Information processing apparatus and information processing method

• US 20050004847A1
• Filed: 05/19/2004
• Published: 01/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Matsuura, Kenichiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,346,557 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders

Abstract

This invention has as its object to check duplicate orders of a customer terminal of an identical customer in an on-line sales system which deals with customer terminals connected via a network. To this end, this invention has an order acceptance unit for accepting an order from a customer terminal, a duplicate order checking unit for checking if an order of an identical type has been placed from the customer terminal in addition to the order, an order acceptance notifying unit for controlling to notify the customer terminal of the checking result of the duplicate order checking unit, and an information holding unit for holding information of an order which is determined to be acceptable.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

an order acceptance unit for accepting an order from a customer terminal;

a duplicate order checking unit for checking if an order of an identical type has been placed from the customer terminal in addition to the order;

an order acceptance notifying unit for controlling to notify the customer terminal of the checking result of said duplicate order checking unit; and

an information holding unit for holding information of an order which is determined to be acceptable.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a payment information providing unit for providing information to an external payment system; and

a payment information acceptance unit for accepting information from the external payment system, and

wherein said order acceptance notifying unit further controls to notify the customer terminal of acceptability of the order, on the basis of the information received from the payment information acceptance unit, and said information holding unit further holds the external payment information.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said payment information providing unit and said payment information acceptance unit respectively make provision and acceptance of information with respect to a payment system according to a payment method accepted by said order acceptance unit.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

an order process restart unit for, when said payment information acceptance unit fails to accept information from the external payment system, restarting a process after a payment for the order of interest, and

an order acceptability notifying unit for an administrator for, when said order process restart unit restarts the process, checking an order using said duplicate order checking unit, and notifying an administrator terminal of the checking result.

5. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a cancel information providing unit for, when said order process restart unit restarts the process and said duplicate order checking unit determines that the order is not acceptable, requesting the external payment system to execute a cancel process of a payment for the order of interest.

6. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a cancel information notifying unit for, when said order process restart unit restarts the process and said duplicate order checking unit determines that the order is not acceptable, urging an administrator terminal to request the external payment system to execute a cancel process.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an order acceptability display unit for an administrator for displaying acceptability of the order on the basis of the checking result of said duplicate order checking unit.

8. A computer program product including a recording medium that records a computer program, said computer program comprising:

a code of an order acceptance step of accepting an order from a customer terminal;

a code of a duplicate order checking step of checking if an order of an identical type has been placed from the customer terminal in addition to the order;

a code of an order acceptance notifying step of controlling to notify the customer terminal of the checking result of the duplicate order checking step; and

a code of an information holding step of holding information of an order which is determined to be acceptable.

9. The computer program product according to claim 8, further comprising:

a code of a payment information providing step of providing information to an external payment system; and

a code of a payment information acceptance step of accepting information from the external payment system, and

wherein the order acceptance notifying step further includes a step of controlling to notify the customer terminal of acceptability of the order, on the basis of the information received from the payment information acceptance step, and the information holding step further includes a step of holding the external payment information.

10. The computer program product according to claim 9, wherein the payment information providing step and the payment information acceptance step respectively make provision and acceptance of information with respect to a payment system according to a payment method accepted in the order acceptance step.

11. The computer program product according to claim 9, further comprising:

an order process restart step of restarting, when information from the external payment system cannot be accepted in the payment information acceptance step, a process after a payment for the order of interest, and

an administrator order acceptability notifying step of checking, when the process is restarted in the order process restart step, an order in the duplicate order checking step, and notifying an administrator terminal of the checking result.

12. The computer program product according to claim 9, further comprising a cancel information providing step of requesting, when the process is restarted in the order process restart step and it is determined in the duplicate order checking step that the order is not acceptable, the external payment system to execute a cancel process of a payment for the order of interest.

13. The computer program product according to claim 9, further comprising a cancel information notifying step of urging, when the process is restarted in the order process restart step and it is determined in the duplicate order checking step that the order is not acceptable, an administrator terminal to request the external payment system to execute a cancel process.

14. The computer program product according to claim 8, further comprising an order acceptability display step of an administrator for displaying acceptability of the order on the basis of the checking result of the duplicate order checking step.

15. An information processing method comprising:

an order acceptance step of accepting an order from a customer;

a duplicate order checking step of checking if the customer has placed an order of an identical type in addition to the order;

an order acceptance notifying step of controlling to notify a customer terminal of the checking result of the duplicate order checking step; and

an information holding step of holding information of an order which is determined to be acceptable in an information holding unit.

16. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a communication interface used to connect a customer terminal;

a storage for storing a program, and

a processor for executing the program stored in said storage, and

wherein the program comprises;

a code of an order acceptance step of accepting an order from a customer terminal;

a code of a duplicate order checking step of checking if an order of an identical type has been placed from the customer terminal in addition to the order;

a code of an order acceptance notifying step of controlling to notify the customer terminal of the checking result of the duplicate order checking step; and

a code of an information holding step of holding information of an order which is determined to be acceptable.