PROVIDING RESOURCE-RELATED INFORMATION USING A STANDARDIZED FORMAT
First Claim
1. An electrical computer system for providing resource-related information to a resource management facilitator system, comprising:
- a logic component configured to receive the resource-related information from a plurality of service points associated with a plurality of resource consumers and store the resource-related information in at least one store, the resource-related information corresponding to electrical digital data that pertains to consumption of at least one physical resource by the plurality of resource consumers;
a logic component configured to package the resource-related information that is received from the plurality of service points, together with other resource-related information, into at least one file, said at least one file providing resource-related information using a plurality of resource-related items expressed in a data structure; and
a logic component configured to provide said at least one file to the resource management facilitator system via a coupling mechanism,at least one schema defining an accepted format of the resource-related items and the data structure,said at least one schema providing a standardized format for use by different utility entities to express resource-related information.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A standardized format is described for representing resource-related information associated with different utility entities. The standardized format can be expressed using three files. A usage file expresses the consumption of resources, an invoice file expresses invoices associated with the consumption of resources, and a rate file expresses different rates which have a bearing on the cost of the resources at different locations. The files are governed by three respective schemas. Functionality is also described which enables a resource management facilitator to interact with the different utility entities and receive the resource-related information therefrom. In one illustrative approach, a utility entity sends a message which indicates that one or more files are available for downloading. The resource management facilitator then retrieves the files and processes the files in an appropriate manner, as specified by information within the message.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. An electrical computer system for providing resource-related information to a resource management facilitator system, comprising:
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a logic component configured to receive the resource-related information from a plurality of service points associated with a plurality of resource consumers and store the resource-related information in at least one store, the resource-related information corresponding to electrical digital data that pertains to consumption of at least one physical resource by the plurality of resource consumers; a logic component configured to package the resource-related information that is received from the plurality of service points, together with other resource-related information, into at least one file, said at least one file providing resource-related information using a plurality of resource-related items expressed in a data structure; and a logic component configured to provide said at least one file to the resource management facilitator system via a coupling mechanism, at least one schema defining an accepted format of the resource-related items and the data structure, said at least one schema providing a standardized format for use by different utility entities to express resource-related information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method implemented using a computer system for receiving resource-related information from another system, comprising:
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receiving an electrical digital data message from the other system via a coupling mechanism, the electrical digital data message indicating that at least one file is available, said at least one file expressing resource-related information using a plurality of resource-related items; retrieving said at least one file from the other system via the coupling mechanism based on the electrical digital data message; and storing said at least one file in at least one store, said at least one file providing a standardized format for use by different utility entities to express resource-related information, said at least one file comprising one or more of; a resource usage file governed by a resource consumption schema, the resource consumption schema defining an acceptable format of resource-related items in the resource usage file and a data structure used to express the resource-related items in the resource usage file; an invoice file governed by an invoice schema, the invoice schema defining an acceptable format of resource-related items in the invoice file and a data structure used to express the resource-related items in the invoice file;
ora rate file governed by a rate schema, the rate schema defining an acceptable format of resource-related items in the rate file and a data structure used to express the resource-related items in the rate file. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A computer readable storage medium for storing resource-related information for access and processing by electrical data processing functionality, comprising:
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at least one file which expresses resource-related information using a plurality of resource-related items in a data structure, at least one schema defining an accepted format of the resource-related items and the data structure, the data structure providing a hierarchical relation of resource-related items within said at least one file, as defined by said at least one schema, said at least one schema providing a standardized format for use by different utility entities to express the resource-related information, at least one resource-related item representing consumption of at least one physical resource by at least one consumer within a resource-receiving unit. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification