A computer-aided decision-making system and method that is applicable to a variety of decision-making contexts and applications such as, but not limited to, automobile or home purchase decisions. The computer-aided decision-making system provides immediate, useful, and relevant information to a person in a decision-making context, overcoming common human cognitive problems that occur in decision-making, and enabling consumer purchases in an on-line sales environment. In particular, aspects of the invention that aid a person in decision-making include, but are not limited to: managing all the sub-decisions, educating the decision-maker, highlighting the most important sub-decisions, offering the most viable proposals for evaluation, distinguishing significant differences between proposals, supplying various evaluation tools, preventing blind spots, assisting the decision-maker's memory, gauging the progress of the decision process, and learning about the decision maker from the decision process.

Apparatus and methods for a computer-aided decision-making system

Intelligent Trust Management provides a centralized security facility that gives system components a flexible mechanism for implementing security policies. System components such as applications create a request describing an action that needs to be checked against an appropriate security policy. The request is given to a trust system that determines which policy object applies to the request, and may pass request arguments to the policy. The policy objects include executable code that uses any arguments along with dynamically obtained variable information to make a decision. The decision is returned to the system component, which then operates accordingly. Policy objects may maintain state and interface with the user independent of the system component in order to obtain information to make their decisions. Policy objects may call other policy objects and/or mathematically combine the results of other policy objects to make a decision.

Intelligent trust management method and system

Enterprise methods and systems are provided in which decision types are defined with attributes that can be stored as decision objects that assist in storing and executing decisions. The methods and systems include methods for logically linking decision processes based on commonality of decision variables across different aspects of an enterprise.

Decision object for associating a plurality of business plans

A system, method and computer program product for managing the provision and administration of employee benefits is herein provided. The system, method and computer program product of the present invention electronically accepts and stores data related to employee benefits and allows users to alter that data according to desired parameters. The system, method and computer program product also includes a communication function that enables electronic employee benefit data to be transmitted among modules of the data processing system or computer program product and also among various users of the invention.

Systems, methods and computer program products for managing employee benefits

The invention involves generating and presenting, typically electronically, a number of design alternatives to persons who are participating in the design, selection, or market research exercise. The participants (referred to as “selectors”) transmit data indicative of their preferences among or between the presented design alternatives, and that data is used to derive a new generation of design alternatives or proposals. The new designs are generated through the use of a computer program exploiting a genetic or evolutionary computational technique. The process is repeated, typically for many iterations or cycles.

Method and apparatus for evolutionary design

Methods, systems, and computer program products for facilitating user choices among complex alternatives utilize conjoint analysis to simplify choices to be made by the user. A selector tool presents a user with a first and second series of choices relating to attributes of products or services available to the user. A utilities calculation engine calculates the relative utility of each of the products or services to the user and presents output to the user, which indicates the relative utility of each of the products or services. The user can then select the product or service that has the highest utility value for the user based on the calculated relative utility values.

Richard R. Shopmyer

Papers

Methods, systems, and computer program products for facilitating user choices among complex alternatives using conjoint analysis