new to the industry in the late 1990s, with Archstone Smith pioneering its use. The yield management systems include the LRO (Lease Rent Options) Revenue Management System from Rainmaker, the YieldStar Asset Optimization System from RealPage and PricingPortal product from Property Solutions International. Insurance Insurance companies use price (premium) optimization to improve profitability on policy sales. The method is widely used by property & casualty insurers and brokers in the UK, Spain and, to a lesser extent, in the US. Several vendors, such as Earnix, Willis Towers Watson, EMB, ODG, provide specialized pricing optimization software for the industry. Telecommunications On average, Communications service providers utilize an average of just 35 to 40 percent of available network capacity. Recently, telecommunications software vendors such as Telcordia and Ericsson have promoted yield management as a strategy for communications service providers to generate additional revenue and reduce capital expenditures by maximizing subscriber use of available network bandwidth. Approaches include basing a strategy on innovative services explicitly designed to use only spare capacity and borrowing proven methods from the airline industry. The approach can be more difficult to implement in the telecommunications industry than the airlines sector because of the difficulty to control and sometimes refuse network access to customers. Similarities that exist between the airline and telecom industries include a large sunk cost combined with low marginal cost, perishable inventory, reservations, pricing flexibility and the opportunity to upsell. Differences that present challenges for communications service providers include low-value transactions and overall network complexity. Suggested approaches to executing a successful yield management strategy include accurate network information collection, bandwidth capacity allocation that doesn’t impact service quality, the deployment of service management software such as real time policy and real-time charging, and using new marketing channels to target consumers with innovative services. Online advertising Yield management in online ad sales is in essence the same as in other industries above mentioned; managing the publishers supply/inventory (banner impressions) with the market demand, at the best price (CPM/RPM) while assuring highest possible fill rates. Railways While railways traditionally sold fully flexible tickets that were valid on all trains on a given day or even trains on several days, deregulation and (partial) privatization introduced yield management in the United Kingdom as well as for high speed services in Germany or France. Tickets for the same route can be as cheap as €19 but also go into the triple digits