CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

[001] This application claims priority from the following US. Provisional Patent

Applications No. 62197030 entitled "System and method for managing sequences of auctions", filed on July 26, 2015.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[002] The invention relates to network based auctioning. More particularly a mechanism, functioning as a service system, is presented for managing auctions wherein a buyer of a service ("buyer") selects service providers ("sellers").

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[003] Auctions offer a popular option for purchasing items, services, vacations, etc.

Typically, in a traditional auction, sellers offer a product or service for sale, buyers bid and the most appropriate buyer bid wins upon closing time of the auction.

[004] In a reverse auction, buyers post the descriptions of product or services that they wish to purchase from related service providers and the sellers compete to obtain business from the buyer. US 7,996,298 B l discloses a reverse auction system, method and computer. A tender is received from a buyer over a network. Such tender includes information relating to a desired good or service. A plurality of suppliers is identified based on the information, and the tender is anonymously forwarded to the identified suppliers over the network. In use, a plurality of bids is received in response to the tender from a plurality of the suppliers over the network, and such bids are consolidated. Further, the consolidated bids are forwarded to the buyer over the network. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[005] The principles and operation of the system and process for managing auctions according to the present invention may be better understood with reference to the drawings, and the following description, it being understood that these drawings are given or illustrative purposes only and not meant to be limiting, wherein:

[006] Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an electronic network in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[007] Fig. 2 is a diagram of databases operative for managing auctions with the bid service system of the present invention.

[008] Fig. 3 is a block diagram illustrating system operations for updating the different databases in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[009] Figs. 4A-4D is a flowchart illustrating the non-automatic method for managing an auction in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

[010] Figs. 5A-5D is a flowchart illustrating the automatic method for managing an auction in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

[011] Fig. 6 is a block diagram illustrating sources of data used for the ranking in accordance with the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[012] Embodiments of the present invention are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features/components of an actual implementation are necessarily described. In accordance with the present invention, a process manages an auction mechanism according to which a buyer may send out a request for bid (called "ask") addressing sellers. Potential sellers are expected to submit their responses as "bids". A bid may address more than one bid request, as long as the requests possess a common factor such as time (e.g. weekdays, weekends), location or service. For example, in such a case in which the buyer is an employer who seeks to employ workers and the sellers are potential workers, the buyer may specify in one bid a request that addresses the period of time in the day in which the worker is to do the job ("shifts"), such as for an employee for Tuesday 12-16, Friday 9-12, Saturday 8-12.

[013] Else, the bid is automatically initiated, or in other words, the process of the invention is automatic or automated. The process could either send the bids back to the buyer to select, or it could, using approval criteria that it has developed based on past experience with the buyer, automatically select one or more sellers.

[014] Referring now to Fig. 1, in a preferred environment, the present invention includes, for each buyer, from 1 to N, systems 10, master controller 20, seller interface 30 and associated secured database 40. The systems of the buyers represent the systems currently employed by a buyer organization, such as a buyer's enterprise resource and procurement (ERP) system and/ or a seller's accounts receivable (A/R) system) and /or any other system providing line-of -business data . Both the systems of the buyers and the sellers are coupled to the master controller according to the present invention. The master controller is connected to a plurality of sellers through respective seller communication devices 60. The master controller has access to the databases used in the processing of the transactions of the present invention, as described below.

[015] As shown in Fig. 2, the bid service system 90 uses databases including buyer database 100 which maintains data on buyers with field such as name, address, telephone number, electronic mail address, facsimile number, registration number, or any other relevant information, such as the selection criteria (see below for details). This information is typically obtained when the buyer first subscribes (registers) at service system 90 and further upon any change taking place at the buyer side. It also includes the database of the sellers 110 which maintains data relating to sellers with fields such as name, type of business, address, telephone number, electronic mail address, facsimile number, or any other way to contact the seller, relevant properties such as skills and qualifications, etc. This information is obtained when the seller first registers with the service system 90 or upon any change of the information. The bidding database 120 stores all the information related to bids previously awarded in respective previous bidding sessions performed and managed by this system. In an embodiment in which the buyer is an employer who seeks workers and the sellers are potential employees, the database of a seller contains profile information such as the maximum distance the employee is willing to travel, their skills, the range of wage, etc. The database of the bidding contains all the previous bids based on the previous sessions related to similar bids and bid requests, to help the seller submit a bid that is more likely to be accepted.

[016] As shown in Fig.3, the updating of the different databases is performed (at the background of the process of the master controller) as follows. Upon any registration of a new buyer or upon any change of the information of an existing buyer (300), the master controller updates the buyer database (302). Upon any registration of a new seller or any change of the information of an existing seller (304), the master controller updates the sellers database.

[017] In accordance with the present invention, a buyer may make a request for bids (an action referred to as "ask") from sellers (non-automatic method). In other cases, the bid is automatically initiated by the system of the present invention (typically in the "automatic procedure"). The master controller could either send the bids back to the buyer to select, or it could, using approval criteria that it has developed based on past experience with the buyer, automatically select one or more sellers.

[018] Reference is now made to Figs. 4A-4D, which illustrates an embodiment of the invention in which both buyer and sellers are equipped with devices communicating with the master controller, implementing a non-automatic procedure.

[019] In operation 402, decision is made at the buyer end to define the - process as either automatic or non-automatic. The same kind of decision is performed at the master controller as per step 404. In case it is about a non-automatic procedure, the buyer entering into "wait for submission of a new bid" (408), may start a new bid session. The sellers stay in a "waiting for a new ask" state (410). The buyer submitting a request, may advertise additional requests, for example a work shift, for auction as shown at step 414. It can be submitted for a single shift, for a group of shifts, repeating shifts, etc., requiring one or more sellers for each shift in the package.

[020] Once the buyer submits the bid, the master controllers starts a new bid session (418). The duration of a bid session is a configured parameter and not part of the invention. The master controller then assigns descriptors to the bid request (419), e.g. which requirement is optional or mandatory. [021] If the bid session is still relevant (420), the master controller retrieves the descriptors for the bid requirements in the bid session, and for every seller in the system. Using the values assigned to the descriptors, the master controller determines if a seller has the necessary skills, qualifications, attitudes, and other relevant attributes to fulfill the bid requirements (424). The master controller then ranks the sellers using a ranking procedure, as defined below at the description of step 426 in Fig. 5A (see also Fig. 6). The master controller is the control point for selecting the suitable sellers allowed to place a bid for the auction. It stores the list of the ranked sellers in the database used for sending notifications for the duration of the bid session (428).

[022] If there were any changes introduced in the database of the sellers e.g. new sellers added, existing sellers deleted, or changes to existing sellers' descriptors which took place during the bid session (430), the master controller returns to the bid session step in order to update the list of the ranked sellers if needed.

[023] Using the list of ranked sellers, the master controller determines sellers to be notified (434), notifies them (436) and waits for their response. The sellers receiving the notification (438) may submit their response to the bid as shown at step 450 through the master controller. The response may contain any number of information that the buyer can use to determine if they should accept the bid.

[024] After receiving the responses from the sellers (452), the master controller sellers that have already responded to the bid, or who have been selected, or who have declined for this bid as shown at step 454. The master controller proceeds again till the bid session ends. At the end of the bid session, the master controller forwards the responses obtained by all the sellers to the buyers as shown at step 472.

[025] The buyer then selects one or more sellers to hire as per step 476, and communicates to the master controller in step 478, the identification of the winners. In the event that one or more sellers are selected, the master controller sends the confirmation to the sellers as per step 480 and updates the bidding database with the criteria of the requests and the selected winners as per step 482. Once the sellers receive the results as per step 482, they return to "wait for new ask" state.

[026] Reference is now made to Figs. 5A-5D, which illustrates an embodiment in which both buyer and sellers are equipped with devices facilitating communicating with the master controller, in a automatic procedure, which uses approval criteria developed based on past experience with the buyer, whereby the master controller automatically selects one or more sellers. The master controller retrieves information from the buyer to determine if bid sessions need to be issued to one or more sellers as per step 802. The information may come from the systems of the buyers (see Fig. 1), for example customer counters in a shop, or the finance system, the order system, a hotel's reservation system, the HR system, etc. Any system that provides ERP or line-of-business data that can be used and analysed to predict the type and quantity of sellers. It then analyses the information retrieved and determine if it is necessary to submit a request for bids, as per step 804. If the procedure it concludes that bid sessions are not required , it waits again for a trigger initiated by the system of the buyers as shown at step 808; otherwise it enters into a bid session in order to submit a request for a bid per shown at step 810. During the bid session, same actions are performed as in the procedure of non-automatic method, until the bid session ends (422, 424, 426, 428, 430, 432, 434, 436, 438, 450, 452, 454).

[027] At the end of the bid session, the master controller ranks the responses as per step 821. It then retrieves the selection criteria for the buyer database. The criteria could include, for example, "select the best within 30 min travel" or "select the cheapest". The criteria could be stacked, for example, "select previous sellers, otherwise cheapest " (822). The master controller applies the selection criteria to the ranked list of responses from the sellers, in order to select the "best" sellers that matches the criteria (824) and distributes the results to sellers as per step 826, send results to sellers and forward them also the buyers (828). It updates the bidding database and all the process begins again (go to action 402).

[028] In another embodiment related to the automatic method ( not shown in the figures) , the master controller first sends the bids back to the buyers to select and only after the buyers send their selection back to the master controller, results are sent to the sellers. Once the buyers obtain the results, the process begins again (go to action 402).

[029] The ranking procedure

[030] The ranking procedure is used both to rank the bids of the sellers as well as for determining the list of sellers to notify about their success. There may be different ranking strategies. For example, one strategy may prioritize location of a seller, another strategy may give more weight to the personal experience, yet another strategy may give more weight to stability, selection, the buyer may, in addition by viewing by rank, view the results in other ways, e.g. by value, by location, by time. The ranking procedure determines a seller's bid qualification by evaluating the seller's past performance on a predetermined set of variables over a predetermined number of prior bids, based on data recorded in the sellers bidding database, as well as information from the bid, such as the number of bid requests fulfilled and other qualifying information. It determines to what extent a seller has historically exceeded expectations or deviated from a committed value which results in a profitable scenario for a buyer, i.e. performed worse than promised according to one or more prior bid values. Such variable may include: the reliability of the seller, number of times the seller's bid has been accepted in prior bids, the comparison of other sellers' bids to this seller's bid, etc. Database resources that can serve as sources of data for the ranking procedure are exemplified in Fig. 6. Source 900 is used for data relating to location of the buyer as related to the location of the seller. Source 902 is used to retrieve information regarding previously accepted bids. Bidding database (904) is a source for the historical activity of the seller on the bids they placed and the acceptances they received. Source (906) descriptors of bid requirements of sellers.

[031] The ranking procedure orders the sellers using the weights assigned to the descriptors. The master controller uses a combination of data points assigned to the descriptors for the bid requirements, where the sellers with matching descriptors are assigned calculated weights. The rank order of the sellers can be adjusted using the historical activity, by moving sellers up to the list if the seller was successful in previous ranking instances performed in association with the respective previous bids, and down if they were declined. The order of the sellers can be adjusted using the historical activity retrieved if available, by moving sellers up the list if the ranking procedure can compare them to successful sellers in previous bids, and down the list if they can be compared to declined sellers. For example, sellers who were successful with the same bid requirements with the same buyer, are ranked the highest. As an additional option with regards to the ranking of sellers, source 904 may contain information such as crudely affecting the acceptability of each seller. For example: "block" , "favoured" or "acceptable". Such directive information may be made available to the entire registered buyer community.

[032] The present invention can also be practiced off-line whereby buyers and sellers can communicate with master controller via telephone, facsimile, postal mail, or another off-line communication tool.