Abstract:
A method and system are described for event and service inventory management. One embodiment comprises: in response to a user request for tickets to an event, searching a database for available tickets of a set of tickets purchased prior in time; displaying to a user information about booked but unused tickets; and, in response to identifying unused tickets, allowing the user to book the available event tickets, without the user having received separate authorization to obtain tickets to the event.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Often companies may purchase tickets to events, such as sporting events, to entertain guests, visiting executives, high-performing employees, or other appropriate recipients. If not well managed, ticket purchases may become an excessive expense. Also, often event tickets must be purchased in blocks for best pricing. However, not all purchasers can find recipients for all tickets, leaving some tickets unused or given away at random, and thus a wasted expense. 
     What is clearly needed is a system and method for managing purchase and inventory of such event tickets in a way that is most economical and beneficial to the company. 
     SUMMARY 
     A method and system are described for event and service inventory management. One embodiment comprises: in response to a user request for tickets to an event, searching a database for available tickets of a set of tickets purchased prior in time; displaying to a user information about booked but unused tickets; and, in response to identifying unused tickets, allowing the user to book the available event tickets, without the user having received separate authorization to obtain tickets to the event. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES 
         FIG. 1  shows an overview of services and event system and its associated elements according to the present embodiment; 
         FIG. 2  shows the process by which a ticket block may be purchased according to the present embodiment; and 
         FIG. 3  shows the process by which an employee may acquire available tickets before being authorized to acquire new tickets, according to the present embodiment of the system. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     In the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that logical, mechanical, electrical, functional, and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims. 
       FIG. 1  shows an overview  100  of services and event system  102  and its associated elements according to the present embodiment. It could be a stand-alone system, or it could be integrated with other service systems. Symbolically shown associated with system  102  are a database  103  and a server  104  with a software instance  105 . It is clear that there may be many variations in the architecture of the database, server, and associated software, with, for example, multiple servers, the database held on storage integrated into the server or in a separate computer, the server(s) containing other service system aspects as known to the inventor or dedicated solely to the usage of the present embodiment, etc. All such variations are well known to a person of knowledge in the art and do not affect the present embodiment as disclosed herein. System  102  is connected to the Internet  101 . Internet  101  is for purposes of simplicity and clarity also representative of any other network(s), not shown, to which system  102  may be connected. 
       FIG. 2  shows the process  200  by which a ticket block may be purchased according to the present embodiment. In step  201 , the user initiates a search by the system for an appropriate event. The search may be limited to local database  103 , or the event service system may connect over the Internet  101  or some other network to providers of event tickets. In step  202 , a volume discount is negotiated with a ticket provider for a block of tickets; and in step  203 , those tickets are marked as available and information about the event and its availability is stored in database  103 . In step  204 , information about available tickets is sent to an “A list” of potential interested parties who may want to or may be authorized to use the tickets to entertain important visitors, guests, deserving employees, etc. Also, in some cases, an executive suite, that has inherent access to games, may be expressed a set of virtual tickets. Other, similar cases may exist, where attending rights are inherent in a sponsorship etc. 
       FIG. 3  shows the process  300  by which an employee may acquire available tickets before being authorized to acquire new tickets, according to the present embodiment of the system. In step  301 , the system searches database  103  for available tickets. This search may be conducted by date, by event type, or by any other of various parameters. The search may also include checking with external suppliers (not shown) over Internet  101  or a functionally similar or equivalent private or public network. In step  302 , information about booked but unused tickets is displayed to the user. In step  303 , the process branches. If there are no unused tickets (no), the process moves to step  304 , where, with proper authorization (not shown), new tickets may be purchased. At this point, the process terminates at step  307 . If there are any unused tickets (yes), the process moves to step  304 , where the system books the available event tickets in a process essentially similar to the process described above in the description of  FIG. 2 . If there are unused tickets, the process again branches in step  305  to use those existing tickets. If they are sufficient and meet the desired criteria (yes), such as date and event type, the ticket booking process is completed in step  308  and the process terminates at step  307 . If the unused tickets do not meet the needs of the user (no), then the process branches to step  304 , where, with proper authorization, new tickets may be purchased, and the process terminates at step  307 . In some cases, certain authorized persons (e.g., high-ranking executives) may have the privilege of overriding the system to obtain new tickets for the event they want, even if other event tickets are available. Also, unused tickets may be offered for sale at a discounted price to employees or may be resold through a third party (such as Stub Hub or RazorGator) or an intra-company unused ticket exchange service. 
     In some cases, the system would also calculate the “internal usage value” vs. the “external street value” for the owner. The “internal usage value” is the perceived value of having some employee of the company using the ticket or ticket block to entertain a client or for some other purpose. This can be calculated based on a variety of inputs. For example, a VP or above requesting it gives the ticket 50 points, the importance of the client can given n more points, the availability of other similar tickets gives the ticket value m more points, etc. The total is the “internal usage value”. 
     The “external street value” can be calculated by an algorithm that takes into account the original price of the ticket, the rate at which the event sold out, the current availability of tickets on the primary and secondary markets, number of other people requesting similar tickets, current bid price for such a ticket, etc. 
     Comparing the internal value vs. the external value can help a company determine if and when it should sell previously purchased tickets on the open market, providing an opportunity to effectively offload unused tickets at the right price and the right time and to determine which tickets should be offloaded. 
     It is clear that many modifications and variations of this embodiment may be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the novel art of this disclosure. 
     The processes described above can be stored in a memory of a computer system as a set of instructions to be executed. In addition, the instructions to perform the processes described above could alternatively be stored on other forms of machine-readable media, including magnetic and optical disks. For example, the processes described could be stored on machine-readable media, such as magnetic disks or optical disks, which are accessible via a disk drive (or computer-readable medium drive). Further, the instructions can be downloaded into a computing device over a data network in a form of compiled and linked version. 
     Alternatively, the logic to perform the processes as discussed above could be implemented in additional computer and/or machine readable media, such as discrete hardware components as large-scale integrated circuits (LSI&#39;s), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC&#39;s), firmware such as electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM&#39;s); and electrical, optical, acoustical and other forms of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.); etc.