111111
`
`1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
`US007904326B2
`
`(12) United States Patent
`Gharavy
`
`(10) Patent No.:
`(4S) Date of Patent:
`
`US 7,904,326 B2
`Mar. 8,2011
`
`(S4) METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
`PERFORMING COLLECTIVE VALIDATION
`OF CREDENTIAL INFORMATION
`
`EP
`
`FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
`0817017 A2
`111998
`
`(7S)
`
`Inventor: Shari Gharavy, Austin, TX (US)
`
`(73) Assignee: Versata Development Group, Inc.,
`Austin, TX (US)
`
`( *) Notice:
`
`Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this
`patent is extended or adjusted under 3S
`U.S.c. IS4(b) by 120 days.
`
`(21) Appl. No.: 09/896,144
`
`(22) Filed:
`
`Jun. 29, 2001
`
`(6S)
`
`(SI)
`
`(S2)
`(S8)
`
`(S6)
`
`Prior Publication Data
`
`US 2003/0004840 Al
`
`Jan. 2, 2003
`
`Int. Cl.
`G06Q 40/00
`(2006.01)
`G06F 17/30
`(2006.01)
`U.S. Cl. ............................................. 705110; 70S/44
`Field of Classification Search .................... 70S/33,
`70S/7,10,30,38,44
`See application file for complete search history.
`
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`(Continued)
`
`Primary Examiner - Andrew Joseph Rudy
`(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm - Hamilton & Terrile, LLP;
`Kent B. Chambers
`
`(S7)
`
`ABSTRACT
`
`An embodiment of the invention comprises a method and
`apparatus for performing collective validation of credential
`information. The invention has applicability in industries that
`require sales agents or those related to the distribution of a
`certain product to be credentialed (e.g., licensed and/or
`appointed) when selling certain products (e.g., life insurance,
`etc ... ). For example, in order to sell some financial instru(cid:173)
`ments sales representatives must meet state and/or federal
`licensing requirements. Embodiments of the invention pro(cid:173)
`vide a way to ensure that sales representatives operate within
`any regulatory constraints put in place by government or any
`other organization. Companies may, for instance, utilize
`embodiments of the invention to ensure that sales represen(cid:173)
`tatives operate within a set of defined constraints. One aspect
`of the invention provides a method for validating sales agents'
`credentials while processing the sales transaction data to
`determine commission amounts. The system is configured to
`perform such transaction processing in an efficient manner
`that minimizes the amount of computational resources
`required to determine whether a sales agent has valid creden(cid:173)
`tial at the time of a particular sale and is therefore entitled to
`compensation (e.g., a commission) for the sale.
`
`22 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets
`
`lDO
`
`102
`
`104
`
`'.6
`
`106
`
`112
`
`114
`
`116
`
`116
`
`Ex. 1001 01/17
`
`

`

`US 7,904,326 B2
`Page 2
`
`726/20
`715/531
`705/14
`705/40
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`707/10
`7131156
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`
`70511
`717/174
`705/30
`
`707/9
`705/14
`714/4
`705/4
`705/10
`7091220
`7001226
`705/1
`705/14
`705/4
`
`705/52
`706/67
`7131155
`705/52
`
`705/35
`
`705/26
`7091229
`
`705/51
`705/35
`
`705/10
`
`7091225
`70511
`705/35
`705/27
`707/102
`705/14
`705/11
`705/39
`705/40
`
`70511
`
`705/4
`
`Ex. 1001 02/17
`
`

`

`US 7,904,326 B2
`Page 3
`
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`* cited by examiner
`
`Ex. 1001 03/17
`
`

`

`100
`
`102 \ ~ ARE
`
`-...........
`
`112·
`
`114
`
`110
`
`INDICATE
`LICENSE IS
`INVALID. STOP
`EXECUTION OF
`TRANSACTION
`
`104 \
`
`NO
`
`106 \
`
`~ARE""""""'"
`
`., .... I
`
`Figure 1
`
`126
`
`INDICATE
`APPOINTMENT
`IS INVALID &
`STOP
`EXECUTION OF
`TRANSACTION
`
`NO
`
`NO
`
`NO
`
`~
`
`118 ~ ~IDENCY RULES Rn~~
`'-....'-....
`FOR APPOINTMENT
`
`108 \ ~ .. ~ I
`
`120~ .. _
`
`................ -
`
`APPOINTMENT
`
`FLAG
`
`AS VALID
`
`.-L..2
`rl TRANSACTION
`I ~ NO
`
`YES
`
`YES
`
`~
`7J'l
`•
`~
`~
`~
`
`~ = ~
`
`~
`'"! .
`
`~
`
`QO
`
`~
`
`N
`
`0 ....
`....
`
`('D
`
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`.....
`....
`0 ....
`
`Ul
`
`d
`rJl
`-....l
`
`\c = ~
`W
`N
`0'1 = N
`
`Ex. 1001 04/17
`
`

`

`220 '1
`
`FSLicense
`
`,----< o .n
`
`-GID: GID
`-Jursidiction : long
`
`230
`
`')
`
`~
`FSDistributorData
`000
`
`1
`
`-GID: GID
`+lsLicensedO
`+lsAppointedO
`
`Figure 2
`
`~
`7Jl
`•
`~
`~
`~
`
`~ = ~
`
`~
`~ :-:
`~CIO
`
`N o ....
`....
`
`1 .. n
`
`210
`
`(
`
`FSLicenseLine
`
`-GID: GID
`LicenseLine : long
`
`('D
`('D
`
`rFJ =(cid:173)
`.....
`N
`o ....
`
`Ul
`
`O .. n
`
`O .. n
`
`1 .. n
`1 .. n
`
`FSAppoi ntment
`
`FSStatus
`
`1 .. n
`o
`/~
`
`240
`
`'-- -GID: GID
`
`-Jurisdicion: long
`-SubJurisdiction : long
`-Company: SCOrganization
`-Parent: FSDistributorData
`
`-GID: GID
`-StartDate: Date
`-EndDate : Date
`-Object: GID
`-StatusCode : long
`
`d
`rJl
`",-.....1
`
`\C = ~
`W
`N
`0'1 = N
`
`Ex. 1001 05/17
`
`

`

`u.s. Patent
`
`Mar. 8,2011
`
`Sheet 3 of 5
`
`US 7,904,326 B2
`
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`LO
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`~ « o
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`o
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`(t)
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`o
`C\J
`(t)
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`o
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`
`Ex. 1001 06/17
`
`

`

`410
`
`OBTAIN A SET OF
`TRANSACTIONS
`
`Figure 4
`
`420
`
`'--I DETERMINE A DISTRIBUTOR
`
`r - - - - - - - - I .. ~ ASSOCIATED WITH THE SET OF fooiIl.t--------,
`TRANSACTIONS
`
`430,--
`
`DETERMINE A SET OF TESTS
`THAT APPLY TO EACH
`TRANSACTION/ALLOCATION
`
`435,--,
`
`EXECUTE TESTS IN BATCH
`
`440
`
`460
`
`COMPUTE DISTRIBUTOR'S
`COMPENSATION
`
`450
`
`NO
`
`DO NOT COMPUTE
`COMPENSATION
`
`~
`7Jl
`•
`~
`~
`~
`
`~ = ~
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`~
`~ :-:
`~CIO
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`....
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`('D
`
`.j;o.
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`.....
`o ....
`
`Ul
`
`d
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`",-.....1
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`\C = ~
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`N
`0'1 = N
`
`Ex. 1001 07/17
`
`

`

`DENORMALIZE TABLES
`
`I
`
`OBTAIN DITRIBUTORS AND
`LICENSE INFORMATION
`
`•
`..
`
`510
`
`1
`
`V
`
`I
`
`-
`
`I
`/520
`l-/"
`
`OBTAIN INPUT FROM
`TRANSACTION INFORMATION
`
`/ 530
`I
`l-/"
`
`•
`
`OBTAIN TEST INFORMATION
`FROM RULES FILES
`
`I
`/540
`l-/"
`
`Figure 5
`
`I
`/550
`l-/"
`
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`
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`....
`
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`('D
`
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`......
`Ul
`o ....
`
`Ul
`
`JOIN VALIDATED DISTRIBUTOR I
`/560
`DATA WITH DENORMALIZED L/
`DATA
`1
`
`VALIDATE DISTRIBUTORS'
`INFORMATION
`
`1
`•
`
`EXECUTE COMMISSION
`COMPUTATION
`
`L-/570
`
`d
`rJl
`-....l
`
`\c = ~
`W
`N
`0'1 = N
`
`Ex. 1001 08/17
`
`

`

`US 7,904,326 B2
`
`1
`METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR
`PERFORMING COLLECTIVE VALIDATION
`OF CREDENTIAL INFORMATION
`
`FIELD OF THE INVENTION
`
`This invention relates to the field of computer technology.
`More specifically, the invention relates to a method and sys(cid:173)
`tem for performing collective validation of credential infor(cid:173)
`mation (e.g., license and/or appointment data).
`Portions of the disclosure of this patent document contain
`material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright
`owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any(cid:173)
`one of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it
`appears in the Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but
`otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
`
`BACKGROUND
`
`2
`One aspect of the invention provides a method for validat(cid:173)
`ing sales agents' credentials while processing the sales trans(cid:173)
`action data to determine commission amounts. The system is
`configured to perform such transaction processing in an effi(cid:173)
`cient manner that minimizes the amount of computational
`resources required to determine whether a sales agent has
`valid credential at the time of a particular sale and is therefore
`entitled to compensation (e.g., a commission) for the sale.
`The system may process one or more transactions at a time
`10 and may perform transaction processing collectively if such
`processing is desirable.
`In an embodiment of the invention, the compensation
`engine or some other software component determines the
`grouping of input such that validation can be performed col-
`15 lectively (e.g., in batch). For instance, the compensation
`engine may perform an initialization process where it obtains
`credential information that relates to the sales agents and
`assembles the credential information into a denormalized
`table. The system may obtain credential information (e.g.,
`20 licensing and/or appointment data) from several tables of a
`database and put the credential information into a single
`denormalized table. The system may also load rule informa(cid:173)
`tion that can be utilized to process the credential information.
`This rule information may be provided to the system in any
`25 structured form (e.g., text, XML, etc ... ) and the rule data
`may comprise a set of tests for determining if a particular
`transaction was valid. In one embodiment of the invention,
`the system instantiates an instance of an object oriented class
`referred to as the RuleSet class. The RuleSet class and a set of
`30 associated object reachable from that class (e.g., precondi(cid:173)
`tions, test, etc ... ) provide the functionality referred to as the
`rule engine. Thus, the rule engine may comprise a collection
`of objects working together. However, the invention also con(cid:173)
`templates other software or hardware mechanisms configured
`35 to provide rule engine functionality. The objected oriented
`examples provided herein are for illustrative purposes and the
`reader should note that other non-objected oriented programs
`may be configured to provide the functionality described
`herein.
`Once the rule information is loaded, an embodiment of the
`invention utilizes the rule information to determine if the
`distributor (e.g., sales agent) specified in the transaction was
`properly credited. Thus, the system obtains a set oftransac(cid:173)
`tions (e.g., a batch) associated with one or more sales agents
`45 and utilizes the transaction data to determine if a commission
`amount associated with each transaction may be credited to
`one or more of the sales agent's accounts. Compensation is
`distributed when the constraints placed on the sales transac(cid:173)
`tion are satisfied. For example, a sales representative that
`50 made a sale under an invalid credential (e.g., a license or
`appointment) will not be compensated for the sales. Thus,
`part of the compensation process involves determining the
`validity of the sales agent's credentials (e.g., license and/or
`appointment data).
`In one embodiment of the invention, the process associated
`with determining whether the credential data is valid involves
`converting each transaction to input usable by the rule engine.
`A collective set of rule engine input may then be provided to
`the system to perform validation. The process of determining
`60 whether the transaction input is valid may involve determin(cid:173)
`ing the set of rules that apply to the input by filtering the rules
`using a set of preconditions. The set of tests may then be
`partitioned by test type and each test type is associated with
`the transaction input. Once the association occurs a candidate
`65 for each test type is selected and a collective group of the tests
`of a particular type is formulated. The group of tests is then
`input to the system for processing. The reader should note,
`
`There are many complexities to the financial services busi(cid:173)
`ness.At any given time large amounts of sales transaction data
`must be organized and processed. Such data may relate to
`many types of sales transactions and much of it is necessary to
`keep the business running smoothly. Some of the more sig(cid:173)
`nificant classifications of sales transaction data stem from the
`fact that in the financial services business there are multiple
`distribution channels each with multiple distributors and
`many different incentive plans for employees. In most
`instances, these incentive plans are constantly modified and
`changed. This is particularly true in the financial services
`sector where distributors and sales representatives may
`require certain licenses and appointments in order to legally
`sell certain financial instruments. The status of the license or
`appointment data changes continuously and must therefore
`be updated on a regular basis. Furthermore, the volume of
`sales transactions is large, and for each transaction a number
`of tests must carried out to validate the sales agents' creden(cid:173)
`tials and compute the compensation amounts associated with
`the sales transactions.
`Updating such a large amount of records is a cumbersome 40
`process that can require significant system resources. Thus,
`systems must be configured to efficiently validate sales trans(cid:173)
`actions in view of the licenses and/or appointments necessary
`to legally complete the transaction. Existing systems do not
`currently have a mechanism for processing such data in a way
`that minimizes the time required to process license and
`appointment data and validate a sales agent's credentials
`before distributing compensation to the sales agent for the
`transaction. Therefore there is a need for an improved mecha(cid:173)
`nism for processing sales transaction data.
`
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`
`An embodiment of the invention comprises a method and
`apparatus for performing collective validation of credential 55
`information. The invention has applicability in industries that
`require sales agents or those related to the distribution of a
`certain product to be credentialed (e.g., licensed and/or
`appointed) when selling certain products (e.g., life insurance,
`etc ... ). For example, in order to sell some financial instru(cid:173)
`ments sales representatives must meet state and/or federal
`licensing requirements. Embodiments of the invention pro(cid:173)
`vide a way to ensure that sales representatives operate within
`any regulatory constraints put in place by goverument or any
`other organization. Companies may, for instance, utilize
`embodiments of the invention to ensure that sales represen(cid:173)
`tatives operate within a set of defined constraints.
`
`Ex. 1001 09/17
`
`

`

`US 7,904,326 B2
`
`3
`however, that the invention does not require that such test data
`be input collectively (e.g., in batch). The test data (e.g., tests
`of a particular type) may also be input individually or in any
`other categorical methodology that provides the test data to
`the system. The results can be stored in cache for later use by
`the system.
`For each rule associated with each input, the system deter(cid:173)
`mines if the test conditions are met. If the test conditions are
`met, the transaction data with respect to that test type is
`considered valid. The system may use the cached results to 10
`determine if the test conditions are met. The results indicate
`which of the transactions are valid and can therefore be uti(cid:173)
`lized to determine which sales agents to compensation for a
`particular transaction.
`In an embodiment of the invention, the functionality is 15
`accomplished through the use of a set of software and/or
`hardware components configured to determine whether a
`sales transaction should result in a credit to the sales agent
`associated with the transaction. The system may perform this
`by utilizing a compensation engine configured to communi(cid:173)
`cate with the rule engine. In one embodiment of the invention,
`the rule engine comprises a collection of software interrelated
`components.
`
`DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`
`FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of the steps in an example that
`illustrates the validity checks of credentials according to an
`embodiment of the invention.
`FIG. 2 shows a class diagram and relationships represent(cid:173)
`ing object models for licenses (e.g., credentials) in an
`embodiment of the invention.
`FIG. 3 shows a block diagram illustrating data communi(cid:173)
`cation during credential validation process in an embodiment
`of the invention.
`FIG. 4 shows a flowchart illustrating the steps involved in
`validating distributors credentials in an embodiment of the
`invention.
`FIG. 5 shows a flowchart illustrating the steps involved in
`validating credential using an altemative approach to creden(cid:173)
`tial validation in an embodiment of the invention.
`
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION
`
`4
`processing collectively if such processing is desirable. The
`specifics of the improved system for processing such trans(cid:173)
`action data will be described in further detail below.
`The invention may be integrated into an extensible system
`for managing relationships between institutions (e.g., suppli(cid:173)
`ers/manufacturers) of a product or service and the distributors
`(e.g., sales representatives) of their product. Systems
`embodying the invention have applicability in industries that
`require sales agents or those related to the distribution of a
`certain product or service to be credentialed (e.g., licensed or
`appointed) in order to sell the product. For example, in order
`to sell a certain financial instrument a sales representative
`might be required to have a state and/or federal license to sell
`that type of financial instrument.
`Companies or organizations may utilize the invention to
`enforce agreements the company has with distributors who
`sell their products. Thus, the system may enforce an agree(cid:173)
`ment stating that all sales transactions are to be performed by
`sales representatives or distributors who have valid creden-
`20 tials. This provides organizations such as life insurances com(cid:173)
`panies a way to manage the sale and distribution of life
`insurance plans in a way that coincides with the regulatory
`constraints of govemment organizations. Whether a particu(cid:173)
`lar distributor or sales representative is appropriately creden-
`25 tialed can be viewed as a regulatory constraint. The system
`ensures that such regulatory constraints are not violated when
`a transaction is executed. Although, licenses and/or appoint(cid:173)
`ments are utilized as examples of the types of credentials that
`may be validated by embodiments of the invention, the term
`30 credentials as it utilized encompasses any set of constraints or
`requirements associated with a sales transaction. For
`instance, company policies or individual constraints that vary
`on a product by product basis, or any other set of definable
`constraints can also be enforced by the system by implement-
`35 ing such items as "credentials" that may be required for a
`sales representative to be compensated. Transactions that do
`not conform to the government regulations are not typically
`executed and may not therefore result in any compensation to
`the sales representative( s) or distributor(s) associated with the
`40 transaction. In accordance with one embodiment of the inven(cid:173)
`tion, credential checks are collectively submitted to the sys(cid:173)
`tem for processing. This decreases the time and resources
`required to process the credential information.
`The invention may use multiple techniques for processing
`45 the sales transaction data in order to determine whether a sales
`agent has valid credential at the time of a particular sale and is
`therefore entitled to compensation (e.g., a commission) for
`the sale. In an embodiment of the invention, a compensation
`engine or some other software component determines an
`arrangement of input such that validation can be performed
`collectively (e.g., in batch). For example, the compensation
`engine may perform an initialization process where it obtains
`credential information that relates to the sales agents and
`assemble the credential information into a denormalized
`table. For instance, the system may obtain credential infor(cid:173)
`mation (e. g., licensing and/or appointment information) from
`several database tables and put the credential information into
`a single denormalized table. The initialization engine may
`also load rule information that can be utilized to process the
`credential information. This rule information may be pro(cid:173)
`vided to the system in any structured form (e.g., text, XML,
`etc ... ) and the rule data may comprise a set of tests for
`determining if a particular transaction was valid.
`In one embodiment of the invention, the system instantiates
`an instance of an object oriented class referred to as the
`RuleSet class. The RuleSet class and a set of associated object
`r