Method and system for providing multiple services via a point-of-sale portal architecture

• US 10,430,772 B1
• Filed: 04/26/2012
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Redmond, Eric, Huang, Jean, Heisinger, Pete
• Primary Examiner(s): Kucab, Jamie R
• Application Number:
  US13/456,650
• Time in Patent Office: 2,714 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/027 involving a payment switch or gateway
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• 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 30/0268 at point-of-sale [POS]

Abstract

A secure point-of-sale (POS) portal architecture for delivering multiple services is provided. According to one exemplary aspect of the architecture, a number of services offered by various parties are integrated for delivery to merchants. The parties offering the services include, for example, payment processors and merchant acquirers and other external value-added service providers. The integrated services, in turn, are offered to merchants and/or their respective customers via one or more POS devices and its supporting system infrastructure at the merchant locations. The integrated services include, for example, acceptance of multiple payment instruments, payment processing, user dialog management, sales promotion and customer support, loyalty programs, back office processing, receipt capture, employee training, risk management, dispute resolution, system security, system administration etc. Moreover, these integrated services may be customized based on a merchant'"'"'s particular requirements to provide a specific environment for delivering these services.

Claims

1. A system for providing multiple services to computing devices, the system comprising:

a services syndication hub comprising one or more servers, the services syndication hub configured to combine and package a plurality of services from a plurality of service providers comprising payment processors into different combinations of services, and provide the different combinations of services for different subscribers according to customization requirements of the subscribers, wherein the subscribers are merchants, wherein the plurality of services include authorization services for a variety of payment instruments, and wherein the services syndication hub is configured to receive a payment authorization request from a merchant subscriber, and is configured to choose an appropriate gateway for authorization and return an appropriate result to the merchant subscriber, wherein the different combinations of services are rendered at the computing devices differently based on the customization requirements of the subscribers and different hardware capabilities of the computing devices; and

a plurality of appliance servers configured to receive the different combinations of services for different subscribers from the services syndication hub and to provide the different combinations of services for different subscribers to the computing devices.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

the computing devices, wherein the computing devices include one of the following;

a point-of-sale device, an electronic cash register, a display and a kiosk.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

the computing devices, wherein the computing devices are configured to present and render the different combinations of services, and wherein the different combinations of services are customized by the services syndication hub according to preferences of customers of the subscribers.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of services includes a receipt capture service.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing devices are point of sale devices.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of appliance servers are configured to determine how one or more of the plurality of services are to be provided to the computing devices is based on past activities of a subscriber or a customer.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of services received by an appliance server in the plurality of appliance servers are presented to the computing devices based on criteria specified by a subscriber.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the services syndication hub is configured to enforce service agreements, operating policies and regulations among the subscribers and the service providers.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of services includes a receipt capture service, a certificate management service, and an advertising service.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of services further comprises an advertising service.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the services syndication hub comprises an HTTP server.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the services syndication hub is configured to enforce service agreements, operating policies and rules and regulations among participating parties.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of services comprises processing and analyzing customer survey information.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the services syndication hub is configured to provide aggregation and personalization, and dynamic distribution of content and connectivity between third-party services and payment systems.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the services syndication hub is configured to ensure that the service providers and appliance servers are in compliance with sets of operating policies and regulations.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the different combinations of services are provided for the different subscribers by the services syndication hub according to service agreements between the different subscribers and the plurality of services providers.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

the computing devices, wherein the computing devices include a first computing device at a first location of a subscriber and a second computing device at a second location of the subscriber, and wherein the first computing device is configured to present and render a service of the plurality of services differently than the second computing device.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

the computing devices, wherein each of the computing devices comprise an embedded real time operating system, an Internet browser, and an external interface enabling data exchange, wherein the computing devices are configured to display the different combinations of services, and

wherein each of the plurality of appliance servers comprises a web server providing a presentation layer for delivery of the different combinations of services and content adaptation of web pages according to the different hardware capabilities of the computing devices.

19. A method for providing multiple services to computing devices, the method comprising:

receiving a payment authorization request from a merchant subscriber at a services syndication hub comprising one or more servers;

combining and packaging, by the services syndication hub, a plurality of services from a plurality of service providers comprising payment processors into different combinations of services;

providing, by the services syndication hub, the different combinations of services for different subscribers according to the customization requirements of the subscribers to a plurality of appliance servers, wherein the subscribers are merchants, and wherein the plurality of services include authorization services for a variety of payment instruments, wherein the different combinations of services are rendered at the computing devices differently based on the customization requirements of the subscribers and different hardware capabilities of the computing devices;

choosing, by the services syndication hub, an appropriate gateway for authorization of the payment authorization request; and

returning an appropriate result to the merchant subscriber.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

customizing the different combinations of services according to preferences of the customers of the subscribers.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the plurality of services includes a receipt capture service.