System and method for managing inventory
a technology of inventory management and system, applied in the field of online travel information and reservation system, can solve the problems of limited geographic store location of traditional travel service implementation, limited control of how funds are collected from consumers by configured travel service, and inability to possess complete selling rights of inventory items being sold
Inactive Publication Date: 2010-08-12
VAUGHAN RICHARD A +2
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- Abstract
- Description
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AI Technical Summary
Benefits of technology
This approach enhances revenue control by accurately pricing and managing inventory items, improves enforcement of use restrictions, and facilitates efficient communication and coordination with suppliers through standardized data processing.
Problems solved by technology
Accordingly, some traditional travel service implementations become deficient in terms of limited number of geographical store locations for consumers to visit and times of availability for conducting business.
In an agency configuration, the Web-based travel service serves as an intermediary between the consumer computing devices and the various suppliers, but the travel service does not possess complete selling rights of the inventory items being sold (such as hotel rooms, airline tickets, cruise packages, etc.).
Additionally, the agency configured travel service may have limited control of how funds are collected from the consumer.
Thus, with regard to revenue in an agency configuration, the Web-based travel service typically is limited to receiving a percentage of the transaction amount received by the supplier.
In one aspect, the Web-based travel service is limited to offering consumers only the inventory items the supplier has available at the moment of communication between the supplier and the travel service.
Moreover, even if the inventory items are available, the Web-based travel service has limited control over the price of the products / services offered to the consumer.
Thus, the Web-based travel service has reduced control of the revenue that it can generate from various consumer transactions in different economic markets.
Thus, an agency configured travel service can be a deficient approach to providing Web-based travel services.
Although the conventional characteristics sorting method facilitates inventory management in a merchant configuration, deficiencies can arise with batch inventory items having matching identifiable characteristics, but differing non-identifying characteristics.
However, if the hotel supplier allots a second batch of inventory having identical matching characteristics (30 additional double rooms at XYZ hotel on May 21, 2001) but different non-identifiable characteristics (e.g., cost, terms of restriction, service fees), the conventional processing method can become deficient in a variety of situations.
With reference to a potential consumer price / supplier cost deficiency, because all similar inventory items are sorted together, the traditional sorting and processing method does not efficiently manage different cost / price of individual inventory items (e.g., the 20 double rooms at $50 and the 30 double rooms at $65).
Thus, the Web-based travel services could potentially lose revenue by under-charging some consumers and attempt to make up the difference by over-charging other consumers.
One skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that this approach can be deficient because it assumes that the travel service will sell its entire allotment of inventory items, which may not always occur.
Furthermore, there can be some negative consumer impact in promoting varied consumer priced transactions.
Another deficiency associated with processing batch inventory relates to some portion of the batch inventory items having limitation of use restrictions.
However, because the conventional Web-based travel service cannot typically distinguish from which batch inventory allotment an individual piece of inventory item corresponds to, the restriction of use may be difficult to enforce.
Thus, the conventional travel service has various deficiencies in attempting to process batch inventory.
Another deficiency associated with the conventional merchant configuration, and not necessarily limited to batch inventory, arises from an attempt by a Web-based travel service to coordinate with various suppliers.
Often, the inability to establish continuous communications can cause delays throughout various portions of the transaction, such as during notification of an offer for an allotment, confirmation of an acceptance of an allotment, as well as negotiation of additional inventory or varying terms.
The negotiation can be delayed because there may not be a standardized form of communication between the supplier and the travel service (e.g., one agent prefers the telephone while the other utilizes regular mail).
Moreover, even if the parties can establish communications and an agreement can be reached between the supplier agent and a travel service agent, the agreement may not be properly documented for later use.
For example, a travel service accounting department, removed from the agent, may have trouble providing a supplier the proper authorization to receive the allotment of rooms at the negotiated price during an account reconciliation, especially if the accounts are being reconciled some time later.
Thus, the traditional merchant configured travel agency inefficiently must establish procedures for interfacing with each potential supplier and must also establish adequate record keeping practices for each type of supplier.
Method used
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[0046]As described above, aspects of the present invention are embodied in a World Wide Web (“WWW”) or (“Web”) site accessible via the Internet. As is well known to those skilled in the art, the term “Internet” refers to the collection of networks and routers that use the Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (“TCP / IP”) to communicate with one another. A representative section of the Internet 20 is shown in FIG. 1, where a plurality of local area networks (“LANs”) 24 and a wide area network (“WAN”) 26 are interconnected by routers 22. The routers 22 are special purpose computers used to interface one LAN or WAN to another. Communication links within the LANs may be twisted wire pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber, while communication links between networks may utilize 56 Kbps analog telephone lines, 1 Mbps digital T-1 lines, 45 Mbps T-3 lines or other communications links known to those skilled in the art.
[0047]Furthermore, computers 28 and other related electronic devic...
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A system and method for managing inventory data are provided. A travel server obtains inventory data from one or more inventory suppliers and stores the inventory data as SKU group, SKU and SKU inventory records. The travel server utilizes the SKU group, SKU and SKU inventory records. The travel server utilizes the SKU group, SKU and SKU inventory records to process user requests for available inventory and supplier inventory action requests.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]In general, the present invention relates to an on-line travel information and reservation system, and more particularly, to a system and method for managing inventory item queries and reservation requests for a variety of inventory items.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Traditional travel services and agencies have a long-standing history in the travel industry. Generally described, the traditional travel service provides a consumer access to travel related suppliers to allow the consumer to reserve or purchase various goods or services. For example, the traditional travel service can provide a link between a consumer and a number of travel related industries such as airlines, hotels, tour guide companies, cruise ship companies, etc. However, to utilize the traditional travel service, the consumer is required to visit a physical location of the travel service to carry out a desired task. Often, the consumer makes multiple trips, all of which typically mu...
Claims
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IPC IPC(8): G06Q50/00G06Q10/00G06Q30/00G06F17/30G06Q10/02G06Q10/08G06Q50/14
CPCG06Q10/02G06Q50/14G06Q10/087
InventorVAUGHAN, RICHARD A.BRINKER, JEFFREY T.MATOS, TOMAS A.D.
OwnerVAUGHAN RICHARD A