SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DEFINING ATTRIBUTES, DECISION RULES, OR BOTH, FOR REMOTE EXECUTION, CLAIM SET I

• US 20060293979A1
• Filed: 04/07/2006
• Published: 12/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CRIF Corp. (CRIBIS Holding SRL)
• Original Assignee: Magnum Communications Limited
• Inventors: Bridenbaugh, Ray F. Jr., Ryan, Edith D., Cash, Joseph Larry
• Granted Patent: US 8,024,778 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4016 involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details

Abstract

A system of the invention comprises a design module, execution engine, and performance management module. A first computer hosts the design module which enables a user to define attributes, queries, and decision rules transmitted to the execution engine hosted on a second computer remote to the first computer. The second computer can be located at a credit bureau, credit reporting agency, or other data provider. The second computer runs the execution engine to query a data repository with the user-defined attributes and queries, and applies the user-defined decision rules to produce result data transmitted to a third computer hosting the performance management module for monitoring performance of a benefit or offering made with the result data and the corresponding attributes, queries, and decision rules that generated the result data.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a computer at a client site configured to create a set of one or more attributes and decision rules at the client site, and further configured to transmit the set of attributes and decision rules to a data provider site remote to the client site for execution to generate result data based on the attributes and decision rules.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the attributes and decision rules are defined by a user with a design module of the computer at the client site.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the computer at the client site is connected to provide the attributes and decision rules to the data provider site via a communication network.

4. A system as claimed in claim 3 wherein the communication network is the Internet.

5. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the set of one or more attributes and decision rules, defined with the computer at the client site, relates to credit scoring.

6. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the set of one or more attributes and decision rules are used to pre-screen a pool of potential credit applicants represented by data of the data provider to generate the result data as a pre-screen list to which solicitations are to be sent.

7. A system as claimed in claim 6 wherein the data provider is a credit bureau or other credit reporting agency.

8. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the attributes and decision rules are defined by the user of the design module to generate the result data as recommended decisions as to whether credit is to be extended to the applicants.

9. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system further comprises:

a computer at the data provider site with an execution engine configured to receive the data of the data provider, apply the attributes and decision rules to process a portion of the data, and to generate the result data from the data provider'"'"'s data using the attributes and decision rules.

10. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the computer of the client site transmits the set of attributes and decision rules to the computer of the data provider site along with an identifier, and the computer transmits the result data to the client site from the data provider site along with the identifier so that the client site can correlate the result data with the set of attributes and decision rules that generated the result data.

11. A system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the computer of the client site comprises a performance management module that uses the identifier to relate the set of attributes and decision rules to the result data, and further receives performance data indicating the performance of the attributes and decision rules in generating customers having defined characteristics.

12. A system according to claim 11 wherein the client site receives credit applications based on solicitations generated with the result data from the data provider site, and the client site applies the same attributes and decision rules used to determine potential applicants to which to send the solicitations, and the client site applies the same attributes and decision rules to determine whether the applicants still qualify to receive credit in view of any circumstance that may have changed from the time of transmitting the solicitations to receiving the applications from the applicants.

13. A system according to claim 11 wherein the performance management module enables the user to track one or more of the budget of a marketing campaign, the data provider, target count of prospective applicants sought in a pre-screen, actual count of prospective applicants received from the data providers'"'"' result data, the date on which the attributes were sent to the data provider, the identity of the attribute and/or decision rules used to generate the result data, the expected response rate of applicants to solicitations, the actual response rate of applicants to solicitations, or the percentage of responses received, or combinations of the foregoing.

14. A method comprising:

at a client site,

defining a set of one or more attributes for a query and decision rules for an inquiry using a design tool of a computer;

naming the set of attributes with an identifier for reference and performance tracking;

transmitting the set of attributes and identifier to a data provider site remote from the client site to generate result data based on the attributes;

receiving the result data and the identifier from the data provider;

making or recommending decisions based on the result data; and

maintaining revision control on the set of attributes defined based on the identifier using the computer.

15. The method according to claim 14 wherein the step of defining the set of query attributes and decision rules uses a design module running on the computer at the client site.

16. The method according to claim 15 further comprising the step of:

providing the set of query attributes from the design module to an execution engine running at the data provider site.

17. The method according to claim 16 wherein the data provider is a credit bureau.

18. The method according to claim 16 wherein the query is defined by an outside system external to a client site, and is collected by a loan management system at the client site, and the user sends the query including the set of attributes to the execution engine running remotely at the data provider for generation of result data including a pre-screen or a decision recommendation for return to the client site.

19. The method according to claim 18 wherein the outside system comprises multiple user-based systems running at remote locations, loan origination systems running at the client site or remotely distributed at the client site or remote offices, point-of-sale systems distributed at remote locations for pre-screening applicants or making a credit-related decision based on the result data, or combinations thereof.

20. The method according to claim 14 wherein the inquiry for data can be made in a variety of transaction methods including one or more batch-processed transactions which can be run for a single or multiple records of data at a scheduled time of convenience for the operators, or a single transaction run in real-time, or any combination of batch and real-time processing.

21. The method according to claim 14 wherein the execution engine makes a decision based on inquiry data and the rules created by the user, and returns result data including a pre-screen, answer, recommendation, decision, or combinations of the foregoing, based on the result data received from the data provider without passing sensitive credit-related data that would be subject to FCRA regulations.

22. The method according to claim 14 wherein a set of attributes produce result data related to a business object, the method further comprising the step of:

defining a business object to include the set of attributes and decision rules;

selecting the set of attributes to be processed individually, or as a set, to achieve the query goal of the business object;

sequencing the attributes using the design tool;

assigning a role to each attribute;

assigning values or computations to each attribute as required in the processing set; and

providing the rule or rules for execution on the data identified by the set of attributes.

23. The method according to claim 14 wherein the method maintains the revision control for a computer-process-able object making up the set of attributes, whether the attribute definition is for an attribute model template, individual attribute, attribute set, or an attribute set cloned from an existing attribute or attribute set, the method further comprising:

naming the set of one or more attributes as a business object;

enabling revision control for the business object;

opening a new revision of the business object or attribute set;

making additions or modifications to the new revision of the attribute or set; and

releasing the new revision of the business object for use by the execution engine of the data provider site.