END-TO-END MANAGEMENT OF CARRIER SERVICES FOR ENTERPRISES AND RESELLERS

• US 20090125409A1
• Filed: 11/08/2007
• Published: 05/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wholesale Carrier Services, Inc. (BCM One, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wholesale Carrier Services, Inc. (BCM One, Inc.)
• Inventors: BARTON, Christopher S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,933,813 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 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

The present invention provides a software based system for end-to-end handling of communication services that includes a set of Web based interfaces. The set of Web interfaces can permit a user to view, search and select a set of communication services of different providers, each service being presented with a real-time price for the service. Contracts can be automatically generated for selected ones of the communication services. The contracts can specify the real-time price for each service. An order status of the communication services can be monitored using the set of Web based interfaces. Invoices can be generated for the communication services. When different providers provide the communication services, a single integrated bill can be provided for services of the different providers. Usages of the communication services can be viewed online by selectable user categories, which decompose into per-user usage entries.

Claims

1. A software based system for end-to-end handling of communication services comprising:

a set of Web based interfaces renderable within a standard Web browser served over a network from a Web server to remotely located clients, wherein said set of Web interfaces;

permit a user to view, search, and select a set of communication services of different providers, each service being presented with a real-time price for the service;

automatically generate contracts for selected ones of the communication services, wherein said contracts specify the real-time price for each service;

monitor an order status of communication services selected and contracted for using the set of Web based interfaces;

generate invoices related to the communication services, wherein when a plurality of different providers provide the communication services, a single integrated bill is provided for services of the different providers; and

view usages of the communication services online by selectable user categories, which decompose into per-user usage entries.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein users are permitted to use the set of Web based interfaces to select, contract for, order, receive, and manage communication services through a Web browser without directly interacting with human agents.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the software based system is associated with a wholesale carrier, which receives communication services from the different providers at wholesale rates and which resells these wholesale services, wherein said wholesale carrier maintains data presented within the set of Web based services using computing systems associated with the wholesale carrier, wherein the real-time price is a price charged by the wholesale carrier, wherein the generated contracts are between a user designated entity and the wholesale carrier, wherein the invoices comprise amounts owed to the wholesale carrier for the communication services.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the wholesale carrier permits enterprises to directly select, contract for, order, receive, and manage communication services using the set of Web based interfaces.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the wholesale carrier permits resellers to select, contract for, order, receive, and manage communication services using the set of Web based interfaces, wherein the resellers are permitted to establish rates via the Web based interfaces which service consumers are to pay, wherein the set of Web based interfaces comprise a consumer version of the interfaces that generates invoices and permits consumers to view usages in accordance with the reseller established rates, and wherein the resellers are permitted to enter reseller'"'"'s branding elements, wherein the consumer version of the interfaces are branded in accordance with the reseller'"'"'s branding elements.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein consumer specific details related to the communication services associated with the set of Web based interfaces are abstracted from the different providers of the communication services, wherein the different providers provide the communication services under high-volume contracts between an entity other than that which permits the communication services to be contracts for via the set of Web based interfaces.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said set of Web based interfaces are able to dynamically generate a plurality of reports, said reports comprising service quote reports, contracts, order status reports, invoices, and utilization reports, wherein each of these reports are stored and maintained within a server-side data store accessible via the set of Web based interfaces.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein each of the reports are editable by users and wherein users are able to store edited versions of the reports in the server-side data store.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a server-side data store configured to establish user specific profiles, wherein each of the set of Web based interfaces use customization settings established within the server-side data store, wherein the customization settings change presentation aspects of the Web based interfaces.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the set of interfaces are configured to be used by resellers who select, contract for, order, receive, and manage communication services using the set of Web based interfaces, wherein the resellers are permitted to establish rates via the Web based interfaces which service consumers contracting with the resellers are to pay, wherein the set of Web based interfaces comprise a consumer version of the interfaces that generates invoices and permits consumers to view usages in accordance with the reseller established rates, and wherein the resellers are permitted to enter reseller'"'"'s branding elements, wherein the consumer version of the interfaces are branded in accordance with the reseller'"'"'s branding elements, and wherein different ones of the user specific profiles are for different service consumers of the resellers.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of interfaces permit the resellers to establish profiles for a set of reselling agents, who receive at least one of commissions and sales based compensation from the reseller associated with the communication services, wherein the set of Web based interfaces generate invoices for the commissions in accordance with reseller established criteria, wherein the reselling agents are granted selective access to the Web based interfaces in accordance with permissions established by the reseller, for whom the reselling agent is a representative.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the details specific to the resellers and the service consumers are hidden from the different service providers.

13. A system for handling communication services comprising:

a quote engine configured to ascertain real-time quotes for communication services provided by a plurality of different service providers;

a contract engine configured to automatically generate contracts for a set of communication services at rates quoted by the quote engine;

an order engine configured to manage a set of configurable milestones and to determine a status of each milestone, wherein the milestones are associated with orders resulting from contracts generated by the contract engine;

an invoice engine configured to create invoices for usages of communication services that were ordered and monitored using the order engine;

a utilization engine configured to manage usages of the invoiced communication services by categories, which decompose into per-user usage entries, wherein the quote engine, contract engine, the order engine, the invoice engine, and the utilization engine are software engines written as a set of programmatic instructions stored in a machine readable media that are executable by a server-side computing device;

a Web server configured to serve Web pages that permit authorized remotely located users to interact with the quote engine, contract engine, the order engine, the invoice engine, and the utilization engine using a client-side Web browser; and

a server side data store configured to store a set of reports generated by the quote engine, the contract engine, the order engine, the invoice engine, and the utilization engine and to make these reports accessible to users via the served Web pages, wherein said reports comprise service quote reports, contracts, order status reports, invoices, and utilization reports.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said system is configured to be used by resellers of communication services and by enterprises contracting for communication services, and wherein consumer specific details related to the communication services are abstracted from the different providers of the communication services, wherein the different providers provide the communication services under high-volume contracts between an entity and the different providers, wherein the entity is responsible for data provided by the quote engine, the contract engine, the order engine, the invoice engine, and the utilization engine and provides access to these engines as a value added service.

15. A method for reselling communication services comprising:

establishing contracts with a plurality of service providing carriers for communication services;

permitting a plurality of service consumers to utilize the established contracts to receive a set of communication services from the service providers in accordance with separate contracts details of which are inaccessible to the service providers, wherein the set of communication services for particular ones of the service consumers comprise a plurality of different services provided by a plurality of different service providing carriers;

periodically presenting each of the service consumers with a single integrated bill for periodic charges incurred for the set of communication services during a period, wherein payment indicated within each of the bills is payable to a single entity; and

presenting each of the service consumers with an expense and utilization report for communication services used within a user specified period.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

permitting a plurality of resellers to utilize the established contracts to contract for the set of communication services;

enabling each of the resellers is able to establish a rate for the set of communication services that is to be charged to service consumers, wherein details of each of the single integrated bills are in accordance with the reseller established rate, wherein each of the bills are branded in accordance with reseller specific brandings;

presenting invoices for the set of communication services to the resellers in a single integrated bill;

presenting each of the resellers with an expense and utilization report for communication services used within a user specified period.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

presenting within an interactive Web interface each of the resellers with real-time quotes of services and services pricing available through the plurality of service providers under the established contracts, wherein said interactive Web interface permits the resellers to select presented ones of the communication services;

presenting a contract Web interface to the resellers, within which the resellers are able to establish the rates that are to be charged to the service consumers, and within with the resellers are able to specify a brand that is to appear on service consumer visible artifacts, which include said bills and said expense and utilization report, wherein said contract Web interface comprises an option to generate contracts for the set of communication services in accordance with the reseller established rates.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

presenting an order status interface to the resellers that shows an order status of the set of services to be provided to the service consumers in accordance with details of the generated contracts, wherein the presenting of the real-time quotes, the presenting of the contract interface the presenting of the order status interface, the presenting of the bills, and the presenting of the expense and utilization reports are steps performed by an end-to-end communication service handling computing system in accordance with a set of programmatic instructions stored in a machine readable medium accessible and utilized by the end-to-end communication service handling computing system.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

presenting within an interactive Web interface each of the service consumers with real-time quotes of services and services pricing available through the plurality of service providers under the established contracts, wherein said interactive Web interface permits the service consumers to select presented ones of the communication services; and

presenting a contract Web interface to the service consumers configured to generate contract documents for a set of services selected via the interactive Web interface for real-time quotes.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

presenting an order status interface to the service consumers that shows an order status of the set of services to be provided to the service consumers in accordance with details of the generated contracts, wherein the presenting of the real-time quotes, the presenting of the contract interface the presenting of the order status interface, the presenting of the bills, and the presenting of the expense and utilization reports are steps performed by an end-to-end communication service handling computing system in accordance with a set of programmatic instructions stored in a machine readable medium accessible and utilized by the end-to-end communication service handling computing system.