It still doesn't sound very impressive if you translate it to plain English: A computer-implemented method for providing recurring delivery of products,
the method comprising performing instructions under the control of a computer
system for:
Create a list on a computer. receiving at the computer system a designation of a delivery slot and
a recurring delivery list comprising one or more list items, each of
the one or more list items identifying a product, a
quantity to deliver, and a frequency of delivery;
Listing where, what and how often to deliver. periodically generating, by the computer system, an order having
a date and time for delivery based on a next occurrence of the
delivery slot, the order being generated in advance of the date
and time for delivery such that the order has a period of time of
pendency prior to the delivery;
Each day, create a list of the deliveries to be made today creating, by the computer system, one or more order items for the order
based on a last delivery date and the frequency of delivery of each
list item in the recurring delivery list;
For each delivery, list which items to deliver. receiving at the computer system a change made to a first list item
of the recurring delivery list during the period of time of pendency
of the order;
If the customer updates their order, change the delivery. in response to receiving the change, determining, by the computer system,
whether the order includes an order item corresponding to the first
list item;
Compare the customer update to the delivery stored in the system. in response to determining that the order includes an order item
corresponding to the first list item, modifying, by the computer
system, the order item corresponding to the first list item based
on the change made to the first list item of the recurring
delivery list; and
Change the deliverly list in the system to reflect the customer update. providing, by the computer system, the order to an order fulfillment
system capable of causing the one or more order items to be delivered
substantially on the date and time for delivery.
Give the list of "today's deliveries" to someone who can actually make the delivery.I still fail to see how this differs dramatically from pretty much every delivery service ever. The delivery guys may not create these lists themselves, but their dispatchers do. The only thing that differs from say UPS is the 'recurring order' part - say "send me three lettuce every Friday". But grocery deliveries have worked like this for quite a while. |