Patent Application
20140067641
This application is based on and claims priority under 35 USC 119 from Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-189286 filed Aug. 29, 2012.
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing apparatus, and a computer readable medium.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an information processing system including a desired commodity-purchase-information acquisition unit, a desired commodity-selling-information acquisition unit, a difference acquisition unit, and a determination unit. The desired commodity-purchase-information acquisition unit acquires multiple pieces of desired commodity purchase information, each of which includes a desired purchase condition for a commodity. The desired commodity-selling-information acquisition unit acquires desired commodity selling information including a desired selling condition for the commodity. The difference acquisition unit acquires a difference obtained by subtracting a desired selling price from a desired purchase price for each of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information. The desired selling price is obtained on the basis of the desired selling information. The desired purchase price is obtained on the basis of the desired commodity purchase information. The determination unit performs determination and accepts one or more pieces of desired commodity purchase information which are at least one of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information and for which the total of the differences is equal to or more than zero, as desired commodity purchase information for which sales are to be made, on the basis of the difference obtained for each of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information.
Exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail based on the following figures, wherein:
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below on the basis of the drawings.
The information processing system 1000 includes a management apparatus 100, a seller-side user terminal 200, purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500 which are connected to each other via a network 900. The management apparatus 100, the seller-side user terminal 200, and the purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500 are information processing apparatuses such as personal computers.
The information processing system 1000 has the seller-side user terminal 200 operated by a seller who sells certain commodities, and the purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500 operated by purchasers who wish to purchase the commodities, and manages determination of whether or not the sales are to be made for the commodities.
The management apparatus 100 receives desired commodity selling information transmitted from the seller-side user terminal 200 and pieces of desired commodity purchase information transmitted from the purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500, and accepts at least some of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information as those for which sales are to be made, on the basis of the desired commodity selling information and the desired commodity purchase information which have been received. The configuration of the management apparatus 100 and processes performed in the management apparatus 100 will be described below.
On the basis of operations by a seller who wishes to sell certain commodities, the seller-side user terminal 200 obtains desired commodity selling information which describes the sale of the commodities and which includes desired selling conditions from the seller, and transmits it to the management apparatus 100 via the network 900.
On the basis of operations by purchasers who wish to purchase certain commodities, the purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500 obtain desired commodity purchase information which describes the purchase of the commodities and which includes desired purchase conditions from the purchasers, and transmit it to the management apparatus 100 via the network 900.
The configuration and operations of the management apparatus 100 will be described.
The desired commodity-purchase-information acquisition unit 110 obtains information indicating a desired purchase price per unit, on the basis of the desired commodity purchase information received from the purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500.
For each of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information received from the purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500, the desired commodity-selling-information acquisition unit 120 obtains information indicating a desired selling price, on the basis of, for example, the desired commodity selling information received from the seller-side user terminal 200 and necessary cost information which is stored in the necessary-cost-information storage unit 160 and which indicates a necessary cost (expenses necessary for sale), including a production cost and a transport cost for a commodity. A desired selling price is obtained by summing an expected profit (gross profit) indicated in the desired commodity selling information and a necessary cost indicated in the necessary cost information.
For each of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information, the difference acquisition unit 130 obtains a difference obtained by subtracting a desired selling price obtained by the desired commodity-selling-information acquisition unit 120 from a desired purchase price obtained by the desired commodity-purchase-information acquisition unit 110.
On the basis of differences obtained for the pieces of desired commodity purchase information, the determination unit 140 accepts one or more pieces of the desired commodity purchase information that are at least some of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information and that include such differences that the total of the differences is equal to or more than zero, as those for which sales are to be made. More specifically, the addition unit 141 of the determination unit 140 accumulatively adds a difference obtained for each of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information in descending order of the difference, and sequentially obtains an addition result. Then, in the addition performed by the addition unit 141, when a new addition result that is smaller than zero is obtained by adding a difference to an addition result that is equal to or more than zero, the addition-result determination unit 142 accepts all of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information corresponding to differences that have been added before the addition of the latest added difference, as those for which sales are to be made.
Information indicating the determination results obtained by the determination unit 140 is stored in the determination-result storage unit 180, and the determination process in the information processing system 1000 is ended. The determination results stored in the determination-result storage unit 180 are transmitted as appropriate via the communication unit 150 on the basis of operations by users at the seller-side user terminal 200 and the purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500, and are referred to by the users.
A determination process in the information processing system 1000 according to the present exemplary embodiment will be described by using a flowchart.
The desired commodity-purchase-information acquisition unit 110 of the management apparatus 100 obtains pieces of desired commodity purchase information received from the purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500 (in step S801), and obtains desired purchase prices on the basis of the obtained pieces of desired commodity purchase information.
Then, the desired commodity-selling-information acquisition unit 120 of the management apparatus 100 obtains desired commodity selling information received from the seller-side user terminal 200 (in step S802), and obtains desired selling prices on the basis of the obtained desired commodity selling information, the necessary cost information, and the pieces of desired commodity purchase information.
Then, the difference acquisition unit 130 of the management apparatus 100 obtains a difference for each of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information, which is obtained by subtracting a desired selling price from a desired purchase price (in step S803), and stores the obtained differences in the difference-information storage unit 170 in tabular form.
Then, the determination unit 140 of the management apparatus 100 sorts the differences stored in the difference-information storage unit 170 in tabular form, in descending order of the difference, as illustrated in
The determination unit 140 initializes an addition result so that the addition result is set to zero (in step S805), and the addition unit 141 of the determination unit 140 adds the topmost difference in the table among differences that have not been added, i.e., the topmost one in the table, to the addition result (in step S806). The addition-result determination unit 142 of the determination unit 140 determines whether or not the addition result is smaller than zero (in step S807). If the addition result is smaller than zero, the addition-result determination unit 142 determines that sales are to be made for all of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information corresponding to differences that have been added before the latest addition (in step S808), and the determination process in the management apparatus 100 is ended. In this context, since the added difference is the first one, i.e., there are no differences that have been added before the added difference, it is determined that desired purchase information to be accepted is “not present”.
In step S807, if the addition result is equal to or more than zero, the determination unit 140 determines whether or not the addition unit 141 has added all of the differences for the pieces of desired commodity purchase information (in step S809). If there is a difference that has not been added, the process returns back to step S806. If all of the differences have been added, the determination unit 140 determines that sales are to be made for all of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information (in step S810), and the determination process in the management apparatus 100 is ended.
The above-described configuration achieves the information processing system 1000 which determines pieces of desired commodity purchase information for which sales are to be made, on the basis of a desired purchase price and a desired selling price for a commodity.
An effect achieved in the configuration according to the present exemplary embodiment will be described.
For each of these results, the total of the profits which are eventually obtained, i.e., the total of differences obtained by subtracting an associated cost from a desired purchase price, is calculated. For example, for the order denoted by the order ID 1, the desired purchase price is 1000 yen; the associated cost is 420 yen; and the purchase amount is 7. Accordingly, the profit is 4060 yen, i.e., (1000−420)×7. The total of the profits thus obtained is 12660 yen in the configuration of the related art, whereas the total of the profits obtained in the configuration according to the present exemplary embodiment is 18440 yen. It is found that the configuration according to the present exemplary embodiment achieves a profit larger than that of the related art.
This is because, in the configuration of the related art, determination is performed with importance being placed on having a high rate of profit, whereas, in the configuration according to the present exemplary embodiment, determination is performed with importance being placed on having a large actual profit. By employing the configuration according to the present exemplary embodiment, a profit larger than that of the related art as described above is achieved, and it is further expected that orders for which sales are made are increased, resulting in an increase in business opportunities, for example, an increase in the number of customers.
In the above-described exemplary embodiment, a configuration of the information processing system 1000 is described which includes the management apparatus 100, the seller-side user terminal 200, and the purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500 which are connected to each other via the network 900. As long as the present invention provides a configuration in which the above-described processes are performed, as a system, any configuration is employable. The configuration may be, for example, such that all of the processes are performed on a single apparatus, or such that some of the processes performed in the management apparatus 100 are made be performed on another apparatus.
In addition, in the above-described exemplary embodiment, a configuration is employed in which the determination unit 140 performs the determination process on all of the obtained pieces of desired commodity purchase information. However, the configuration employed in the present invention is not limited to this, and may be, for example, such that, in a stage in which the difference acquisition unit 130 has obtained differences, the pieces of desired commodity purchase information, each of which has a difference which is equal to or less than zero or which is negative, are not subjected to the determination process. By employing this configuration, a state in which it is determined that sales are to be made for pieces of desired commodity purchase information from which a contribution to an increase in the profit is not expected is avoided, and the load of the processes performed after that is reduced.
In addition, a configuration may be employed in which a purchaser ID is further obtained for each of the pieces of desired commodity purchase information, and in which pieces of desired commodity purchase information that are associated with an identical ID, i.e., for the same purchaser, are regarded as one piece of desired commodity purchase information which is subjected to the determination process. By employing this configuration, in the pieces of desired commodity purchase information for an identical purchaser, pieces for which it is determined that sales are to be made are not mixed with pieces for which it is determined that sales are not to be made, and an increase of the load on a purchaser in which, for example, some of the purchases need to be made again is avoided.
In the above-described exemplary embodiment, a configuration is disclosed in which a single seller-side user terminal 200 is provided and in which one piece of desired commodity selling information is obtained. For example, a configuration may be employed in which multiple seller-side user terminals 200 are provided and in which multiple sellers input pieces of desired commodity selling information, each of which is used in the determination. In addition, a configuration may be employed in which, for an identical commodity, high priority is placed on a piece of desired commodity selling information from a seller who sells the commodity at a lower price, in selecting of the desired commodity selling information.
The above-described operations of the management apparatus 100, the seller-side user terminal 200, and the purchaser-side user terminals 300, 400, and 500 are achieved by executing programs stored in a storage unit (not illustrated) provided in each of these. The programs may be provided through communication, or may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium such as a compact disc-read-only memory (CD-ROM) so as to be provided.
The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with the various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-189286 | Aug 2012 | JP | national |
