Interactive demand management

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed which allows the aggregation of the demands of various buyers, providing an incentive for suppliers to bid to supply those demands in an auction. The system and method operates by scanning a database which contains a listing of goods or services sought by various people or entities. Thereafter, similar goods or services are grouped together and presented to various vendors. The vendors are given the opportunity to bid on the group of similar goods or services. Such a bid may vary from the originally purchased goods or services as long as the bid is within a predetermined range. The vendor which presents the optimum bid within a predetermined period of time is selected as the provider of the goods or services and proceeds to supply the goods or services at the bid upon amount.

1 . A method comprising:
 determining, by a computer-based system for accepting a bid for a travel service, that a first itinerary of a first consumer and a second itinerary of a second consumer match within a predefined threshold;   grouping, by said computer-based system, said first itinerary and said second itinerary to create a subset of consumer itineraries;   providing, by said computer-based system, said subset of consumer itineraries to a vendor offering said travel service;   accepting, by said computer-based system, said bid from said vendor to provide said travel service to said first consumer and said second consumer based on an ability of said vendor to provide said travel service within said predefined threshold;   verifying, by said computer-based system, that said bid is in accordance with said predefined threshold;   confirming, by said computer-based system, that said bid is an optimum bid; and   modifying, by said computer-based system, a second subset of said subset of consumer itineraries to include travel services from a second different vendor according to said bid.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said predefined threshold includes thresholds for consumer departure time, consumer arrival time, consumer airport pair, consumer class, and consumer seating. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said predefined threshold is defined within first consumer rules, first organization rules, second consumer rules, and second organization rules. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 ,
 wherein said first consumer rules relate to at least one of: first consumer departure time, first consumer arrival time, first consumer airport pair, first consumer class, and first consumer seating;   wherein said first organization rules relate to at least one of: first organization departure time, first organization arrival time, first organization airport pair, first organization class, and first organization seating;   wherein said second consumer rules relate to at least one of: second consumer departure time, second consumer arrival time, second consumer airport pair, second consumer class, and second consumer seating; and   wherein said second organization rules relate to at least one of: second organization departure time, second organization arrival time, second organization airport pair, second organization class, and second organization seating.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said subset of consumer itineraries include reservations that are booked but not ticketed. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said second subset of consumer itineraries did not previously include said second different vendor. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said second different vendor more closely matches said predefined threshold. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising notifying at least one of: said first consumer and said second consumer of said optimum bid. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said confirming comprises determining that said bid provides optimum savings for at least one of: said first consumer and said second consumer. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising obtaining said first itinerary and said second itinerary by analyzing a plurality of consumer itineraries stored at a plurality of Customer Reservations Systems to identify similar itineraries. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein said similar itineraries include similar of at least one of departure time, arrival time, airport pair, class, seating, price, scheduling preferences, departure airport, destination airport, departure date, seating preferences, and special accommodations. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein said obtaining comprises scanning said travel reservations database to determine rows of said consumer information with a similar at least one of first consumer rules, second consumer rules, first organization rules, and second organization rules, placing said rows of a similar at least one of said first consumer rules, said second consumer rules, said first organization rules, and said second organization rules into said subset of said consumer itineraries, wherein said travel reservations database comprises a plurality of rows. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein an individual row of said rows is placed into a plurality of said subset of said consumer itineraries. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein said rows are similar when at least one of said first consumer rules, said second consumer rules, said first organization rules, and said second organization rules differ by less than a predetermined criteria. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said verifying comprises evaluating said bid based on a proposed price and a proposed provision of said travel service. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising storing a deviation to said predefined threshold. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising storing a restriction upon said deviation. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said travel service comprises at least one of an airline reservation, automobile rental reservation, and hotel reservation. 
     
     
         19 . An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system for accepting a bid for a travel service, cause the computer-based system to perform operations comprising:
 determining, by said computer-based system, that a first itinerary of a first consumer and a second itinerary of a second consumer match within a predefined threshold;   grouping, by said computer-based system, said first itinerary and said second itinerary to create a subset of consumer itineraries;   providing, by said computer-based system, said subset of consumer itineraries to a vendor offering said travel service;   accepting, by said computer-based system, said bid from said vendor to provide said travel service to said first consumer and said second consumer based on an ability of said vendor to provide said travel service within said predefined threshold;   verifying, by said computer-based system, that said bid is in accordance with said predefined threshold;   confirming, by said computer-based system, that said bid is an optimum bid; and   modifying, by said computer-based system, a second subset of said subset of consumer itineraries to include travel services from a second different vendor according to said bid.   
     
     
         20 . A system comprising:
 a tangible, non-transitory memory communicating with a processor for accepting a bid for a travel service,   the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
 determining, by said processor, that a first itinerary of a first consumer and a second itinerary of a second consumer match within a predefined threshold; 
 grouping, by said processor, said first itinerary and said second itinerary to create a subset of consumer itineraries; 
 providing, by said processor, said subset of consumer itineraries to a vendor offering said travel service; 
 accepting, by said processor, said bid from said vendor to provide said travel service to said first consumer and said second consumer based on an ability of said vendor to provide said travel service within said predefined threshold; 
 verifying, by said processor, that said bid is in accordance with said predefined threshold; 
 confirming, by said processor, that said bid is an optimum bid; and 
 modifying, by said processor, a second subset of said subset of consumer itineraries to include travel services from a second different vendor according to said bid.