Patent ID: 7065499

Claim:
A computer-implemented intelligent order promising system comprising one or more processing units and one or more memory units, the system comprising: a commerce module operable to, using one or more processing units and one or more memory units, receive a product inquiry from a user, the product inquiry including a product configuration that comprises a product identifier, one or more option values, and a delivery location for the product; one or more inventory engines each operable to, using one or more processing units and one or more memory units: receive the product configuration from the commerce module; identify one or more products in the inventory of one or more sellers that exactly or partially match the product configuration based on one or more matching rules, the matching rules defining penalties that are incurred if one or more options of the matching product do not exactly match the option values received from the user; determine a delivery date for each matching product based, at least in part, on the inventory location of the product and the delivery location for the product; and communicate the matching products and associated delivery dates; dates to the commerce module; one or more production engines each operable to, using one or more processing units and one or more memory units: receive the product configuration from the commerce module; identify one or more products in current or planned production that exactly or partially match the product configuration based on one or more matching rules, the matching rules defining penalties that are incurred if one or more options of the matching product do not exactly match the option values received from the user; determine a delivery date for each matching product based, at least in part, on the production lead time, production location of the product, and the delivery location for the product; and communicate the matching products and associated delivery dates to the commerce module; the commerce module further operable to, using one or more processing units and one or more memory units: communicate the consolidated matching products and associated delivery dates to the user; receive a request for at least one of the matching products from the user; and communicate the request to the inventory or production engine that identified the matching product; and the inventory or production engine further operable to, using one or more processing units and one or more memory units, receive the request and to commit the requested product to the user.