Patent ID: 8065229

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving billing data, wherein the billing data is obtained from a bill for a service, the service is utilized by a user, and the billing data comprises information regarding a provider of the service, a location of the service, and a total bill amount of a single billing period for the service; annualizing the service usage by converting the total bill amount into an annualized billing amount, wherein the annualizing the service usage is performed over all billing periods in a year, the converting comprises calculating the annualized billing amount by adjusting the total bill amount using a statistically-determined multiplier, the statistically-determined multiplier is an inverse of a ratio, the ratio represents a statistical relationship between a plurality of bill amounts, and a plurality of annual bill amounts, each of the bill amounts is for utilization of the service by a corresponding one of a plurality of other users during the single billing period, each of the annual bill amounts is for utilization of the service by the corresponding one of the other users during all billing periods in a year, the service utilized by each of the other users is in a geographical region comprising the location of the service, and the each of the other users is other than the user; determining a usage pattern, wherein the determining uses the annualized billing amount; calculating a competitive bid, wherein the competitive bid is calculated using the usage pattern, and a pricing structure of the provider; and generating an administrative report, wherein the administrative report comprises a value representing a number of other users having changed from a previous provider to a current provider, and the administrative report comprises a listing of the previous provider and the current provider for each of the other users.