Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110185231 | SOFTWARE APPLICATION TESTING - An online marketplace for distributing software applications is established. From the online marketplace, devices are enabled to select respective ones of the software applications and initiate testing of the selected software applications in connection with testing tools operating in respective secure testing environments that shield the devices from potential adverse effects arising from testing the selected software applications. The testing tools generate testing data relating to one or more criteria for certifying the selected software applications. For each of one or more of the selected software applications, a determination is made whether or not to classify the software application as a certified software application based on an evaluation of the testing data generated during the testing of the software applications initiated by a plurality of the devices. | 07-28-2011 |
20110225157 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING WEBSITE CONTENT - An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a method of generating Website content. The method includes generating a client profile comprising a cluster type obtained from a list of cluster types and information received from a user ID, wherein the list of cluster types is generated by processing a database of computer usage. The method includes utilizing the relevant cluster types included in the client profile to a selected Website, wherein the cluster type is used by the Website at least in part to determine the content provided by the Website. | 09-15-2011 |
20110295755 | FLEXIBLE EXTENDED PRODUCT WARRANTIES - A system and method for determining the optimum price that a service provider should charge to customers of a periodic extended-product warranty to optimize profits generated from providing such warranties. In one aspect of the present invention the customer is allowed to elect or to cancel warranty coverage on a monthly basis which election is based in part on the customer's expected net utility from his coverage decisions. In one embodiment, the customer can be afforded complete warranty coverage flexibility in terms of his ability to turn coverage on and off whenever desired. In another aspect of the present invention the customer can be allowed to make dynamic repair or replacement decisions in each period based on the product's failure status or on other criteria. By properly modeling optimal extended-product warranty strategies from the perspective of both the customer and from the perspective of the service provider, one can compute the customers' maximum expected discounted net utility and the service provider's expected discounted profit from strategic customers. | 12-01-2011 |
20110295756 | FLEXIBLE EXTENDED PRODUCT WARRANTIES HAVING PARTIALLY REFUNDABLE PREMIUMS - A system and method for determining the optimum price that a service provider should charge to customers of at least a partially refundable extended-product warranty to optimize profits generated from providing such warranties. In one aspect of the present invention the customer may elect to purchase warranty coverage when the product is new and cancel warranty coverage at any time thereafter, which election is based in part on the customer's expected discounted net utility from his coverage decisions. In another aspect of the present invention, the customer is allowed to make dynamic repair or replacement decisions in each period based on the product's failure status or on other criteria. In one embodiment, the customer can be afforded warranty coverage flexibility in terms of his ability to turn coverage off whenever desired and to obtain a partial refund of the warranty premium. By properly modeling extended-product warranty strategies from the perspective of the customer and from the perspective of the service provider, one can compute the customers' expected discounted net utility and the provider's expected discounted profit from strategic customers. In another aspect of the present invention a computer-based service is provided to the customer of the extended-product warranty for determining the customer's optimal dynamic decisions to maximize the customer's expected discounted net utility when making product replacement decisions, maintenance decisions, and warranty coverage decisions. | 12-01-2011 |
20110307319 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DESIGNING AND DISPLAYING ADVERTISEMENTS - The present disclosure includes a system and method for designing and displaying advertisements. One or more targeted advertising methods include surveying potential customers to ascertain a price sensitivity and a likelihood of the potential customers purchasing products and/or observing venues, and clustering the potential customers according to product clusters based on the likelihood of purchasing products. Potential customers of each product cluster are clustered according to one or more venue clusters based on a likelihood of the potential customers of respective product clusters to observe the venues. An advertisement is designed for a venue corresponding to a particular venue cluster to include at least one product corresponding to a particular product cluster which is promotionally-priced based on the price sensitivity of potential customers of a particular venue cluster. An electronic display of the venue is modified to include the designed advertisement. | 12-15-2011 |
20120022920 | ELICITING CUSTOMER PREFERENCE FROM PURCHASING BEHAVIOR SURVEYS | 01-26-2012 |
20120150584 | DESIGN OF WARRANTY BONUSES FOR PRODUCTS - Systems, methods, and computer-readable and executable instructions are provided for designing warranty bonuses. Designing warranty bonuses can include determining, for a customer base of a product, a first probability that a customer will replace the product with a different product. Designing warranty bonuses may also include determining, for the customer base, a marginal contribution to the first probability for a plurality of warranty bonus sizes and a plurality of warranty bonus types. Designing warranty bonus can include determining, for the customer base, a second probability that the customer will purchase a warranty for the plurality of warranty bonus sizes and the plurality of warranty bonus types. Designing warranty bonuses may also include bundling the product and the warranty, and assigning a number of the plurality of warranty bonus sizes and a number of the plurality of warranty bonus types to the product-warranty bundle based on the first and second probabilities and the marginal contribution. | 06-14-2012 |
20120158462 | TARGET LEVEL SETTING - Systems, methods, and machine readable and executable instructions are provided for target level setting. Target level setting may include receiving a plurality of objectives for an organization that includes a central unit and a plurality of regional units, transmitting a respective regional target level for each of the plurality of objectives assigned to each of the plurality of regional units, prompting the central unit for an approval of an increase to a first regional target level for a first of the plurality of regional units and a decrease to a second regional target level for a second of the plurality of regional units, increasing the first regional target level for the first of the plurality of regional units, and decreasing the second regional target level for the second of the plurality of regional units. | 06-21-2012 |
20120209643 | PROFIT COMPARISON - Systems, methods, and machine-readable and executable instructions are provided for profit comparison. Profit comparison can include determining a first profitability function of a flexible duration extended warranty offering with respect to a first plurality of warranty parameters and determining a second profitability function of a fixed duration extended warranty offering with respect to a second plurality of warranty parameters. Profit comparison can also include comparing the first function and the second function for at least one level of at least one of profit lift and flexible duration warranty offering coverage duration. Presenting results of the comparison for a range of values of the first and second plurality of warranty parameters can also be included in profit comparison. | 08-16-2012 |
20130060649 | Selecting Products for Retailer to Offer for Sale to Consumers - Each product of a number of products is assigned to one of a number of popularity tiers. The popularity tiers are ordered from a most popular tier to a least popular tier. The popularity tiers indicate how popular the products are expected to be among consumers. Each product is assigned to one of a number of margin tiers. The margin tiers are ordered from a highest margin tier to a lowest margin tier. The margin tiers indicate how much money a retailer makes in selling the products to the consumers. Which of the products to offer for sale by the retailer to the consumers are selected by applying decision rules to the products as have been assigned to the popularity tiers and to the margin tiers. | 03-07-2013 |
20130091064 | PRICING OPEN-LIST WARRANTIES - Systems, methods, and computer-readable and executable instructions are provided for pricing open-list warranties. Pricing open-list warranties can include determining an expected product support cost of a provider of an open-list warranty to a customer over a time period, determining an expected product repair cost of the customer over the time period, and pricing the open-list warranty for the time period based on the expected product support cost and the expected product repair cost. | 04-11-2013 |
20130191181 | DETERMINING WHETHER TO LAUNCH A PARTICULAR OFFERING - Survey responses are received regarding user interest in offerings of plural different types based on proposed incentives for the offerings of the plural different types. An analysis of the survey responses is performed. The analysis includes deriving measures based on the survey responses regarding user interest in the offerings of the plural different types, and computing, based on the measures, an indication of profitability regarding a particular one of the plural different types of offerings. The indication of profitability to allow for a determination of whether to launch the particular type of offering. | 07-25-2013 |
20130245998 | SELECTING ENTITIES IN A SAMPLING PROCESS - As part of a sampling process, entities of a population are selected, where the population includes plural types of entities. Selecting the entities includes iteratively indicating in each of successive steps of the sampling process a corresponding type of the plural types of entities to select. | 09-19-2013 |
20130262202 | TRADE-IN OPTION LEVEL - A method performed by at least one processing system includes detecting that a purchaser of an item with a trade-in option has performed an action corresponding to the trade-in option using the processing system and modifying a trade-in option level of the purchaser using the processing system based on the action. | 10-03-2013 |
20130290097 | AWARDING A GROUP- TARGETED PROMOTION - Systems, methods, and computer-readable and executable instructions are provided for awarding a group-targeted promotion. Awarding a group-targeted promotion can include defining a first condition for a customer to join a list of promotion-eligible customers and defining a second condition for a number of groups of customers from the list to qualify for a group-targeted promotion. Awarding a group-targeted promotion can include awarding the group-targeted promotion to a group among the number of groups that complies with the second condition, wherein the method is performed by a computing device. | 10-31-2013 |
20130290109 | Eliciting A Customer's Product Preference Propensities Among Sub-Groups In A Social Network - A method to elicit a customer's product preference propensities among sub-groups, with each of the sub-groups having multiple members based on at least one common attribute, begins when customer action data is collected through the actions of the customer in the sub-group. The actions include the customer's propensities to purchase a product while within the sub-group and the customers' responses to displayed marketing messages or surveys while within the sub-group. The customer action data collected in the sub-group is analyzed to determine a customer's product preference propensities in the sub-group. The customer is targeted, when within the sub-group, with an electronic display that includes at least one product that corresponds to the customer's product preference propensities within the sub-group. | 10-31-2013 |
20140040006 | POPULATING PRODUCT RECOMMENDATION LIST - A computer-implemented method for populating a product recommendation list can include identifying a first set of products using customer data and a second set of products using social network data, identifying a third set of products, wherein the third set of products includes products in the second set of products and not in the first set of products, calculating a product score for each product in the second set of products, and populating the product recommendation list of the customer with a subset of the first set of products and a subset of the third set of products based on the calculated product scores. | 02-06-2014 |
20140122370 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MODEL SELECTION - A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium contains software that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform various operations such as to receive transactional data, industry-specific data, output requirements, and instructions to run specific data analysis models and tests. The software may also cause the processor to identify, based on the industry-specific data and the output requirements, a set of candidate models and to assess the performance of each candidate model based on the transactional data to select a final model and to perform the selected final model on the transactional data to generate processed data. | 05-01-2014 |
20150073846 | OBTAINING A PRODUCT VIA A REPOSITORY IN AN ORGANIZATION WITH OBTAINMENT UNITS - A purchase order is received by an entity associated with an organization for a product to be obtained via a vendor, wherein the product has a value in external-obtainment units. The product is inventoried in a repository of the organization, wherein the product is obtainable via the repository of the organization with internal-obtainment units. The product is allocated to a number of entities associated with the organization. | 03-12-2015 |