Patent ID: 7363266

Claim:
A method for providing a value of a good to a requester using a local computer coupled to a database and in communication with a remote computer, the remote computer controlled by an analyst, said method comprising the steps of: storing in the database data relating to a plurality of goods including a description of each good, wherein each good includes a non-stationary asset including at least one of equipment, a product, a truck, an automobile and a vehicle; assigning a policy value to at least one good stored in the database; entering data into the local computer including a request for a value of a good and data relating to the good, the local computer configured as a calculator for calculating a value of the good; using the local computer to determine whether the value of the good can be calculated based on the entered data including determining whether the good has a policy value assigned thereto; designating the request for the value of the good as an exception request if the local computer is unable to value the good based on the data stored within the database and the entered data, a request for the value of a good is designated as an exception request if the local computer determines that the corresponding good does not have a policy value assigned to the good and that input from the analyst is required for valuing the good; displaying a web page indicating that the request has been designated by the local computer as an exception request and prompting the requester to provide additional information relating to the good; prompting the requester to transmit the entered data and the additional information to the remote computer controlled by the analyst; researching by the analyst the value of the good including analyzing data external to the database based on the entered data and the additional information; calculating the value of the good based on the research performed by the analyst; analyzing trends among a plurality of similar exception requests including the calculated values of the goods associated with the similar exception requests, the exception request analysis performed by the local computer; prompting the analyst to enter using the remote computer at least one new policy value and corresponding data for a good based on the exception request analysis, the prompting is performed by transmitting a message from the local computer to the remote computer after performing an exception request analysis; and displaying the value of the good on the local computer for the requester.