Marine product configuration and pricing system having a variable price component
A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for a marine product configuration and pricing system is disclosed. The invention provides an index product module for displaying all available products that may be configured, and a markup module for specifying the amount a dealer price may be changed for a product and optional items. The invention also provides a price quoting generation module for selecting the product and optional items to be included within a configured product and for generating a customer price, and a quote sheet module for generating a quote sheet document containing information describing the configured product and its generated price.
1 . A system for providing a marine product configuration and pricing system, the system comprising:
an index product module for displaying all of the available products that may be configured;
a markup module for specifying the amount a dealer price may be increased for a product and optional item based upon a specified figure;
a price quoting generation module for selecting the product and optional items to be included within a configured product, the price quoting generation module generates a customer price for the product, selected optional items, and a total price for the configured product using the pricing data from the markup module; and
a quote sheet module for generating a quote sheet document containing information describing the configured product and its generated price.
2 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the index product module includes a first hyperlink corresponding to every product that may be configured, the first hyperlink activates the price quoting generation module using configuration and pricing data corresponding to the selected product.
3 . The system according to claim 2 , wherein the index product module includes a second hyperlink corresponding to every product to be configured, the second hyperlink presents specification data corresponding to a particular product.
4 . The system according to claim 3 , wherein the specification data is displayed within an HTML document.
5 . The system according to claim 3 , wherein the specification data is displayed within a PDF document.
6 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the price quoting generation module utilizes a markup percentage value to specify the amount a dealer price is to be increased when generating a customer price.
7 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the price quoting generation module utilizes a margin percentage value to specify the amount a dealer price is to be increased when generating a customer price.
8 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the quote sheet module generates the quote sheet document containing only customer pricing.
9 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the quote sheet module generates the quote sheet document containing only dealer pricing.
10 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the quote sheet module generates the quote sheet document containing both dealer pricing and customer pricing.
11 . The system according to claim 9 , wherein the quote sheet module further generates an optional item order sheet document for each optional item included within the configured product.
12 . A method for providing a marine product configuration and pricing system, the method comprising:
selecting a configurable product from a group of available products;
selecting one or more optional items from a group of available optional items corresponding to the selected configurable product;
generating a dealer cost for the selected configurable product and the selected one or more optional items from a database of dealer costs;
generating a customer price for the selected configurable product and the selected one or more optional items using the dealer costs and a price increase value corresponding to the selected configurable product and to each of the selected one or more selected optional items; and
generating an individualized price quote document for the selected configurable product and the selected one or more optional items.
13 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the price increase value corresponding to a group of the selected one or more selected optional items corresponds to a single group price increase value specified in a set of price increase values.
14 . The method according to claim 13 , wherein the price increase value is defined as a markup percentage value.
15 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the price increase value is defined as a margin percentage value.
16 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises modifying the price increase value for at least one of the price increase value corresponding to one of the selected optional items to generate a modified individual price quote document.
17 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the individualized price quote document includes the customer price.
18 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the individualized price quote document includes the dealer costs.
19 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the individualized price quote document includes both the customer price and the dealer costs.
20 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises generating a set of ordering documents, each order document in the set of ordering documents corresponds to each of the selected optional items.
21 . A computer data product containing computer readable data encoding instructions for implementing a computer implemented method for providing a marine product configuration and pricing system, the method comprising:
selecting a configurable product from a group of available products;
selecting one or more optional items from a group of available optional items corresponding to the selected configurable product;
generating a dealer cost for the selected configurable product and the selected one or more optional items from a database of dealer costs;
generating a customer price for the selected configurable product and the selected one or more optional items using the dealer costs and a price increase value corresponding to the selected configurable product and to each of the selected one or more selected optional items; and
generating an individualized price quote document for the selected configurable product and the selected one or more optional items.
22 . The computer data product according to claim 21 , wherein the price increase value corresponding to a group of the selected one or more selected optional items corresponds to a single group price increase value specified in a set of price increase values.
23 . The computer data product according to claim 22 , wherein the price increase value is defined as a markup percentage value.
24 . The computer data product according to claim 21 , wherein the price increase value is defined as a margin percentage value.
25 . The computer data product according to claim 21 , wherein the method further comprises modifying the price increase value for at least one of the price increase value corresponding to one of the selected optional items to generate a modified individual price quote document.
26 . The computer data product according to claim 21 , wherein the individualized price quote document includes the customer price.
27 . The computer data product according to claim 21 , wherein the individualized price quote document includes the dealer costs.
28 . The computer data product according to claim 21 , wherein the individualized price quote document includes both the customer price and the dealer costs.
29 . The computer data product according to claim 21 , wherein the method further comprises generating a set of ordering documents, each order document in the set of ordering documents corresponds to each of the selected optional items.
30 . The computer data product corresponds to a computer readable storage media.