Abstract: A method for computing a price quote for a product using a contract. The method includes identifying the set of price rules for a plurality of products associated with the contract. Each price rule in the set of price rules is either a hard price rule or a soft price rule. Each hard price rule includes a price rule expression and a price rule type and each soft price rule comprises a price rule type. A collection of price rules is generated including, for each soft rule in the set of price rules, hard price rules that are associated with the product and that have the same price rule type as the soft price rule. Hard price rules that are associated with the contract are also added to the collection of price rules. A pricing scheme that is to be used in order to determine the price quote for the product is selected and used to resolve the hard price rules in the collection of price rules in order to determine the price quote.

Abstract: A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system. The computer program displays all the information that is conventionally displayed in a plurality of pie charts in a single novel chart form. When applicable, this novel chart form can also display positively contributing components and negatively contributing components in the same chart. The chart comprises a plurality of bars and each bar in the plurality of bars comprises a plurality of linearly ordered components. For each bar in the chart, the program includes instructions for patterning each component in the bar in a way that visually differentiates it from components in the bar that border the component.

Abstract: A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system. The computer program displays all the information that is conventionally displayed in a plurality of pie charts in a single novel chart form. When applicable, this novel chart form can also display positively contributing components and negatively contributing components in the same chart. The chart comprises a plurality of bars and each bar in the plurality of bars comprises a plurality of linearly ordered components. For each bar in the chart, the program includes instructions for patterning each component in the bar in a way that visually differentiates it from components in the bar that border the component.