Method and computer readable medium for assisting a customer in choosing among commodities

1. A method for assisting a customer in choosing among commodities, the method comprising:

searching a decision rules database and applying decision rules to a profile of a customer's business;

creating a set of business requirement questions based upon the applied decision rules database;

implementing a business rule filter to answers from the customer to the set of business requirement questions;

recommending, by an optimizer device, at least one commodity category to the customer, based upon the business rule filter implementation;

identifying one or more parameters associated with the at least one commodity category;

associating at least one value to each of the parameters;

calculating an estimated cost for at least one commodity of the at least one commodity category based on the values associated with the parameters;

obtaining from the customer a preference weighting for each of the parameters; and

calculating an effective cost by adjusting the estimated cost based on the preference weightings and the values associated with the parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of recommending further comprises allowing the customer to de-select at least one of the recommended commodity types.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of business requirement questions include at least one business requirement question and at least one other business requirement question, wherein implementing the business rule filter includes generating the other business requirement question interactively through fuzzy logic and based, at least in part, on an answer from the customer to the business requirement question.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising building the profile of the customer's business.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the profile of the customer's business includes at least one of the following: a type of the customer's business, a main location of the customer's business, other locations of the customer's business, a growth rate of the customer's business, a number of employees of the customer's business, and types and number's of equipment needed by the customer's business.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recommendation of the at least one commodity category includes allowing the customer to request one or more non-recommended commodity types.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

presenting a subset of commodities to the customer including the at least one selected commodity type, wherein the commodity type is selected based on at least a lowest effective cost.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: entering the recommended commodity types and the non-recommended commodity types into an optimizer device for determining optimum commodity selections for each of the recommended and non-recommended commodity types for use by the customer.

9. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for controlling a computer to perform actions for assisting a customer in choosing from available commodities, the actions comprising:

searching a decision rules database and applying decision rules to a profile of a customer's business;

creating a set of business requirement questions based upon the applied decision rules database;

implementing a business rule filter to answers from the customer to the set of business requirement questions; and

recommending to the customer at least one commodity category based upon the business rule filter implementation;

identifying one or more parameters associated with the at least one commodity category;

associating at least one value to each of the parameters;

calculating an estimated cost for at least one commodity of the at least one commodity category based on the values associated with the parameters;

obtaining from the customer a preference weighting for each of the parameters; and

calculating an effective cost by adjusting the estimated cost based on the preference weightings and the values associated with the parameters.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the action of recommending further comprises allowing the customer to de-select at least one of the recommended commodity types.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 9 wherein the business rules generate the business requirement questions interactively through fuzzy logic.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the actions further comprise building the profile of the customer's business.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the profile of the customer's business includes at least one of the following: a type of the customer s business, a main location of the customer's business, other locations of the customer's business, a growth rate of the customer's business, a number of employees of the customer's business, and types and number's of equipment needed by the customer's business.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 9 ,

wherein the recommendation of the at least one commodity category includes allowing the customer to request one or more non-recommended commodity types.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 9 ,

wherein the actions further comprise

presenting a subset of commodities to the customer including the at least one selected commodity type, wherein the commodity type is selected based on at least a lowest effective cost.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the actions further comprise: entering the recommended commodity types and the non-recommended commodity types into an optimizer device for determining optimum commodity selections for each of the recommended and non-recommended commodity types for use by the customer.