System and method for organizing price modeling data using hierarchically organized portfolios

1. A system for organizing price modeling data using hierarchically organized portfolios, useful in association with a business policy, the system comprising:

a collection of transactions in a transaction database representing a first hierarchical level, wherein the collection of transactions includes data corresponding to a plurality of items, and wherein plurality of items belong to one of a first portfolio of items requiring approval on a pending deal, and a second portfolio of items configured to ignore approval on the pending deal;

at least one collection of at least one hierarchically organized portfolio at a higher hierarchical level than a previous hierarchical level, wherein the at least one collection of at least one hierarchically organized portfolio is generated by an algorithm that sorts sales associates by measured productivity indicators, the at least one hierarchically organized portfolio representing at least one selection from the previous hierarchical level, and wherein the pending deal requires approval at the at least one hierarchically organized portfolio if the value of the pending deal is above a capped amount; and

wherein the hierarchically organized portfolios are arranged to be responsive to an enterprise approval hierarchy of the enterprise selling the plurality of items, wherein the approval criteria includes more than one authority level within the enterprise selling the plurality of items, and wherein each authority level is linked to a variance from the business policy, and wherein approval is only required when a deal offering falls outside limits of the business policy.

2. A computer implemented method for organizing price modeling data using hierarchically organized portfolios, useful in association with a business policy, the method comprising:

providing a collection of transactions in a transaction database representing a first hierarchical level, wherein the collection of transactions includes data corresponding to a plurality of items, and wherein plurality of items belong to one of a first portfolio of items requiring approval on a pending deal, and a second portfolio of items configured to ignore approval on the pending deal;

generating at least one collection of at least one hierarchically organized portfolio at a higher hierarchical level than a previous hierarchical level, wherein the at least one collection of at least one hierarchically organized portfolio is generated by an algorithm that sorts sales associates by measured productivity indicators, the at least one hierarchically organized portfolio representing at least one selection from the previous hierarchical level, and wherein the pending deal requires approval at the at least one hierarchically organized portfolio if the value of the pending deal is above a higher capped amount; and

wherein the hierarchically organized portfolios are arranged to be responsive to an enterprise approval hierarchy of the enterprise selling the plurality of items, wherein the approval criteria includes more than one authority level within the enterprise selling the plurality of items, and wherein each authority level is linked to a variance from the business policy, and wherein approval is only required when a deal offering falls outside limits of the business policy.

3. A computer program product in a computer readable media, when executed by a processor for displaying price modeling data, useful in association with a business policy, the computer program comprising:

computer readable media executed by a processor for populating a transaction database with a collection of transactions representing a first hierarchical level, wherein the collection of transactions includes data corresponding to a plurality of items, and wherein plurality of items belong to one of a first portfolio of items requiring approval on a pending deal, and a second portfolio of items configured to ignore approval on the pending deal;

computer readable media executed by the processor for a portfolio module for creating at least one collection of at least one hierarchically organized portfolio at a higher hierarchical level than a previous hierarchical level, wherein the at least one collection of at least one hierarchically organized portfolio is generated by an algorithm that sorts sales associates by measured productivity indicators, the at least one hierarchically organized portfolio representing at least one selection from the previous hierarchical level, and wherein the pending deal requires approval at the at least one hierarchically organized portfolio if the value of the pending deal is above a capped amount; and

wherein the hierarchically organized portfolios are arranged to be responsive to an enterprise approval hierarchy of the enterprise selling the plurality of items, wherein the approval criteria includes more than one authority level within the enterprise selling the plurality of items, and wherein each authority level is linked to a variance from the business policy, and wherein approval is only required when a deal offering falls outside limits of the business policy.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one collection of at least one hierarchically organized portfolio includes a plurality of customer price list portfolios.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein each of the plurality of customer price list portfolios includes a plurality of customer price list items which are organized according to a desired price list criteria.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the desired price list criteria includes one of a cost criteria, a type criteria, a distributor criteria, a region criteria and a function criteria.

7. The method of claim 4 further comprising organizing the plurality of customer price list portfolios to generate a plurality of account manager portfolios.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising organizing the plurality of account manager portfolios to generate at least one sales manager portfolio.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the plurality of account manager portfolios within the at least one sales manager portfolio are grouped according to a desired account manager portfolio criteria.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the desired account manager portfolio criteria includes one of an individual-name criteria, a group-of-individual-names criteria, and an approval criteria.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one collection of at least one hierarchically organized portfolio includes a plurality of customer price list portfolios.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein each of the plurality of customer price list portfolios includes a plurality of customer price list items which are organized according to a desired price list criteria.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the desired price list criteria includes one of a cost criteria, a type criteria, a distributor criteria, a region criteria and a function criteria.

14. The system of claim 11 further comprising organizing the plurality of customer price list portfolios to generate a plurality of account manager portfolios.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising organizing the plurality of account manager portfolios to generate at least one sales manager portfolio.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the plurality of account manager portfolios within the at least one sales manager portfolio are grouped according to a desired account manager portfolio criteria.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the desired account manager portfolio criteria includes one of an individual-name criteria, a group-of-individual-names criteria, and an approval criteria.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one hierarchically organized portfolio is organized by approval criteria whereby the at least one selection from the previous hierarchical level includes common approval criteria in order to facilitate the business policy.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the approval criteria is the level of approval required by an enterprise selling the plurality of items within the collection of transactions.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the variance from the business policy differs for each authority level.