sale of a product and a post-sale service for the product from a supplier to a retailer, an expected supply chain profit for the sale as a function of an effort cost function of the retailer, a quantity of the product ordered, and an expected revenue of the retailer. A wholesale price schedule is determined that is a function of the quantity of the product ordered by the retailer. The wholesale price schedule reduces effects of double marginalization on the sale of the product and the post-sale service. | 04-21-2011 |
20110145041 | SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATION BETWEEN USERS AND GLOBAL MEDIA-COMMUNICATION NETWORK - A system of communication between users via a global media-communication network including a subsystem for storage and playback of media-products, a subsystem for defining an emotional profile of a user, a subsystem for user feedback and playback of media-products in real time mode, a subsystem for storage of chosen preferences, a subsystem for fixing and storage of changes in emotional state, a subsystem for correcting of an emotional state; a subsystem for finding other users with similar emotional profile, a subsystem for forming of the image of user's face; a subsystem for defining a degree of emotional satiation of the user, a subsystem for forming and a typical day of the user, a subsystem for processing data associated with emotional features of a virtual village, a subsystem for calculation of ratings of authors and entertainment services, a subsystem for calculation of revenues of the owner of entertainment service and payments to an author, a subsystem of forecasting and planning costs of the future entertainment services, a subsystem for offering new services to the consumer, a subsystem for a direct media-channel between the artist and consumer in real time mode, a subsystem of revealing and forecasting needs of the user, and a subsystem for controlling the speed and content of transmitting a media product. | 06-16-2011 |
20110202389 | Inventory and Revenue Maximization Method and System - A method is provided for enterprise management and bundling of inventory to maximize revenue on perishable products. An electronic data-mart collects factors for the probability and price sensitivity of a buyer. The data-mart also collects rules for inventory scaling, available inventory to sell, budget (goal) information, advertiser payment history, and station performance data to feed to a scenario planner. Once three or more variables exist, algorithms create scenario plans to present the most profitable bundle of offerings. The scenarios are typically pre-approved although presented to local business units for an abnormality failsafe. Once processed by local business units, the scenarios are presented to the buyer. Negotiations typically cause the process to restart. The main systems that interact to build scenarios are: an enterprise data-mart, a scenario planner, a performance measurement system, a rate or yield management subsystem, a traffic and accounts receivable system, and a local inventory booking system. | 08-18-2011 |
20110208563 | Pricing, Marketing and Inventory Control System Based on Demand - A pricing, marketing and inventory control system and method provide a unique scenario for selling consumer products. For an inventory of consumer goods, baseline prices are established. Additionally, price increase indicators are defined, and a price increment for each of the consumer goods is defined. Similarly, price decrease indicators are defined, and a price decrement for each of the consumer goods is defined. Current prices of the consumer goods are displayed, and the current prices are adjusted by the price increment upon occurrence of one of the price increase indicators and by the price decrement upon occurrence of one of the price decrease indicators. The process is repeated as sales are made. | 08-25-2011 |
20110218840 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXHIBITION ORGANIZER MANAGEMENT - There is provided, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus, system, and method for enabling smart managing of an exhibition, the system including: multiple scan-able tags for multiple products in the exhibition; scanning devices adapted to scan data from the tags; a communications server for enabling collection and communication of scanned data; an exhibition server communicability coupled to the communications server, the exhibition server being coupled to communicably coupled to a system database; and a business intelligence server communicability coupled to the exhibition server, the exhibition server being communicably coupled to a business intelligence database, wherein the business intelligence server is adapted to generate business intelligence data and to communicate selected business intelligence data to a system user. | 09-08-2011 |
20110231228 | SELLER AUTOMATED ENGINE ARCHITECTURE AND METHODOLOGY FOR OPTIMIZED PRICING STRATEGIES OF GOODS AND SERVICES - An improved seller automated engine architecture methodology particularly (though not exclusively) for use in automated real-time iterative reverse auctions and/or price quotations over the Internet and the like for purchase and sale of goods and services, providing a choice of architectural implementations while enabling price optimization on market share-directed considerations, specific sales target-directed implementations, seller utility derivative-following implementations, model optimizer implementations and explorations, mathematical optimization-oriented and rules-based implementations. | 09-22-2011 |
20110276368 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COLLECTING AND USING MARKET DATA FROM VARIOUS SOURCES - A system and a method for collecting and using market data. The system includes a workstation, where at least one message is entered, a transmitter, where the at least one message is transmitted, a parser for parsing the at least one message, a data recognizer for identifying relevant information in the at least one message, a processor for extracting the relevant information and a communicator for communicating the relevant information. | 11-10-2011 |
20110302002 | LEARNING OPTIMAL PRICES - A method comprises: presenting a plurality of offers to one or more offerees, the offers including at least one non-deterministic offer having non-deterministic consideration for the offeree; conducting business activity including the presenting and further including at least one actual business transaction executed in response to an acceptance by an offeree of one of the plurality of offers; receiving offeree decision data during the conducting of business activity; and generating valuation information based on the offeree decision data. Optionally the method further includes generating a new offer based on the generated valuation information and conducting additional business activity including presenting the new offer. Optionally the method is performed using n offeree folds wherein the generating of a new offer for an i | 12-08-2011 |
20120016721 | Price and Utility Optimization for Cloud Computing Resources - Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for optimizing the utilization of a resource of a cloud service provider based on variable pricing strategies are presented herein. According to one aspect, a method for optimizing the utilization of a resource of a cloud service provider includes receiving a time-based price schedule that includes a price for utilizing the resource during a specific time period. The method also includes receiving a job request associated with a job request execution criteria. Based on the job request execution criteria and the price for utilizing the resource during the specific time period, the job request is matched with the resource. Once the job request and the resource are matched, the job request is sent to the cloud service provider of the resource for execution. | 01-19-2012 |
20120029974 | COMPLEX SERVICE MODELING - A deal management system is used to manage a complex service deal that defines various services to be fulfilled on behalf of a client. The deal management system includes a deal specification subsystem, a cost subsystem, and an estimation subsystem. The deal specification subsystem has a new deal interface to facilitate user specification of the complex service deal, including a plurality of service elements scheduled for fulfillment from a plurality of service delivery centers. The cost subsystem tracks an aggregate cost of a service delivery center that is arranged to fulfill a particular service element. The estimation subsystem dynamically evaluates accuracy of a deal cost model for the complex service deal during a duration of the particular service element by establishing a correlation between particular service elements within the complex service deal and portions of the aggregate cost data allocated to the corresponding service delivery center. | 02-02-2012 |
20120035984 | Novel Methods for Supply Chain Management Incorporating Uncertainty - A robust method for solving in a computer, optimization problems under uncertainty including the steps of: specifying the uncertainty as a hierarchical series of sets of constraints on parameters, with the parameters restricted to each constraint set forming an ensemble, and the hierarchy of constraints, represented as mathematical sets forming a hierarchy of ensembles, said hierarchy being based on subset, intersection or disjoint relationships amongst them; utilizing optimization techniques to create effective identify minimum and maximum bounds on the each objective function, said bounds depending on the constraints comprising each ensemble of parameters and being computed for each of the assumptions about the future; estimating a volume of candidate ensembles and relating the volume to one or more information theoretic measures; and utilizing information theoretic measures to analyze and improve the candidate iteratively refine the ensembles and associated by changing a specificity of the bounds on the objective function. | 02-09-2012 |
20120035985 | Adaptive Pricing System and Method - A computer-implemented system and method for adaptive pricing determines a price that is associated with one or more recommended products and/or product configurations based, at least in part, on inferences from behavioral information. The price may be further determined in accordance with factors such as location, product costs, inventory levels, a physical site, and/or a bidding process. | 02-09-2012 |
20120046998 | SYSTEM FOR ON-LINE MERCHANT PRICE SETTING - A method for setting a price for a product sold online by a subject merchant is provided. The method comprises accessing price information of at least one other merchant of the same product by applying a shopping robot to two or more shopping sites, including at least one price comparison site, with other offerings of the same product by other merchants; accessing pricing rules for the subject merchant that cover sales originating from the comparison site; applying the pricing rules to adjust the current product price at which the subject merchant offers the product on the two or more shopping sites to be more competitive; and responsive to a price adjustment that would reduce the product price so as to violate a specified profitability goal, increasing the shipping charges with which the merchant offers the product with the price adjustment on the two or more shopping sites. | 02-23-2012 |
20120072266 | Railcar Transport Telematics System - A railcar asset management system proactively issues an alert or task when a pre-determined event occurs. The system may receive information regarding the location and status of a railcar from sensors on the railcar that may include a telematics sensing unit. A database in the railway telematics system stores the data regarding the railcar location and status information. The system determines whether an event has occurred and issues the proactive alerts and/or task. The system may communicate the proactive alert via e-mail, paging, PDAs or by cell phone and may provide interactive preconfigured web pages. | 03-22-2012 |
20120084121 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FACILITATING A SALE BETWEEN A CONSUMER AND MOBILE SUPPLIER - A system and method for facilitating a sale between a consumer and a mobile supplier offering one or more transportable goods for sale that includes one or more supplier devices and one or more consumer devices communicatively coupled to at least one of the supplier devices. The supplier devices may be configured to determine and transmit the approximate current location of one or more items offered for sale, as well as information at least partially describing the items. The consumer devices may be configured to receive the information transmitted by the communicatively coupled supplier device. The consumer devices may further be configured to identify one or more desired items from the items offered for sale. | 04-05-2012 |
20120089439 | MARKET DESIGN FOR A RESOURCE EXCHANGE SYSTEM - Providing a market design for a peer-to-peer resource exchange system. Prices for a plurality of resources such as storage space, upload bandwidth, and download bandwidth are calculated and balanced based on previous resource prices, a supply of the resources, and a demand for the resources. Further, prices for operations such as storage and retrieval are determined such that a total of the payments to resource suppliers equals a total of the payments received from the resource consumers. In some embodiments, incoming data operation requests are allocated to the peers such that equilibrium among the peers is achieved. | 04-12-2012 |
20120095806 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRICING CALCULATION - A method and apparatus for providing a competitive bid from a provider comprising receiving billing data from a user, the billing data including provider information, location, and total bill amount. The method further comprising calculating a complex usage pattern based on the billing data and statistical data for the location. The method additionally comprising calculating a competitive bid for the user, based on the complex usage pattern and a pricing structure of the provider. | 04-19-2012 |
20120109716 | ANALYZING UTILITY CONSUMPTION - Consumption levels are monitored over a period of time and analyzed. In response to a determination that a monitored consumption level is above a threshold that is defined based on consumption levels of an associated reference group, a notification may be provided. A plurality of notifications may be prioritizing based on a priority index. The plurality of notifications or portions thereof may be provided based on the determined priorities. The priority may take into account parameters such as for example cost of consumption, variance in respect to past consumption levels, variance in respect to the reference group and the like. | 05-03-2012 |
20120130772 | METHOD FOR MANAGING LISTING PRICES IN AN ECOMMERCE ENVIRONMENT - A computer-implemented method for managing listing prices in an ecommerce environment. The method includes receiving from a user information, including price information, pertaining to a user's listing on an ecommerce web site, receiving from the user at least one search term that is not a valid UPC, ISBN, EAN, eBay Product ID, or ASIN, searching the ecommerce web site using the search term(s) received from the user and retrieving from the ecommerce web site at least one item listing relevant to the search term(s), and using an algorithm that utilizes the price of the at least one item retrieved from the ecommerce web site to determine a new price for the user's listing. | 05-24-2012 |
20120150588 | DYNAMIC PRICING OF PRODUCTS AND OTHER DELIVERABLES - Embodiments herein provide methods, apparatuses, and systems for dynamic pricing of products, services, and other deliverables based on one or more determined factors. Embodiments provide mechanisms to adjust the actual cost of a deliverable based on various deliverable-independent factors, including (a) the location of (i) an individual obtaining the deliverable, (ii) certain equipment, or (iii) the deliverable itself, and (b) the timing of the provision of the deliverable (time of day, season, etc.) or the consummation of the associated transaction. | 06-14-2012 |
20120158461 | CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND ADVERTISEMENT MANAGEMENT - A method including providing content for purchasing and viewing by users, wherein the purchasing includes buying or renting content; performing real-time tracking pertaining to the purchasing and the viewing of content by the users based on the providing; generating real-time tracking information based on the performing, wherein the real-time tracking information identifies a content purchased by the user and a user device used by the user to view the content; automatically creating a content promotion or a campaign ad based on the real-time tracking information; and automatically providing the content promotion or the campaign ad to the users. | 06-21-2012 |
20120215591 | OPTIMIZING A PRINTER SYSTEM IN CONSIDERATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL LOAD - A print server selects a printer system to execute a print job received from a client, the printer system selected from among a plurality of printer systems connected to the network, the print server comprising a basic information acquiring section that acquires, at predetermining timing, unit price calculation basic information on printer systems in operation including at least information on environmental load information from at least one of the plurality of printer systems and external computers, a unit price calculating section that calculates a print unit price for each printer system based on the acquired unit price calculation basic information, a storage section that stores the calculated unit price in association with identification information for identifying the printer system and a sending section that sends the print unit prices and the identities of the printer systems associated with the calculated unit prices to the client. | 08-23-2012 |
20120232959 | OPTIMIZED PRICING SOLVER WITH PRIORITIZED CONSTRAINTS - A pricing optimization system can solve a constrained optimization problem by generating one or more prices for one or more items that satisfy a maximum number of prioritized constraints. The one or more generated prices can be one or more prices that represent a minimal deviation between the generated one or more prices and one or more original prices for the one or more items. By satisfying a maximum number of prioritized constraints, and by minimizing a deviation from the one or more original prices for the one or more items, the generated one or more prices are one or more optimal prices. | 09-13-2012 |
20120232960 | Method and system for pricing and exchange of datasets that includes multiple users contributing incremental improvements to increase the value and utility of the datasets - The invention provides a method and system to enable incremental improvement and changes to datasets and the determination of values prices, auction minimums, or rewards or bounties for entering incremental changes to datasets. The invention includes art to enable simple secure attributable versioning of datasets, art to enable transfer of datasets through sale or other trading and exchange mechanisms, art to use the features capabilities and functions of websites servers social networking sites and Wiki or blog sites to rank reward and otherwise compensate users who contribute to incremental improvement of datasets, and art to tier service and access levels for access to or receipt of updated data. | 09-13-2012 |
20120239459 | MODELING A PLURALITY OF CONTESTS AT A CROWDSOURCING NODE - Crowdsourcing is described, for example, where solutions to tasks such as designing a logo, writing a piece of code or answering a question are solicited by making open calls to large scale communities. In an example, a crowdsourcing node models a plurality of contests as all-pay auctions, each contest having a task and a reward. In examples, the crowdsourcing node is arranged to set rewards for the contests so that the optimal results are received for each contest owner, those owners having provided a budget and using a utility function for each of the contests. | 09-20-2012 |
20120259677 | ON-LINE SALES CHAIN MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORTING PRODUCT INVENTORY TRACKING - A sales system supports sales between a plurality of buyers and a plurality of sellers in a communication network. A sales server has a seller interface used by both a first seller and a second seller respectively via a first seller's computer and a second seller's computer to register availability for sale of a first product and a second product. The sales server, based upon received buyer input from an identified buyer via a buyer computer that includes buyer orders for the first product and the second product dispenses a first sales order to the first seller's computer for the first product and a second sales order to the second seller's computer for the second product. The sales server provides instructions to the first seller's computer for fulfillment of the first sales order and to the second sales computer for the fulfillment of the second sales order. | 10-11-2012 |
20120278133 | Fuel Offering and Purchase Management System - The present disclosure is directed towards apparatuses, systems and methods to facilitate the pricing, sales and delivery of a commodity fuel to a Customer. In one embodiment, the disclosure teaches a Fuel Offer Generator that facilitates the purchase and management of fuel offerings. The Fuel Offer Generator allows Customers interested in securing fuel to obtain an offer for fuel at lock-in prices for various tenors. Fuel Customers can buy these fuel offers such that they may later exercise the fuel offers so their fuel costs are locked-in at desired levels (e.g., they may be set to strike prices). The Fuel Offer Generator also can establish a Premium Price that will be part of the fuel offer. The Fuel Offer Generator may generate hedges to counteract fuel related risks stemming from fuel offer purchases. Ultimately, a customer that purchases a fuel offering can exercise their fuel offering order at a specified price and redeem any difference between the market price for their purchased fuel and the price specified in their fuel offering order. The Fuel Offer Generator determines which metrics are relevant to pricing the fuel offering and then employs those determined metrics to establish the pricing of fuel offerings. | 11-01-2012 |
20120284086 | FUEL STORE PROFIT OPTIMIZATION - A computer-implemented method of generating fuel price data for a retail fuel site, the method being implemented in a computer comprising a memory in communication with a processor. The method comprises receiving, as input to the processor, data indicating a relationship between fuel sales and store sales at said retail fuel site and receiving, as input to the processor, data indicating a relationship between fuel price and fuel sales at said retail fuel site. The data indicating a relationship between fuel sales and store sales at said retail fuel site and said data indicating a relationship between fuel price and fuel sales at said retail fuel site are processed by the processor to generate said fuel price data. | 11-08-2012 |
20120284087 | System and Method for Providing Competitive Pricing for Automobiles - The invention includes a method and system to provide a competitive pricing tool so that automobile dealers can more efficiently and effectively price their used vehicles. The system achieves the optimal sales price by obtaining the relevant pricing and mileage of vehicles for sale that are similarly situated to the focus vehicle. Once the information is obtained, the system creates a value ranking for each of the vehicles for sale and for the focus vehicle. The user is then able to revise the focus vehicle pricing to determine the optimal sales price. | 11-08-2012 |
20120290361 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENTLY ESTIMATING A RELIABLE PRICE ELASTICITY OF DEMAND USING THE JOINT DEMAND MODEL - The present invention relates to a system and method for efficiently estimating the sensitivity, or elasticity, of customer demand to changes in price in a business-to-business market environment. More particularly, this method relies on a parametric demand model, and a corresponding offer model which is referred to as the Joint Demand Model. This model is used to estimate the elasticity of market segments using win-only transactional data. In addition, this invention provides a method for efficiently calculating the estimation error of the estimated elasticity, and uses such estimation error in a weighting scheme based on a hierarchical model in order to produce a reliable estimate of elasticity. | 11-15-2012 |
20120296702 | ASSET MARKETING NETWORK BUSINESS METHOD AND MACHINE FOR USE IN CONDUCTING THE SAME - A method of conducting an asset marketing network business, and a machine for conducting the same, is disclosed, which includes the steps of hosting an asset marketing network website and registering asset marketing network members, including asset posting member and asset buying members, where asset marketing network members are allowed access to the asset marketing network website. The machine stores data associated with an asset, including controlled asset posting data and uncontrolled asset posting data. The machine can be used to allow the asset buying member access to the controlled asset posting data, in response to receiving approval from the asset posting member to allow the asset buying member access to the controlled asset posting data. The machine can be used to store and release prequalification data associated with the asset buying member. | 11-22-2012 |
20120296703 | MARKET-BASED PRICE OPTIMIZATION SYSTEM - Disclosed is a market-based software system that will help user-retailers manage price and inventories more effectively. The system will take advantage of available price and sales data to provide pricing recommendations that will achieve a retail user's objectives. The system will offer a solution that will allow for pricing improvement shortly after installation by utilizing data that is readily available. The system will recommend price changes that help a user achieve specified objectives such as contribution, sales volume, desired margins, and the like. | 11-22-2012 |
20120303416 | Revenue Optimization for Customers or Customer Subsets - Disclosed are various embodiments for determining discounts that optimize revenue for customers or customer subsets. Transaction records that are associated with a customer and a merchant are obtained. Each transaction record identifies a corresponding purchase of a quantity of one of multiple items by the customer from the merchant at a corresponding unit purchase price. A normalized unit purchase price is generated for each transaction record by normalizing the respective unit purchase price relative to a respective unit retail price at the time of purchase. A demand curve is generated for the customer for the items based at least in part on the transaction records and the normalized unit purchase prices. The demand curve identifies a quantity of units that the customer is predicted to purchase at a range of normalized unit purchase prices. | 11-29-2012 |
20120303417 | REALTIME PRICE SYTEM - A system and method for real-time pricing includes: receiving current sales data for an item; storing the current sales data; calculating a current sales lag time as a time elapsed between the sale of the item and a previous sale of the item; comparing the current sales lag time with a stored historical sales lag time; determining that the sales lag time is increasing when the current sales lag time is greater than the stored historical sales lag time of the item; and recommending a decrease in the sales price of the item when it is determined that the sales lag time increasing. | 11-29-2012 |
20120303418 | DYNAMIC PRICING OF ACCESS TO CONTENT WHERE PRICING VARIES WITH USER BEHAVIOR OVER TIME TO OPTIMIZE TOTAL REVENUE AND USERS ARE MATCHED TO SPECIFIC CONTENT OF INTEREST - Computer-implemented systems and methods that provide dynamic, essentially real time pricing of users' access to content represented by articles where the pricing varies over time with user behavior to reflect the actual values that users place at any point in time on access to the articles. | 11-29-2012 |
20120316924 | Dynamic Ticket Pricing - A dynamic pricing system for online event management and ticket selling systems. | 12-13-2012 |
20120330724 | FUEL PRICING - A computer-implemented method of selecting a fuel type for a retail fuel site, the method being implemented in a computer comprising a memory in communication with a processor. The method comprises receiving, as input to the processor, data indicating a relationship between fuel price and fuel sales for a plurality of fuel types and receiving, as input to the processor, data indicating a property of the retail fuel site. The data indicating a relationship between fuel price and fuel sales for each of the plurality of fuel types is processed by the processor and the data indicating a property of the retail fuel site to select the fuel type for the retail fuel site. | 12-27-2012 |
20120330725 | MANAGING AND EVALUATING PRICE DATA FOR PURCHASING - A method for evaluating price data includes receiving a product specification data set that identifies different items. Also received are price data sets that include items and corresponding price data. For each price data set, metric data for each item is obtained. The metric data includes one or more market reference prices for the items in the price data set. Using the metric data, a market value of each item in the price data set is calculated for comparison to the price data in the price data set. The method may also include comparing the price data in the price data set to the calculated market value to generate a comparison value. In another embodiment, metric data is obtained for each item in the product specification data set, and a market value of each item is calculated for comparison to the price data in the price data sets. | 12-27-2012 |
20120330726 | SOLID PHASE BIOMASS CARBON STORAGE (SPBCS) - A computerized method of using a data processor having a memory to account for carbon flows and determine a regulatory value for a biofuel includes (i) storing, in memory, a first set of one or more carbon flow values characterizing the production and use of a biofuel, wherein the biofuel is derived from a first fraction of an agricultural biomass, (ii) storing, in memory, a second set of one or more carbon flow values characterizing the sequestration of solid phase biomass carbon, wherein the solid phase biomass carbon is derived from a second fraction of the agricultural biomass and wherein the sequestration mitigates anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission, and (iii) calculating, using the data processor, a regulatory value for the biofuel from the first and second sets of carbon flow values. | 12-27-2012 |
20130006712 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR REVENUE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM BASED ON MARKET PRICING - The method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention allows a comprehensive and unbiased analysis on hotel prices for a market. It allows to position a particular hotel vis-à-vis the market characteristics where it is located. This market price analysis is integrated into a revenue management system in order to update price recommendations based on market elements which are external to the hotel. The method according to the present invention poses no limit to the number of competitors against whom the hotel own rates are benchmarked, its purpose being to provide a global market vision. | 01-03-2013 |
20130006713 | METHOD FOR AGGREGATING PRICING INFORMATION AND ASSIGNING A FAIR MARKET VALUE TO GOODS SOLD IN A PEER-TO-PEER E-COMMERCE TRANSACTION - A computer-implemented method for aggregating pricing information and assigning a fair market value to goods sold in an ecommerce transaction comprising obtaining pricing information of a good, collecting pricing information of said goods from one or more sources, determining the fair market value of said goods by calculating a weighted mean average of the collected prices, identifying one or more sellers offering to sell said goods, displaying the results of said calculation and said identification using a computerized electronic device. | 01-03-2013 |
20130013376 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INTERMEDIATE TO LONG-TERM FORECASTING OF ELECTRIC PRICES AND ENERGY DEMAND FOR INTEGRATED SUPPLY-SIDE ENERGY PLANNING - A method of price forecasting in an electrical energy supply network and/or load (energy demand) forecasting of a given consumer of electrical energy, in the context of an electrical energy supply network that is adapted to supply electrical energy to a number consumers connected to the network. The method includes developing a multi-regime, regime switching stochastic model for determining day ahead/spot market energy prices using at least one historical profile and subjective opinion from at least one expert; and the multiple regimes correspond to a number of combinations of physical factors. A regime is identifiable by at least three factors. The method thus facilitates identifying the optimal mix of energy hedge and exposure to day ahead/spot market prices for deriving economic benefits in overall energy expenditure. | 01-10-2013 |
20130030869 | METHODS OF TREATING SUBTERRANEAN FORMATIONS - The method comprises determining an internal factor of the oilfield operation representing a cost analysis of an oilfield service; determining an external factor of the oilfield operation representing a price analysis and/or a market analysis of the oilfield service; determining a price of the oilfield operation to be performed in the well for a customer, wherein the price is determined based on the internal factor and the external factor, and wherein determining the price comprises utilizing a data processing system; transmitting the price of the oilfield operation to the customer; completing a sale of the oilfield operation; and performing the oilfield operation in the well. | 01-31-2013 |
20130030870 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF USED VEHICLE PRICING DATA - Systems and methods for the aggregation, analysis, and display of data for used vehicles are disclosed. Historical transaction data for used vehicles may be obtained and processed to determine pricing data, where this determined pricing data may be associated with a particular configuration of a vehicle. The user can then be presented with an interface pertinent to the vehicle configuration utilizing the aggregated data set or the associated determined data where the user can make a variety of determinations. This interface may, for example, be configured to present the historical transaction data visually, with the pricing data such as a trade-in price, a list price, an expected sale price or range of sale prices, market low sale price, market average sale price, market high sale price, etc. presented relative to the historical transaction data. | 01-31-2013 |
20130030871 | Systems, Methods, and Media for Automatically Adjusting the Prices of Products and Services Based on Consumer Demand - In some embodiments, a method for automatically adjusting the price of an offer, the method comprising: receiving a request to create the offer at one or more hardware processors; receiving an opening price and a minimum price for the offer; setting a current price of the offer based at least in part on the opening price; making the offer available to one or more consumers; automatically adjusting the current price of the offer based at least in part on demand for the offer, wherein demand for the offer is based at least in part on one or more variables that each reflect the measured or interest in the offer by the one or more consumers; and determining whether any of the one or more consumers has purchased the offer. | 01-31-2013 |
20130041721 | ART EVALUATION ENGINE AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC DEVELOPMENT OF AN ART INDEX - A method for automatic development of an art index from repeat sales information and single sales information comprising the steps of: exploring and identifying comparables for individual artists, ensuring that said comparables are of acceptable level of homogeneity, especially regarding tests by art analyst and statistical homogeneity, determining sets of said comparables from information about the artist and/or his/her works, wherein said comparable sets are a group of comparable art objects produced by one artist that have similarities in various attributes, such as year of work, medium, genre, size and/or valuation, correcting of price variations, aberrations and/or outliers of valuation judgements within the comparable sets by using auction catalogues and/or other external sources, reports on provenance, exhibition catalogues, news releases and/or scholarly literature concerning the specific artists and objects, reanalyzing said comparable sets by carrying out an inconsistency check visually and/or in medium, size and price and further correcting price variations, and estimating said art index from said comparable sets. | 02-14-2013 |
20130066683 | BUSINESS TO BUSINESS DYNAMIC PRICING SYSTEM - Methods and systems are disclosed for analyzing products. An embodiment provides a method. In one implementation, a method includes but is not limited to identifying a weak attribute of a component in the product; and generating a recommendation related to the weak attribute of the component. In addition to the foregoing, other aspects are described in the description, claims, and drawings that form the present disclosure. | 03-14-2013 |
20130073341 | PRICING MARKDOWN OPTIMIZATION SYSTEM - A system determines a revised price on a pricing ladder for a product over a pricing markdown period. For a first time interval of the markdown period, the system computes an optimal price for the product based on an inventory level of the product, where the inventory level is based on a ratio of a current on-hand inventory and a maximal on-hand inventory. The system then determines if the optimal price is approximately less than a current price of the product. When the optimal price is approximately less than a current price of the product, the system assigns to the product a lower price on the price ladder as the current price of the product. | 03-21-2013 |
20130073342 | COMPUTER-BASED SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NEGOTIATING A PRICE - A computer-based method for negotiating a price, including: storing, in at least one memory element of at least one computer, computer readable instructions; and, executing, using at least one processor for the at least one computer, the computer readable instructions to: generate a target price for a first item available for purchase at a first retail sales location for a business entity; generate a plurality of offers greater than the target price; and implement at least one iteration of a sequence including: transmitting a respective offer from the plurality of offers; receiving, from a first wireless communications device (WCD) in the first retail sales location, a respective counter-offer less than the respective offer; and transmitting, for receipt by the first WCD: a rejection of the respective counter-offer; an acceptance of the respective counter-offer; or a message that a negotiation for the first item is terminated. | 03-21-2013 |
20130090988 | DEFINING A MARKDOWN EVENT USING STORE CLUSTERING METHODOLOGY - A markdown definition process is performed on a system executing code contained on a computer-readable storage medium to define a markdown event for a plurality of stores. The markdown definition process includes computing initial markdown schedules for products eligible for a markdown event, where an initial markdown schedule is computed for each store. The stores are categorized into store clusters in accordance with the initial markdown schedules so that stores having the greatest degree of commonality are grouped together. Final markdown schedules are determined for the markdown event, where a final markdown schedule is determined for each store cluster. Each final markdown schedule includes optimized markdown solutions specific to one of the store clusters for the products eligible for the markdown event. The final markdown schedules are provided to the stores, so that each of the stores categorized into one of the store clusters receives the same final markdown schedule. | 04-11-2013 |
20130103458 | MARKDOWN OPTIMIZATION SYSTEM USING A REFERENCE PRICE - A system determines a markdown pricing sequence for a product. The system receives a sequence of future prices as a function of time for the product based at least on business rules. For each price in the sequence, the system determines a reference price for the product, and then determines an increase in revenue using a demand model. The demand model includes a price elasticity variable that uses the reference price instead of a full price. The system then determines if the sequence of future prices is an optimized sequence based at least in part on the determined increase in revenue. | 04-25-2013 |
20130103459 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A HOME DATA INDEX MODEL - The present invention builds Home Data Index (HDI) models. One driving force behind this HDI initiative is that no one model or measure can truly capture the widely dynamic movement of home prices. Even within a small geographical area, such as a ZIP code, there is significant variation in property sale types, sale frequencies and sale values. To better describe these variations, the present invention presents a suite of paired sales and price per square foot index models built around an array of property transaction characteristics. These HDI models expand on the usage and understanding of traditional home price indices (HPIs) by implementing a multidimensional index comprised of four main dimensions: geography; time frames; value range; and property sales type. Several layers exist within each dimension, allowing for more than 300 different index model perspectives for a given property address. For each permutation among the layers of the four main dimensions, a model is constructed with an associated confidence score that reflects the statistical relevance of each estimate. | 04-25-2013 |
20130110585 | Data Processing | 05-02-2013 |
20130117073 | PRICE DETERMINATION SYSTEM, PRICE DETERMINATION SYSTEM CONTROL METHOD, PROGRAM, AND INFORMATION STORAGE MEDIUM - A price varying unit ( | 05-09-2013 |
20130124264 | PRICE SIMULATION FOR ENTERPRISE SALES AND SUPPLY PROCESSES - Embodiments of the present invention may provide a method to perform a price simulation. The method may comprise receiving search criteria for sales orders to perform simulation of price changes, selecting sales orders that satisfy the search criteria, and retrieving pricing attributes from the selected sales orders. The pricing attributes may include any discount(s) applied to a base price. The method may further comprise simulating application of a new pricing to affected sales orders according to the pricing attributes and storing simulation results. | 05-16-2013 |
20130132159 | Automated Price Management System - A price management system that is capable of automatically or manually determining price adjustments based on current competitor pricing, retail site sales and other price related factors, such as cost of the product, freight charges, state and federal laws and state and federal taxes. Once price adjustments are determined they are able to be instantaneously and automatically implemented at the point of sale. In one of the most relevant applications, retail automotive fuel pricing, the system is able to automatically adjust and display prices on the fuel pumps as well as the advertising signs in the vicinity of the retail site. This system and methods provide for a comprehensive and efficient means of determining price adjustments and implementing the price adjustments in real-time fashion at the point-of-sale. | 05-23-2013 |
20130132160 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING AND EVALUATING NETWORK COMMODITIES PURCHASING - One or more price metrics are generated by retrieving, from a database, one or more price data sets representing a specified time period. Each of the retrieved price data sets includes at least a parameter value, a quoted cost, and a selling unit of measure for at least one item, and is responsive to a product specification data set that includes at least one parameter value and a unit of measure for each of one or more items. In at least one embodiment, a combined item price total is divided by a combined item unit total to generate a metric price per unit for each item in the product specification data set. In another embodiment, a summed individual metric price per unit is divided by the number of individual metric prices to generate an overall metric price per unit for each item in the product specification data set. | 05-23-2013 |
20130159059 | FREIGHT MARKET DEMAND MODELING AND PRICE OPTIMIZATION - Various embodiments herein include at least one of systems, methods, and software for freight market demand modeling and price optimization. Some such embodiments include acquiring historical data regarding hauled loads, bid loads that were not hauled, data representative of at least one of current and expected conditions, and data representing business goals. The acquired data may then be mapped to market segments and a statistical, spot load demand model is generated for each market segment based on a number of factors included in the mapped data including at least a load price factor. A demand and price forecast model may next be generated for each market segment based on the generated model and the data representative of at least one of current and expected conditions. For each market segment, a pricing element may then be determined based on the respective market segment model and forecast in view of the business goals. | 06-20-2013 |
20130166353 | PRICE OPTIMIZATION USING RANDOMIZED SEARCH - A price optimization system determines the pricing of a plurality of items. The system receives an initial price vector for the items and an objective function, and assigns the initial price vector as a current price vector. The system determines a first new price vector by randomly choosing a first set of allowed prices for the items, and assigning the first set of allowed prices as the current price vector when the objective function is improved. The system then determines a second new price vector by randomly choosing a second set of allowed prices for the items and assigning the second set of allowed prices as the current price vector when the objective function does not decrease by more than a predetermined value. The system sequentially repeats this functionality until a terminating criteria is reached and then it determines the pricing. | 06-27-2013 |
20130166354 | VALUATION ESTIMATION - Example systems, methods, apparatuses, or articles of manufacture, etc. are disclosed that may collect, process, or use estimates of market value. | 06-27-2013 |
20130166355 | DYNAMIC MULTI-DIMENSIONAL AND MULTI-VIEW PRICING SYSTEM - A system for dynamic computing a credible deal price for a deal is adapted to receive a first data set during initializing the deal parameters. The system comprising a plurality of stakeholders inputting their views as a second data set through a presentation layer module. A preliminary information processing module configured to process the first data set and a plurality of pricing models for determining an optimum deal price for the deal using the first & second data set and associated context related therewith. A pricing strategy module configured to process a one or more inputs of the second data set to determine a list price indicator, wherein a list price generator module configured to determine the credible deal price. A deal negotiation module optimizes the credible deal price commensurate with plurality of third data set dynamic associated in time, space and values therewith the deal. | 06-27-2013 |
20130166356 | NANOSTRUCTURE TRACKING OF PRODUCT DATA SIGNATURES - Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter are directed to incorporating one or more nanoprocessors to one or more physical structures of one or more components of a product. The product is transportable via a chain of supply. Some embodiments are further directed to configuring the one or more nanoprocessors to store data that describes characteristics of the one or more components, the product, and/or the chain of supply. Some embodiments are further directed configuring the one or more nanoprocessors to transmit one or more signals that contain the data. | 06-27-2013 |
20130173347 | FIXED PRICING OF SERVICES - Technology is described for generating a market and a fixed price for a customer-selected service. The technology can include pooling service providers from a data store capable of performing the customer-selected service. Additionally, the technology can include acquiring information over a network from the customer and/or one or more additional sources. The information can provide values for a set of task details that can be defined to differentiate a quantity of work associated with the customer-selected service. By applying these values, potential differences in the quantity of work can be removed. Statistical information related to pricing can also be applied to the defined quantity of work to determine a fixed price for the customer-selected service, which can, thereafter, be treated as a virtual commodity. | 07-04-2013 |
20130179226 | AUTOMATED TASK PRICING IN CROWDSOURCING MARKETPLACES - Illustrative embodiments disclose pricing tasks by receiving a request comprising a task and a description of the task and then identifying the type of task based on the description. A pricing module retrieves a condition in a marketplace associated with the type and selects a strategy for pricing based on a rule for the type. The module then generates a price for the task using the strategy, and it adjusts the price based on the condition. | 07-11-2013 |
20130179227 | SYSTEM FOR AND METHOD OF MANAGING BOOK SALES AND RENTALS - To generate customer loyalty, a management system and method is implemented to ensure a purchase or rental is made while at a store. The management system enables a user to set specific goals or requirements, and then the system provides an interface to the user to reach those goals including generating marketing schemes. The management system is also able to be used by a customer to compare prices of items and make a single purchase of items in disparate locations while in the store. | 07-11-2013 |
20130179228 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPROVED CALCULATION OF COEFFICIENT FOR PRICE SENSITIVITY - Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods, and computer program products for calculating a sufficiently accurate coefficient for price sensitivity to use in a target pricing system. In general, various embodiments of the invention involve providing an expanded data set by adding shadow data to a historical bid data set that allows a logistic regression approach to mathematically calculate the coefficient for price sensitivity with greater accuracy. | 07-11-2013 |
20130185118 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVED ONLINE AUCTION - Methods and systems for improving auction-based online commerce are provided, including methods and systems for facilitating advance, rapid, accurate estimation of shipping costs between a seller and the winner of an online auction. | 07-18-2013 |
20130211881 | Product Pricing in E-Commerce - Systems and methods for dynamically fixing price of a product in an electronic commerce (e-commerce) environment are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises obtaining product information associated with the product. Further, the method comprises extracting a real time market price of at least one product constituent indicated in the product information from at least one market information source. Furthermore, the method comprises evaluating a market price factor for the product based on the extracting, where the market price factor is indicative of impact of market conditions onto the price of the product. Based at least on the product information and the market price factor, a real time selling price of the product may be fixed. | 08-15-2013 |
20130226668 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING DYNAMIC PRICING ALGORITHM WITH EMBEDDED CONTROLLER FOR HIGH OCCUPANCY TOLL LANES - A method and system for providing a feedback based dynamic pricing algorithm with an embedded controller for a HOT (High Occupancy Toll) lane. An input-output transfer function of a vehicle flow with respect to a HOT lane can be obtained utilizing a simulation module. A feedback controller combined with, for example, a Smith predictor can be designed to avoid an unstable behavior due to a time delay in the HOT lane, a price regulation, and a large transient caused by an integral part of the controller due to traffic jams. A driver behavior preference model can be derived based on a relationship between a toll rate and several characteristics of the HOT lane and a general purpose lane. The feedback controller and the behavior preference model can then be implemented to set the toll rate in real-time in order to satisfy a desired performance metric. | 08-29-2013 |
20130226669 | System and Methods for Time Dependent Internet Pricing - Apparatuses, systems and methods for implementing time-dependent pricing for Internet data traffic in wireless/broadband access networks are disclosed. Such systems may include: (i) A price-optimization computational module that takes in historical and current network congestion and historical and predicted user reactions to compute the best time-dependent prices to minimize the total cost incurred to the wireless network operator; (ii) A user profiling module that takes in user reaction data to characterize a model of how much traffic that may be defer to a later point in time under a given pricing incentive; (iii) A user interface module that displays the computed prices that vary over time, so that a user (or their agent) can choose which time it should use a certain amount of mobile data; and (iv) A network measurement module that collects the actual traffic coming from each application over each period of time. | 08-29-2013 |
20130231977 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR ATTRIBUTING A VALUE ASSOCIATED WITH A SERIES OF USER INTERACTIONS TO INDIVIDUAL INTERACTIONS IN THE SERIES - A system operable to attribute a value associated with a series of user interactions to individual interactions in the series, the system including: (a) an interface, configured to obtain information of interactions which are included in the series of interactions; and (b) a processor on which an attribution module is implemented, the attribution module is configured to attribute an apportionment of the value to each out of a plurality of interactions of the series, based on a calibrated attribution scheme and on properties relating to at least one interaction out of the series of interactions, thereby enabling efficient utilization of communication resources. | 09-05-2013 |
20130238398 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMIC PRODUCT PRICING - Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for dynamic product pricing. According to one embodiment, sale characteristics for a plurality of products are stored in a database. A user places a sale order including information associated with a product to be listed on a website, and a market price for the product is calculated based on the stored sale characteristics of the product. The sales characteristics include a queue of current list prices of the product as well as recent sale prices, with the queue having the number of the product available for sale at each different price. A suggested list price is displayed to the seller based on the market price. The seller is provided with a means for adjusting the suggested list price or listing the product at the suggested list price. | 09-12-2013 |
20130246126 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CUSTOMER VALUE CREATION - A system and method used by an organization to collect, manage, analyze and act on data from customers to manage customer value creation. The system may be embodied in a computer program that implements modules in the appropriate order, collects and stores relevant data, and perform necessary calculations. Differential Value Proposition (DVP) is the ability of the organization's products and services to positively impact their customer's bottom line relative to the organization's competitors. The ability to create a DVP can be correlated to the investments and strategies made by the organization on an ongoing basis. The connection between an organization's investments/strategies and their customer's bottom line may include: the investments that an organization makes (Value Attributes), the relative impact of each investment/strategy on a customer's bottom line (Value Attribute Scores), and the combined, quantified financial impact of all the Value Attributes on the customer's bottom line (DVP Percentage). | 09-19-2013 |
20130246127 | METHOD, APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR A PRICING UTILITY - Some examples provide systems, methods, apparatus, and computer program products for providing a market platform. The market platform may operate to inform buyers and suppliers, to allow buyers and suppliers to select products and contracting parameters to meet their needs, to allow buyers and suppliers to commit to supply agreements, and to enforce those supply agreements. The system may include a pricing utility for establishing one or more pricing models from a set of contract parameters. The pricing models may be used in conjunction with a set of product price information to generate pricing responses to requests for pricing created by buyers. | 09-19-2013 |
20130246128 | Data gathering in digital and rendered document environments - A system for determining viewership of articles or ads in printed publications and using the determined viewership to determine author compensation, ad rates, or other historical or demographic related information is described. The system receives text capture information of portions of a number of rendered documents that is generated by capture devices operated by a number of users. The system searches digital content using the received capture information and determines a readership value for components of the rendered document based upon the search. | 09-19-2013 |
20130253987 | Method and System for Providing Services to Vacation Homeowners - A method and system for providing services to vacation homeowners facilitates the cost-effective administration of a variety of services required by vacation homeowners in a fashion that frees the homeowner from undue expense, time, or effort. In one embodiment the method includes: setting up a real estate property on a system via capturing by a computer processor a complete image inventory of the property; creating a unique CRM record along with detailed information on the property; provisioning a new user account formatted into an online, user-accessible, self-care portal; conducting predetermined inspections of the property; assigning each property a unique identifier to ensure high quality case management of the property; tracking the inspections using the identifier; providing automatic alerts to the property owner at the initiation of specific workflow steps; providing alerts and updates; and measuring ongoing customer satisfaction by prompting for specific feedback. | 09-26-2013 |
20130253988 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DIGITAL CONTENT PRICING - A method for pricing digital content available for purchase and download from a server to a network connected computing device includes providing a quantity of digital content items, which are ranked. A plurality of pricing tiers for the digital content items is created. A sale price of each of the digital content items is designated based on the rank. At least a portion of the digital content items is made available for purchase wherein the sale price for the content to be displayed on at least one user computing device. A download request is received from the user computing device to download at least one digital content item. The sale price of at least a portion of the quantity of the digital content items is adjusted according to the pricing tiers. | 09-26-2013 |
20130262185 | Method and System for Differential Pricing in the Distribution of Digital Content - Among other things, the present invention provides an efficient rights management system that can accommodate complex licensing rules and differential pricing so as to be able to deliver digital media to a consumer at an efficient price, preferably a lowest price. For example, the present invention incorporates a price rules database that is able to keep track of various licensing term and their different pricing schemes that may be associated with a consumer so as to deliver digital content at an efficient price, preferably a lowest price. | 10-03-2013 |
20130262186 | Apparatus Pertaining to Characterizing Real Estate Listing Prices - A control circuit accesses information regarding at least (1) listing events for real estate offerings other than a given real estate offering (for which the control circuit is assessing a corresponding listing price) and (2) offering particulars for real estate offerings other than the given real estate offering. The control circuit compares that information with listing events and offering particulars of the given real estate offering to generate a plurality of corresponding relative evaluation metrics for the given real estate offering and then aggregates that plurality of corresponding relative evaluation metrics to generate a corresponding characterization of the listing price for the given real estate offering. | 10-03-2013 |
20130262187 | Method and System for Analyzing a Plurality of Parts - The present invention includes a method and system configured to analyze a plurality of parts, each of the parts having at least one part characteristic. The method includes the steps of establishing at least one repository of the part characteristics, establishing a relationship between at least a portion of the parts and a cost characteristic; and, analyzing the portion of the parts in response to the relationship. | 10-03-2013 |
20130268323 | DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR PRICING, COSTING AND BILLING OF FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS - The present invention provides methods and systems for pricing financial transactions by defining product rules, providing links to appropriate price tables, and calculating a price for a financial transaction. A data processing system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, creates a product rule corresponding to a financial transaction. The product rule contains mandatory attributes and optional attributes. Optional attributes may be looked up using identifiers constructed from said mandatory attributes. Optional attributes include a link to a price table which contains further attributes, including a pricing method. A price is then calculated in accordance with the pricing method. Billing is completed according to the billing method for the particular financial transaction. | 10-10-2013 |
20130275183 | TIME-DEPENDENT PRODUCT PRICING OPTIMIZER - A system for determining time-dependent product pricing for a product category receives a non-linear problem for the product category, in which the non-linear problem includes a demand model. For a plurality of pair of products in the product category, the system determines coefficients for a change in demand of a first product at each of a plurality of time periods when a price of a second product is changed. The system then generates an approximate Mixed Integer Linear Programming (“MILP”) problem that includes a change of demand based on a sum of the determined coefficients. The system then solves the MILP problem to obtain a MILP solution, which provides the product pricing. | 10-17-2013 |
20130282440 | SOCIAL PRICING FOR GOODS OR SERVICES - At a high-level, a novel pricing technique is dependent in part on the influence of followers or friends on one or more internet social site that a user has. | 10-24-2013 |
20130282441 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ESTIMATING COST OF SYSTEM TESTING REQUEST BASED ON TABLE UNIT - The invention relates to a system and method for estimating a cost for one or more system testing request in a data warehouse environment for a client based on a single table unit. This invention uses the past data of the client requests to derive the single table unit. It classifies the tables impacted in the past client requests into simple, medium and complex. It also derives simple table ratio, medium table ratio and complex table ratio. Thereafter, the tables of different complexities are converted into single table unit based on the simple table ratio, medium table ratio and complex table ratio. Finally, the cost is estimated in terms of single table unit based on the past data. | 10-24-2013 |
20130290071 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING THE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT OF AN INFRASTRUCTURE CORRIDOR - Methods, systems, and techniques for determining the vertical alignment of an infrastructure corridor having a certain horizontal alignment involve using a processor to model the cost of constructing the infrastructure corridor as a function of cost variables that vary with the vertical alignment of the infrastructure corridor. The processor looks up the cost variables at vertical offsets corresponding to certain vertical alignments of the infrastructure corridor and determines the cost of constructing the length of road at elevations located between pairs of the vertical offsets by interpolating from the cost variables at the vertical offsets; the interpolation may be linear. The processor determines, subject to infrastructure corridor design constraints, the vertical alignment of the infrastructure corridor from the cost of constructing the infrastructure corridor at the vertical offsets. | 10-31-2013 |
20130297385 | SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR RESELLING DIGITAL MEDIA RIGHTS - In example embodiments, a system and method for managing the resale of digital media rights is provided. In example embodiments, user accounts that store digital media rights for digital content may be maintained. An indication that a first user having a first user account intends to transfer digital media rights for a particular digital content may is received. A verification process is performed to verify that the digital media rights of the first user are transferable. Based on an indication that a transaction has occurred, the digital media rights are transferred from the first user account to a second user account associated with a second user that is a recipient of the digital media rights. | 11-07-2013 |
20130311238 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AN ONLINE MARKETPLACE FOR ACCESSORIES OF A REMOTE MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT PRODUCT - Systems and methods of the present disclosure facilitate providing a marketplace for accessories of a remote monitoring and management product. In some embodiments, the system may be configured to create a first user account for a first user with a first number of points, and a second user account for a second user with a second number of points. The system may obtain a first RMM accessory item (e.g., a monitor, a data view, an antivirus definition, a search, a report, a script, a system component, a plugin, a probe, or a definition) and a corresponding price. Responsive to receiving an indication of interest, the system may transmit the first RMM accessory item to the second user, add to the first number of points a first multiplier times the price, and subtract from the second number of points a second multiplier times the price. | 11-21-2013 |
20130311239 | Generating an Optimized Pricing Plan - Generating an optimized pricing plan includes accessing a hierarchy comprising a sequence of levels, where each level includes an objective function and a set of constraints associated with the objective function. A mathematical programming model representing a pricing plan problem is determined for an item group comprising items. The following is repeated for each level of the sequence of levels: selecting a level comprising an objective function and a set of constraints associated with the objective function, determining an optimized boundary for the objective function, and adding a constraint generated from the optimized boundary to the set of constraints of a next level. An objective function of a last level of the sequence is optimized subject to the set of constraints associated with the objective function to yield an optimized result. An optimized pricing plan is generated in accordance with the optimized result. | 11-21-2013 |
20130311240 | AERIAL ROOF ESTIMATION SYSTEM AND METHOD - A system that allows the remote measurement of the size, geometry, pitch and orientation of the roof sections of a building and then uses the information to provide an estimate to repair or replace the roof, or to install equipment thereon. The system includes an aerial image file database that shows aerial images of buildings in a designated area according to address. The slope and orientation images are typically oblique perspective views and top plan views of the buildings in the area. The system also includes an image analysis and calibration feature that enables the viewer to closely estimate the size, geometry and orientation of the building's roof sections. The information can then be used to prepare a cost estimate for the repair or replacement of the roof or installation of roof equipment. By simply inputting the potential customer's address, the company is able to determine the size, geometry, pitch and orientation of the roof sections of the building at that address, and then quickly provide an accurate estimate to the customer. | 11-21-2013 |
20130325554 | Commerce System and Method of Optimizing Profit for Retailer from Price Elasticity of Other Retailers - A commerce system has retailers offering products for sale to consumers. Product information is collected from retailers. A price elasticity of demand is determined for a first product from a first retailer. An estimated price elasticity of demand is determined for a second product for a second retailer based on the price elasticity of demand from the first retailer. The estimated price elasticity of demand is substantially equal to the price elasticity of demand. A price is determined for the second product for the second retailer based on the estimated price elasticity. A profit for the second product is optimized for the second retailer by selecting the price for the second product based on the estimated price elasticity. The commerce system is controlled by enabling the second retailer to select the price for the second product based on the estimated price elasticity. | 12-05-2013 |
20130325555 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING PRICING INFORMATION - A pricing method and system may be configured for reducing the dimensionality of item preference data to obtain item preferences of items; simulating preferences of users with the item preferences; and simulating user decisions with the simulated user preferences to generate simulated pricing information. | 12-05-2013 |
20130325556 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING PRICING INFORMATION - A pricing method and system may be configured for accessing a data-structure including a plurality of items; identifying, from the plurality of items, a preference-price efficient item; and outputting a recommendation for the user, the recommendation including the preference-price efficient item. | 12-05-2013 |
20130325557 | METHOD AND SYSTEM TO MANAGE TRAVEL COSTS - The present disclosure is directed to an enterprise business expense assistant operable to determine a cost savings associated with a business associate selecting a travel and/or enterprise expense option and provide a portion of the cost savings to the associate as a cash payment or other benefit. | 12-05-2013 |
20130325558 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPTIMIZING REVENUE AND PROFIT WITH LIMITED NUMBER OF PRICE CHANGES - The disclosed technology improves the process of generating recommended prices for retail products. First, the present technology makes it possible to model shopper demand when sales data includes time periods with zero unit sales without hypothesizing whether the time periods are out-of-stock events or zero sales. This can be accomplished by applying a truncated Poisson distribution and the Newton-Raphson method to the non-zero unit sales to generate a coefficient vector that maximizes the likelihood of the observations in the sales data. Second, the present technology can be used to generate recommended prices for a group of products that optimize revenue and profit while limiting the number of products that require price changes to a predefined threshold value. This can be accomplished by iteratively replacing a current best value solution with a next best value solution across a collection of product networks until an acceptable number of unchanged prices is achieved. | 12-05-2013 |
20130332239 | DISPENSATION SYSTEM - A dispensation system is provided that may allow for dispensing treated water from an on-site treated water device directly to reusable containers used by customers at reduced or no cost to the customers. Particular costs of the treated water to the customers may be based on the customers' willingness to provide information through the dispensation system. The cost to a particular customer and the amount of information shared by that customer may be inversely related. The information may relate to purchasing preferences or other lifestyle information about the customer. The dispensation system may share the information with an advertiser that pays to present targeted advertising to the customer, for example, through video advertising at the dispensation system while the customer uses the dispensing system. | 12-12-2013 |
20130339095 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ORGANIZING PRICE MODELING DATA USING HIERARCHICALLY ORGANIZED PORTFOLIOS - The present invention presents systems and methods for a closed loop method for managing enterprise pricing using hierarchically organized portfolios. Such systems and methods perform the steps of storing a plurality of transactions in a transaction database, sorting these transactions for success, and analyzing the successful transaction, using a processor, to generate a plurality of pricing policies. A “successful” transaction is one in which profit and/or volume are increased above a baseline. | 12-19-2013 |
20130339096 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INVENTORY FINANCING AND MANAGEMENT - The present disclosure is directed to various computational systems for structuring, financing, and/or managing inventory transfers. | 12-19-2013 |
20130339097 | System and Methods for Revenue and Impact Analysis of Price Protection and Price Caps - The present invention relates to systems and methods for analyzing the impact of price protection and price cap terms in an integrated price management system. In some embodiments, the method includes negotiation of price protection and price cap terms. Next the method enforces the price protection and price cap terms. This enforcement may include applying and/or overriding the term on a manual price change or upon a mass price change. These terms are then analyzed for price leakage by product, by deal, by customer and by sales representative. This analysis may include the generation of a waterfall diagram for the deal. Adjustments for all price protection and price cap terms are generated (a price protection adjustment and a price cap adjustment) and these adjustments are then applied to the waterfall. | 12-19-2013 |
20130346157 | REVENUE OPTIMIZATION PLATFORM APPARATUSES, METHODS, SYSTEMS AND SERVICES - The revenue optimization platform apparatuses, methods, systems and services (“ROP”) implement revenue optimization algorithms to transform event data via ROP components into product optimal prices, purchasing probabilities at suggested sales prices, revenue leakage and revenue potential calculations. The ROP components can be deployed in centralized or distributed systems, either physical or virtualized. The ROP functionality can be intuitively used through graphical user interfaces accompanying the ROP or through APIs, which will be used to interface with the ROP Service through the appropriate functions. The ROP hides the complexity of the revenue optimization calculations and provides an easy-to-use, flexible means of implementing revenue optimization in numerous real life situations. | 12-26-2013 |
20130346158 | METHOD FOR DRIVERS OF MOTOR VEHICLES OR MOTOR BOATS TO LOCK IN THE PRICE THEY PAY FOR FUEL IRRESPECTIVE OF THE QUANTITY OF FUEL THEY USE IN THE FUTURE - Using a monitoring system to track fuel consumption and a computer to record the fuel consumption data, a hedging company can let its customers lock in the price of fuel and not the quantity or the delivery schedule because the hedging company has expertise in knowing the customers usage of the motor vehicle, including knowing the expected quantity and schedule of the fuel consumption, and can guarantee the price a customer pays for the fuel based in part on the customer's usage. For example, irrespective of if the customer actually uses 500 gallons of fuel or 1000 gallons of fuel, the price per gallon will be guaranteed to be ‘X’ dollars. ‘X’ being the price that the customer and the hedging company agree to. | 12-26-2013 |
20140006108 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSESSING AND MANAGING FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS | 01-02-2014 |
20140006109 | System and Methods for Generating Price Sensitivity | 01-02-2014 |
20140012631 | COMPETITIVE ECONOMY AS A RANKING DEVICE OVER NETWORKS - A method for processing information, includes constructing a directed graph including nodes corresponding to information sources and edges corresponding to links among the information sources. Respective equilibrium prices of the nodes are computed by modeling the directed graph as an exchange economy. A ranking of the information sources is generated responsively to the equilibrium prices of the corresponding nodes. | 01-09-2014 |
20140019210 | DETERMINING PRODUCT PRICE - Methods, systems, and computer-readable and executable instructions are provided for determining a product price. Determining a product price can include determining an initial market attraction value, a market price sensitivity, and cost information for a product. Determining a product price can also include receiving a market constraint with respect to the product and pricing the product based on the initial market attraction value, the market price sensitivity, the cost information, and the market constraint. | 01-16-2014 |
20140025433 | ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR VALUATION AND AN ELECTRONIC PROCESS FOR SAME - A computerized system and process, comprising storing characteristics of possible products in an electronic database, accepting user input related to a product's characteristics, matching the accepted user input related to the product's characteristics to the electronic database of characteristics of possible products to find a matched product, and determining, using the retail pricing calculation engine, a valuation for the a matched product. | 01-23-2014 |
20140025434 | System and Methods for Measuring Effectiveness for Strategic Mass Price Change - The present invention relates to systems and methods for measuring the effectiveness of mass price changes. In some embodiments, a mass price change with an effective date is inputted. This mass price change may then be cross referenced by the price protection and price cap terms to calculate a total price cap and price protection adjustment for each deal, which is then enforced upon each deal to yield a total revenue impact, which is what is actually realized by the mass price change after the total price cap and price protection adjustment. The total revenue impact may then be applied to generate an adjusted price. The adjusted price may be displayed in conjunction with the negotiated price to fully illustrate the mass price change effectiveness. | 01-23-2014 |
20140025435 | System and Methods for Brute Force Traversal - The present invention relates to systems and methods for brute force traversal of a transaction data set. In some embodiments, the systems and methods for brute force traversal receive a data dictionary that describes dimensions of transactions and hierarchical relationships between the dimensions. The transactions are then segmented according to a key system of possible combinations of segments. Statistical metrics of decision variables are calculated within each segment. Further, the ancestor segments for each segment are identified. The statistical metrics of each segment are compared to each of its ancestor segment's statistical metrics in order to identify outliers. | 01-23-2014 |
20140032273 | SYSTEM OF CREDITS FOR USE WITH A NETWORK-BASED APPLICATION - A credit mechanism or system for use with a network-based application is described. The credit mechanism operates in conjunction with the network-based application to require that users pay a number of credits to interact with other users. The number of credits required to interact with a particular user may be determined using an algorithm that takes as input a number of signals that are inferred from observed data and which generally represent a measure of the particular user's willingness to provide time and attention (e.g., supply of attention), and a measure of the desire of other users to obtain the particular user's attention (e.g., demand for attention). | 01-30-2014 |
20140032274 | APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR MANAGING DYNAMIC PRICING FOR ONLINE SALES - A system for managing dynamic pricing for online sales. The system includes a server to operate a commerce manager, a commerce manager, and a client. The server includes a processing device and a memory. The commerce manager includes a dynamic price manager operating on the processing device of the server to dynamically generate a price for a product. The dynamic price manager is influenced by market cues. The price is generated at a predetermined time interval. The client interacts with the commerce manager and is in communication with the server via a network. The client displays the price. | 01-30-2014 |
20140032275 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVED APP DISTRIBUTION - The system provides a method and apparatus for improving the adoption of apps. The system provides a method of allowing a downloadable App to be associated with a distributed offer such as a daily deal The offer is distributed to a plurality of publishers but each publisher includes the App download capability with the offer so that any consumer who purchases the offer must download the App as part of the transaction. The system provides metadata and tags for each publisher and publishing platform so allocation of compensation can be accurately made based on from which platform the App was downloaded. The system increases the exposure of the App to a greater number of customers than would otherwise be possible. | 01-30-2014 |
20140039982 | Method, License Model And System For Managing Software Licenses Amongst A Group Of Devices - An approach is provided for using a license model granting at least one license of using a software product designated for a local installation and execution on at least one device within a group of devices. The license is charged according to the actual execution time of the software on the at least one device of the group. Metrics data related to the software execution within the group are collected and a balance report for a licensor of the license is generated based on the metrics data. | 02-06-2014 |
20140046731 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AN OUTCOME BASED PRICING - Systems and methods for outcome based pricing may be useful in conjunction with an enterprise resource planning system in order to generate desired outcomes for a customer and provide optimized profitability for the vendor. Outcome based pricing is achieved by first generating a bundle of line items. The line items are selected from a listing of known goods and services, and each line item includes an output. The summation of the outputs for the bundle of line items achieves a desired outcome. The desired outcome includes a quantity value and a quality value, and is received from a customer. Next, the bundle of line items is priced to determine invoice price, pocket price and margin. More than one such bundle is generated for the desired outcome, each bundle containing different combinations of line items. The pricing for each of these bundles is compared to identify a preferred bundle. | 02-13-2014 |
20140046732 | TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS - A intellectual property evaluation method includes the steps of receiving a plurality of input scores for each of a plurality of patents by a intellectual property management software program. The plurality of input scores are combined to form a scale value for each of the plurality of patents. The scale values are compared to determine a select group of patents. A plurality of additional information is received by the intellectual property management software program for each of the select group of patents. | 02-13-2014 |
20140052498 | SYSTEMS and METHODS FOR PROVIDING GOODS - A robobox may automate all of the functions of a retail store, combining the best of online and traditional retail in a platform that costs significantly less to operate than a brick and mortar store while providing greater availability, a more predictable experience, and instant gratification to the shopper. Customers may use a touch screen interface to choose products from an inventory of the robobox. They may also place orders in advance through the web or with mobile devices. As soon as an order is completed and the payment has been collected electronically, the inner workings of the robobox pick the items in the order and may deliver it to the customer on-site. | 02-20-2014 |
20140067479 | AUTOMATED FEATURE-BASED ANALYSIS FOR COST MANAGEMENT OF DIRECT MATERIALS - A computerized method, system, and computer-readable medium of automated feature-based analysis for cost management of direct materials is disclosed. The method includes receiving a plurality of suppliers and at least one part offered by each of the plurality of suppliers, determining, with a processor, a should cost for each of the at least one parts based at least in part on features characteristics information, financial information, and purchasing demand information, receiving a request to compare the should cost for each of the at least one parts with a vendor price provided by a first supplier, wherein the first supplier is one of the plurality of suppliers, determining, with a processor, a spend index and fit score for each of the at least one parts offered by the first supplier, and automatically displaying a comparison of the spend index and fit score for each of the at least one parts offered by the first supplier through a graphical user interface. | 03-06-2014 |
20140074556 | Method for Financing and Operating Onsite Renewable Energy Systems with Aggregated Onsite Demand - An improved method of operating and financing one or more onsite renewable energy systems ( | 03-13-2014 |
20140081710 | System And Method For Presenting Big Data Through A Web-Based Browser Enabed User Interface - A system for determining asset prices within a web-based application IS PROVIDED. The system includes a backend server comprising a data collection engine for collecting data from a plurality of data sources, a data standardization engine for standardizing the data collected by the data collection engine, and an Applications Programming Interface (API) engine for carrying out requests as demanded by an end user through a web-based enabled user interface; a database server comprising one or more database tables for storing the data collected from the data collection engine; and a frontend server comprising a web server that interacts with the API engine and communicates with the user interface via a web based application hosted on the web server. | 03-20-2014 |
20140089053 | PERPETUALLY DECREASING GROUP PRICING SYSTEM AND METHOD - The present invention takes an input of the acceptable pricing to volume points from a business and outputs a continuous function which interpolates the pricing information for the entire range of customer volumes. As each consumer agrees to purchase an offer, they are added to the group, and the price decreases as defined by the output function. The result of this model is that of consumer collusion; it is in each consumer's best interest to increase the volume of purchases for the offer by the business. This yields lower prices for the individual, incentivizing each consumer to advertise for the business making the offer. | 03-27-2014 |
20140089054 | METHOD AND SYSTEM TO FORECAST REPAIR COST FOR ASSETS - Systems and methods of the invention relate to forecasting a projected cost for at least repair associated with one or more assets. Based on evaluation of a portion of historic repair data for the one or more assets, a forecast component can create a projected cost to perform a repair. A cost component can aggregate or receive a portion of historic data related to repair costs previously performed. The cost component can further ascertain a repair cost per duration of time for an asset. Based on at least one of the portion of historic data or the repair cost per duration of time, the forecast component can indicate a projected cost for at least one repair for one or more assets. | 03-27-2014 |
20140095262 | Sales system and business method including computer apparatus and product for and method of determining price - A portable, handheld computer apparatus is used by a contractor's representative to determine the price of construction services at a job site in real time for presentation to a customer. Stored in a memory of the apparatus is data providing costs of a plurality of different construction materials used in building a structure at the customer's job site including at least some visual images of different construction materials to be displayed on the apparatus' display screen. This enables a customer to see the image and make a selection of materials while at the job site and after viewing the images. The apparatus has a program that based at least in part upon the specific materials selected by the customer and other information entered by the contractor's representative determines the total costs and a profit. The contractor's representative while at the job site and in real time may present a contract to the customer for the construction services. | 04-03-2014 |
20140095263 | COMPREHENSIVE COST MODELING OF SUSTAINABLY AUTOGENOUS SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ENERGY, MATERIAL RESOURCES AND NUTRIENT REGIMES - A cost accounting system and method of promoting four organizing principles of sustainability measurement: (1) the principle of measuring “sustainably autogenous systems” (nature and behavior) for efficiency engineering to achieve measurable increases in EROEI; (2) the principle of measuring “full spectrum renewable energy technology” to include: (a) integrative design engineering for increased energy production capacity by the combination, synergy and aggregation of solar, wind, geothermal, moving water, biomass conversion; and (b) integrative design engineering to achieve measurable increases in economic capacity of produced capital by infrastructure engineering; (3) the principle of measuring hydrogen-carbon dissociation to achieve measurable increase in renewable energy value and measurable increase in renewable material resource value and (4) the principle of measuring the liberation of local economic talent by creating local jobs in sustainability programs and eliciting local leadership so as to achieve measurable increases in program governance, mission development, entrepreneurship, innovation, and community development. | 04-03-2014 |
20140108097 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REAL-TIME PRODUCT PRICING OPTIMIZATION - Product pricing and inventory optimization systems and methods and user interface elements enable users to optimize inventory (e.g., product quantity or volume) and pricing levels in real time for products for a given time period. Pricing and volume information is automatically determined for products in a product category for a specified time frame based on a shopping criterion defining how a merchandising set including that product is shopped by consumers and based on specified price and volume change limits. The shopping criterion may include a hierarchical order of at least two product relationship parameters, the product relationship parameters including brand relation information, size relation information, feature relation information and price relation information. In certain aspects, the pricing and volume information is also determined based on a brand hierarchy identifying an order of a set of product brands for the product category. | 04-17-2014 |
20140114726 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF USED VEHICLE PRICING DATA - Systems and methods for the aggregation, analysis, and display of data for used vehicles are disclosed. Historical transaction data for used vehicles may be obtained and processed to determine pricing data, where this determined pricing data may be associated with a particular configuration of a vehicle. The user can then be presented with an interface pertinent to the vehicle configuration utilizing the aggregated data set or the associated determined data where the user can make a variety of determinations. This interface may, for example, be configured to present the historical transaction data visually, with the pricing data such as a trade-in price, a list price, an expected sale price or range of sale prices, market low sale price, market average sale price, market high sale price, etc. presented relative to the historical transaction data. | 04-24-2014 |
20140129294 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTEGRATING RETAIL PRICE OPTIMIZATION FOR REVENUE AND PROFIT WITH BUSINESS RULES - The disclosed technology improves the process of generating recommended prices for retail products by optimizing revenue and profit while complying with a set of business rules by assigning a monetary value to each business rule. Then for each decision price that violates a business rule constraint, a penalty value is added to the monetary value. If the monetary value including the penalty is better than an original monetary value, the decision price is included in the recommended prices. | 05-08-2014 |
20140136289 | AUTOMATED PRICES - A method and system for tracking how well a product is selling and whether the price of a product should be raised or lowered. In an embodiment, a method for automating prices is provided by setting an initial pricing point for an item, and setting a time interval. The method also includes determining whether the item was purchased during the time interval, and determining whether the price of the item should be modified. The price is sent to a client machine as a sales price of the item. | 05-15-2014 |
20140143021 | DETERMINING A PRICE - A machine may be configured to generate a user interface that proposes an event to be scheduled in the future and solicits attendee bids, venue offers, sponsorship offers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some situations, the event includes one or more appearances by talent. The machine may be configured to receive the attendee bids from potential purchasers, venue offers from venue providers, sponsorship offers from potential sponsors, or any suitable combination thereof, via the user interface. The machine may identify a portion of the potential purchasers as winning bidders on tickets for the event, based on an attendee capacity supported by a venue, based on a portion of the attendee bids specifying higher prices per attendee than a remainder of the attendee bids, or based on both. The machine may assign a common price per attendee to each of the portion of the potential purchasers. | 05-22-2014 |
20140143022 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TIRE INVENTORY AND PROMOTION - Disclosed is a system and method for modifying a tire inventory database in a tire inventory server using a computer, a table, or a mobile communication device, comprising: obtaining an image of tread pattern on a selected tire using an imaging device; measuring tread depth on the selected tire to obtain a tread depth reading; and transmitting the image of tread pattern and the tread depth reading to the tire inventory server. | 05-22-2014 |
20140149183 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRICE TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION - Price for one or more products is optimized by considering competitor and/or consumer behavior relating to the products. A control set is generated to include one or more products. Also, a test set is generated to include one or more products of the same type as products in the control set. A feature of the products in the test set is changed while the feature of the products in the control set is maintained. Competitor and/or consumer response to the change is measured. Based on the response, a recommendation is generated with respect to the feature of the products in the test set. According to one implementation the recommendation may be a recommendation to lower the price of the products in the test set. | 05-29-2014 |
20140149184 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SIMULATING A PRODUCT AT DIFFERENT ATTRIBUTES AND LEVELS - The present disclosure relates to conjoint analysis, and more particularly to systems and methods for simulating a new product at different price points and different attributes. In one embodiment, a method for simulating performance of a product is disclosed. The method comprises: providing a profile of the product and a corresponding choice card, wherein the choice card assists selecting of a sub-set of an updated first set of attributes and levels based on the profile; performing an analysis on the selected sub-set of the updated first set of attributes and levels; and simulating a plurality of scenarios to determine an optimum scenario depicting the performance of the product. | 05-29-2014 |
20140156351 | FUEL OFFERING AND PURCHASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - The present disclosure is directed towards apparatuses, systems and methods to facilitate the pricing, sales and delivery of a commodity fuel to a Customer. In one embodiment, the disclosure teaches a Fuel Offer Generator that facilitates the purchase and management of fuel offerings. The Fuel Offer Generator allows Customers interested in securing fuel to obtain an offer for fuel at lock-in prices for various tenors. Fuel Customers can buy these fuel offers such that they may later exercise the fuel offers so their fuel costs are locked-in at desired levels (e.g., they may be set to strike prices). The Fuel Offer Generator also can establish a Premium Price that will be part of the fuel offer. The Fuel Offer Generator may generate hedges to counteract fuel related risks stemming from fuel offer purchases. Ultimately, a customer that purchases a fuel offering can exercise their fuel offering order at a specified price and redeem any difference between the market price for their purchased fuel and the price specified in their fuel offering order. The Fuel Offer Generator determines which metrics are relevant to pricing the fuel offering and then employs those determined metrics to establish the pricing of fuel offerings. | 06-05-2014 |
20140156352 | Analytical Tool - An exemplary method for determining a singular impact of a base criterion includes selecting the base criterion and a trade criterion from a plurality of criteria and selecting a starting alternative and a target alternative. A series of virtual alternatives are then created, initially based on the starting alternative, by sequentially eliminating an impact of each non-selected criteria from the plurality of criteria. A final virtual alternative is compared to the target alternative and the singular impact of the base criterion is determined based on a difference between the final virtual alternative and the target alternative. | 06-05-2014 |
20140156353 | Method and medium for dynamic property re-pricing using partial broker services - A computer program product having code that when executed implements steps in a method for displaying to the user a recalculated sales price of realty. The recalculated sales price reflects user-selected brokerage services and not a fixed-commission percentage, typical with the sale of realty. Steps include establishing a database of itemized broker services; accessing a sales price of the realty; providing user access to the database; recording user-selected broker services; producing a recalculated sales price of the real estate property factoring the user-selected broker services into the sales price; and then displaying to the user the recalculated sales price. A system using the computer program product gets smarter with use because the method may include steps of automatically recalculating average factors used to produce a recalculated sales price of the real estate property. | 06-05-2014 |
20140164064 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SERVING ELECTRONIC CONTENT - A system and methods are provided for serving content in response to content queries or requests. When a request is received, for content to be presented to a specified user, candidate content items are identified, possibly based on matches between attributes of the user and attributes of the items' target audiences. For each item, a history indicating the frequency (e.g., total number) and/or recency with which impressions of the candidate item were previously presented to the user is retrieved and used to determine a modifier value, which is applied to a calculated or generated probable click-through-rate (pCTR) to produce a modified probability that the user would act on the item if it is served to him or her. Each item's estimated value is computed by multiplying a bid associated with the item and the modified probability; the results are ranked and the top-ranked item(s) are served. | 06-12-2014 |
20140188567 | PRODUCT DETERMINATION FOR A PORTFOLIO - A system includes an intersection engine to determine intersection points between multiple first functions, each first function corresponding to a product from a plurality of products and each first function based on the corresponding product's utility and profit at a given price point. The system further includes a first ranking engine to rank the intersection points and a second ranking engine to rank the first functions based on the intersection points. The system further includes a solving engine to solve a second function based on a subset of the ranked functions to determine a subset of the products to include in a product portfolio and a price for each product in the portfolio to maximize profit for the plurality of products. | 07-03-2014 |
20140195304 | PEERACTIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND ONLINE SHOPPING - The number of users viewing a given variable directly affects the rate of change and/or outcome of said variable. In the case of eCommerce, pricing of products and/or services is based upon a user accessing a website on which products and/or services are for sale. An initial price indicia associator associates initial price indicia with the products and/or services files. The initial pricing can be based upon historical indicia or the engine itself. Thereafter, a price indicia adjuster adjusts the pricing responsive to user access of the website or related website. A user interface meter shown on the website indicates to potential buyers how much interest there is in the product and/or service being sold so that peer activity is exhibited to potential buyers to encourage sales and impulsive buying behavior. Pricing is dynamic and adjusts in real-time at a rate determined by the amount of users accessing the website. | 07-10-2014 |
20140200964 | MULTI-PRODUCT PRICING MARKDOWN OPTIMIZER - A system that determines markdown pricing for a plurality of items over a plurality of time periods receives a non-linear time-dependent problem, where the non-linear time-dependent problem comprises a demand model. The system determines approximate inventory levels for each item in each time period and, for a plurality of pair of items in a product category, determines coefficients for a change in demand of a first product at each of the plurality of time periods when a price of a second product is changed using initial prices and initial approximate inventory levels. The system generates an approximate MILP problem comprising a change of demand based on a sum of the determined coefficients. The system then solves the MILP problem to generate revised prices and revised inventory levels. The functionality is repeated until a convergence criteria is satisfied, and then the system assigns the revised prices as the markdown product pricing. | 07-17-2014 |
20140200965 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A QUOTE FOR PRODUCTS FROM A CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - A method for providing a quote for alternative products is disclosed. The method includes identifying key features associated with a first product and identifying alternative products different from the first product based on the key features and on information managed by a CRM system. The method also includes determining an alternative product configuration associated with the first product that includes at least one alternative product and, as a whole, includes the plurality of key features. A pricing matrix associated with the alternative product configuration is generated and includes information identifying the at least one alternative product, and pricing information associated with the at least one alternative product and/or a total price associated with the alternative product configuration. A quote that includes the pricing matrix is then generated. | 07-17-2014 |
20140200966 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING THE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT OF AN INFRASTRUCTURE CORRIDOR - Methods, systems, and techniques for determining the vertical alignment of an infrastructure corridor having a certain horizontal alignment involve using a processor to model the cost of constructing the infrastructure corridor as a function of cost variables that vary with the vertical alignment of the infrastructure corridor. The processor looks up the cost variables at vertical offsets corresponding to certain vertical alignments of the infrastructure corridor and determines the cost of constructing the length of road at elevations located between pairs of the vertical offsets by interpolating from the cost variables at the vertical offsets; the interpolation may be linear. The processor determines, subject to infrastructure corridor design constraints, the vertical alignment of the infrastructure corridor from the cost of constructing the infrastructure corridor at the vertical offsets. | 07-17-2014 |
20140207525 | Method and Apparatus to Calculate Social Pricing Index to Determine Product Pricing in Real-Time - A method and system are disclosed for providing a near-real-time pricing index associated with user interactions within a social media environment. A first and second set of social media data, respectively associated with a first and second set of social media interactions, are processed to generate a first and second set of social network advocacy (SNA) data in near-real-time. The resulting first and second sets of SNA data are then processed to generate a first and second set of social pricing index data, which respectively indicate a near-real-time measurement of sentiment and advocacy related to the pricing of a target product. The first and second sets of social pricing index data are then processed to generate a set of social pricing index differential data, which indicates a corresponding improvement or decline in sentiment or advocacy related to the pricing of the target product. | 07-24-2014 |
20140207526 | MOBILE ASSAY FACILITY AND METHOD OF USING SAME TO PROCURE AND ASSAY PRECIOUS METALS - A self contained, mobile assay facility built in a modified armored truck is completely equipped to smelt and assay precious metals, particularly gold and silver. An induction furnace melts the metal that is then poured into an ingot. The ingot is weighed and analyzed using an XRF alloy analyzer and the percentage of gold and/or other metals recorded. The value of the gold at current market prices is calculated and the assay and the value of the ingot is printed and given to the seller. The seller may opt to receive the ingot and pay the assayer an assay fee. Alternately, the seller may ask to be paid cash or by wire transfer that may be initiated and confirmed from within the mobile assay facility. The ingots may be safely stored or shipped directly from the mobile facility to a wholesaler for further processing. | 07-24-2014 |
20140214490 | SLIDER BASED PRICING USING MULTIPLE DATA POINTS - Techniques pertaining to automatically pricing a service involving multiple data points are disclosed. A server including a processing component hosts and manages an application. The application may receive multiple data points from a client computer device over a network connection, the multiple data points comprising pricing proposal data for a service to be provided. Multiple pricing points may be determined including a base cost pricing point. The base cost pricing point may be calculated from the multiple data points and indicative of the minimum cost to provide the service. The application may create an interactive graphical representation of the multiple pricing points. Thereafter, the application may receive input from the client computer device indicative of a target cost savings and calculate a target savings pricing point. | 07-31-2014 |
20140214491 | Out-the-Door Pricing System, Method and Computer Program Product Therefor - Embodiments provide consumers browsing and shopping online for durable goods such as new vehicles with out-the-door prices for user-specified vehicle configurations. A vehicle data system can obtain automotive registration data from various sources, identify true taxes versus fees, process them into separate groups, associate them to vehicle configurations, and persist the associated taxes and fees in a database. This backend process can be done offline, independent of a frontend process that services user requests in real time. A user request containing a user-specified vehicle configuration may be received by the vehicle data system through a website. The vehicle data system may determine an out-the-door price for the user-specified vehicle configuration, the out-the-door price representing a final amount that a consumer is to pay a dealer for the user-specified vehicle configuration and including applicable taxes and fees retrieved from the database. | 07-31-2014 |
20140214492 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRICE POINT ANALYSIS - The present invention relates to systems and methods for price point analysis which identifies dynamic root dimensional causes and enables identification of opportunities. Price point analysis includes analyzing transactions to generate a data set of transactions, identifying a primary waterfall cause of the data set, and lastly generating a discrete root dimensional cause classification by setting the primary waterfall cause as a dependent variable and all other dimensions as independent variables, and clustering the transactions into segments along dimensional boundaries that best explain the primary waterfall cause, thereby identifying the root cause and its location. In some embodiments, the transactions may be pre-processed before analyzing. | 07-31-2014 |
20140214493 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR WATERFALL ADJUSTMENT ANALYSIS - The present invention relates to systems and methods for waterfall adjustment analysis which identifies continuous root dimensional causes and enables identification of opportunities. Waterfall adjustment analysis includes analyzing transactions to generate a data set of transactions, and then generating a continuous root dimensional cause classification by setting recoverable lift as a dependent variable and selected dimensions as independent variables, and clustering transactions into segments along dimensional boundaries that best explain the primary waterfall cause, thereby identifying the root cause and its location. In some embodiments, the transactions may be pre-processed before processing to allow for the examination of adherence to specific business hypotheses. The selected dimensions are dimensions above the lowest level of a hierarchy, selected by the user as dominant dimensions, and/or dimensions that are the lowest level of the hierarchy and having a cardinality that is less than or equal to the cardinality termination value. | 07-31-2014 |
20140222516 | CONTENT PROVISIONING AND REVENUE DISBURSEMENT - A method for provisioning content to users, including for each of a plurality of items of media content, maintaining information about one or more owners of the item of media content, and maintaining information about one or more providers of the item of media content, for each of a plurality of users, maintaining information about items of media content acquired by the user and about player devices owned by the user, for each of a plurality of time periods, maintaining a history log of items of media content played by one or more of the plurality of users during the time period, receiving a request from a user to play a designated item of media content on a designated player device, during a current time period, identifying an appropriate provider of the designated item of media content, according to a location of the user and according to the designated player device, causing the identified provider of the designated item of media content to transmit the designated item of media content to the user's designated player device, updating the history log for the current time period to reflect the user having played the designated item of media content, and calculating revenue disbursement among the owners of the plurality of items of media content, and the providers of the plurality of media content, for the current time period, based on the history log of the current time period. A system is also described and claimed. | 08-07-2014 |
20140222517 | APPARATUS, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RETAL-TIME PRICING ON CONSUMABLE ITEMS IN REATIL EMBODIMENTS - The present invention provides a dynamic computing system, comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having encoded thereon computer executable instructions for providing pricing information to a requester via a presentation layer, a valuation engine comprised of computing code capable of executing rules that generate at least one value for at least one food item responsive to at least the supply information and customer information accessed from at least one network, and a data layer capable of receiving at least the supply information and the customer information, and communicatively connected to said valuation engine, and further comprising food offering information for the requester for presentation to the requester via said presentation layer, wherein the food offering information comprises at least one offer price for the at least one food item. | 08-07-2014 |
20140222518 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR SETTING OPTIMAL HOTEL PROPERTY PRICES - A method and system for setting the optimal price for a hotel property are described. The method includes the steps of receiving electronic data having marketing information, including, for example, the customers won and lost by competitors. One or more price sensitivity coefficients are calculated based on the market data. The price sensitivity coefficients are used to calculate a predicted share value representing the probability that a next customer will book a property at the subject hotel at a particular price. The price sensitivity coefficients are also used to calculate a price elasticity value representing the responsiveness of demand for the hotel property to a change in the price of that property. The price of the hotel property is set at a point where the price elasticity value is substantially equal to −1.0. | 08-07-2014 |
20140222519 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE ANALYSIS OF PRICING DATA INCLUDING PRICING FLEXIBILITY FOR VEHICLES AND OTHER COMMODITIES - Embodiments disclosed herein can provide consumers with an effective tool for evaluating the negotiability of prices for vehicles in the marketplace. The tool may include a negotiability index which determines flexibility in vehicle pricing. Specifically, a method may obtain data from multiple sets of vehicle models, construct a price flexibility model to estimate an average price range for each set of models, determine a negotiability index using the average price range, and generate an interface to present the negotiability index. In one embodiment, the price flexibility model incorporates a plurality of factors. | 08-07-2014 |
20140257935 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MEDIA AND COMMERCE MANAGEMENT - A computer-based integrated advertising management platform implements ad pricing options via a Business Rules Management System configured to enable rules-based pricing while avoiding large, multi-dimensional sets of rate tables that must be stored to cover all possible combinations of options. A user makes selections on an ad booking form, pricing rules are checked in the background, and the remaining options and current price displayed to the user are updated. The Rules Engine incorporates an integrated third-party Drools BRMS. Client applications access BRMS functions through a “BRMSEngine” abstraction layer, which preloads rules in compiled binary form to build a rules cache for best performance. | 09-11-2014 |
20140278803 | System and Method for Estimating Price Sensitivity and/or Price Aggregation for a Population Having a Collection of Items - Provided is a system for estimating price sensitivities and determining aggregate price adjustments for a population of items, the population comprising a plurality of sub-populations. More specifically, provided is a system comprising a computer executing a price sensitivity engine and a price aggregation engine, the price sensitivity engine receiving time-series information, determining covariate coefficients to estimate a population price sensitivity average, modeling a first set of vectors based on the covariate coefficients, modeling a second set of vectors based on the covariate coefficients and an indicator variable, and estimating sub-population price sensitivities based on the first and second sets of vectors; and the price aggregation engine comparing each of the sub-population price sensitivities to the population price sensitivity average and/or to other sub-population price sensitivities, ranking, ordering, and/or clustering the sub-populations, and determining aggregate price adjustments to items in the sub-populations. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278804 | DYNAMIC RE-PRICING OF ITEMS ON ELECTRONIC MARKETPLACES AND/OR ONLINE STORES - A method of dynamically re-pricing items, comprising:
| 09-18-2014 |
20140278805 | PRICING SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING PRICES FOR VEHICLES OFFERED BY VEHICLE DEALERSHIPS AND OTHER ENTITIES - A method includes identifying, for a specified vehicle, a competitive set of other vehicles based on input from a user. The method also includes receiving from the user one or more parameters to be used in pricing the specified vehicle. The method further includes identifying a recommended price for the specified vehicle using the competitive set and the one or more parameters. The one or more parameters could include a selection or definition of multiple pricing formulas to be used to identify the recommended price. Different pricing formulas can be associated with different lengths of time that the specified vehicle is available. A first of the pricing formulas can be used to identify a first recommended price for the specified vehicle and, after a specified amount of time has elapsed, a second of the pricing formulas can be used to identify a lower second recommended price for the specified vehicle. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278806 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING VEHICLE MARKET ANALYSIS - The present disclosure relates to computer-implemented systems and methods for providing vehicle market analysis. An example method may include receiving vehicle data associated with a vehicle and determining, based at least in part on the vehicle data, wholesale market data and retail market data associated with the vehicle. The method may also include determining, based at least in part on the wholesale market data and the retail market data, one or more price recommendations for the vehicle. The method may also include determining, based at least in part on the wholesale market data and the retail market data, one or more location recommendations for the vehicle. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278807 | CLOUD SERVICE OPTIMIZATION FOR COST, PERFORMANCE AND CONFIGURATION - Described embodiments provide for a cloud computing system with cloud services provided by several cloud service providers. Cloud service data is collected from sensors within each cloud service provider's service, and system models are developed based on the collected cloud service data. The user provides configuration data that is related to performance and cost objectives for the cloud computing system. Performance and cost predictions for the cloud computing system are generated based on the system models and the user configuration data; and then processed to provide a set of attributes and parameters for the cloud computing system. The set of attributes and parameters for the cloud computing system are presented to the user for selection. Based on the set of attributes and parameters, the cloud computing system operates by employing selected attributes and parameters from within a set of differing cloud service providers. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278808 | IMPLEMENTING COMPARISON OF CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER PACKAGE OFFERINGS - A computer-implemented method of implementing comparison of cloud service provider package offerings comprises a plurality of operations. An operation of creating a cloud services architecture specification defining a cloud infrastructure that supports deployment of an application thereto is performed. An operation of determining a cloud services offering price for each one of the plurality of cloud service offerings to characterize implementation of the cloud infrastructure using cloud services thereof on a basis of pricing of such cloud services is performed. Determining the cloud services offering price for a particular one of the cloud service offerings includes mapping the cloud services architecture specification to cloud service pricing information for the particular one of the cloud service offerings. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278809 | PRICE ESTIMATION MODEL - The present disclosure proposes systems and methods to create an integrated centralized database that aggregates repair material and labor cost data by geographic area in real time and provides a repair cost estimating platform based on data collected from various data sources including directly from roofing contractors who have recently performed repairs. | 09-18-2014 |
20140278810 | SYSTEM, COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD, AND NON-TRANSITORY, COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM TO DETERMINE RELATIVE MARKET VALUE OF A SALE GROUP OF LIVESTOCK BASED ON GENETIC MERIT AND OTHER NON-GENETIC FACTORS - Systems, computer-readable medium having computer program, and related computer implemented methods are provided to determine the relative market value of a sale group and to generate a genetic merit scorecard. Such systems, computer-readable medium having computer program, and related computer implemented methods utilize the genetic merit estimates of relatives of a sale group, along with associated economic weighting factors to determine the relative market value of the sale group. The genetic merit scorecard reflects the relative market value of the sale group, as compared to the industry. | 09-18-2014 |
20140289020 | MONITORING TRANSPORT OF MATERIALS IN CONTAINERS - A railcar asset management system proactively issues an alert or task when a pre-determined event occurs. The system may receive information regarding the location and status of a railcar from sensors on the railcar that may include a telematics sensing unit. A database in the railway telematics system stores the data regarding the railcar location and status information. The system determines whether an event has occurred and issues the proactive alerts and/or task. The system may communicate the proactive alert via e-mail, paging, PDAs or by cell phone and may provide interactive preconfigured web pages. | 09-25-2014 |
20140297368 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE MARKET PRICE FOR AN INDIVIDUAL DIAMOND - A diamond appraisal system and method is described that allows a user select a diamond to be appraised. Based on characteristics of the appraisal diamond, comparison diamonds are selected from one or more market databases. The comparison diamonds are associated with historical or current actual market prices, which reflect actual sale prices or proposed sale prices for each of the comparison diamonds. Premium and discount weights are applied to these actual market prices to generate an estimated market price for the appraisal diamond. By computing the estimated market price of the appraisal diamond relative to the actual market prices of other diamonds, the diamond appraisal system and method determines the monetary value of the appraisal diamond relative to changing market conditions. | 10-02-2014 |
20140297369 | GENERATING A DISCOUNT FOR LACK OF MARKETABILITY - A method, system, and medium for generating a double-probability-weighted discount for lack of marketability (DLOM) for an asset to be valued. Selections of parameters associated with the asset to be valued and of representative assets for which price data is available are received. A mean and standard deviation of marketing periods associated with the selected parameters and of price volatilities depicted by the price data are calculated. A statistical modeling application generates probability distributions based on the means and standard deviations of the marketing periods and of the price volatilities. DLOMs are calculated for each combination of marketing period and price volatility. The DLOMs are weighted based on the probabilities depicted by the probability distributions and summed to provide the double-probability-weighted DLOM, which is presented to the user via a user interface. | 10-02-2014 |
20140310064 | PRICING PERSONALIZED PACKAGES WITH MULTIPLE COMMODITIES - A top-down and bottom-up approach that decomposes product bundles to components, classifies them into different groups corresponding to a component similarity measure, and detects their inherent values. The bundles are reassembled and characterized by several key attributes according to their component inherent values, and classified into segments. A normalized utility model is constructed for each product bundle segment, taking into account the additive effect among different commodity types and product families. The goodness of fit of the top-down and the bottom-up model may be validated. The model may be applied in an RFQ pricing environment. | 10-16-2014 |
20140310065 | PRICING PERSONALIZED PACKAGES WITH MULTIPLE COMMODITIES - A top-down and bottom-up approach that decomposes product bundles to components, classifies them into different groups corresponding to a component similarity measure, and detects their inherent values. The bundles are reassembled and characterized by several key attributes according to their component inherent values, and classified into segments. A normalized utility model is constructed for each product bundle segment, taking into account the additive effect among different commodity types and product families. The goodness of fit of the top-down and the bottom-up model may be validated. The model may be applied in an RFQ pricing environment. | 10-16-2014 |
20140310066 | PERFORMING PREDICTIVE PRICING BASED ON HISTORICAL DATA - Techniques are described for using predictive pricing information for items to assist in evaluating buying and/or selling decisions in various ways, such as on behalf of end-user item acquirers and/or intermediate item providers. The predictive pricing for an item may be based on an analysis of historical pricing information for that item and/or related items, and can be used to make predictions about future pricing information for the item. Such predictions may then be provided to users in various ways to enable comparison of current prices to predicted future prices. In some situations, predictive pricing information is used to assist customers when purchasing airline tickets and/or to assist travel agents when selling airline tickets. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract, and it is submitted with the intention that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. | 10-16-2014 |
20140310067 | METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR DYNAMICALLY PRICING PERISHABLE GOODS - Techniques for dynamically pricing perishable goods. The objective is to sell all items before any remaining items become worthless. The method comprises: monitoring a time parameter T corresponding to period T | 10-16-2014 |
20140310068 | STORE PROVIDING SYSTEM, PRICE DECIDING DEVICE, AND PRICE DECIDING METHOD - In a store providing system, an action history recording device records the action history of a user. A product information acceptor accepts information to identify content to be sold in a store. Here, the product information acceptor accepts the information to identify content included in the action history of the user in the action history recording device. A content disposing section disposes accepted information relating to content in the store. A target sales holder holds a target number of sales of content and a content price holder holds the price of the content. A price decider increases the price of the content if the counted number of sales is equal to or larger than the target number of sales, and decreases the price of the content if the counted number of sales is smaller than the target number of sales. | 10-16-2014 |
20140324546 | SIMULTANEOUS RETAIL AND TRANSFER PRICE OPTIMIZATIONS - A request for a simultaneous retail and transfer price optimization is received. The request includes a mutual optimization goal of each of at least two participants of a supply chain. Simultaneous optimization input constraints are selected based upon the mutual optimization goal. The requested simultaneous retail and transfer price optimization is performed using the selected simultaneous optimization input constraints. A set of optimized values of the mutual optimization goal is determined, based upon the simultaneous retail and transfer price optimization, using the selected simultaneous optimization input constraints. Each value of the set of optimized values is associated with one of the at least two participants of the supply chain. Output is generated that identifies the determined set of optimized values of the mutual optimization goal. | 10-30-2014 |
20140324547 | Cloud network social engineering system and method for emerging societies using a low cost slate device - The present invention teaches methods and systems for providing comprehensive cloud network resources to subscribing users comprising the acts of: providing a cloud network server including at least one data storage unit and at least one processor; providing at least one user device for accessing the cloud network server, the user device being communicatively coupled with the cloud network server; wherein the user device displays a menu including at least one menu item; and wherein the menu item is language irrelevant, wherein the language irrelevant menu item is identifiable without reference to written language. In accordance with a preferred embodiment the cloud server stores user data; and generates a menu responsive to the stored user data, including past menu selections by the user. Where stored user data includes geographic data; the cloud server generates dynamic information responsive to the user geographic data and responsive to past menu selections. | 10-30-2014 |
20140324548 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRE- AND POST-INVOICE COMPONENT LEVEL PRICE AUDITING IN A COST-PLUS DISTRIBUTION ENVIRONMENT - A system and method for auditing and verifying that a buyer is being charged a correct price for a good by a distributer before the distributer transports the good to the buyer. The system reviews a proposed invoice at an individual good level and reviews the transportation cost associated with each good. If a variance between an expected cost and a proposed invoice cost is determined, the audit system automatically generates electronic exception files detailing the variance for transmitting to the distributor. The system also provides for post-invoice auditing of the price paid for both a good and transportation costs associated with the delivery of the good to verify that the cost charged to the buyer was correct. | 10-30-2014 |
20140324549 | PRICE ASSURANCE ENGINE - A system and method that establishes and maintains pricing for participating vendors and an authorized buyer using a metadata-software application that provides a useful history of purchases and discounts for audit records. The system provides base prices and price discounts based on the average actual sale price of an item or service over a period of time. The terms of the averaging procedure, and the mathematical algorithms utilized to calculate “average” can differ from contract to contract and are defined in a way that buyers perceive as fair, reasonable and transparent, and vendors find acceptable. Using the system will confirm that the price paid for a commercial good or service is market-based, and that terms and conditions of the sale leverage volume-buying power, ensuring the best possible price and the best possible terms for all commercial transactions in today's marketplace. | 10-30-2014 |
20140324550 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING AN OPTIMAL LOW FARE FOR A TRIP - A method, system and computer program product assist an airline in determining if a lower fare exists for a trip among fares already proposed by the airline or other airlines. A set of tables, each associated with particular departure and arrival locations, may be created in an encompassing request database based upon results identified for requests sent from one or more clients, travel agents or airlines to a production traffic engine. The encompassing request database may then be queried by an airline to determine whether a lower fare exists for the trip. | 10-30-2014 |
20140330619 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR AUTOMATIC, PRE-SALE PRICE MATCHING - A method for automatic, pre-sale price matching performed by a computing device includes receiving a first price established by a first vendor for at least one of a good and a service. The method includes retrieving information including a second price, the information associated with an offer for sale, by another vendor, of the at least one of the good and the service. The method includes identifying at least one parameter of the offer. The method includes recalculating the second price using the parameter. The method includes determining that the first price is higher than the recalculated second price. The method includes automatically modifying the first price to be substantially equal to the recalculated second price. The method includes publishing the modified first price so a user may acquire the at least one of the good and the service at the modified first price from the first vendor without negotiation. | 11-06-2014 |
20140337105 | PRODUCT EVALUATION SYSTEM AND PRODUCT EVALUATION METHOD - A product evaluation system and a product evaluation method allow people to quickly, inexpensively, and accurately evaluate large amounts of products including those that do not have information attached in advance in the manufacturing stage. The system comprises an I/O component that functions as a product identification mechanism that identifies product type including at least one of product, product group, product brand, or product category, a characteristic acquisition mechanism that acquires characteristic information of the product, an evaluator that performs authentication and value estimations of products, and a data store that stores information related to the product. The evaluation mechanism performs authentication and value estimations of products based on characteristic information of the product acquired by the characteristic acquisition mechanism, and genuine product characteristic information, counterfeit product characteristic information, and value information and market information for each condition included in the information related to products stored in the data store. | 11-13-2014 |
20140344020 | COMPETITOR PRICING STRATEGY DETERMINATION - Embodiments of the present invention relate to apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer program products for determining a competitor's pricing strategy. In one embodiment, a system comprises a processor configured to: (a) receive information identifying pricing strategy for each of the plurality of entities, where the pricing strategy comprises at least one variable for a price selection method; (b) randomly generate initial values for the at least one variable for the price selection method to thereby generate a plurality of pricing strategies; (c) determine a value of fitness for each of the plurality of pricing strategies; (d) select pricing strategies from among the plurality of pricing strategies having a value of fitness that satisfy a predetermined criteria; (e) use a genetic algorithm to randomly modify a portion of the initial values for the at least one price selection method; and (f) determine that the plurality of pricing strategies is satisfactory. | 11-20-2014 |
20140344021 | REACTIVE COMPETITOR PRICE DETERMINATION USING A COMPETITOR RESPONSE MODEL - Embodiments of the present invention relate to apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer program products for determining competitor prices. In one embodiment, a system comprises a processor configured to: (a) receive information identifying pricing strategy for each of the plurality of entities, where the pricing strategy comprises at least one variable for a price selection method; (b) randomly generate initial values for the at least one variable for the price selection method to thereby generate a plurality of pricing strategies; (c) determine a value of fitness for each of the plurality of pricing strategies; (d) select pricing strategies from among the plurality of pricing strategies having a value of fitness that satisfy a predetermined criteria; (e) use a genetic algorithm to randomly modify a portion of the initial values for the at least one price selection method; and (f) determine that the plurality of pricing strategies is satisfactory. | 11-20-2014 |
20140344022 | COMPETITOR RESPONSE MODEL BASED PRICING TOOL - Embodiments of the present invention relate to apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer program products for determining an optimal price recommendation. In one embodiment, a system comprises a processor configured to: (a) predict one or more values of relative strength index based on one or more price changes; (b) determine a curve for predicted relative strength index as a function of price change; (c) use elasticity models to determine values of market share based on the predicted values of relative strength index to thereby determine a market share as a function of price change curve; (d) determine a curve for total revenue as a function of price change curve; (e) determine an optimal price or an optimal price change for the entity based at least partially on a value associated with a peak of the curve for total revenue as the function of price change. | 11-20-2014 |
20140344023 | Methodology and Process to Price Benchmark Bundled Telecommunications Products and Services - This invention relates generally to a system and method to provide price benchmark for a bundled product consisting of two or more components, with particular application in telecommunications products/services. Benchmarking bundled services usually revolves around choosing a price distribution quantile of (near) identical bundled transactions. Historical transaction data lacks sufficient volume to extract reliable statistical information to price benchmark bundled telecommunications services of “similar” nature (typically includes triplets of access, port/plug and CustomerPremisesEquipment). An alternative, Component Based Model (CBM), approach sums the price quantile of each component in the bundle. The advantage of CBM is that price data by network element is more abundant providing acceptable statistical reliability. The drawback is that the sum of quantile values usually underestimates the quantile of the sum. This invention presents a method and procedure to modify CBM to provide an accurate quantile value representing a Full Cost bundled product. | 11-20-2014 |
20140351020 | ESTIMATING THE TOTAL SALES OVER STREAMING BIDS - A mechanism is provided for computing an estimation of maximum total sales over streaming items. Each item having an associated value is designated as an item value pair. Value ranges are established to place the item value pairs. The value ranges are distinct. Each of the item value pairs is added into the value ranges according to each of the associated values for the item value pairs. Repeated item value pairs are removed that are in the same value ranges. A number of the item value pairs is reduced in each of the value ranges respectively based on an error factor, by randomly selecting the item value pairs to remove from each of the value ranges. An estimate of a total maximum value of the bids for the item value pairs in all of the value ranges is computed based on a scale factor. | 11-27-2014 |
20140351021 | CROWD PRICING SYSTEM AND METHOD HAVING TIER-BASED RATINGS - A crowd pricing system and method having tier-based ratings includes a pricing table hosted on a memory. The pricing table has a plurality of pricing tiers, wherein the pricing table is correlated to at least one downloadable media item. A download popularity value is calculated based on a quantity of downloads of the at least one downloadable media item within an evaluation period, wherein a position of the at least one downloadable media item is movable between the plurality of pricing tiers based on the download popularity value, wherein position movement of the at least one downloadable media item is regulated by at least one control factor. A ratings designation is paired with each of the plurality of pricing tiers, the ratings designation having a cumulative user ratings score calculated by the processor, wherein the cumulative user ratings score provides an indication of cumulative user rating of the at least one downloadable media item. | 11-27-2014 |
20140351022 | MODEL-BASED PROMOTION AND PRICE COMPUTATION SYSTEM AND METHOD - A system and method for providing model-based promotion and price computation is described in which promotional offers in the form of promotion information from a manufacturer are combined with price determination parameters from the retailer to calculate a final retail price. The system prevents fraud by eliminating the heavy dependence on unverifiable trust between the retailer and manufacturer and by assuring that the consumer will receive the benefit of the promotions intended by the manufacturer. | 11-27-2014 |
20140358641 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR VEHICLE LEASES PERMITTING MULTIPLE VEHICLE EXCHANGES - A system and related method are disclosed for pricing a lease allowing multiple vehicle exchanges, using a computer or similar device. The method involves accepting lessee data including the lessee driving record, and desired lease terms, vehicles, and vehicle exchanges, and combining it with other data such as initial values of vehicles, depreciation over the term and mileage of the lease, and the history of interaction between the lessee and lessor. The calculated price is published via the system display. The method may be practiced by a server, mobile device, or payment processing machine belonging to the lessee or lessor. | 12-04-2014 |
20140358642 | System Containing An Integration Of Cost Savings Tracker And Spend Analyzer For Calculating Actual Effective Savings - A system containing an integration of a cost savings tracker and spend analyzer for calculating actual effective savings of a spend category in a procurement cycle is described. The system includes a cost savings tracker module and spend analyzer module. The cost savings tracker module facilitates computation of actual effective cost savings of a spend category and thus facilitates tracking of the cost savings of a spend category, while a cost component model of the spend analyzer module is intended for spend analysis that facilitates analysis of the procurement cost in relation to market indices of the underlying commodities. | 12-04-2014 |
20140365277 | RETROACTIVE DOCUMENT RETENTION, REPORTING AND PRICING DETERMINATION - Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for providing retroactive document retention service. In some embodiments, a system is provided that includes: a computing platform including a processor and a storage device, a database comprising rules relating to maintenance of information stored in an archive, a software module stored in the storage device comprising executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to: (a) identify one or more data items in the one or more databases having a retention date prior to a date of enrollment into the document retention service; (b) retroactively apply the document retention service to the one or more data items by modifying a retention time for each of the one or more data items, wherein the retention time is extend for a predetermined time in accordance with one or more terms of the document retention service. | 12-11-2014 |
20140379432 | Method for Operating a Restaurant and its Food/Beverage Pricing - A method for operating a restaurant and/or bar by charging patrons based on market pricing of actual food and beverages ordered and a seating charge per unit of time. A computer including memory, processor, and visual display mechanism is used to display the then current market prices for food and drinks, wherein a visual update of the market prices of specific food and drink items is provided. The market pricing is tied to the pricing of the food and/or beverages that the restaurant pays to its suppliers and/or to a market exchange. The bill for food and beverages includes an initial seating fee, which is a set price per patron per unit of time, and then an additional time seating fee is charged for any time after the initial unit of time expires. Seating charges depend upon time of day, day of week, season, and proximity to event or Holiday. | 12-25-2014 |
20140379433 | Method and System for Automatic Generation of an Offer to Purchase a Valuable Object and Automated Transaction Completion - This invention discloses a novel system and method for automatically determining the price to offer to purchase a valuable object, for example, jewelry or watches, and then an automated system to enter into a binding purchase agreement and to fulfill the purchase with an insured shipment of the object to the buyer. | 12-25-2014 |
20150019295 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FORECASTING PRICES OF FREQUENTLY- PROMOTED RETAIL PRODUCTS - Systems and methods for forecasting prices of products are provided. A method for forecasting prices of products, comprises obtaining a time series history of a price of a product, imputing a state indicator value for each price data from the time series history, wherein a state is one of a promotional price state and a regular price state, extracting a first price time series for the price data in the promotional state and a second price time series for the price data in the regular state, extracting a promotion duration time series from the time series history, obtaining respective point forecasts for the extracted first price time series, the second price time series and the promotion duration time series, and combining the point forecasts for the extracted first and second price time series and the promotion duration time series to obtain a final price forecast. | 01-15-2015 |
20150019296 | COMPUTER METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OUTCOME-BASED PRICING OF GOODS AND SERVICES - The present invention provides a system and method that allow sellers to offer goods and services at prices that vary depending on what transpires during the event or service. The final price is determined after the event or service based on the occurrence of certain pre-selected attributes. Candidate attributes are potentially associated with the event or service but the outcome or occurrence of the attribute is not knowable by the buyer and seller with certainty at the time of the original purchase. Using the outcome-based pricing (OBP) and settlement system the seller can set prices to minimize significant deviation from a pre-determined revenue plan, or alternatively build-in an increase or even decrease in gross revenues. The present invention allows for the order, payment and final settlement of the purchase transaction, automatically. The preferred embodiment for the OBP pricing and settlement system is via a computer network that includes the Internet. | 01-15-2015 |
20150019297 | SIMULTANEOUS RETAIL AND TRANSFER PRICE OPTIMIZATIONS - A request for a simultaneous retail and transfer price optimization is received. The request includes a mutual optimization goal of each of at least two participants of a supply chain. Simultaneous optimization input constraints are selected based upon the mutual optimization goal. The requested simultaneous retail and transfer price optimization is performed using the selected simultaneous optimization input constraints. A set of optimized values of the mutual optimization goal is determined, based upon the simultaneous retail and transfer price optimization, using the selected simultaneous optimization input constraints. Each value of the set of optimized values is associated with one of the at least two participants of the supply chain. Output is generated that identifies the determined set of optimized values of the mutual optimization goal. | 01-15-2015 |
20150025938 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRICING NEW PRODUCT, SERVICE OR SOLUTION - Embodiments of the present invention relate to method and apparatus for pricing at least one of a new product, service or solution. The method comprises launching the new product, service or solution at an initial price, iteratively varying the initial price corresponding to quantities demanded based on a real time feedback, generating a demand schedule by capturing the quantities demanded and correspondingly varying prices, tracing a demand curve based on the demand schedule in real time, determining a demand function and a corresponding demand equation based on the demand curve and repeating step b to reach a point on the demand curve at which the profit margin is a maximum. | 01-22-2015 |
20150032512 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPTIMIZING PRODUCT INVENTORY COST AND SALES REVENUE THROUGH TUNING OF REPLENISHMENT FACTORS - A method and system for predicting the impact of replenishment levers on product service level, lost sales, and on-shelf availability for a retailer. The method and system models cost and revenue elasticity curves for a product or group of products and analyzes the cost and revenue elasticity curves, measures the impact of tuning the replenishment levers on inventory cost and sales revenue, and identifies values for the product replenishment levers to optimize replenishment system policies and product profitability. | 01-29-2015 |
20150039395 | SALES PROPOSAL MIX AND PRICING OPTIMIZATION - Systems, methods and articles of manufacture to generate sales proposals, by determining, for a customer, a level of preference for each of a plurality of items of inventory, classifying each item of inventory into one of a plurality of categories, determining, for the customer, a price range for each item of inventory, computing a demand for each of a plurality of items of media content, selecting a subset of the items of advertising inventory based on: (i) the demand for each of a plurality of programs, (ii) the level of preference for each of the plurality of items of inventory, and (iii) the classification of each of the plurality of items of inventory, and computing: (i) a total cost for the proposal, and (ii) a cost for each item of inventory in the subset. | 02-05-2015 |
20150039396 | Enterprise Architecture System and Method - A method for costing a web service operable for querying one or more data sources, the method including calculating the cost of operating the web service, measuring web service usage data using one or more service metrics, wherein the one or more service metrics include at least one derived service metric, choosing at least one service metric from the one or more service metrics, wherein one or more of the at least one chosen service metrics is a derived service metric, calculating the cost of the web service based on the at least one chosen service metric, and charging for usage of the web service based upon the calculated cost of the web service. | 02-05-2015 |
20150039397 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ESTIMATION OF VEHICLE ACCIDENT DAMAGE AND REPAIR - Described herein is a system and method for predicting the extent and cost of repair resulting from a vehicle accident. The estimates can be based on one or more of in-vehicle sensor measurements during the accident, external observations such as weather and traffic and road conditions and manually or digitally input accident reports. The gathered information is compared to information in a database from historical accidents and the resulting damage and costs for those. The information is classified according to impact force, direction and location along with the specific type of vehicle. Maintaining and refreshing the information and predictive models in the system is also part of the invention. | 02-05-2015 |
20150039398 | System, method, and apparatus for settlement for participation in an electric power grid - Systems, methods, and apparatus embodiments for electric power grid and network registration and management of physical and financial settlement for participation of active grid elements in supply and/or curtailment of power, wherein Internet Protocol (IP)-based messages including IP packets are generated by transforming raw data content into settlement grade content. Settlement is provided for grid elements that participate in the electric power grid following initial registration of each grid element with the system, preferably through network-based communication between the grid elements and a coordinator, either in coordination with or outside of an IP-based communications network router. Messaging related to settlement is managed through a network by a Coordinator using IP messaging for communication with the grid elements, with the energy management system (EMS), and with the utilities, market participants, and/or grid operators. | 02-05-2015 |
20150051955 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATIC PRICE MATCHING - When a consumer selects and checks out merchandise at a point of sale of a merchant, price matching is automatically performed for the selected merchandise and the merchant has the opportunity to price match competitors' prices. The price of the merchandise is automatically adjusted based on the merchant's price matching policy. Thus, the customer may receive the benefit of price matching automatically during the checkout process. Further, prices offered at the merchant and at the competitors are continuously monitored for a period of time after purchase. When lower prices are found during the period of time, the purchase price is automatically adjusted and the amount difference between the purchase price and the lower price is automatically refunded to the customer's payment account. | 02-19-2015 |
20150051956 | SIMPLE PRICING BY PRICE-DIFFERENCE REGULARIZATION - A method and system for determining an optimized price schedule that controls the simplicity of a price schedule while maintaining efficiency in terms of welfare. A welfare function and a simplicity metric representing a simplicity of price schedules are determined. A full objective, corresponding to a comparison of the welfare with respect to the simplicity of each price schedule is determined and an optimized price schedule, representing the schedule having the highest computed full objective, is output. | 02-19-2015 |
20150058089 | Terrace-Based Computer System for Sale and Purchase of Items and Products - The invention provides an apparatus and system and computer management for regulating an on-line sale through a communication network. With the present invention, the seller is able to present their product at an optimum price and gradually decrease that price at the pre-arranged published “price drop” levels until the product sells or is removed from the on-line sale. These “price drop” levels can be set as uniform decreases or can be set individually by the seller. Purchasers can also place advanced future “reserve” commitments to purchase at pricing below the current asking price for a particular item. | 02-26-2015 |
20150066596 | BEHAVIOR PRICING ANALYTICS - A method for systematically determining a pricing strategy based on one or more of a business insight, a price perception model and a surprise model. | 03-05-2015 |
20150073872 | NETWORK-IMPLEMENTED METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING DYNAMIC PRODUCT PRICING - The disclosure relates to network-implemented methods and systems for providing dynamic product pricing to a seller, using a self-updating database. | 03-12-2015 |
20150081392 | COMPETITOR PREDICTION TOOL - A method of generating fuel price data for a retail fuel site. The method comprises receiving relationship data indicating a relationship between the retail fuel site and a competitor retail fuel site and receiving fuel price data for the competitor retail fuel site. The fuel price data for the competitor retail fuel site is processed to generate estimated fuel price data for the competitor retail fuel site and the fuel price data for the retail fuel site is generated based upon the relationship data and the estimated fuel price data. | 03-19-2015 |
20150081393 | PRODUCT PROMOTION OPTIMIZATION SYSTEM - A system that determines promotional pricing for a product and for an objective function receives a non-linear time-dependent optimization problem for the product, where the non-linear problem includes a demand model and a plurality of constraints, and the constraints include a price ladder that includes a plurality of time periods and a non-promotional price for the product at each time period. For each of the time periods, the system determines a change in the objective function when the price at that time period includes a promotional price and all other prices on the price ladder are set to the non-promotional price to generate coefficients. The system determines a maximum value of the coefficients at each time period, and generates an approximate Mixed Integer Programming (“MIP”) problem based on the coefficients. The system determines a Linear Programming (“LP”) relaxation of the MIP problem, and solves the LP relaxation. | 03-19-2015 |
20150081394 | GENERATION OF COST-PER-BRAKING EVENT VALUES - Systems and techniques are described for generating cost values for a plurality of braking events of an aircraft, where each cost value is based on an expected wear of the wheel-and-brake assembly of the aircraft during the respective braking event. The systems and techniques may take into account data representative of conditions during the respective braking event of the aircraft to generate the cost values. | 03-19-2015 |
20150081395 | SYSTEM AND METHOD TO CONTROL DISTRIBUTION OF GOODS IN A VIRTUAL MARKETPLACE - A system providing a marketplace wherein professional goods and creators of the professional goods are organized and ranked to allow a user of the system. The system is configured to allow the creators to control access to their goods made available to consumers via the marketplace. The consumers may use the access to determine a value of goods and directly compensate one or more of the creators for an increased level of access, which may include one or more incentives to gain additional access, for instance, if the consumer shares the good. The system is configured to generate a suggested payment price based on value rating and highest payment data associated with each of the goods, which may be based on feedback from one or more of the consumers. The goods and the creators are organized and ranked by assigning a variable weight to value metrics based on the feedback from the consumers or other action or behavior of the consumer detected by the system. | 03-19-2015 |
20150088613 | SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR MANAGING FUEL COSTS - Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for managing fuel costs. Fuel-related data, including a request for authorization of a fuel transaction, is received from a fuel-related data source via a communications network. A fuel-related score is computed based on the fuel-related data and a predetermined weighting factor. The fuel-related score is presented through a user interface. In one example aspect, a fuel-related notification is generated for the fuel transaction based on the fuel-related score and a predetermined alert rule stored in an alert rule database. The predetermined alert rule is one of a plurality of sets of predetermined alert rules stored in association with a plurality of corresponding fleets, in another example. | 03-26-2015 |
20150095113 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING DEALER TRANSACTIONS - Systems and methods are provided for facilitating dealer transactions. A method may include determining, based at least in part on a vehicle identifier, a dealer identifier associated with a dealer and vehicle data associated with a vehicle. The method may also include identifying one or more comparison vehicles associated with comparison vehicle data corresponding to the vehicle data. Furthermore, the method may include determining pricing information associated with the one or more comparison vehicles. The method may also include generating, based at least in part on the pricing information, a recommended offer price for the vehicle and determining, based at least in part on the dealer identifier and the recommended offer price, a likelihood of response associated with the dealer. | 04-02-2015 |
20150100384 | PERSONALIZED PRICING FOR OMNI-CHANNEL RETAILERS WITH APPLICATIONS TO MITIGATE SHOWROOMING - Computing a personalized deal menu for a seller may be provided. The seller may operate one or more sales channels. A customer's willingness to wait in purchasing based on purchasing history of a customer may be determined. A purchase probability model that predicts a likelihood of the customer performing a purchase now compared to waiting to make the purchase may be formulated. A personalized price menu optimization model with one or more rules as constraints that jointly determines multiple prices, a price corresponding to a different purchase option with different lead time, may be solved. The personalized deal menu may be generated based on the solving. | 04-09-2015 |
20150100385 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONITORING AND PROMOTION OF BEHAVIORS WHICH IMPACT HEALTH CARE COSTS - A health-monitoring system is disclosed. The system includes a data acquisition means for acquiring health-related information from a plurality of individuals and an analysis means for analyzing said health-related information to make predictions about future health care costs of said plurality of individuals. | 04-09-2015 |
20150106163 | OBTAINING OPTIMAL PRICING STRATEGY IN A SERVICE ENGAGEMENT - Systems and methods for obtaining an optimal pricing strategy in a service engagement are disclosed. A model is created for the service engagement between a client and vendor. For the service engagement, a pricing strategy is selected. The pricing strategy is selected from one of a fixed strategy, a variable strategy and a combination thereof. Subsequent to selecting the pricing strategy, a client payoff associated with the client and a vendor payoff associated with the vendor are computed. The model is simulated to obtain a time series data. Based on the simulation, an optimal pricing strategy is obtained by calculating an optimizer payoff function. The optimizer payoff function is calculated by assigning relative weights to the client payoff and the vendor payoff. The optimal pricing strategy is obtained by altering the pricing strategy to maximize the optimizer payoff function. | 04-16-2015 |
20150112768 | INFORMATION GATHERING AND PRICE FORECASTING FOR HEAVY EQUIPMENT SALES - A method for predicting sale prices for heavy equipment products includes presenting, to each of a plurality of users, an indication of a first set of pricing metric data items relating to a market value of a first product and an indication of pricing metric data items for each of a corresponding set of products for the user, receiving, from each user, a forecast price for the first product and a respective estimated price for each of the corresponding set of products for the user, determining a respective forecast rating for each user based on an accuracy assessment of the respective estimated prices received from the forecasting user in view of sale prices of the corresponding set of products for the user, and determining a price prediction for the first product based on the forecast price received from each user weighted according to the respective forecast rating for the user. | 04-23-2015 |
20150120393 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING THE VERTICAL ALIGNMENT OF AN INFRASTRUCTURE CORRIDOR - Methods, systems, and techniques for determining the vertical alignment of an infrastructure corridor having a certain horizontal alignment involve using a processor to model the cost of constructing the infrastructure corridor as a function of cost variables that vary with the vertical alignment of the infrastructure corridor. The processor looks up the cost variables at vertical offsets corresponding to certain vertical alignments of the infrastructure corridor and determines the cost of constructing the length of road at elevations located between pairs of the vertical offsets by interpolating from the cost variables at the vertical offsets; the interpolation may be linear. The processor determines, subject to infrastructure corridor design constraints, the vertical alignment of the infrastructure corridor from the cost of constructing the infrastructure corridor at the vertical offsets. | 04-30-2015 |
20150120394 | MARKDOWN OPTIMIZATION SYSTEM HAVING BENEFITS ANALYSIS AND REPORTING - Techniques are described for generating benefits reports for a markdown optimization system. As described herein, a markdown optimization system executes markdown optimization software that applies to compute markdown schedules for retailers. In addition, the markdown optimization system applies techniques to reliably approximate and quantify the benefit derived by a given retailer from using of a computed markdown schedule instead of utilizing a user-defined schedule. | 04-30-2015 |
20150127428 | MOBILE PRICE MATCHING - A method may include receiving, from users, information identifying items purchased by the users, the information including a price for each of the items, and storing the information in a database. The method may also include receiving, from a second number of users, additional information identifying items purchased by the second users, the additional information including a price for each of the items, and identifying a first item in the database that matches a second item associated with purchases by one of the second users. The method may further include determining whether the price for the second item is lower than the price for the first item stored in the database and updating the database to include the second price for the first item, in response to determining that the second price is lower than the first price. | 05-07-2015 |
20150127429 | EXPECTATION PRICE PROVIDING SYSTEM OF USED CAR AND METHOD THEREOF - An expectation price providing system of a used car, which is connected with a vehicle terminal, an insurance company system, and a maintenance shop terminal system through a network, and a method thereof are provided. The system includes a database which stores part state information, driving information, maintenance information, a model, and accident detail information of a vehicle. A server receives accident information of the vehicle from the insurance company system, receives the maintenance information of the vehicle from the maintenance shop terminal system, receives the driving information from the vehicle terminal, reads a basic current used car price corresponding to the model and mileage of the vehicle from the database, and corrects and provides basic current used car price information by referring to the part state information, the maintenance information, and the accident detail information of the vehicle. | 05-07-2015 |
20150127430 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING ITEMS AND MANAGING A COLLECTION OF ITEMS - A system for identifying, and managing a collection of items by receives an image or images of a target object, identifies, assists in valuation of and catalogs the object by using computer vision to extract identifying characteristics of the target object from the image or images, searching a data set of items to identify a probable match, and retrieving its stored identification and valuation. If no probable match is found, or if the match probability is below a threshold, the system may send the image to other users to help identify and value the item via crowdsourcing. It will then return the identification and valuation data to the requesting user and update its data set to include the crowdsourced data. The system also may store data relating to individual user collections based on data that it receives in this manner. | 05-07-2015 |
20150134422 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR VARYING AFFILIATE POSITIONDISPLAYED BY INTERMEDIARY - Endogenous and exogenous variables associated with an item for sale by an affiliate may be displayed to a user of an affiliate decision-making tool. In response to the user selecting one of the endogenous variables, the affiliate decision-making tool may compute a number of introductions, a number of leads, and a number of sales for each of a plurality of possible values of the endogenous variable. The computation may be done utilizing a display position algorithm. A visualization of effects of setting the endogenous variable at different levels may be presented. The user may interact with the display position algorithm to vary one or more of the plurality of possible values of the endogenous variable such that the affiliate is eligible or disqualified to be displayed by an intermediary in response to a search for the item by a visitor of a network site owned and operated by the intermediary. | 05-14-2015 |
20150142524 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS TO PRICE CUSTOMIZED VIRTUAL MACHINES - Methods and systems for determining prices of customized virtual machines required to process customer-specified workloads are disclosed. A count of instances of the customized virtual machines, required to process the customer-specified workloads is determined, based on a configuration of the customized virtual machines. The instances of the customized virtual machines are consolidated on virtual machine servers. Further, the prices of the customized virtual machines are determined based on a count of the virtual machine servers, unused resources in the virtual machine servers, and unused resources in the customized virtual machines. The determined prices are recommended to the customer. Further, at least one of the prices of the customized virtual machines or the configuration of at least one or more customized virtual machines is modified, based on a response to the recommendation received from the customer. | 05-21-2015 |
20150142525 | ATTACHABLE CONTINGENT SERVICE PRICING - Systems and methods associated with attachable contingent service (ACS) pricing are disclosed. One example method includes collecting data describing a replacement propensity for a product. The method also includes estimating expenses for providing an ACS for the product based on the replacement propensity. The method also includes estimating a consumer's expected willingness to pay for the ACS based on the replacement propensity. The method also includes offering to provide the ACS to a consumer who purchases the product. The ACS is offered at a price generated based on the expenses for providing the ACS and the consumer's expected willingness to pay for the ACS. | 05-21-2015 |
20150142526 | System, method, and apparatus for settlement for participation in an electric power grid - Systems, methods, and apparatus embodiments for electric power grid and network registration and management of physical and financial settlement for participation of active grid elements in supply and/or curtailment of power, wherein Internet Protocol (IP)-based messages including IP packets are generated by transforming raw data content into settlement grade content. Settlement is provided for grid elements that participate in the electric power grid following initial registration of each grid element with the system, preferably through network-based communication between the grid elements and a coordinator, either in coordination with or outside of an IP-based communications network router. Messaging related to settlement is managed through a network by a Coordinator using IP messaging for communication with the grid elements, with the energy management system (EMS), and with the utilities, market participants, and/or grid operators. | 05-21-2015 |
20150149255 | ROBUST PRICING SOLUTION FOR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES - In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes identifying a plurality of origin-destination (OD) pairs within a transportation network. A plurality of ranges for price elasticities may be calculated, where the ranges include at least one price elasticity range for each of the OD pairs, and where, for each OD pair, the associated range of the price elasticity spans multiple values. A robustness parameter may be received. A pricing scheme may be calculated, by a computer processor, based at least in part on the robustness parameter, where the pricing scheme includes a price for each of the OD pairs in the network and is at least partially based on the robustness parameter and the plurality of ranges for the price elasticities. | 05-28-2015 |
20150149256 | System, method, and apparatus for settlement for participation in an electric power grid - Systems, methods, and apparatus embodiments for electric power grid and network registration and management of physical and financial settlement for participation of active grid elements in supply and/or curtailment of power. Settlement is provided for grid elements that participate in the electric power grid following initial registration of each grid element with the system, preferably through network-based communication between the grid elements and a coordinator, either in coordination with or outside of an IP-based communications network router. A multiplicity of active grid elements function in the grid for supply capacity, supply and/or load curtailment as supply or capacity, and are compensated through settlement for their functional participation in the electric power grid. Also, messaging related to settlement is managed through a network by a Coordinator using IP messaging for communication with the grid elements, with the energy management system (EMS), and with the utilities, market participants, and/or grid operators. | 05-28-2015 |
20150302440 | CLOUD COMPUTING SOLUTION GENERATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS - There is disclosed a cloud solutions generator including a back-end processor running asynchronously from the front-end processor. In an embodiment, pricing and services are retrieved from a service provider and normalized into a normalized provider metrics for comparing multiple service providers. One or more benchmarking tests characterize the performance of at least one service provider, storing benchmarking metrics as a result. A user enters business-level user requirements for running a user application having a user application performance and specifying a user cloud configuration of the cloud resources. Business-level user requirements are normalized into normalized user requirements for mapping the normalized provider metrics to the business-level user requirements. A solutions calculator scales the normalized provider metrics by the benchmarking metrics to calculate a potential configuration performance. The solutions calculator stores a finite solution set having the best potential configuration performance and price. Other embodiments are disclosed. | 10-22-2015 |
20150302441 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION FOR TRANSACTIONS - In a system for executing transaction requests, a received request for a transaction in an item is delayed prior to matching that request with another request for transaction in that item by a delay based on a communication delay and/or a processing delay. The communication delay represents the time required to receive updated information about the item and the processing delay represents the time required to compute an updated item price using the received updated information. | 10-22-2015 |
20150302442 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VISUALLY BUILDING A MARKET SIMULATION - The market simulator/optimizer of the present invention combines partworth valuation techniques of Conjoint analysis with Nash equilibrium profit-maximization methodologies for sophisticated statistical treatment of a virtual available market comprising a multiplicity of virtual customers. An easy-to-use graphical user interface allows a user to arrange various market component icons to model various market characteristics. Associated with the market component icons are various distributions, including a benefit distribution containing values indicative of respective benefits to the multiplicity of virtual customer, and a cost distribution containing values indicative of respective costs associated with providing the respective benefits to the multiplicity of virtual customers. | 10-22-2015 |
20150310358 | MODELING CONSUMER ACTIVITY - For modeling consumer activity, code generates potential model types. In addition, the code divides activity data into a training data set, a test data set, and a validation data set. The code further trains the potential model types with the training set data. In addition, the code selects a model type with the test data set. The code calculates algorithmic parameters with the validation data set. | 10-29-2015 |
20150310467 | SHARED VEHICLE SYSTEMS AND METHODS - Data is collected related to an environmental impact of a user's use of a shared vehicle. A score is calculated based on the environmental impact. The user further use of the shared vehicle at a price that is based at least in part on the score. | 10-29-2015 |
20150310468 | FLEXIBLE SHIP SCHEDULES AND DYNAMIC DISCOUNTS - Electronic buying and selling systems and methods are provided. In particular, relations among distinct price curves and buyers or potential buyers are disclosed. For instance, a price offered to a system user can vary based on total volume of all people aggregating in private environments, cumulative total order by user, ship date, optimal time, as well as terms and conditions associated with the offer (e.g., no cancellation of order, cancellation possible, payment method . . . ). | 10-29-2015 |
20150310509 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR NUMBER SEARCHING AND DISPLAYING REQUESTED TELEPHONIC NUMBERS - The present invention is for a method and system for a web-based platform for request submissions and management of telephonic numbers. Users enter particular numbers and determine a value or a range of values for such telephone number(s). User input portals and data processing centers allow a number value that represents what someone would pay a third party telephone number owner to give up that telephone number, or for which the third party telephone number owner might sell such telephone number. Should a user desire, for example, via a wish list process or request a number may be selected and reserved for a user and designated and then transferred to a local telephone provider. Other aspects improve convenience, allow manipulation of number valuation, provision of a promotional number reservation system, and a brokerage reservation system for a number that may not be available for immediate transfer to a desired user. | 10-29-2015 |
20150310570 | OPEN PRICING AND PRICING RULES - A pricing rules engine identifies a plurality of potential competitors for a travel property and identifies one or more rule conditions. The pricing rules engine performs a pricing correlation on the plurality of potential competitors according to the one or more rule conditions and determines, based on a result of the pricing correlation, at least one of the plurality of potential competitors to be included in a competitor set. When an offer price exceeds a rule threshold, the pricing rules engine adjusts a sub-rate price discount for the travel property according to rates charged by competitor travel properties in the competitor set. When the capacity for a given room type satisfies the rule threshold, the pricing rules engine adjusts a price modifier for the given room type according to rates charged by competitor travel properties in the competitor set. | 10-29-2015 |
20150317657 | Dynamic ads and group purchases on a movie theatre screen - A movie theatre shows a barcode on a projection screen. The barcode lets a patron buy tickets to movies shown in trailers. Using a phone to go from the barcode to a web page to buy tickets. The screen shows a table of purchases, with thresholds for discounted prices. Dynamic group purchasing of tickets by gamification in an interactive feedback loop. A theatre auctions ad slots. A trailer is replaced by one or more non-trailer ads if advertisers bid enough. A free market finds the value of trailers. A theatre inserts its location into the barcode of an ad. The advertiser finds where the patron is, who decoded the barcode. The theatre can encode an advertiser URL as a sound and play this when the ad plays on the screen. A patron decodes the sound and interacts with the advertiser. | 11-05-2015 |
20150317658 | DETERMINING A LOWEST PRICE FOR A DYNAMICALLY PRICED PRODUCT - In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes receiving a request for a product. Two or more fingerprints are selected, where each fingerprint includes digital data describing a corresponding virtual customer. By a computer processor, a first fingerprint is loaded to emulate a first virtual customer. A first price query is submitted to a vendor's web service for the product, where the first price query uses the loaded first fingerprint. A second fingerprint is loaded to emulate a second virtual customer. A second price query is submitted to the vendor's web service for the product, where the second price query uses the loaded second fingerprint. Two or more prices are received from the vendor's web service, including a first price received in response to the first price query and a second price received in response to the second price query. A lowest price is selected from among the prices received. | 11-05-2015 |
20150317659 | DYNAMIC PRICING SYSTEMS AND METHODS - Example dynamic pricing systems and methods are described. In one implementation, a method receives an indication of an occurrence of a first event unrelated to a particular customer. The method also receives an indication of an occurrence of a second event unrelated to a particular customer. Based on the first event and the second event, the method determines whether to adjust a price associated with a particular item. If the method determines that the price associated with the particular item needs adjustment, a new price for the particular item is determined based on the first event and the second event. | 11-05-2015 |
20150317756 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ANALYSIS OF BEVERAGE DISPENSING DATA - There is provided a computer-implemented method of providing price recommendations for beverage dispensing facilities, the method comprising: receiving signals indicative of beverage dispensing at least at one beverage dispensing facility from at least one beverage dispensing sensor which monitors the at least one beverage dispensing facility and generates the signals; automatically analyzing the signals for calculating a statistical pattern of beverage consumption at the at least one beverage dispensing facility; automatically generating a price recommendation profile for the at least one beverage dispensing facility according to the statistical pattern; and selecting for presentation the price recommendation profile. | 11-05-2015 |
20150332298 | PRICE MATCHING IN OMNI-CHANNEL RETAILING - Price matching strategies for a seller selling products using one or more sales channels and facing competition from omni-channel competitors in marketplace may be provided. For a product and channel, a subset of candidate competitors by product and channel may be identified. For a product, channel, candidate competitor, a value-at-risk metric is computed that represents the seller's value in the sales channel that is at risk to a competitor's price change. Based on the value-at-risk metric, one or more products for price matching against the candidate competitors may be identified. A price for the identified product may be computed that is within a competitive range. | 11-19-2015 |
20150332300 | AUTOMATED SYSTEM FOR ADAPTING MARKET DATA AND EVALUATING THE MARKET VALUE OF ITEMS - A system including a service provider server receives product specification data sets or price data sets. The service provider server invokes an evaluation service that causes a metric application to obtain metric data including market reference price data for responsive items at a particular time or period of time. Attribute data for responsive items is algorithmically processed to dynamically identify any differences. The identified differences are used to contextually determine which of the predefined instructions are applicable to the responsive item. One or more adjustment values are generated and applied to the market reference price data for a responsive item that differs by at least one parameter value, transforming the market reference price data into normalized metric data that is used to generate a normalized metric value. One or more of the received data sets and the respective normalized metric value are communicated to a remotely located user-agent computing device. | 11-19-2015 |
20150339691 | Systems and Methods for Adjusting Prices for a Service - A method for adjusting market pricing terms for a service comprises determining a statistical distribution of schedule availability of a first tier of service providers, the first tier of service providers being selected from a plurality of tiers of service providers. A target statistical distribution of schedule availability of service providers of a service is determined. Market pricing terms charged by service providers in the first tier of service providers are adjusted to adjust the statistical distribution of schedule availability relative to the target statistical distribution of schedule availability. | 11-26-2015 |
20150339692 | AUTOMATED VOLATILITY SCORE ADJUSTMENT OF ACCESS CHARGE CURVE FOR AUTOMATED DELIVERY OF NEWS ITEMS - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for receiving, using one or more processors at a system server, a plurality of articles and respective information for each respective article of the plurality of articles, where the respective information for the respective article; repeatedly receiving, at the system server, respective parameters associated with each article, where the respective parameters include at least a history of user access to articles other than the plurality of articles, where the respective parameters are updated over time; receiving, for each of the plurality of articles, user input identifying a new genre of the respective article; and repeatedly determining, for each article, an access price for the respective article over time, where each access price is based on the respective information, the respective parameters, and the new genre. | 11-26-2015 |
20150339693 | DETERMINATION OF INITIAL VALUE FOR AUTOMATED DELIVERY OF NEWS ITEMS - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for receiving, from a user interface running on a publisher device, a baseline price for the article; receiving, from the user interface text and metadata of the article, the metadata comprising at least a genre for the article; determining, using one or more processors at a server system, a plurality of weights from the text and the metadata; applying, at the server system, the plurality of weights to the baseline price to generate the initial price of the article; and providing the initial price from the server system to a customer device for display at the device. | 11-26-2015 |
20150356530 | TRANSACTIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM SYSTEM AND METHOD - A transactional social media platform. The transactional social media platform includes a social graph representative of relationships within the transactional social media platform. The represented relationships include consumer users and vendor users on nodes of the transactional social media platform that might also incorporate existing social media platforms. Consumer users may access video content from vendor users at a cost based on a number of factors. Upon providing consumer user access to video content, the system automatically charges or deducts the determined base cost from a corresponding consumer user account on the transactional social media platform. | 12-10-2015 |
20150356575 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PREDICTING ONLINE AND IN-STORE PURCHASING - A method and system for predicting online and in-store purchasing by a cardholder using a computer device coupled to a database are provided. The method includes receiving a set of active cardholders along with their corresponding historical transaction information, categorizing the set of cardholders based on predefined parameters, and selecting a representative subset of cardholders from the categorized set of cardholders. The method also includes analyzing the historical transaction information for each of the cardholders included within the subset of cardholders and grouping each cardholder included within the subset of cardholders to one of an online shopper group or a physical store shopper group. The method further includes developing a model based on the analyzed historical transaction information and the grouping of the cardholders and applying the model to a candidate cardholder to predict a likelihood that the candidate cardholder will purchase an item online or from a physical store. | 12-10-2015 |
20150363804 | LEAD ANALYSIS BASED ON PATH DATA - Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media that may be used to evaluate leads based on path data are provided. One method includes receiving lead data and determining path data representing one or more paths including one or more interactions leading to submission of the lead data. The method further includes determining a cost metric representing a cost to a content provider of the one or more interactions leading to submission of the lead data, a delay metric between a first interaction of the one or more interactions and submission of the lead data, and an engagement metric relating to a level of engagement of the device identifier with one or more resources associated with the content provider prior to submission of the lead data. The method further includes generating an effort score based on a combination of the cost metric, the delay metric, and the engagement metric. | 12-17-2015 |
20150363805 | Systems And Methods For Setting Product Prices - A dynamic pricing algorithm is used to price a large set of items so that their aggregate margin is above a pre-specified level even under uncertain demand. The algorithm automatically hedges the profit loss associated to low-margin items with profit gains associated to higher-margin items, and does so even when the realized demand is different than the expected one. The algorithm leverages the separability of a re-formulation of the robust counterpart of the nominal revenue maximization problem. This separability results into a nested bisection algorithm where each iteration in the procedure requires only computation of a number of independent, one-dimensional optimization problems, one for each product to price. The algorithm is easily implemented in a parallel architecture such a multi-core computer or a cluster of computers, where each core handles an independent one-dimensional problem corresponding to an item and its data is stored locally | 12-17-2015 |
20150363842 | PRICE-COMPETITIVENESS ANALYSIS - Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media that may be used to analyze user path data and determine price-competitiveness of offers reflected therein are provided. One method includes receiving user path data representing a plurality of user paths, each including one or more sales interactions in which a user was presented with an offer to purchase an item at an offer price. One or more user paths include conversion events in which the user purchases the item. The method further includes receiving competitive price data indicating one or more prices at which the item was offered for sale by one or more third party entities and determining a price-competitiveness metric for at least one of the sales interactions based on a comparison of the offer price with the competitive price data. The method further includes providing data based on the price-competitiveness metric to the content provider. | 12-17-2015 |
20150371249 | OPTIMAL DESIGN ASSISTANCE DEVICE, METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - An optimal design assistance device which assists in design of system configuration with minimum price of a computer system, even it is the computer system which performs complicated processing, so that it can be accomplished in a short time and with high efficiency is provided. | 12-24-2015 |
20150379541 | GAS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - An operation unit price is obtained based on a second database in which information on a customer is stored and a third database in which information on an operation unit price specified for each operator organization to which an operator belongs and for each content of the operation performed by the operator is stored. A fourth database in which information on an operation cost to be paid to the operation organization by the gas supplier is stored is updated based on a first database in which information on the operator is stored and the operation unit price obtained. The operation costs are totalized based on the fourth database. The operation cost is totalized. | 12-31-2015 |
20150379542 | TRANSACTIVE CONTROL FRAMEWORK FOR HETEROGENEOUS DEVICES - Various innovations for a transactive control framework with heterogeneous devices such as refrigerators, air conditioners, water heaters, and clothes dryers, or components of such systems/units, are presented. For example, an aggregator for the transactive control framework receives bids from device controllers for heterogeneous devices. Different bids can reflect different behaviors of heterogeneous devices under one transactive control framework, which allows the heterogeneous devices to participate in the same ancillary service market for power. The aggregator determines a cleared price value, then broadcasts the cleared price value and a regulation signal to the device controllers. The device controllers can use a stochastic decision-making process to regulate power utilization by the respective heterogeneous devices, such that the aggregate behavior of the controlled devices tracks the regulation signal. In many case, the transactive control framework helps the devices, collectively, provide a regulation service according to the regulation signal. | 12-31-2015 |
20150379595 | AUTOMATED REACTIVE RETAIL PRICING THROUGH MULTILEVEL HIERARCHICAL REGRESSION - A system and method for automated reactive retail pricing through multilevel hierarchical regression is disclosed. A reactive retail pricing server obtains a set of relevant data, creates a plurality of merchandising sets, and transforms the set of relevant data. Coefficients are calculated for a group model, and are then reverse transformed. Recommended pricing is calculated using the group model, where retailer strategies, retailer goals, and price campaign parameters are applied as constraints. The coefficients are automatically calibrated, and the price campaign is adjusted. | 12-31-2015 |
20160005063 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ELECTRONIC ADJUSTMENT OF PRICES IN WEBSITES - A method and system for real-time price adjustment of products for sale on an e-commerce website are presented. The method includes receiving a request to adjust a price of at least one product; collecting at least one product parameter related to the at least one product; determining, based on the at least one product parameter, at least a minimum margin of the at least one product; computing an adjusted price for purchasing the at least one product for sale, wherein the computation is based on a current price set for the at least one product, the at least one product parameter, and the minimum margin; and causing a display of the adjusted price for display on the e-commerce website. | 01-07-2016 |
20160012459 | METHODS FOR MANAGING PRICES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF PRODUCTS ON A SHOPPING WEBSITE | 01-14-2016 |
20160019599 | Sponsorship System - The invention is directed to a sponsorship system configured to facilitate a transaction to sell and purchase a sponsorship opportunity. The system includes an electronic data receiving module configured to receive information in relation to one or more sponsorship opportunities, an electronic rating module for automatically determining a sponsorship rating for each sponsorship opportunity, each sponsorship rating providing an indication of market value associated with the respective sponsorship opportunity, an electronic display module configured to generate display data for displaying on an electronic display the one or more sponsorship opportunities available for sale and their associated sponsorship rating, an electronic purchasing module configured to receive one or more offers for purchasing a sponsorship opportunity from a potential sponsor. | 01-21-2016 |
20160027074 | DETERMINING CONTENT PRICES FROM JOURNALIST METADATA - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for obtaining, from a content management system, a plurality of articles and respective information for each article in the plurality of articles; obtaining, for the journalist of each article, respective metadata of the journalist, wherein the respective metadata comprises at least an influence metric of the journalist; processing, for each article, the respective information and the respective metadata of the journalist of the article as training data to train a regression model; and providing a first article and metadata of an journalist of the first article as inputs to the regression model and determining, with the regression model, using one or more computers of the content management system, an initial price of the first article. | 01-28-2016 |
20160027130 | SYSTEM, COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD, AND NON-TRNSITORY, COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM TO DETERMINE RELATIVE MARKET VALUE OF A SALE GROUP OF LIVESTOCK BASED ON GENETIC MERIT AND OTHER NON-GENETIC FACTORS - Systems, computer-readable medium having computer program, and related computer implemented methods are provided to determine the relative market value of a sale group and to generate a genetic merit scorecard. Such systems, computer-readable medium having computer program, and related computer implemented methods utilize the genetic merit estimates of relatives of a sale group, along with associated economic weighting factors to determine the relative market value of the sale group. The genetic merit scorecard reflects the relative market value and ranking of the genetic merits of the sale group, as compared to the industry. | 01-28-2016 |
20160042376 | USED MOTOR VEHICLE PRICING SYSTEM - A method and system of presenting used motor vehicle pricing information to a data user. In addition to previously available information, new data are gathered including historical data regarding the asking price and sale price of the specific vehicle and similar vehicles. By obtaining and presenting used-car pricing and actual sold pricing information for similar vehicles along with the specific historical data elements for a specific used vehicle, modified in accordance with certain algorithms and methodologies, valuable pricing information can be made available to vehicle purchasers lending institutions, insurance companies, and others involved in transactions related to used vehicles. | 02-11-2016 |
20160042377 | Adaptive Load Management: A System for Incorporating Customer Electrical Demand Information for Demand and Supply Side Energy Management - A method for determining an amount of electricity to purchase includes determining electrical power consumption characteristics of an electrical load at an end user of the electricity. A preference of the end user for an output of the electrical load is ascertained. The output varies with a rate of electrical power consumption by the load. A mathematical model is created of an amount of electrical power to be consumed by the load as a function of time and of monetary cost of the electricity. The model is dependent upon the electrical power consumption characteristics of the electrical load and the preference of the end user for an output of the electrical load. An amount of electricity is purchased based on the mathematical model of an amount of electrical power to be consumed by the load, and based on the monetary cost of the electricity. | 02-11-2016 |
20160043550 | MANAGEMENT OF GRID-SCALE ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS FOR MULTIPLE SERVICES - Systems and methods for energy distribution for one or more grid-scale Energy Storage Systems (ESSs), including generating one or more time series models to provide forecasted pricing data for one or more markets, determining battery life and degradation costs for one or more batteries in or more ESSs to provide battery life and degradation costs, optimizing bids for the one or more markets to generate optimal bids based on at least one of the forecasted pricing data or the battery life and degradation costs, and distributing energy to or from the one or more ESSs based on the optimal bids generated. | 02-11-2016 |
20160048933 | RESERVOIR PROPERTY TREND MODELING GUIDANCE USING DATA-DRIVEN UNCERTAINTY RANGE - Methods and systems for trend modeling of subsurface properties are disclosed. One method includes defining a stratigraphic grid of a subsurface volume, the stratigraphic grid including a plurality of columns and a plurality of layers. The method further includes determining, for each layer or column, an initial average property value based at least in part on well data in the subsurface volume and a confidence interval around that initial average property value defining a range of likely values for a target average property value. The method also includes receiving one or more user-defined edits to the initial average property value in one or more of the layers or columns, the one or more edits resulting in the modeled target average property value, and determining whether the modeled target average property value falls within the confidence interval. | 02-18-2016 |
20160055506 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ESTIMATING A MOVE USING OBJECT MEASUREMENTS - Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a computer-implemented method for estimating a move, the method comprising: identifying at least one object of interest from a video feed of an environment, wherein the video feed includes coordinate data for three dimensions of space; estimating a plurality of measurements of the at least one object of interest by reference to the coordinate data and the video feed of the environment; generating an inventory of each identified object of interest and corresponding plurality of measurements; and calculating one of an estimated moving time and an estimated moving cost based on the generated inventory. | 02-25-2016 |
20160055508 | System and Method for a Relative Consumer Cost - The systems and methods may be used to recommend an item to a consumer. The methods may comprise determining, based on a collaborative filtering algorithm, a consumer relevance value associated with an item, and transmitting, based on the consumer relevance value, information associated with the item to a consumer. A collaborative filtering algorithm may receive as an input a transaction history associated with the consumer, a demographic of the consumer, a consumer profile, a type of transaction account, a transaction account associated with the consumer, a period of time that the consumer has held a transaction account, a size of wallet, and/or a share of wallet. The method may further comprise generating a ranked list of items based upon consumer relevance values, transmitting a ranked list of items to a consumer, and/or re-ranking a ranked list of items based upon a merchant goal. | 02-25-2016 |
20160086113 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CROWD SOURCED BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY REALIZATION - A computer-implemented technique includes, in a first aspect, a computer-implemented method for crowd sourced realization of a business opportunity. The method includes: facilitating an online discussion of the business opportunity between a registered service requestor and a first registered service provider; receiving a presentation of the business opportunity; evaluating the received business opportunity for realization relative to a plurality of registered service providers; assigning the evaluated business opportunity to at least one of the registered service providers pursuant to the outcome of the evaluation; imposing a pricing system on the presentation, evaluation, and assignment of the business opportunity; wherein the receiving, evaluating, and assigning are performed by a processor. In a second aspect, a computing apparatus is programmed to perform the method. In a third aspect, a non-transitory storage medium is encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computing apparatus, perform the method. | 03-24-2016 |
20160092897 | PRICING AN API IN AN API MARKETPLACE - In an approach to pricing an API, a computer determines whether an application programming interface (API) is published by a developer. Responsive to determining an API is published by the developer, the computer determines one or more characteristics of the API and whether a price history exists for the API. Responsive to determining a price history does exist for the API, the computer determines an initial price for the API. The computer then determines, based, at least in part, on the one or more characteristics of the API and the price history for the API, whether the initial price maximizes a surplus value for a sale of the API. | 03-31-2016 |
20160092898 | INTELLIGENT PRICING - A computer-implemented method schedules production in a business' production facilities by seeking market orders for products of the business on a timeline commensurate with a temporal availability of production capacity. The method involves recommending a selling price for a forecasted order for products of the business, checking whether the business has available production capacity to produce the products in time to fulfill the forecasted order, and determining the business' minimum selling price for the forecasted order. The method further includes checking whether a competitor has available manufacturing capacity to compete for the forecasted order based on competitor-specific information on available manufacturing capacity, cost and minimum profit margin requirement. The competitor-specific information is derived from market intelligence data. The method includes determining the recommended selling price for the forecasted order based on the business' and the competitor's minimum selling prices, and one or more quantifiable business objectives of the business. | 03-31-2016 |
20160093000 | NOVEL CLOUD-BASED ART INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, INCORPORATING TECHNIQUES, METHODS AND DEVICES - The present invention teaches a novel mobile-enabled secure, interactive, scalable, multi-platform cloud-based system for monitoring, managing, organizing, sharing, evaluating and/or promoting unique art objects, and the like, and interconnecting members of the art world, such as artists, galleries, museums, collectors, auction houses, art fairs, institutions, and art organizations. The cloud-based portfolio management tool provides unique capabilities for collectors to be able to engage interactively with their art, in a manner that permits the fusing of such management with market history and insurance data. Features include label generation upon recognition, capturing of screens, social media communications, virtually placing recognized art on real and/or virtual walls to provide augmented reality through virtual galleries, manual and automatic sizing of art work images, creating of virtual perspectives via tilting of a device camera, smart framing of art images, use of tags/markers, using place holders upon recognition of visual tags, scaling images of art works, automatic mirroring, and providing of financial data and summaries, including automatic conversions to users' home currency. | 03-31-2016 |
20160104182 | Digital Advertising Mark-to-Market Data Solicitation and Pricing Process - A method and process schematic for the fair-valuation of digital advertising exchange prices for digital advertising inventory. The digital mark-to-market pricing process seeks to provide composite pricing as catalogue values for the digital advertising market, by designated market area, advertising category, and device. The process of aggregating and actual market prices quoted by digital advertising industry players, and then calculating a composite average price for the intersection of both designated marketing area (DMA) and category (or “vertical”), is a unique one. While formulas can vary, the theoretical application of compiling effective cost per mille (eCPM) price quotes from various parties, including direct advertisers, demand-side platforms (DSPs), and advertising agency trading desks (ATDs), then determining a composite average of these price quotes to determine a fair value composite average price, is the primary objective of this “mark-to-market” data solicitation and pricing process. | 04-14-2016 |
20160110746 | System for Valuing Content - Disclosed is a system and methods for valuing content by a crowd comprising a valuation platform connected to a plurality of users over a network, which may be a communication network. The valuation platform comprises a content grouping engine to enable the receipt of content from at least one user device; group the content into categories of content and determine a market value for any given category of content. The system also comprises a value distribution engine to enable the distribution of at least a portion of the market value to content based on approval received from a crowd of users as to any given content. The system may comprise an incentive engine to incentivize gross and quality participation of the crowd. Methods are disclosed for valuing content. | 04-21-2016 |
20160132914 | Enhancing Data Cubes - A data server receives multiple requests for data cubes that include data related to a user-specified subject matter. The requests are aggregated into an aggregated request, and an initial data cube is retrieved based on the aggregated request. Upon determining that the initial data cube fails to provide requisite data needed by the aggregated request due to data being missing from the initial data cube, the missing data is located and identified as augmentation data. The initial data cube and the augmentation data are sent to senders of the multiple requests for data cubes. In response to a new request, from a new requester, for a data cube that provides data related to the user-specified subject matter, the data server presents the new requester with an option to purchase the initial data cube at a first price and the augmentation data at a second price. | 05-12-2016 |
20160132915 | ASSESSING VALUE OF A BRAND BASED ON ONLINE CONTENT - Provided is a method for assessing value of a brand based on online content. Content related to a brand is captured from the internet. Captured content is quantitatively analyzed to determine a first brand value of the brand. Captured content is filtered to extract subject matter relevant to the brand. The extracted subject matter is evaluated to determine a second brand value of the brand. The first brand value and the second brand value are combined to determine value of the brand. | 05-12-2016 |
20160140590 | MANAGING RESOURCE ACCESS USING MULTIPLE SERVICE CATEGORIES - In order to modulate consumer usage of service categories for accessing a resource, an electronic service menu is first transmitted by a computer system. The electronic service menu includes a cost indicator and a benefit indicator for each of the service categories. Subsequent to the transmission of the electronic service menu, consumer usage data about each of the service categories is tracked. The consumer usage data is then analyzed. Based on this analysis, the service capacity of at least one of the service categories is adjusted. Also based on the analysis, a revised electronic service menu is transmitted by the computer system. The revised electronic service menu includes at least one revised cost indicator and at least one revised benefit indicator. | 05-19-2016 |
20160147864 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ONLINE COLLABORATION FOR DEVELOPING DIGITAL CONTENT - A computer network system implemented to facilitate online collaboration for developing a digital content. The system includes a database configured to provide means for storing and retrieving profiles of a plurality of digital artists, and categorizing the profiles based on skills of the digital artists to provide at least one predefined service relating to developing the digital content. The system also includes a web based platform configured to provide means for inputting one or more pieces of information about a concept of the digital content. The web based platform also provides means for selecting one or more digital artists from the plurality of digital artists for participation in the development of the digital content from the concept. The web based platform further provides means for storing the completed digital content, after development, in a data repository. | 05-26-2016 |
20160148233 | Dynamic Discount Optimization Model - Technology for determining an optimal discounted price for a customer for a particular product is described. In an example embodiment, a method comprises determining a number of visits to a product page of a particular product by customers, calculating a purchase probability of a customer to purchase the particular product associated with the product page as a function of a price discount, determining a discount-corrected margin specific to the customer for the particular product based on the purchase probability of the customer, and calculating a predicted profit or a predicted revenue for the particular product resulting from the number of visits to the product page and based on the purchase probability and the discount-corrected margin of the particular product. | 05-26-2016 |
20160148234 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ESTIMATING A PRICE OF A TRIP BASED ON TRANSACTION DATA - A computer-implemented method for estimating a price of a candidate trip based on transaction data is provided. The method includes generating a profile associated with a first cardholder, based at least in part on stored first transaction data associated with one or more purchases made by the first cardholder through a payment network. The profile indicates a spending trend of the first cardholder. The method additionally includes determining a price paid by at least a second cardholder for a reference trip, based at least in part on second transaction data stored in one or more memory devices. The second transaction data is associated with purchases made by the second cardholder through the payment network during the reference trip. Additionally, the method includes determining an estimated price for the candidate trip for the first cardholder by adjusting the price paid based at least in part on the spending trend of the first cardholder. | 05-26-2016 |
20160148235 | PRICE DECISION DEVICE, PRICE DECISION SYSTEM, AND PRICE DECISION METHOD - A price decision device includes: a user information acquisition unit which acquires user information about a user; a desired product acquisition unit which acquires desired product information about a desired product of the user; a price decision unit which decides a suggested price that is a price of the desired product suggested to the user according to a state of the user based on the acquired user information; and an output unit (information transmission unit) which outputs the decided suggested price. | 05-26-2016 |
20160162920 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PURCHASING PRICE SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION - The present disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods for simulating the cost of goods and/or services, and triggering procurement events based upon the simulated pricing. The systems and methods receive historic price data including purchasing volumes for the product(s) and/or service(s) that an organization procures in their normal course of business, anonymize the historic pricing data for each of the plurality of distinct organizational entities in order to generate aggregated historic pricing data, receive one or more procurement requests from a procurement system of the organization, calculate price predictions for goods and/or services based on information stored in an account database, identify one or more time periods and/or quantities for procuring requested goods and/or services, generate one or more procurement triggers indicating preferred period(s) for acquiring goods and/or services, and transmit the trigger(s) to the procurement system and/or an end user. | 06-09-2016 |
20160171515 | ENABLING A USER TO VERIFY A PRICE CHANGE FOR AN ON-DEMAND SERVICE | 06-16-2016 |
20160189188 | DYNAMIC PRICING BASED ON TRANSACTION MODELS - A device and method may dynamically generate pricing based on transactional and right to buy pricing models. The method may include receiving a price request for a telecommunication service from a customer system, creating a price scenario for the telecommunication service based on the request, wherein the price scenario includes a plurality of line items. The method may further include deciding whether to calculate a standard price or a dynamic price for each line item, calculating a price for each of the line items in the price scenario in response to the deciding, and determining at least one price option for the price scenario. The method may further include validating the at least one price option for the price scenario, updating the price scenario with the at least one validated price option, and providing the updated price scenario to the customer system. | 06-30-2016 |
20160203568 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING ENERGY AND GHG APPORTIONMENT | 07-14-2016 |
20160253690 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRICE ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION | 09-01-2016 |
20160379237 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS TO EVALUATE COST DRIVER AND VIRTUAL DATA CENTER COSTS - This disclosure is directed to methods and systems to evaluate the performance of a virtual data center (“VDC”) running in a data center by comparing costs of cost drivers and VDC costs with cloud computing industry benchmarks. Methods collect costs of cost drivers and total VDC costs of a cloud computing industry. Cost driver industry benchmarks of the cloud computing industry are computed from the costs of the cost drivers and compared costs of cost drivers of a data center to determine which cost drivers of the data center are unacceptable. Methods also include determining a monetary impact of the cost drivers of the data center based the cost driver industry benchmarks and the total VDC costs of the cloud computing industry. | 12-29-2016 |
20170236222 | CRITICAL PEAK PRICING DEMAND RESPONSE PARTICIPANT ASSESSMENT | 08-17-2017 |
20190147470 | INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD | 05-16-2019 |
20220138684 | Automated Bill of Materials - A bill of sale is created as part of a design process that creates a copy of the building to be designed within a controller system that will also be used to control the electrical devices in the eventual building. When the entire design process is created within a single platform, the design itself can be used to generate the bill of materials. Integrated information about local suppliers, including currently-available inventory allows invoices for specific suppliers to be created. | 05-05-2022 |
20220138784 | Real-Time Alerts for Abnormal Item Pricing - An item price that is noted in a transaction for an item is identified. Any discount or item price override is identified for the transaction. A catalogue price for the item is obtained. Similar items associated with the item are determined based on mapped transaction contexts for the item and the similar items within a multidimensional space. Similar item prices are obtained and a median price for the item and similar items is calculated. A real-time price alert is sent to a resource that is associated with processing or handling the transaction when the item price, adjusted for any discount or item price override, deviates (above or below) from the median price by a threshold amount. | 05-05-2022 |
20220138786 | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) PRODUCT INCLUDING IMPROVED AUTOMATED DEMAND LEARNING MODULE - A network computing apparatus configured to perform an automated resource allocation method including obtaining price-demand data for a product, macro-clustering the price-demand data to identify a plurality of product categories, building a plurality of demand curves corresponding to the product categories, micro-clustering the demand curves to find a refined set of demand curves for each of the product categories, selecting one of the refined set of demand curves based on a difference between a predicted demand and an observed demand, selecting a price for the product according to the selected one of the demand curves, and allocating a resource according to the selected one of the demand curves corresponding to the pricing data generated, wherein the macro-clustering is performed using a first hyperparameter and the micro-clustering is performed using a second hyperparameter. | 05-05-2022 |
20220138788 | METHOD OF PROVIDING A VARIABLE PRICING MODEL - A method for determining a per unit price of a product based on an ordered quantity of the product is disclosed. The method includes receiving, via a user interface, the order quantity of the product from a user, and comparing, by a processor, the ordered quantity with a plurality of price break points, wherein each price break point corresponds to a price level for the product. The method also includes determining, by the processor, that the ordered quantity lies between two adjacent price break points, and calculating, by the processor, the per unit price corresponding to the ordered quantity by using a linear curve between the price levels corresponding to the identified price break points. | 05-05-2022 |
20220138814 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OUTSOURCED CONTENT MANAGEMENT ENABLING REASONABLE PAYMENT FOR PRODUCTION THEREOF - Systems and methods for outsourced content management enabling reasonable payment for the production thereof. A server for managing outsourced contents comprises: a content collecting unit which generates a group having a plurality of slots where contents can be uploaded, and uploads, to empty slots of the group, contents received from external production company devices; a storage unit; a content providing unit which provides the generated purchase page for user devices; a content result assessing unit which calculates results of each content falling into the group by tracking feedback from the user devices during a predetermined period since the launch of the contents on the purchase page; and a production payment managing unit which determines a total amount for producing all the contents falling into the group and determines respective dividends in the total amount for the production to be distributed among the production companies having provided the respective contents. | 05-05-2022 |