Method and system for evaluating product substitutions along multiple criteria in response to a sales opportunity

US8195527B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Pawan R. Chowdhary · San Jose, US
• Thomas Robert Ervolina · Poughquag, US
• Markus Ettl · Ossining, US
• Young-Min Lee · Seojong-myeon, KR
• Daniel Peters · Poughquag, US
• Anshul Sheopuri · Teaneck, US
• Karthik Sourirajan · White Plains, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 28, 2008
• Grant date: Jun 5, 2012
• Expiry date: Dec 6, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q30/0641
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A system and method evaluate product substitutions along multiple criteria in response to a sales opportunity, for instance, providing sales recommendations of configurable products in response to a customer request based on propensity functions. A customer propensity is determined to estimate attractiveness of a substitute product to a customer based on one or more attributes. A seller propensity is determined to estimate attractiveness to a seller of selling the substitute product based on one or more attributes. The customer propensity and the seller propensity are combined to find a plurality of substitute products.