INTEGRATED FINANCIAL SERVICES PLATFORM

• US 20060218061A1
• Filed: 03/25/2005
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Security First Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Security First Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: MOULINE, Imad
• Application Number:
  US10/907,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20060218061A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• 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

Abstract

An integrated financial services platform that allows for the definition of applications, rules and data necessary to fulfill financial services to be created one time and either loaded into workstation devices that fulfill the financial services or, loaded into a server that fulfills the financial services from requesting devices. The workstation devices can operate autonomously but are continuously updated as changes in the definition of the applications, rules and data are deployed. The server houses the master definition of the applications, rules and data making the fulfillment of the financial services available to a variety of devices access the server. Thus, the provision of the financial services is integrated regardless of the access point that request the system to fulfill the financial service.

Claims

1. A system for integrating a plurality of financial services, the system comprising:

a first processing device in which is contained a master definition of the financial services available to the system including the applications and the business rules applied when invoking the financial services; and

a plurality of access points to the system, each access point providing at least a portion of the financial services to users of the system with each such portion of the financial services relying on the applications and business rules contained in the first processing device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of access points is a workstation, the workstation including:

a user interface;

an interface to the first processing device;

an offline manager that interacts with the first processing device when the first processing device is online; and

a workstation-based processing function that interacts with the user interface and the offline manager, is loaded into the workstation by the first processing device and is an image of at least a portion of the master definition.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of access points is a workstation, the workstation including:

a user interface;

an interface to the first processing device;

an offline manager that interacts with the first processing device when the first processing device is online; and

a workstation-based processing function that interacts with the user interface and the offline manager by;

receiving a request for a financial service from the user interface;

generating a process flow to perform at least a portion of the financial service;

performing the at least a portion of the requested financial service and providing a transaction to the offline manager;

the offline manager being operable to;

detect when the first processing device is online; and

provide the transaction to the first processing device.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the workstation based processing function is loaded into the workstation by the first processing device and is an image of at least a portion of the master definition.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein any subsequent changes to the master definition are loaded into the workstation.

6. A system for integrating a plurality of financial services, the system comprising:

a server including a server-based processing function defining the business rules and applications available to the system;

a plurality of workstations with each workstation including a client-based processing function that is loaded from the server and is an image of at least a portion of the server-based processing function; and

a plurality of other devices, each such device having access to the server and operable to execute one or more applications available on the server and utilize the business rules when providing financial services,

whereby the financial services are made available to each of the plurality of workstations and each of the plurality of other devices with each such financial service relying on the applications and business rules defined in the server-based processing function.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the plurality of other devices can be one of a group of devices including ATMs, thin terminals, and telephone access systems.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the client-based processing function for each of the workstations is loaded into the workstation from the server upon virgin power up.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein upon subsequent power ups of each workstation, any changes that have been made to the server-based processing function in the server are loaded into the workstation.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the loading of the client-based processing function into the workstation is performed using JNLP technology.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the loading of the client-based processing function into the workstation is performed using OSGI technology.

12. A system for providing ASP type operation to a plurality of devices while integrating the provision of financial services, each of the plurality of devices being communicatively coupled to a server, the system comprising:

a server including a server-based processing function defining as set of applications and rules necessary to provide the financial services;

a first class of devices of the plurality of devices being a workstation class of devices with each workstation class of devices including;

a user interface;

an interface to the server;

an offline manager that interacts with the server when the server is online; and

a client-based processing function is loaded from the server and includes an image of at least a portion of the server-based processing function, the client-based processing function being operable to interact with the user interface and the offline manager by;

receiving function requests from the user interface;

generating a process flow to perform the requested function;

performing the requested function and providing a transaction to the offline manager; and

a second class of devices of the plurality of devices being a thin-client class of devices with each thin-client class of devices including an interface to the server thereby allowing the server-based processing function to;

receive function requests from the thin-client class of devices;

generate a process flow to perform the requested function;

perform the requested function;

whereby the financial services are integrated in that they are provided from a common set of applications and rules that are maintained in the server.

13. A method for providing integrated financial services to a plurality of diverse access points, the method comprising the steps of:

creating server processes to run on a server, the server process including applications and rules necessary to provide the financial services;

communicatively coupling a plurality of workstations to the server;

loading an image of the server processes into each of the workstations;

receiving a request for a financial service at a workstation;

fulfilling the financial service request at the workstation based on the loaded image of the server processes;

the workstation providing a report of the fulfillment of the financial service to the server;

communicatively coupling a plurality of non-workstation devices to the server;

receiving a request for a financial service at a non-workstation device;

fulfilling the financial service request at the server;

whereby financial service requests received by workstations or non-workstations are fulfilled using the same applications and rules thereby integrating the financial services.

transmitting the transaction to the server; and

loading the changes incurred in an upgrade of one or more of the processes to each client device.