SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IDENTIFYING THIRD PARTY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES AVAILABLE AT A GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION

• US 20110137745A1
• Filed: 04/06/2010
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allconnect, Inc. (Red Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Allconnect, Inc. (Red Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Martin, David N., Singer, Neil J., Baugh, Earl D. JR., Chapple, Ryan J., Goad, Glenn R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,433,617 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 Item locations

Abstract

Systems and methods for identifying third party products and services available to geographic location. Generally, the system identifies a subject address or location at which services are desired. Next, the system parses, standardizes, and verifies the subject address as a valid physical location. Then, the system identifies relevant market(s) corresponding to the subject address, and determines product and service offerings in the relevant market(s). Further, the system determines capabilities required to effectuate the determined service offerings at the location, and identifies capabilities available at the geographic location. Subsequently, the system compares the required capabilities of the services to the available capabilities at the location to generate serviceability information corresponding to services actually available at the location. Finally, the system provides the serviceability information to a user for selection of particular products and services, or stores the information for further processing within the system.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for identifying products and services available at a geographic location, the method comprising:

receiving location information corresponding to a geographic location associated with a user;

identifying one or more services offered by one or more service providers to the geographic location;

retrieving service information associated with the one or more services offered to the geographic location, the service information including capabilities required information corresponding to capabilities required to effectuate the one or more services at the geographic location;

retrieving available capabilities information corresponding to available capabilities at the geographic location for receiving the one or more services offered to the geographic location;

comparing the retrieved capabilities required information of the one or more services to the retrieved available capabilities information of the geographic location to identify a subset of the one or more services that includes capabilities required information that matches available capabilities information of the geographic location; and

generating serviceability information comprising information related to the identified subset of the one or more services,

whereby the serviceability information is used to assist the user in ordering services at the user'"'"'s geographic location.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the location information is selected from the group comprising:

a house number, apartment number, street name, cardinal direction, city, state, province, county, country.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

parsing the location information into discrete elements; and

reassembling the discrete elements into a standardized geographic location format.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, further comprising the step of comparing the standardized geographic location against known address information in a verification database to verify the standardized geographic location.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying one or more services offered by one or more service providers to the geographic location further comprises the steps of:

defining one or more markets corresponding to services offered in the markets; and

identifying a particular market associated with the geographic location based on at least one address element included in the location information.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the one or more markets are defined based on geographic areas in which the one or more services are offered.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the one or more markets are defined based on the service information associated with the one or more services.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the service information is retrieved from a products and services database including pre-stored services information.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the service information is retrieved from the one or more service providers in real time.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the capabilities required information corresponding to capabilities required to effectuate the one or more services at the geographic location is selected from the group comprising:

cable connection required, satellite dish required, security system required, telephone line required, water line required, connected to sewer system required, gas connection required, DSL connection required, on recycling pickup route.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the available capabilities information corresponding to available capabilities at the geographic location is selected from the group comprising:

cable connection available, satellite dish available, security system available, telephone line available, water line available, connected to sewer system, gas connection available, DSL connection available, on recycling pickup route, modem available, septic system present.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more services offered by one or more services providers to the geographic location are selected from the group comprising:

electricity, natural gas, satellite television, cable television, wireless telephone, landline telephone, Internet, home security, home insurance, home warranty, newspaper delivery, recycling pickup, home cleaning service, moving service, dry-cleaning, trash pickup, pest control.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the serviceability information is displayed to the user via a user interface, printed in a printed report, or stored in a database for further processing.

14. A computer implemented method for providing serviceability information to a user, the method comprising:

obtaining service address information;

verifying the service address information;

determining third party service providers available in a market segment based on the service address;

retrieving information regarding the services provided by a particular third party service provider in the market segment;

fetching product capabilities required for a particular third party service, and address capabilities available for the service address; and

displaying a list of third party services available at the service address based on analysis of available third party services in the market segment, and a match between the product capabilities required for a particular third party service and the address capabilities available at the service address.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 14, further comprising parsing the service address information to obtain individual address elements corresponding to preconfigured address elements from the service address information.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 15, further comprising normalizing the individual address elements to obtain a standardized address.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the verifying step further comprises returning a list of near matches to the user if the service address provided by the user does not completely match with any address in an address database.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the verifying step further comprises returning an error message to the user if the service address provided by the user does not significantly match with any address in an address database.

19. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the retrieving step further comprises obtaining information regarding the services provided by a particular third party service provider, in the market segment, in real time.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the retrieving step further comprises obtaining information regarding the services provided by a particular third party service provider, in the market segment, from a cached database of services provided by third party service providers.

21. The computer implemented method of claim 14, further comprising retrieving, from the user, personal details and dwelling type information.

22. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the product and address capabilities may be determined in real time.

23. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the product and address capabilities may be determined from pre-stored information in a static database.

24. A system for providing serviceability information about a plurality of third party service providers to a user, the system comprising:

an input module for obtaining service address information;

an address verification module for verifying the service address information;

a market identifier for determining third party service providers that provide one or more services in a market segment determined based on the service address;

an item identifier for retrieving information regarding the services provided by a particular third party service provider in the market segment, and product capabilities required for the retrieved services;

a serviceability broker for fetching address capabilities available at the service address; and

a serviceability matcher for displaying a list of third party services available at the service address based on an analysis of third party services available in the market segment, and a match between the product capabilities required for a particular third party service, and the address capabilities available at the service address.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising a parser for parsing the user provided service address information to obtain individual address elements corresponding to preconfigured address parameters from the service address information.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a standardizer for normalizing the individual address elements to obtain a standardized address.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the address verification module returns a list of near matches to the user if the service address provided by the user does not completely match with any address in an address database.

28. The system of claim 24, wherein the verification module returns an error message to the user if the service address provided by the user does not significantly match with any address in an address database.

29. The system of claim 24, wherein the item identifier obtains information regarding the services provided by a particular third party service provider in real time.

30. The system of claim 24, wherein the item identifier obtains information regarding the services provided by a particular third party service provider from a cached database of services provided by third party service providers.

31. The system of claim 24, wherein the input module retrieves, from the user, personal details and dwelling type information.

32. The system of claim 24, wherein the serviceability broker obtains address capabilities in real time from the third party service providers.

33. The system of claim 24, wherein the serviceability broker obtains address capabilities from a static database.