System and method for data collection, evaluation,...

Details System and method for data collection, evaluation,... System and method for data collection, evaluation,...

2002-08-21

2004-03-23

Mizrahi, Diane D. (Department: 2175)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C707S793000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06711581

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system and method for data collection, evaluation, information generation, and presentation. More particularly the present invention relates to a system for collecting, evaluating, and presenting data, and generating information relating to electronic commerce. The system and methods of the present invention include one or more of the following: a module for stabilizing small or noisy samples of data; alarm modules that alert an event handler when data values cross specified thresholds; predictor modules that use recent historical data along with an estimated and/or available saturation population function as the basis for a differential equation that defines the growth of the population to a maximum attainable level; and a dynamic icon that conveys to users of a system levels of predefined activity occurring on the system.
The availability of relatively low cost, powerful computer systems and the development of online communication systems and networks—principally the Internet and its protocols, and the availability of low-cost consumer computer systems—have fueled the growth of e-commerce. As used herein “e-commerce” means commercial transactions for goods or services, particularly wholesale or retail sales of products or services, or bartered exchange of the foregoing, over global computer networks, such as the Internet, or any smaller computer network that unites users and suppliers of goods or services.
The rapid growth of e-commerce makes the need for such guidance even more compelling. In a study by the assignee of the present invention, it was found that over the 12-month period ending June 1999, total retail e-commerce sales tripled from $2.67 to $7.94 billion. (Source: 2
ND
QTR:
1999
Consumer Online Report for Total Retail e-commerce
, published by BizRate.com, 1999).
The Internet has been swiftly facilitating the growth of local and regional markets into national and international markets. This market expansion provides consumers with many new advantages and opportunities including better product pricing, product selection, product quality, and customer service. The market expansion also creates new advantages and opportunities for businesses, including a broader base of consumers and suppliers. With the advantages and opportunities come new challenges.
The success of a business engaged in e-commerce may depend on how well it understands the dynamics and parameters of the e-commerce marketplace, and how well the business understands its status in such marketplace. Unfortunately, traditional models for evaluating the performance of a business are not well suited or optimized for evaluating the performances of businesses engaged in e-commerce. The nature of e-commerce and the manner in which it is conducted demand new and improved systems and methods for evaluating business performance. Consumers also need guidance so that they may understand their options and make the best decisions when doing business online.
From the consumer perspective, chief among the challenges is finding among the myriad of online businesses the merchants who offer the category of products sought at the best pricing, product selection, product quality, reputation, etc. The rating of a merchant relative to such variables may change rapidly in response to marketplace conditions. For example, marketplace competition may drive competitors to change their prices daily. Product availability may also change on as frequent a basis. For such reasons, consumers need a mechanism that helps them quickly locate the best merchants for their needs based on the most current and accurate data and information available.
Merchants also face new challenges in the online marketplace. They must be able to reach consumers and communicate to consumers the value they can deliver. To do this, they must understand the competition, and what drives consumers to make purchases. They must monitor their own prices relative to competitors' prices on a frequent basis to remain competitive. They must also understand what level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction consumers have from transactions with themselves and competitors, as well as the bases of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. For such reasons, merchants need a mechanism that helps them quickly obtain the most current and accurate information.
Traditionally, marketing surveys have been employed to determine how well a business rates in the eyes of consumers. Direct feedback from consumers provides important information. In traditional forms of commerce, consumer satisfaction surveys have been long used to gather direct feedback from consumers. (Traditional forms of commerce include in-store, telephonic, and mail order commerce.) The surveys help businesses understand what positive and negative things they are doing. With the proper understanding, the businesses may reinforce the positive things and correct the negative ones. The more accurate and current the survey results, the better a business can achieve its objectives.
Unfortunately, administering and processing consumer surveys, even in traditional modes of commerce, has been problematic in various respects, for example:
How do you get consumers to fill out such surveys?
Is the sample size of responses large enough to produce accurate reports?
How do you input and process the data?
Has the data been processed in a timely manner?
How are results to be timely reported to businesses?
What do the results mean to the business?
What steps should the business take in view of the results?
What has been the effect of any remedial action?
With respect to these questions, there are many problems. The surveys are typically presented to consumers as paper questionnaires for the consumers to manually fill in. Such surveys may be costly to construct and print. Once printed, they cannot be modified. Consumers generally dislike filling out survey questionnaires, and therefore it may be difficult or time consuming for the survey sponsor to gather enough completed survey questionnaires to constitute a statistically significant sample size. Often, the completed survey questionnaires must be returned by mail; even if a consumer has filled out the survey questionnaire, the consumer may not take the trouble of dropping it in the mailbox.
To overcome these kinds of problems, survey sponsors sometimes employ individuals to field survey responses from individuals. These individuals may be stationed in a store to verbally field answers to survey questions or they may telephone consumers after a transaction. The problem with using individuals to administer surveys is the cost of administering the survey and the intrusiveness of the process. The intrusiveness is such that consumers may be alienated from doing further business with a merchant. This is particularly a concern relative to telephone surveys. With intrusive survey methods, even if the consumer is inclined to answer questions by a survey taker, the consumer's answers may be skewed toward an unfavorable response, creating inaccurate results.
The processing of completed survey questionnaires has its own set of disadvantages. The completed survey questionnaires usually must be read by data entry personnel and manually input by them into a data processing system. This not only adds to the cost of administering a survey, but it also results in delays between the time surveys are taken and the time the results are processed.
In view of the inherent delays in administering surveys and inputting survey data, by the time a business receives a report of the results of a survey, the results may no longer be accurate. For example, consider a survey about price competitiveness: competitors may have dropped prices in the interval between the responses to a survey and the processing and reporting of information. During such an interval, a business could lose significant sales and revenues because they have not reacted contemporaneously to competitors' price changes. If ther

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