COST MINIMIZATION OF SERVICES BY MULTIPLE PROVIDERS

摘要

A technique for efficiently and accurately minimizing costs associated with services provided by a plurality of service providers (SPs) [270a-b], that bill for their services based on a tiered cost structure. Target tiers are generated based on the utilization of the SPs' [270a-b] services and the SPs' [270a-b] cost structures. Utilization of the SPs1 [270a-b] services is monitored. A momentary target utilization rate (MTUR) is generated for each SP [270a-b] based on the cumulated utilization of the SP's [270a-b] service and the SP's [270a-b] target tier. Utilization of the SPs' [270a-b] services is distributed based on the generated MTURS in a manner that minimizes cost. If th utilization of the SPs' [270a-b] services indicates the MTURS have been exceeded, new target tiers and MTURS are generated and utilization of the SPs' [270a-b] services is redistributed among the SPs [270a-b] in a manner that minimizes cost.