Energy product instant rebate engine

• US 10,068,245 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2017
• Issued: 09/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uplight, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Simple Energy, Inc. (Uplight, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lurie, Yoav, Segall, Justin, Jaroenvanit, Michel, Vajda, John, McColgan, Sean, Stewart, Jarod Earl, Girleanu, Nicolae Radu, Sukhanov, Ilya A., Konrath, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Alvarez, Raquel
• Application Number:
  US15/791,011
• Publication Number:
  US 20180114245A1
• Time in Patent Office: 316 Days
• Field of Search: 705 1423, 705 1425, 705 1439, 709201, 709203, 709217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2838 Distribution of signals within a home automation network, e.g. involving splitting/multiplexing signals to/from different paths adaptations of television systems for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution H04N7/106; hybrid transport H04L12/6418; home network arrangements specially adapted for distribution of digital video signals H04N7/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1006 with static server selection, e.g. the same server being selected for a specific client

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatus are disclosed for providing instant rebates before a transaction is completed. This involves ingest of customer and rebate data from two or more utilities, where the data is parsed and normalized into a standard format across all of the utilities. The customer data is then stored in an accounts database, while the rebate data is further processed along with utility rebate rules to determine a set of rebate eligibilities for a variety of scenarios. The resulting rebate profiles can be stored in a rebates database and linked to corresponding customer account data in the accounts database. Third-party frontends can then request rebate eligibility based on a customer identifier and retail channel, and various services can work in tandem to query the rebated database and return a set of eligibilities with so little latency that the eligibility check appears instant from a customer'"'"'s standpoint.

Claims

1. A method for reducing latency in product rebate eligibility, the method comprising:

providing an ingest subsystem;

providing a rebate rules registry in communication with the ingest subsystem;

providing an accounts database in communication with the ingest subsystem;

providing a rebates database in communication with the rebate rules registry;

providing a broker module;

providing a rules engine in communication with the rebates database and the broker module;

providing an accounts service in communication with the accounts database; and

parsing and normalizing customer and rebate data, via the ingest subsystem, to form normalized customer data and normalized rebate data, into a format that is consistent across all of the two or more utility companies, the customer and rebate data retrieved from two or more utility companies, formats of the customer and rebate data across the two or more utility companies being inconsistent before the parsing and normalizing, and wherein the normalized rebate data includes rebate rules specific to ones of the two or more utility companies;

storing persistent utility rebate rules in a rebate database, wherein the persistent utility rebate rules constitute rebate eligibility parameters that apply to at least two of the two or more utilities;

storing runtime rebate rules in the rebate database, wherein the runtime rebate rules represent rebate eligibility parameters for a provider of energy-saving products and are customer-specific;

storing the normalized customer data in the accounts database;

passing the normalized rebate data from the ingest subsystem to the rebate rules registry;

applying, via the rebate rules registry, the persistent utility rebate rules to the normalized rebate data to generate rebate profiles, and storing the rebate profiles in the rebate database, wherein the rebate profiles include a plurality of rebate eligibilities for a plurality of redemption scenarios, and wherein each rebate profile is not customer-specific; and

then

receiving a customer identification at the broker module from one of the frontend client services;

calling, via the broker module, the rules engine, with the customer identification as an input;

querying, via the rules engine, the rebates database for rebate profiles corresponding to the customer identification;

applying, via the rules engine, the runtime rebate rules to the rebate profiles to identify one or more customer-specific rebates;

returning, via the rules engine, the customer-specific rebate to the broker module; and

returning, via the broker module, the customer-specific rebate to the API, so that the one of the frontend client services that provided the customer identification can apply the customer-specific rebate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the normalized rebate data includes a number and type of rebates previously redeemed by customers of a corresponding one of the two or more utility companies.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the normalized rebate data includes rebate rules specific to ones of the two or more utility companies, and the persistent utility rebate rules apply to at least two of the two or more utility companies.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the normalized customer data includes at least a customer account number and a customer address.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the provider of energy-saving products is selected from a group comprising:

one of the two or more utility companies;

an online retailer of energy-saving products;

a brick-and-mortar retailer of energy-saving products;

or a manufacturer of energy-saving products.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a rebate redemption transaction service in communication with the broker module, the two or more utilities, and the rebate database, wherein the rebate redemption transaction service is configured to tabulate all rebate redemptions, report the same to the two or more utilities, and update, in rebate profiles in the rebate database, a number and type of rebates redeemed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer identification is an address or a utility account number.

8. A non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium, encoded with processor executable code to perform a method for determining product rebate eligibility before a transaction is completed, the method comprising:

providing an ingest subsystem;

providing a rebate rules registry in communication with the ingest subsystem;

providing an accounts database in communication with the ingest subsystem;

providing a rebates database in communication with the rebate rules registry;

parsing and normalizing customer and rebate data, via the ingest subsystem, to form normalized customer data and normalized rebate data, into a format that is consistent across all of two or more utility companies, the customer and rebate data retrieved from two or more utility companies, formats of the customer and rebate data across the two or more utility companies being inconsistent before the parsing and normalizing;

storing persistent utility rebate rules in a rebate database, wherein the persistent utility rebate rules constitute rebate eligibility parameters that apply to at least two of the two or more utilities;

storing runtime rebate rules in the rebate database, wherein the runtime rebate rules represent rebate eligibility parameters for a provider of energy-saving products and are customer-specific;

storing the normalized customer data in the accounts database;

passing the normalized rebate data from the ingest subsystem to the rebate rules registry;

applying, via the rebate rules registry, the persistent utility rebate rules to the normalized rebate data to generate rebate profiles, and storing the rebate profiles in the rebate database, wherein the rebate profiles include a plurality of rebate eligibilities for a plurality of redemption scenarios, and wherein each rebate profile is not customer-specific and each rebate profile being unique to one of the utility companies and applicable to all customers of the one of the utility companies;

providing a broker module;

a rules engine in communication with the rebates database and the broker module;

providing an accounts service in communication with the accounts database; and

providing an API in communication with the broker module and the accounts service, and configured to interface with one or more frontend client services hosted on one or more frontend devices, the one or more frontend client services configured for interfacing with customers of the two or more utilities;

receiving a customer identification at the broker module from one of the frontend client services;

calling, via the broker module, the rules engine, with the customer identification as an input;

querying, via the rules engine, the rebates database for rebate profiles corresponding to the customer identification;

applying, via the rules engine, the runtime rebate rules to the rebate profiles to identify one or more customer-specific rebates;

returning, via the rules engine, the customer-specific rebate to the broker module; and

returning, via the broker module, the customer-specific rebate to the API, so that the one of the frontend client services that provided the customer identification can apply the customer-specific rebate.

9. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the normalized rebate data includes a number and type of rebates previously redeemed by customers of a corresponding one of the two or more utility companies.

10. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the normalized rebate data includes rebate rules specific to ones of the two or more utility companies, and the persistent utility rebate rules apply to at least two of the two or more utility companies.

11. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the normalized customer data includes at least a customer account number and a customer address.

12. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the provider of energy-saving products is selected from a group comprising:

one of the two or more utility companies;

an online retailer of energy-saving products;

a brick-and-mortar retailer of energy-saving products;

or a manufacturer of energy-saving products.

13. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising providing a rebate redemption transaction service in communication with the broker module, the two or more utilities, and the rebate database, wherein the rebate redemption transaction service is configured to tabulate all rebate redemptions, report the same to the two or more utilities, and update, in rebate profiles in the rebate database, a number and type of rebates redeemed.

14. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the customer identification is an address or a utility account number.

15. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein at least one of the utility companies is associated with two or more rebate profiles.

16. The non-transitory, tangible processor readable storage medium of claim 8, further comprising receiving an update to the normalized rebate data without having to re-parse and re-normalize the customer data.