SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONFIGURING A WEBSITE HAVING A PLURALITY OF OPERATIONAL MODES

• US 20100082780A1
• Filed: 10/01/2008
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sincro LLC (Ansira, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ADP Dealer Services Incorporated (CDK Global Incorporated)
• Inventors: Muilenburg, Matt, Piesche, Stefan
• Granted Patent: US 8,438,310 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

A plurality of affiliated network of websites may be configured to log user interactions thereon. The respective logs may comprise user identification information to allow a profile aggregation service to correlate user interactions across the plurality of websites and to generate respective user profiles, which may be used to configure the websites. A context aware platform (CAP) website may be configured to provide web services for entities in a business hierarchy. The CAP website may capable of presenting content in one of a plurality of operational modes associated with a geographical granularity of the franchise hierarchy. In addition, the CAP website may be configurable according to a user profile generated using user interactions across a plurality of websites and/or on the CAP website.

Claims

1. A system for providing web services for a business hierarchy, comprising:

a web server comprising a processor and computer-readable storage media communicatively coupled to a network;

a website resident on the storage media of the webserver and made available on the network by the webserver, wherein the website is configurable to display content to a user in one of a plurality of operational modes; and

a configuration module communicatively coupled to the website to configure the website to display content to a user in one of the plurality of operational modes responsive to a request from the user for content from the web server.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of operational modes corresponds to a different level of the business hierarchy.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of operational modes corresponds to different geographic granularity within the business hierarchy.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of operational modes comprises one or more operational modes corresponding to a business relationship within a franchise business hierarchy.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of operational modes comprises one or more operational modes corresponding to an advertising association within the business hierarchy.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of operational modes comprises one or more operational modes corresponding to an advertising campaign of the business hierarchy.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of operational modes comprises one or more operational modes corresponding to a marketing directive of the business hierarchy.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration module is configured to detect an incoming request for content from a user and to determine an operational mode of the website using the incoming request.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the user request is generated by a search engine, and wherein the configuration module determines the operational mode of the website using a search term submitted to the search engine.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the user request comprises a network identifier, and wherein the configuration module determines the operational mode of the website using the network identifier.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the identifier is one selected from the group consisting of an Internet protocol address, a media access control value, and a hardware identifier.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising a data storage module comprising a plurality of user profiles, and wherein the user request comprises a user identifier, and wherein the configuration module accesses a user profile from the data storage module using the user identifier.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the user profile comprises a preferred operational mode of the user, and wherein the website configuration module configures the website according to the preferred operational mode.

14. The system of claim 4, wherein the computer-readable storage media further comprises a data aggregation module communicatively coupled to one or more franchises in the business hierarchy, and wherein the data aggregation module is configured to receive user interaction records from the one or more franchises in the business hierarchy.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein one of the plurality of operational modes is a regional mode, wherein in the regional mode the configuration module is to configure the website to present content related to one or more franchises located in a particular region.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the data aggregation module is configured to obtain content related to the one or more franchises located in the particular region.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the content related to the one or more franchises located in the particular region comprises inventory content available from the one or more franchises located in the particular region.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the franchises are vehicle dealers and wherein the inventory content comprises configured vehicles available from the one or more franchises located in the particular region.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the content related to the one or more franchises located in the particular region comprises an offer and/or promotion available from the one or more franchises located in the particular region.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the content related to the one or more franchises located in the particular region comprises an offer and/or promotion available from the one or more franchises in the particular region.

21. The system of claim 14, wherein one of the plurality of operational modes is a group mode, wherein in the group mode the configuration module is to configure the website to present content related to a franchise group comprising one or more franchises.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the data aggregation module is configured to obtain content related to the franchise group.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the content related to the franchise group comprises inventory content available from the franchises comprising the franchise group.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the franchise group comprises a group of vehicle dealers and wherein the inventory content comprises configured vehicles available from the franchises comprising the franchise group.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the content related to the franchise group comprises an offer and/or promotion available from the franchises comprising the franchise group.

26. The system of claim 14, wherein one of the plurality of operational modes is a hyper-local mode, and wherein in hyper-local mode the configuration module is to configure the website to present content related to a particular franchise.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the data aggregation module is configured to obtain content related to the particular franchise.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the content related to the particular franchise comprises inventory content available from the particular franchise.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the franchise is a vehicle dealer and wherein the inventory content comprises configured vehicles available from the particular franchise.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein the content related to the particular franchise comprises an offer and/or promotion available from the particular franchise.

31. The system of claim 1, wherein the website configuration module is to change an operational mode of the website responsive user interaction with the website.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the user interaction with the website comprises a user selection of a region on a map interface of the website.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the user interaction comprises a user input of a location identifier to the website.

34. A method of providing web services for a business hierarchy, comprising:

providing a website capable of simultaneously operating in one of a plurality of operational modes, wherein each of the plurality of operational modes;

detecting an incoming request for web content from a user; and

selecting one of the plurality of operational modes responsive to the request; and

configuring the website to present content to the user according to one of the selected operational mode.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein one or more of the plurality of operational modes corresponds to a different geographical granularity within the business hierarchy.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein one or more of the plurality of operational modes corresponds to a business relationship within the business hierarchy.

37. The method of claim 34, wherein one or more of the plurality of operational modes corresponds to an advertising association within the business hierarchy.

38. The method of claim 34, wherein one or more of the plurality of operational modes corresponds to a marketing directive of the business hierarchy.

39. The method of claim 34, further comprising determining an operational mode of the website using the incoming request.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the user request is generated by a search engine, and wherein determining the operational mode comprises using a search term submitted to the search engine to determine to one of the plurality of operational modes of the website.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the user request comprises a network identifier, and wherein the operational mode is determined using the network identifier.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the identifier is one selected from the group consisting of an Internet protocol address, a media access control value, and a hardware identifier.

43. The method of claim 39, wherein the incoming request comprises a user identifier, the method further comprising accessing a user profile using the user identifier and using the user profile to determine the operational mode of the website.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the user profile comprises a preferred operational mode of the user, and wherein determining the operational mode of the website comprises selecting the preferred operational mode from the user profile.

45. The method of claim 35, further comprising aggregating content for display on the website in one or more of the operational modes from one or more of a manufacturers and/or franchises in the business hierarchy.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein one of the plurality of operational modes is a regional mode, the method further comprising configuring the website to operate in regional mode, wherein in regional mode the website configured is to present content related to one or more franchises located in a particular region.

47. The method of claim 46, further comprising aggregating data from one or more franchises located in the particular region for presentation on the website.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the data from the one or more franchises located in the particular region comprises inventory content available from the one or more franchises located in the particular region.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein the one or more franchises are vehicle dealers and wherein the inventory content comprises configured vehicles available from the one or more franchise located in the particular region.

50. The method of claim 47, wherein the inventory content related to the one or more franchises located in the particular region comprises an offer and/or promotion available from the one or more franchises located in the particular region.

51. The method of claim 47, wherein the inventory content related to the one or more franchises located in the particular region comprises an offer and/or promotion available from a manufacturer of the products and/or services offered by the one or more franchises in the particular region that are available in the particular region.

52. The method of claim 45, wherein one of the plurality of operational modes is a group mode, the method further comprising configuring the website to operate in group mode, wherein in group mode the website is configured to present content related to a particular franchise group comprising a plurality of franchises in the business hierarchy.

57. The method of claim 45, wherein one of the plurality of operational modes is a hyper-local mode, and wherein in hyper-local mode the website is configured to present content related to a particular franchise.

58. The method of claim 57, further comprising aggregating data from the particular franchise to obtain content related to the particular franchise.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the content related to the particular franchise comprises inventory available from the particular franchise.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein the franchise is a vehicle dealer and wherein the inventory content comprises configured vehicles available from the particular franchise.

61. The method of claim 58, wherein the content related to the particular franchise comprises an offer and/or promotion available from the particular franchise.

62. The method of claim 34, further comprising changing an operational mode of the website responsive to activity of a user on the website.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein the user activity comprises a user selection of a region on a map displayed on the website.

64. The method of claim 62, wherein the user activity comprises a user input of a location identifier to the website.

65. The method of claim 34, further comprising, managing search engine marketing at one or more search engines for the business hierarchy.

66. The method of claim 65, wherein managing search engine marketing comprises managing bidding for one or more keywords relevant to the business hierarchy.

53. The method of 52, further comprising aggregating data from one or more franchises in the particular franchise group to obtain content related to the particular franchise group.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the inventory content related to the particular franchise group comprises inventory available from the franchises comprising the particular franchise group.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein the franchises of the particular franchise group are vehicle dealers and wherein the inventory comprises configured vehicles available from the particular franchise group.

56. The method of claim 53, wherein the inventory content related to the particular franchise group comprises an offer and/or promotion available from the particular franchise group.

67. A system for providing web services for a business hierarchy, comprising:

a webserver comprising a processor and a storage media communicatively coupled to a network;

a website resident on the storage media of the webserver and made available to the network by the webserver, wherein the website is configurable to display content to a user in one of a plurality of operational modes, wherein each of the plurality of operational modes corresponds to a different geographic granularity of a level of the business hierarchy, the plurality of operational modes comprising a national mode, a regional mode, a group mode, and a hyper-local mode;

a data aggregation module communicatively coupled to a manufacturer and a plurality of franchises in the business hierarchy;

a website configuration module communicatively coupled to the website to configure the website to display content to a user in one of the plurality of operational modes according to a method comprising;

detecting a user request for access to the website;

determining a location identifier using the user request;

selecting an operational mode for the website using the location identifier;

configuring the website to operate in one of the national mode, regional mode, group mode, and hyper-local mode using the location identifier, and

accessing data for display on the website, wherein the data accessed is determined by the selected operational mode of the website.

68. The system of claim 67, wherein the location identifier comprises a parameter of a uniform resource locator associated with the user request.

69. The system of claim 67 further comprising data storage media comprising a plurality of user profiles, wherein determining a location identifier using the user request comprises:

determining a user identifier from the user request;

accessing a user profile in the data storage module using the user identifier; and

accessing a location identifier in the user profile.