Title: Sales schedule optimisation in an agent-based technology

Authors: Nicolaos Protogeros, John Mylonakis, Panayiotis Tahinakis, Dimitrios Ginoglou

Addresses: Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia Str., 540 06 Thessalonica, Greece. ' 10 Nikiforou Str. Glyfada 166 75, Athens, Greece. ' Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia Str., 540 06 Thessalonica, Greece. ' Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia Str., 540 06 Thessalonica, Greece

Abstract: This paper presents a formalised negotiation methodology for distributed sales schedule optimisation. The purpose is to solve the optimisation problem, taking into account constraints such as the salesmen capacity and income increase in a uniform way and the company|s turnover increase. In this approach a sales schedule is developed dynamically by all of the concerned participants. The negotiation methodology used allows agents to negotiate with other agents in a certain geographical area based on their sales capacity, commission percentage and the area|s sales turnover. A simulation model based on Repast3 has been developed to evaluate the algorithm accuracy and the system|s convergence. By executing this prototype with various utility functions, interesting results have been achieved showing a convergence in total company|s turnover, salesmen capacity and salesman income.

Keywords: sales schedule optimisation; sales departments; agents; cooperative distributed problem solving; multi-agent systems; agent-based systems; compensatory negotiation methodology; simulation; company turnover; salesmen capacity; salesman income; sales plans; scheduling; rescheduling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2006.008870

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2006 Vol.1 No.2, pp.196 - 210

Published online: 01 Feb 2006 *

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