Patent ID: 7711606
Filing Date: 2010-05-04
Classification: G06Q,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method for assisting a customer in choosing among commodities, the method comprising: searching a decision rules database and applying decision rules to a profile of a customer's business; creating a set of business requirement questions based upon the applied decision rules database; implementing a business rule filter to answers from the customer to the set of business requirement questions; recommending, by an optimizer device, at least one commodity category to the customer, based upon the business rule filter implementation; identifying one or more parameters associated with the at least one commodity category; associating at least one value to each of the parameters; calculating an estimated cost for at least one commodity of the at least one commodity category based on the values associated with the parameters; obtaining from the customer a preference weighting for each of the parameters; and calculating an effective cost by adjusting the estimated cost based on the preference weightings and the values associated with the parameters.