AUTOMATED ENTITLEMENT MANAGEMENT METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CAPTURING MAINTENANCE RENEWALS REVENUES
First Claim
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1. A method for capturing maintenance renewal revenues in connection with digital goods, comprising steps of:
- creating a product hierarchy for modeling and managing complex product relationships among a vendor'"'"'s product and/or service offerings;
creating customer account entitlements to said product and/or service offerings with an entitlement management module;
distributing said product and/or service offerings to a customer according to said entitlements;
transferring data from a source location at a software publisher or other seller of subscription programs to said entitlement management module;
capturing and tracking customer and subscription data, wherein data captured and tracked comprises any of customer identification data, including any of customer name, unique customer ID, customer contact person, email address for customer contact person;
a unique identifier for a subscription program that said customer has purchased; and
said customer'"'"'s effective and expiration dates of said subscription program, including any of effective and expiration dates;
providing a renewals management module for enabling said software publisher or other seller of subscription services to establish automated business rules that define how, when, and to whom communications are sent to customers that have subscription renewals coming due; and
providing a communication module for communicating with said customer contact.
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Abstract
The presently preferred embodiment of the invention provides a method and apparatus that enables software publishers and other sellers of subscription services. e.g. subscriptions, such as maintenance or license programs, to track when the subscription period for each customer expires, to inform interested contacts at the customer proactively that a renewal for their subscription is coming due, and to provide a way for those contacts at the customer to purchase a renewal of their subscription program.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for capturing maintenance renewal revenues in connection with digital goods, comprising steps of:
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creating a product hierarchy for modeling and managing complex product relationships among a vendor'"'"'s product and/or service offerings; creating customer account entitlements to said product and/or service offerings with an entitlement management module; distributing said product and/or service offerings to a customer according to said entitlements; transferring data from a source location at a software publisher or other seller of subscription programs to said entitlement management module; capturing and tracking customer and subscription data, wherein data captured and tracked comprises any of customer identification data, including any of customer name, unique customer ID, customer contact person, email address for customer contact person;
a unique identifier for a subscription program that said customer has purchased; and
said customer'"'"'s effective and expiration dates of said subscription program, including any of effective and expiration dates;providing a renewals management module for enabling said software publisher or other seller of subscription services to establish automated business rules that define how, when, and to whom communications are sent to customers that have subscription renewals coming due; and providing a communication module for communicating with said customer contact. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An apparatus for capturing maintenance renewal revenues in connection with digital goods, comprising:
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a product hierarchy for modeling and managing complex product relationships among a vendor'"'"'s product and/or service offerings; an entitlement management module for creating customer account entitlements to said product and/or service offerings; means for distributing said product and/or service offerings to a customer according to said entitlements; means for transferring data from a source location at a software publisher or other seller of subscription programs to said entitlement management module; means for capturing and tracking customer and subscription data, wherein data captured and tracked comprises any of customer identification data, including any of customer name, unique customer ID, customer contact person, email address for customer contact person;
a unique identifier for a subscription program that said customer has purchased; and
said customer'"'"'s effective and expiration dates of said subscription program, including any of effective and expiration dates;a renewals management module for enabling said software publisher or other seller of subscription services to establish automated business rules that define how, when, and to whom communications are sent to customers that have subscription renewals coming due; and a communication module for communicating with said customer contact. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification