The ability to sell more inventory/content and to sell current inventory more efficiently and to differentiate product is extremely important and urgent to suppliers, especially in the travel and hospitality industries. Additionally, consumers want and need more choice and inventory/content. The current legacy supply chain for fulfilling travel related needs of consumers is complicated and remains under the control of various companies, most of which directly or indirectly compete with one another. Even if those within the supply chain are not hindered from cooperating by competition, balkanization of services/responsibilities within a single supplier may further hinder these legacy supply chains. For example, with respect to an airline, current inventory may be maintained by one entity or department while flights are managed by another department and/or business. Moreover, airline rules and pricing may be managed by yet another department and/or business. Business processes that interact with these legacy systems must be structured to correspond to these entities and their rules. For each entity, a completely different set of requirements may be imposed upon business processes that depend upon these entities. In sum, the structures of these legacy supply chain systems make it extremely difficult, if not impractical, to properly aggregate offerings and/or add new inventory/content that would be recognized and accepted by the legacy systems.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds