Method and system for communicating vehicle repair information to a business-to-business rental vehicle reservation management computer system
First Claim
1. A system for reducing data entry redundancy and increasing automation with respect to communicating vehicle repair data among a plurality of parties using specially configured data pump technology, the system comprising:
- a first computer system associated with a repair facility, wherein the repair facility computer system comprises a body shop management system for managing a plurality of repair orders for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility, the body shop management system comprising a database in which repair order data is stored, wherein the repair order data is stored in the database as relational data having a plurality of fields;
a second computer system, wherein the second computer system comprises a data server; and
a reservation management computer system for communicating with the data server over a computer network, the reservation management computer system configured to create and manage a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations corresponding to at least a plurality of the vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility in response to input from a remote computer;
wherein the repair facility computer system is in communication with the second computer system over a network;
wherein the repair facility computer system is configured to execute a software application; and
wherein the software application comprises a repair order data pump, the repair order data pump configured to (1) run on the repair facility computer system as a background service of the repair facility computer system to automatically connect to the body shop management system on a scheduled basis without human intervention, and (2) in response to a connection with the body shop management system, (i) automatically query the database for new and updated repair order data without human intervention to thereby identify new and updated repair order data relative to a previous retrieval operation by querying the database for (a) all repair orders that have a data field indicative of an open status, and (b) all repair orders that have a data field indicative of a closed status, wherein the closed status was achieved within a predetermined number of previous days, (ii) automatically retrieve the identified new and updated repair order data from the database in response to the query without human intervention, and (iii) automatically send the retrieved repair order data to the second computer system over the network without human intervention to thereby achieve a transmission of vehicle repair data to the second computer system without requiring a user of the repair facility computer system to enter repair order data into an application other than the body shop management system;
wherein the data server is further configured to send vehicle repair data received from the software application and pertaining to a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations managed by the reservation management computer system to the reservation management computer system via the computer network; and
wherein the reservation management computer system is further configured to (1) receive the vehicle repair data sent to it from the data server, and (2) perform a plurality of management operations on replacement rental vehicle reservations using the vehicle repair data received from the data server, the management operations including a plurality of extensions of a plurality of the replacement rental vehicle reservations based on the new and updated vehicle repair order data retrieved from the database by the repair order data pump.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Various aspects of a system and method are disclosed for communicating vehicle repair data among a plurality of parties, wherein a data pump is employed to automate the extraction of vehicle repair data such as labor hours estimation data from a repair facility computer system for delivery to interested parties, including a rental vehicle service provider that provides replacement rental vehicles to drivers whose vehicles are undergoing repairs at repair facilities. A reservation management computer system operated by the rental vehicle service provider can thus use the received vehicle repair data to facilitate management of replacement rental vehicle reservations by its business partners, such as insurance companies.
-
Citations
80 Claims
-
1. A system for reducing data entry redundancy and increasing automation with respect to communicating vehicle repair data among a plurality of parties using specially configured data pump technology, the system comprising:
-
a first computer system associated with a repair facility, wherein the repair facility computer system comprises a body shop management system for managing a plurality of repair orders for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility, the body shop management system comprising a database in which repair order data is stored, wherein the repair order data is stored in the database as relational data having a plurality of fields; a second computer system, wherein the second computer system comprises a data server; and a reservation management computer system for communicating with the data server over a computer network, the reservation management computer system configured to create and manage a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations corresponding to at least a plurality of the vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility in response to input from a remote computer; wherein the repair facility computer system is in communication with the second computer system over a network; wherein the repair facility computer system is configured to execute a software application; and wherein the software application comprises a repair order data pump, the repair order data pump configured to (1) run on the repair facility computer system as a background service of the repair facility computer system to automatically connect to the body shop management system on a scheduled basis without human intervention, and (2) in response to a connection with the body shop management system, (i) automatically query the database for new and updated repair order data without human intervention to thereby identify new and updated repair order data relative to a previous retrieval operation by querying the database for (a) all repair orders that have a data field indicative of an open status, and (b) all repair orders that have a data field indicative of a closed status, wherein the closed status was achieved within a predetermined number of previous days, (ii) automatically retrieve the identified new and updated repair order data from the database in response to the query without human intervention, and (iii) automatically send the retrieved repair order data to the second computer system over the network without human intervention to thereby achieve a transmission of vehicle repair data to the second computer system without requiring a user of the repair facility computer system to enter repair order data into an application other than the body shop management system; wherein the data server is further configured to send vehicle repair data received from the software application and pertaining to a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations managed by the reservation management computer system to the reservation management computer system via the computer network; and wherein the reservation management computer system is further configured to (1) receive the vehicle repair data sent to it from the data server, and (2) perform a plurality of management operations on replacement rental vehicle reservations using the vehicle repair data received from the data server, the management operations including a plurality of extensions of a plurality of the replacement rental vehicle reservations based on the new and updated vehicle repair order data retrieved from the database by the repair order data pump. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A system for reducing data entry redundancy and increasing automation with respect to communicating vehicle repair data among a plurality of parties using specially configured data pump technology, the system comprising:
-
a first computer system associated with a repair facility, wherein the repair facility computer system comprises a body shop management system for managing a plurality of repair orders for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility, the body shop management system comprising a database in which repair order data is stored, wherein the repair order data is stored in the database as relational data having a plurality of fields; and a second computer system, wherein the second computer system comprises a reservation management computer system, the reservation management computer system configured to create and manage a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations corresponding to at least a plurality of the vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility in response to input from a remote computer; wherein the repair facility computer system is in communication with the second computer system over a network; wherein the repair facility computer system is configured to execute a software application; and wherein the software application comprises a repair order data pump, the repair order data pump configured to (1) run on the repair facility computer system as a background service of the repair facility computer system to automatically connect to the body shop management system on a scheduled basis without human intervention, and (2) in response to a connection with the body shop management system, (i) automatically query the database for new and updated repair order data without human intervention to thereby identify new and updated repair order data relative to a previous retrieval operation by querying the database for (a) all repair orders that have a data field indicative of an open status, and (b) all repair orders that have a data field indicative of a closed status, wherein the closed status was achieved within a predetermined number of previous days, (ii) automatically retrieve the identified new and updated repair order data from the database in response to the query without human intervention, and (iii) automatically send the retrieved repair order data to the second computer system over the network without human intervention to thereby achieve a transmission of vehicle repair data to the second computer system without requiring a user of the repair facility computer system to enter repair order data into an application other than the body shop management system; and wherein the reservation management computer system is further configured to (1) receive the vehicle repair data sent to it from the software application, and (2) perform a plurality of management operations on replacement rental vehicle reservations using the vehicle repair data received from the software application, the management operations including a plurality of extensions of a plurality of the replacement rental vehicle reservations based on the new and updated vehicle repair order data retrieved from the database by the repair order data pump. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A system for reducing data entry redundancy and increasing automation with respect to communicating vehicle repair data among a plurality of parties using specially configured data pump technology, the system comprising:
-
a first computer system associated with a repair facility, wherein the repair facility computer system further comprises an estimating system for managing a plurality of vehicle repair estimates for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility, the estimating system configured to store a plurality of estimate management standard (EMS) files corresponding to a plurality of vehicle repair estimates for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility in a file directory of the repair facility computer system, the EMS files storing labor hours estimation data that comprises an estimate as to how many labor hours are needed to complete repairs to at least one vehicle undergoing repair at the repair facility, wherein each EMS file stored in the file directory that is a valid EMS file comprises a plurality of constituent standardized files; and wherein the repair facility computer system is in communication with a second computer system over a network; wherein the repair facility computer system is configured to execute a software application; and wherein the software application further comprises an EMS data pump, the EMS data pump comprising a configuration file, the EMS data pump configured to (1) run on the repair facility computer system, without human intervention, in at least one of an event mode and a polling mode, and (2) in response to running, (i) automatically identify the file directory where the EMS files are stored without human intervention based on data in the configuration file, (ii) automatically search the identified file directory for new and updated EMS file data relative to a previous retrieval operation, (iii) automatically retrieve the new and updated EMS file data without human intervention in response to the search, and (iv) automatically send the retrieved EMS file data to the second computer system over the network without human intervention to thereby achieve a transmission of vehicle repair data to the second computer system without requiring a user of the repair facility computer system to enter estimate data into an application other than the estimating system; and wherein the EMS data pump further comprises a validation table and a component, the component being configured to validate whether each retrieved EMS file includes all of its constituent standardized files based on a reference to the validation table. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
-
-
34. A computer-implemented method for reducing data entry redundancy and increasing automation with respect to communicating vehicle repair data among a plurality of parties using specially configured data pump technology, the method comprising:
-
executing a software application on a repair facility computer system, wherein the repair facility computer system comprises a body shop management system for managing a plurality of repair orders for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility, the body shop management system comprising a database in which repair order data is stored, wherein the repair order data is stored in the database as relational data having a plurality of fields, the vehicle repair data comprising labor hours estimation data that comprises an estimate as to how many labor hours are needed to complete repairs to at least one vehicle undergoing repair at the repair facility, and wherein the software application comprises a repair order data pump; and wherein the software application executing step comprises the repair order data pump (1) running on the repair facility computer system as a background service of the repair facility computer system to automatically connect to the body shop management system on a scheduled basis without human intervention, and (2) in response to connecting with the body shop management system, (i) automatically querying the database for new and updated repair order data without human intervention to thereby identify new and updated repair order data relative to a previous retrieval operation by querying the database for (a) all repair orders that have a data field indicative of an open status, and (b) all repair orders that have a data field indicative of a closed status, wherein the closed status was achieved within a predetermined number of previous days, (ii) automatically retrieving the identified new and updated repair order data from the database in response to the query without human intervention, the retrieved repair order data including labor hours estimation data for at least one vehicle undergoing repair at the repair facility, and (iii) automatically sending the retrieved repair order data to a second computer system over a network without human intervention to thereby achieve a transmission of vehicle repair data to the second computer system without requiring a user of the repair facility computer system to enter repair order data into an application other than the body shop management system, wherein the second computer system comprises a reservation management computer system, the reservation management computer system configured to create and manage a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations corresponding to at least a plurality of the vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility in response to input from a remote computer, the method further comprising; the reservation management computer system (1) receiving the vehicle repair data sent to it from the software application, and (2) performing a plurality of management operations on replacement rental vehicle reservations using the vehicle repair data received from the software application, the management operations including a plurality of extensions of a plurality of the replacement rental vehicle reservations based on the new and updated vehicle repair order data retrieved from the database by the repair order data pump. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
-
-
45. A computer-implemented method for reducing data entry redundancy and increasing automation with respect to communicating vehicle repair data among a plurality of parties using specially configured data pump technology, the method comprising:
-
executing a software application on a repair facility computer system, wherein the repair facility computer system comprises a body shop management system for managing a plurality of repair orders for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility, the body shop management system comprising a database in which repair order data is stored, wherein the repair order data is stored in the database as relational data having a plurality of fields, the vehicle repair data comprising labor hours estimation data that comprises an estimate as to how many labor hours are needed to complete repairs to at least one vehicle undergoing repair at the repair facility, and wherein the software application comprises a repair order data pump; and wherein the software application executing step comprises the repair order data pump (1) running on the repair facility computer system as a background service of the repair facility computer system to automatically connect to the body shop management system on a scheduled basis without human intervention, and (2) in response to connecting with the body shop management system, (i) automatically querying the database for new and updated repair order data without human intervention to thereby identify new and updated repair order data relative to a previous retrieval operation by querying the database for (a) all repair orders that have a data field indicative of an open status, and (b) all repair orders that have a data field indicative of a closed status, wherein the closed status was achieved within a predetermined number of previous days, (ii) automatically retrieving the identified new and updated repair order data from the database in response to the query without human intervention, the retrieved repair order data including labor hours estimation data for at least one vehicle undergoing repair at the repair facility, and (iii) automatically sending the retrieved repair order data to a second computer system over a network without human intervention to thereby achieve a transmission of vehicle repair data to the second computer system without requiring a user of the repair facility computer system to enter repair order data into an application other than the body shop management system, wherein the second computer system comprises a data server, the data server in communication with a reservation management computer system via a computer network, the reservation management computer system configured to create and manage a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations corresponding to at least a plurality of the vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility in response to input from a remote computer, the method further comprising; the data server sending vehicle repair data received from the software application and pertaining to a plurality of replacement rental vehicle reservations managed by the reservation management computer system to the reservation management computer system via the computer network; and the reservation management computer system (1) receiving the vehicle repair data sent to it from the data server, and (2) performing a plurality of management operations on replacement rental vehicle reservations using the vehicle repair data received from the data server, the management operations including a plurality of extensions of a plurality of the replacement rental vehicle reservations based on the new and updated vehicle repair order data retrieved from the database by the repair order data pump. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
-
-
54. A computer-implemented method for reducing data entry redundancy and increasing automation with respect to communicating vehicle repair data among a plurality of parties using specially configured data pump technology, the method comprising:
-
executing a software application on a repair facility computer system, wherein the repair facility computer system further comprises an estimating system for managing a plurality of vehicle repair estimates for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility, the estimating system configured to store a plurality of estimate management standard (EMS) files corresponding to a plurality of vehicle repair estimates for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility in a file directory of the repair facility computer system, the EMS files storing labor hours estimation data that comprises an estimate as to how many labor hours are needed to complete repairs to at least one vehicle undergoing repair at the repair facility, wherein each EMS file stored in the file directory that is a valid EMS file comprises a plurality of constituent standardized files, and wherein the software application further comprises an EMS data pump, the EMS data pump comprising a configuration file; and wherein the software application executing step further comprises the EMS data pump (1) running on the repair facility computer system, without human intervention, in at least one of an event mode and a polling mode, and (2) in response to running, (i) automatically identifying the file directory where the EMS files are stored without human intervention based on data in the configuration file, (ii) automatically searching the identified file directory for new and updated EMS file data relative to a previous retrieval operation, (iii) automatically retrieving the new and updated EMS file data without human intervention in response to the search, the retrieved EMS file data including labor hours estimation data for at least one vehicle undergoing repair at the repair facility, and (iv) automatically sending the retrieved EMS file data to a second computer system over a network without human intervention to thereby achieve a transmission of vehicle repair data to the second computer system without requiring a user of the repair facility computer system to enter estimate data into an application other than the estimating system; and wherein the EMS data pump further comprises a validation table, and wherein the software application executing step comprises a component of the EMS data pump validating whether each retrieved EMS file includes all of its constituent standardized files based on a reference to the validation table. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74)
-
-
75. A computer program product for reducing data entry redundancy and increasing automation with respect to communicating vehicle repair data among a plurality of parties using specially configured data pump technology, the computer program product comprising:
-
a plurality of instructions that are resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the instructions are executable by a processor to automatically locate vehicle repair data that is stored within a computer system of a repair facility without human intervention, wherein the repair facility computer system further comprises an estimating system for managing a plurality of vehicle repair estimates for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility, the estimating system configured to store a plurality of estimate management standard (EMS) files corresponding to a plurality of vehicle repair estimates for vehicles undergoing repair at the repair facility in a file directory of the repair facility computer system, the EMS files storing labor hours estimation data that comprises an estimate as to how many labor hours are needed to complete repairs to at least one vehicle undergoing repair at the repair facility, wherein each EMS file stored in the file directory that is a valid EMS file comprises a plurality of constituent standardized files, and wherein at least a portion of the plurality of instructions comprise an EMS data pump, the EMS data pump comprising a configuration file, the EMS data pump configured to (1) run on the repair facility computer system, without human intervention, in at least one of an event mode and a polling mode, and (2) in response to running, (i) automatically identify the file directory where the EMS files are stored without human intervention based on data in the configuration file, (ii) automatically search the identified file directory for new and updated EMS file data relative to a previous retrieval operation, (iii) automatically retrieve the new and updated EMS file data without human intervention in response to the search, and (iv) automatically send the retrieved EMS file data to a second computer system over the network without human intervention to thereby achieve a transmission of vehicle repair data to the second computer system without requiring a user of the repair facility computer system to enter estimate data into an application other than the estimating system; and wherein the EMS data pump further comprises a validation table and a component, the component being configured to validate whether each retrieved EMS file includes all of its constituent standardized files based on a reference to the validation table. - View Dependent Claims (76, 77, 78, 79, 80)
-
Specification