Distributed, object oriented global trade finance system with imbedded imaging and work flow and reference data

• US 20040177028A1
• Filed: 03/17/2004
• Published: 09/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Management Systems, Incorporated (CGI, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: American Management Systems, Incorporated (CGI, Inc.)
• Inventors: Francis, James G., Carden, Ronald W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,996,289 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

An object oriented trade finance system designed to support a large-scale transactional work flow on a global basis. The system is designed to support imbedded imaging technology for the scanning, storage and retrieval of all documents coming into and going out of the system. The system supports a flexible 3-tier architecture providing direct separation between the presentation layer, the business layer and the database layer. This flexibility allows for the distribution of processing across geographic boundaries while also providing the ability to perform high-volume transaction processing. The system supports all facets of the trade finance business including but not limited to letters of credit, collections, bankers acceptances and reimbursements. A trade finance system organized into a central and distributed location hardware architecture with a three tier software architecture having a user interface of a user work station which communicates with an application server including business objects. The business objects communicate with a database to obtain the data needed for the business logic and for display on the interface. The business objects include all the business logic needed for the system. An imaging server is provided to allowing users to view copies of the trade finance documents as work items are processed by using a link in the work item to the document image. Work flow distribution rules are used to distribute the work items to a work item list for work group that can be distributed geographically in different time zones. The rules also redistribute the work items as needed to allow processing to continue when the originally assigned workgroup has reached an end of its business day. A communication service facilitates communication between the business objects and the user interface using attribute links in the interface windows. An attribute manager facilitates obtaining attributes needed by the business objects allowing the business objects to include generic rather than specialized attribute access methods.

Claims

1. A method of handling international trade finance transactions, comprising:

providing access to the transaction financier staff and to international commercial trade finance work items corresponding to the trade commerce transaction financing and comprising issuances, advisements, amendments and payments at remote spoke user access locations; and

processing, at a consolidated centralized hub processing location, all the commercial trade finance work items across multiple bank organizations, coupled to said remote locations and consolidating back office processing of the work items in real-time with constant processing availability by using workflow routing between the locations as they become available for handling the work items and using a consolidated computer database in processing the work items, the database having multiple base currencies each base currency corresponding to a country source of the transactions

2. A method of handling international trade commerce transaction financing, comprising:

accessing the international trade finance work items comprising issuances, advisements, amendments and payments, at remote spoke user access locations in different time zones; and

providing back office processing of the work items across multiple bank organizations, across the different time zones in real-time using a consolidated computer database in processing the work item, the database having multiple base currencies, each base currency corresponding to a country source of the transactions at a single consolidated hub processing location having one or more computers coupled to said remote locations

3. A method of handling international trade commerce transaction financing, comprising:

accessing the international trade finance work items comprising issuances, advisements, amendments and payments and a document image related to the work item by the transaction financier staff through a user interface; and

processing, through a single consolidated processing system, the work item across multiple bank organizations in real-time and providing the image of the document with constant processing and image availability using a consolidated database in processing the work item, the database having multiple base currencies.

4. A method of handling international trade commerce transaction financing, comprising:

Accessing, through a user interface, international trade finance work items comprising issuances, advisements, amendments, and payments to the transaction financier staff; and

Processing, with Around-the-clock capability, the work item across multiple bank organizations in real-time using a consolidated database in processing the work item, the database having multiple base currencies by a single consolidated processing system.

5. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein work item processing is referenced to a global system time.

6. A method of handling international trade commerce transaction financing, comprising:

Accessing, through a user interface, international trade finance work items comprising issuances, advisements, amendments, and payments; and

Processing, by a consolidated processing system, work items across multiple bank organizations in real-time using business objects having an object hierarchy with common code in ancestor objects, reusable service objects providing services only, reusable component objects and hooks within the objects allowing addition of code without altering the common code and using a consolidated database in processing the work item.

7. A method of handling trade commerce transaction financing, comprising:

initiating execution of a business object at geographically distributed processing locations, each location including user work stations having a trade finance interface; and

performing, by an application server, back office trade finance business logic for processing international trade finance transactions across multiple bank organizations in real-time responsive to initiation by the work stations with constant processing availability using a consolidated database in processing;

the database having base currencies corresponding to country sources of the transactions, at a consolidated central processing location coupled to said distributed locations.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein said business object communicates with a consolidated database server for data required by the business logic.

9. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein one of the work stations executes a business object.

10. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein a communication object communicates between the interface and the business object.

11. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein workers at different geographic locations have different work periods and said central processing location reassigning work items to the different locations responsive to the periods.

12. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the business logic is performed relative to a trade instrument identified on said interface, the trade instrument having a trade document associated therewith and said system further comprising an image server storing an image of the document and a link to the instrument, allowing the interface to retrieve the image from the instrument.

13. A method as recited in claim 7, further comprising connection and transport objects providing communication between said interface and said business object.

14. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein said interface includes only input output logic.

15. A method as recited in claims 7, further comprising an object communication service requesting attribute values for fields of a window of said interface.

16. A method as recited in claim 7, further comprising an attribute manager accessing an attribute object for an attribute of the business object.

17. A method of handling trade commerce transaction financing, comprising:

providing access to trade finance work items comprising issuances, advisements, amendments and payments and a document image related to the work item and an instrument to the transaction financier staff at geographically distributed processing locations, each location located in a different time zone and including user work stations having a trade finance interface initiating execution of a business object, and

processing the work items and across the different time zones providing twenty-four hour seven day a week processing by assigning the work items to workers at different geographic locations having different work periods and providing the image of the document with constant processing and image availability items comprising issuances, advisements, amendments, and payments, using a work flow distribution rules table and a rollover rules table with a rule making process at a consolidated central processing location coupled to said distributed locations and consolidating back office processing of the work items using a consolidated database in and comprising;

holding and executing, by an application server, the business object to perform trade finance business logic responsive to initiation by the work stations, a communication object communicating between the interface and the business object, and an attribute manager accessing an attribute object for an attribute of the business object;

storing a consolidated database comprising data required by the business logic and having multiple base currencies by a database server; and

storing an image of the document and a link to the instrument, allowing the interface to retrieve the image from the instrument, the document or the work item an image server.

18. A trade finance system, comprising:

remote spoke user access locations providing access to trade finance work items; and

a centralized hub processing location coupled to said remote locations and consolidating processing of the work items.

19. A trade finance system, comprising:

remote spoke user access locations providing access to a trade finance work item and located in different time zones; and

a hub processing location coupled to said remote locations and processing of the work item across the different time zones.

20. A computer readable storage media for controlling a computer by initiating trade finance processing of trade finance work items from geographically distributed locations and processing the work items in a centralized location.