Computing environment for facilitating collaboration between professional service providers and their clients

• US 20020124188A1
• Filed: 02/20/2002
• Published: 09/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Vipadvisor.com Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Vipadvisor.com Incorporated
• Inventors: Sherman, Tom, Sherman, Mark D.
• Application Number:
  US10/081,738
• Publication Number:
  US 20020124188A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/083 using passwords cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using a predetermined code H04L9/3226

Abstract

A system for facilitating collaboration has a database in network communication with a server. Relationships between users on the network are defined individually as to pairs of users. Each relationship is unique to the user pair and does not extend to other users. The relationships define networks or teams of users, which cross traditional corporate and network boundaries to link up people who otherwise cannot get connected. Users have user accounts within a database, which stores relationship information for user pairs. Each relationship is unique relative to each pair of users, and users may have more than one relationship. Web based productivity tools provide enhancements to the user environment so that pairs of users can collaborate over the system using the tools according to the established relationships.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating team work between people using web-enabled devices on a secure network, each person having a user account with a user name and a password in a database, each person having an assigned relationship with one or more other persons in the database, each assigned relationship being defined between a pair of users, the system comprising:

the database for hosting all communication between people on the secure network; and

a web-interface for people using web-enabled devices to upload information to the database and to share the uploaded information with other people according to the assigned relationship;

wherein the assigned relationship must be established between the pair of users prior to any communication between the pair of users is permitted by the database.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each assigned relationship is hierarchical.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

productivity tools for interfacing with the database, each productivity tool being accessible from a web page.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a quote server interface for interacting periodically with a quote server, for retrieving financial information from the quote server, and for storing the retrieved financial information in the database.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

an account module for displaying financial investment information, the financial investment information including;

investment account information relative to the user accounts, the investment information including a cost basis; and

evaluation data related to the investment account information, the evaluation data being calculated from the investment account information using the retrieved financial information.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each person has more than one assigned relationship in the database.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the database is used in a corporate network having more than one server, the database for providing a secure collaborative environment within a corporation over a corporate intranet.

8. A system for facilitating team work between people using web-enabled devices on a secure network, each person having a user account with a user name and a password in a database, each person having an assigned relationship with one or more other persons in the database, each assigned relationship being defined between a first user and a second user, the system comprising:

the database for hosting all communication between people on the secure network; and

a user interface for providing web-based access for the first user to contact information relative to the second user, the contact information being displayed within a web page as an electronic business card, the electronic business card being clickable to directly access the contact information for the second user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein each user may have more than one assigned relationship stored in the database, and wherein the contact information for each other user of each relationship pair is displayed in a web page as an electronic business card.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the electronic business card comprises:

a digital photograph of the other user;

contact information for the other user; and

a message button for the other user, the message button being clickable for opening an already addressed message form to facilitate communication between the first user and each other user.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the electronic business card further comprises:

a file button for the other user, the file button being clickable for opening a web page displaying a clickable list of all files shared by the other user with the first user.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the electronic business card further comprises:

a task button for the other user, the task button being clickable for opening a web page for the first user to post new task items for the other user to complete.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the database is accessible from any web-enabled device.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the web-interface further comprises:

a scoring script for calculating a score relative to each investment for each client, the score being a numeric value related to change in value of each investment over time as compared with an expected value calculated using a purchase price for the financial investment and an estimated annual growth rate percentage.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the estimated annual growth rate percentage is 10 percent.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the estimated annual growth rate percentage is prorated to an estimated daily percentage.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the financial information is displayed in a list, the financial information comprises:

investment account information relative to the user accounts, the investment information including each investment in an investment portfolio of each client, each investment including a cost basis for the investment; and

evaluation data related to the investment account information, the evaluation data being calculated from the investment account information using a retrieved actual value for each investment in the investment portfolio.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the retrieved actual value for each investment in the investment portfolio comprises:

a value downloaded periodically from a quote server, the value being cached so that the value for each investment is available even if the quote server is not functioning.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the list is sortable by the advisor clicking a button on the web interface, and wherein each investment in the portfolio is a clickable item, the clickable item for opening a message form already addressed to the client when clicked on by the advisor.

14. A system for facilitating team work between people using web-enabled devices on a secure network, each person having a user account in a database on the secure network, each person having an assigned relationship with one or more other persons in the database, each assigned relationship being defined between a pair of users, wherein the assigned relationship defines each user of the pair of users as either a client or an advisor, the advisor having more than one client, the system comprising:

the database for hosting all communication between clients and the advisor on the secure network; and

a web-interface for each client to share financial information with the advisor, the web-interface providing an interface for each client and for the advisor to view financial investment information relative to each client;

wherein the web-interface displays for the advisor the financial information for each client of the advisor all at once in a single web page.