182 results about "Actual cost" patented technology

Apparatus, and associated methods, manage technology resources in hosted applications including: demand, service level agreements, assets both hardware and software, projects, labor, knowledge and provisioning. The apparatus includes an asset manager configured to couple to host servers and a network, to manage the host servers and software deployed thereon. In embodiments of the invention the asset manager: determines demand for new assets and allocates available assets to meet the demand; determines assets not in compliance with existing software licenses; determines which host servers have actual service level metrics which are not compliant with the target service level metrics; and determines availability of a patch or upgrade for selected software and instances of the selected software among the assets. In an embodiment of the invention the asset manager couples to a contract manager with the asset manager determining the assets for which actual monitored service level metrics violate contract service level metrics. In an embodiment of the invention the asset manager couples to a product manager and scans the host severs to determine which have actual security metrics which are not compliant with the target security metrics managed by the product manager. In an embodiment of the invention the asset manager couples with a product manager, a work manager and an accounting manager to compare the actual costs of the new assets from the accounting manager and the work manager with the price of the assets from the product record.

A video transcoding system and method employing an improved rate control algorithm. A plurality of frames in an input video bitstream are received by the system, in which each frame is in a first coding format. Each frame in the input bitstream is decoded, and complexity information indicating the complexity of the frame after decoding is obtained. An estimated number of bits to allocate for the respective frame is calculated. Using a rate estimation model that employs the complexity information for the respective frame, a picture cost for the frame is calculated based on the estimated number of bits allocated to encode the frame, and a parameter of the rate estimation model. A target cost for the respective frame is calculated based at least in part on the picture cost 10 and the complexity information for the frame. A quantization parameter (QP) is calculated that, when used to encode the respective frame in a second coding format, would generate an encoded frame having an actual cost approximately equal to the target cost. The respective frame is encoded using the calculated QP, and the frames encoded in the second coding format are provided in an output video bitstream.

A method of efficiently transmitting streamed data of a program to multiple clients requesting the program at different times ranks the requests in a multilevel hierarchy, which describes merging of data streams servicing the requests. The multilevel hierarchy changes dynamically as new requests arrive or existing data streams are merged to reduce the bandwidth or other costs required to serve the requests. The hierarchy may be established by simple rules or by a modeling of the actual cost of possible hierarchies.

A method and system for identifying and reducing costs of information technology actions in real time. Initiation of an information technology (IT) action by a user is detected. An actual cost to perform the IT action is determined in real time prior to a completion of the IT action. A target cost (e.g., average cost) to perform the IT action is obtained. The actual cost is determined to be greater than the target cost. Recommended actions for reducing the actual cost are obtained. A notification is presented to the user in real time and prior to the completion of the IT action. The notification includes a description or a link to a description of the recommended actions.

A test point selection method for scan-based built-in self-test (BIST). The method calculates a hybrid cost reduction (HCR) value as an estimated value of the corresponding actual cost reduction for all nodes in a circuit under test. A test point is then selected having a largest HCR. This iterative process continues until the fault coverage of the circuit under test reaches a desired value or the number of test points selected is equal to a maximum number of test points. In an alternative embodiment, the cost reduction factor is calculated for all nodes in the circuit under test, the HCR is calculated for only a selected set of candidates, and the candidate having the largest HCR is selected as the test point. The test point selection method achieves higher fault coverage results and reduces computational processing relative to conventional selection methods.

A system and method for assisting a customer in choosing a combination of commodities based on preferences of the customer. A combination is a set of related commodities, wherein bundling discounts may be applied to particular bundles of related commodities. Combination options are created by optimizing the categories within the combination in parallel, and then selecting the best value options from each category into a grouping. The effective cost of a grouping is calculated as a total of the effective costs of each option within the grouping. The effective costs consider weighted values of performance features in addition to the actual cost of a commodity. The groupings are ranked and presented to the user, so that the user may select a grouping as combination of commodities for purchase.

A method and computer program product is provided that, in various embodiments, may provide a measure of efficiency of resources used in medical treatment plan options. A normalized Relative Resource Value (RRV) may be obtained that measures the level of resources required to satisfy a “normal” case for a particular aspect of medical care. Applying this value against actual costs allows ranking and / or comparison of health care providers relative to one another on the basis of the price or resources applied or utilized. Moreover, applying the RRV against the quality of outcome allows comparison and ranking of providers on overall value. The invention may be applied to the components of medical care comprising, inter alia, acute inpatient, non-acute inpatient, outpatient, professional office-based care including scheduled outpatient, and pharmacy / prescriptions. The normalized RRV obtained under various embodiments of the invention may measure resource use for medical treatment plan options / resources independent of price. The RRV may be relative across, as well as within, each of the components of medical care. Thus, provider profiling generally as well as profiling across treatment plan options based on efficiency generally is within the scope of various embodiments of the invention. Moreover, providers may be compared based on efficiency for specific conditions, as well as across conditions, across treatment plan options and across components of care using various embodiments of the invention.

A system enables a healthcare organization to evaluate cost efficient treatment options early in a patient treatment process by automatic monitoring of profit or loss of a treatment, in real-time and enables a clinical user to screen, simulate and control treatment profit or loss during a patient visit, based on both expected reimbursement and the actual costs of performed services. A system enables cost based treatment selection by providing a healthcare worker with patient specific treatment cost information during a treatment episode. An acquisition processor automatically interrogates at least one information repository for data concerning cost to a healthcare organization of providing a proposed treatment to a patient and expected cost reimbursement to the healthcare organization for the proposed treatment. The acquisition processor initiates generation of at least one message including a patient identifier and treatment identification code for communication to the at least one information repository, in response to data indicating occurrence of a treatment related event. A display processor initiates generation of data representing at least one display image including information indicating the proposed treatment is unprofitable for the healthcare organization.

The invention provides a vehicle-mounted intelligent networking advertisement release and display system, method and equipment, and belongs to the field of wireless communication. The system comprises a network server, an advertisement main equipment client, a car owner equipment client, a vehicle-mounted display control end, and vehicle-mounted intelligent display equipment. An advertiser can publish an advertisement, which comprises the advertisement classification, specific contents, put time, put region, reward rule, put times and vehicle requirements, at the network server. A car owner can access to the network server through a client application program (app), and screens and determines the advertisement contents which need to be displayed at the matched vehicle-mounted intelligent display equipment in a personalized manner through combing with the conditions and advertisement demands. Afterwards, the network server enables the advertisement contents and a display requirement to be transmitted to the vehicle-mounted display control end, and the vehicle-mounted display control end puts the specific contents in a time period and at a place specified by the advertisement demands, and records and feeds back the actual display conditions to the network server. The network server carries out the settlement of the actual cost according to the above.

A method and business technique for reviewing medical service provider bills, recalculating and providing payment recommendation to a paying party for the bills. The method includes analyzing medical bills and determining erroneous and inappropriate charges on bills. The method provides a payment recommendation using multiple databases and sophisticated mathematical modeling that includes one or more of the following: a medical service provider's actual cost of delivering the medical services provided; the average profit-margin of that provider, an average profit margin of comparable medical providers in an area, other industry-specific profit-margin benchmarks; an average acceptable payment by medical service providers in the area for comparable services; payment rates negotiated by large health insurers and managed care organizations; and other industry benchmarks for reasonable payment for comparable services.

A method and business technique for reviewing medical service provider bills, recalculating and providing payment recommendation to a paying party for the bills. The method includes analyzing medical bills and determining erroneous and inappropriate charges on bills. The method provides a payment recommendation using multiple databases and sophisticated mathematical modeling that includes one or more of the following: a medical service provider's actual cost of delivering the medical services provided; the average profit-margin of that provider, an average profit margin of comparable medical providers in an area, other industry-specific profit-margin benchmarks; an average acceptable payment by medical service providers in the area for comparable services; payment rates negotiated by large health insurers and managed care organizations; and other industry benchmarks for reasonable payment for comparable services.

Systems and methods are described for providing consumers with access to the discounted rates for health care procedures provided by primary care physicians, specialist physicians and facilities. Fee information for contracted providers is stored in a database and is accessible to consumers via an online interface. Consumers select query criteria for providers and are presented with actual cost information pertaining to procedures prospectively rendered by providers. Additional information, such as quality or efficiency of providers, can also be presented. Information on multiple providers can be obtained and presented in a comparative arrangement. The presented information can be limited to providers within a geographic region, within a cost range, within a quality range, or other criteria.

A method of estimating project costs is disclosed. Geometric information is extracted from a design plan for the project and a cost estimate for the project is automatically generated using the geometric information extracted from the design plan and a computerized cost data store that contains cost estimates for the extracted geometric information. Either during the project, or after the project has been completed, actual cost data relating to the geometric information is electronically received and this actual cost data is used to update the computerized cost data store.

A method and structure for calculating transaction costs as a function of one or more services provided by a computer system. Each user / computer transaction utilizes one or more computer system services to execute the transaction. Each computer system service provided by an IT department incurs a cost in terms of the equipment, software, personnel and facilities utilized to provide distinct levels of availability and response time. By identifying one or more IT services utilized to execute a transaction and by calculating the actual cost incurred to provide one or more of the services, a transaction cost is calculated by summing up the service costs. Thus, the transaction cost is a function of the service costs of the one or more services utilized to execute the transaction.

An adaptive system for optimizing the bandwidth of a communication link in a communications session is disclosed. The decision as to when bandwidth in a communication session is to be released, or added, is based on the actual user activity rather than on an a priori determination which may not reflect the actual workload. Additionally, this decision is based on the actual costs associated with maintaining, releasing, and / or establishing a communication link or additional bandwidth. The costs include both direct costs and opportunity costs. The algorithm can also adapt its decision making process to its own performance, using feedback information to determine if it is minimizing the costs involved.

A fleet engine, a crew engine, a passenger engine and an integration engine that communicate with a distributed computer network via two-way communication channels to monitor and repair disruptions to schedules particularly in the airline industry. When a disruption occurs, the method will produce a plurality of solutions that are structurally different for evaluation by the controller or operations manager. The method of generating solutions includes two phases. A first phase with artificially relaxed costs and a second phase with costs that reflect the policies and actual costs of the relevant activities. Upon creating structurally different solutions, the method evaluates the solutions and presents summary information about the solutions to the operations manager. If a violation of a rule occurs in a solution, an alert is generated to notify a user of the rule violation.

The present invention provides a process and system for matching buyers and sellers of either goods or services, or goods and services for a project. The invention enables a buyer to specify a project in terms of physical, functional, temporal, financial, and transactional parameters that can be automatically converted, by the present invention, into at least one request for either goods or services, or goods and services to perform work related to the project. The requests are suitably provided to at least one seller. Upon receiving a request, the seller may submit a response to the request, as desired. The invention provides a forum for the negotiation of any agreements and the formation of contracts to provide the requested, or alternative goods or services, or goods and services, as well as reconciliation of purchase orders, actual field costs, and invoices.

The invention discloses a power plant asset management system, which is of a modularization structure and comprises an equipment database, a defect management module, a worksheet management module, a spot-check management module, wherein the equipment database is used for storing basic information, repairing history and cost information of the equipment; the defect management module is used providing data source to the analysis and counting of the system by data accumulation in daily defect treatment processes; the worksheet management module is used for effectively controlling the progress of maintaining work of the equipment, tracing the worksheet state, gathering repairing and maintaining task costs, analyzing and comparing actual cost and budgetary; the spot-check management module is used for coordinating and executing the power plant repairing policy optimization and implementation of equipment state detection items, and performing state repairing and operating management to the equipment; the system also comprises equipment maintaining management and operating management. The power plant asset management system runs on at least one computer; the computer at least comprises a control software application for controlling, maintaining and updating system function and information stored in a data storage device.

The invention relates to a method for drug online retail, belonging to the technical field of online sale. The method needs to be implemented on a drugstore web system comprising a computer, an internet and a drugstore web site, wherein, the computer comprises a user computer, a drugstore computer and an electronic payment platform. The invention is characterized in that a user uses the method to select drug brands and drugstores, to compare prices, and to freely select the brands of different drug factories and the selling prices of different drugstores on line, thereby achieving the purposes of shopping around while remaining within doors, accomplishing online payment and receiving the purchased drugs sent by the drugstores off line; and therefore, the user can get the benefit of reducing the actual cost of the purchased drugs. The invention also presents the conveniences of one-stop diversification, multi-drugstore purchase and lump-sum payment for multiple drugstores. The method is especially suitable for the drugstore web site, and ensures that any user can purchase the needed drugs with the most favorable price from any nationwide drugstore by the internet.

A financial management tool that includes calculated health care costs and health-based longevity to provide information to retirees to be able to calculate the amount of money that needs to be saved to cover retirement expenditures is provided with actual claims and actual related cost data from a database to increase the cost projection reliability of the tool.

Errors occurring in computing clusters and other computing systems can impact system performance. Each error has an error type and each error type has a base cost estimating importance of correcting the error. Each error type also has a confidence indicating the level of agreement between those who fix the errors and those who assigned the base cost. An error type's actual cost is produced using the base cost and confidence. An error cascade map contains estimates that one error will cause another. An error type that causes other error types has a cascade cost. Upon detecting an error type, a repair order can be generated, depending on the cost involved. Repairs are then performed. Feedback mechanisms and correlations can be used to update the confidences and the error cascade map.

Virtual goods, such as Facebook credits or Farmville animals, are offered as an incentive to acquire new customers or reacquire former customers. Using a simple click-through process, a customer may receive a given number of virtual credits, or a particular virtual item, upon satisfying a given requirement, such as a purchase above a given amount, a subscription to a mailing list, submission of a preference profile, and so on. Initial tests have indicated that a substantial number of customers prefer receiving such virtual items in lieu of a cash rebate or other cash-based discount, even when the actual cost associated with the virtual item is the same as, or lower than the amount of the cash-based discount. In a preferred embodiment, a third-party campaign manager facilitates the execution and management of the incentive campaign.

The invention discloses an economic management cost control system, including a man-machine operation module internally provided with an identity authentication module, a central processing unit, a data processing module, an actual cost accounting module, a contrastive analysis module, a risk assessment module, an expert assessment module and an artificial expert decision module. The system can avoid various loopholes which occur in a cost control process, and can give different disposal decisions according to different situations, and entering of each data carries identity information of an entering person, thereby realizing traceability of data, data are assessed in multiple aspects, a management requirement of related personnel for cost control is ensured, and a requirement for information sharing in all aspects can be met.

An online investment advisory and management tool providing a system, method and apparatus for analyzing the actual cost of ownership, over time, of mutual funds and comparing those costs to the costs associated with a determined comparable exchange traded fund(s) (ETFs). The method includes an analysis of investment costs and the implicit asset allocation of the funds entered. According to one method, a user inputs mutual fund information into a client and the data is sent to a server. In an alternative embodiment, the user entitles the client to determine actual account information from a third party communicating with the user's financial institution(s). The server analyzes the mutual funds, and determines comparable ETFs. Alternatively, the user may select ETFs. After an ETF is determined, the system provides an analysis of the costs and performance of the mutual funds and the comparable ETFs and estimates the total cost of ownership. The embodiments further include a marketing tool.

A system for integration of actual product costs (1) can calculate a product's actual costs by adding the product's value-added costs and the product's material costs. The system for integration of actual product costs is connected to a number of client terminals (3), a general ledger management system (4), a manufacturing process management system (5), a work order management system (6), a purchase management system (7), an inventory management system (8), and a production management system (9). The system for integration of actual product costs includes a web server (12), a database server (14), and a database (16). The web server includes a value-added costs integration module (121), a material costs integration module (122), an actual costs integration module (123), and an actual costs enquiry module (124). A related method is also provided.

A technique of implementing performance monitoring in a power plant is appropriate to control operating parameters and factors connected with the efficiency of the energy production process in an energy marketplace that is more complex than in the past, and that takes into account more than just the cost of fuel. In particular, this method works well when the real costs of production are dependent on other variable costs besides the cost of fuel, such as environmental credits, equipment degradation and repair costs, as well as electrical energy trade market factors like ramp rate, LMP factors, and the ability to deliver contracted power levels and spot transactions. The power plant performance monitoring technique applies a statistical analysis to collected power plant data to determine the factors that are best controlled or changed to affect (increase) the efficiency or other primary performance indication of the plant, in whatever state or operating level the plant is run. Because heat rate calculation applications are typically performed on-line, it is possible to analyze collected plant data in detail and to apply for example, principal component analysis (PCA) and linear and nonlinear regression analysis to the data, which enables the performance method to obtain a more accurate detection of the influence of the principal process parameters that affect heat rate deviation (efficiency), as well as to establish baseline or best-possible operational constraints to be used to control the plant in the future. This performance based control methodology will allow for near optimum performance of power plants by constantly allowing for refinement and best practices and control to be realized.

The invention provides a continuous variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) method capable of resisting actual attack. The method comprises the following steps: step A, performing continuous variable quantum information transmission; step B, performing a data post-processing step containing a pre-processing operation, namely, the Bob acquires an original key according to the peak-valley value searching and the Gaussian post-selecting, and acquires the accurate parameter evaluation in combination with the local oscillation light intensity evaluation in real time monitoring, and finally acquires the final key after performing the data post-processing; the existing all actual attacks aiming at the Gaussian modulation CVQKD are resisted on the basis of unchanging the traditional Gaussian modulation CVQDK hardware structure, the actual cost of resisting the actual attack is greatly simplified, and the system complexity is lowered. The attenuation on a signal path by the traditional resisting method is avoided, thereby guaranteeing that the Gaussian-modulation CVQKD system has higher key output rate; furthermore, the potential security flaws of the system are eliminated, and the robustness of the system is improved.

The present invention provides a process and system for matching buyers and sellers of either goods or services, or goods and services for a project. The invention enables a buyer to specify a project in terms of physical, functional, temporal, financial, and transactional parameters that can be automatically converted, by the present invention, into at least one request for either goods or services, or goods and services to perform work related to the project. The requests are suitably provided to at least one seller. Upon receiving a request, the seller may submit a response to the request, as desired. The invention provides a forum for the negotiation of any agreements and the formation of contracts to provide the requested, or alternative goods or services, or goods and services, as well as reconciliation of purchase orders, actual field costs, and invoices.

A method for providing a virtual cloud service at the lowest actual cost can begin with an optimal transaction handler of a federated virtual service cloud maintaining a virtual resource pool of transactional units. Each transactional unit can represent a service application deployed to a cloud service provided by a cloud service provider having a usage-based service cost model that allows transactional units to be placed in an inactive state to suspend its operating expense. Operational metrics data for the cloud service providers can be continuously captured. In response to a service request, the transactional unit that meets fulfillment requirements of the service request and incurs a lowest actual cost can be determined based upon cost factors derived from the operational metrics data, the usage-based service cost model, and a current usage state of the virtual resource pool. The received service request can be routed to the determined transactional unit.