RUNTIME ENVIRONMENT SALES SETTLEMENT

• US 20110137774A1
• Filed: 12/08/2009
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Jakilinki, Jagannadha R., Bonomo, Michael, Sundaram, Gopinath
• Granted Patent: US 8,190,500 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation

Abstract

A system may include an enterprise content settlement server including an extract, transfer and load process configured to receive a first set of usage data and a second set of usage data. The system may further include an enterprise content settlement engine configured to settle the first set of usage data and the second set of usage data according to a contract including at least one settlement rule.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an enterprise content settlement server including;

an extract, transfer and load process configured to receive a first set of usage data and a second set of usage data; and

an enterprise content settlement engine configured to settle said first set of usage data and settle said second set of usage data according to a contract including at least one settlement rule.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said first set of usage data includes usage data from a service provider and said second set of data includes usage data from an aggregator.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said contract defines a fee sharing relationship between said aggregator and said service provider, and said at least one settlement rule defines an apportionment of fees indicated in said usage data between said aggregator and said service provider.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an enterprise content settlement database in selective communication with said enterprise content settlement server, wherein said extract, transfer and load process is further configured to send said first set of usage data and said second set of usage data to said enterprise content settlement database for storage.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said enterprise content settlement engine is further configured to query said enterprise content settlement database for at least a portion of said contract.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said first set of usage data and said second set of usage data includes an invoice detail report.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said enterprise content settlement engine is further configured to:

create a set of correlated data based on said settled first set of usage data and said settled second set of usage data; and

identify at least one variance based on said set of correlated data.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said set of correlated data includes a data set created by way of an inner join of said first set of usage data and said second set of usage data.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein said enterprise content settlement engine is further configured to at least one of:

determine at least one variance indicating a transaction included in one data source but not in another; and

determine a transaction assigned a fee in said first set of usage data and assigned a different fee in said second set of usage data.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein said enterprise content settlement engine is further configured to determine a cause for said at least one variance including at least one of:

(i) to determine that an entire file was omitted in at least one of said first set of usage data and said second set of usage data;

(ii) to determine that a settlement rule of said contract is being interpreted differently by said service provider and said aggregator; and

(iii) to determine that at least one of the service provider and the aggregator failed to apply an updated version of said contract at a designated time.

11. The system of claim 7, further comprising a report generator in selective communication with said enterprise content settlement server and configured to:

receive said correlated data; and

generate a variance report based on said correlated data.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said report generator is further configured to generate said variance report at least one of periodically and according to notification of receipt of a set of usage data by said enterprise content settlement engine.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein said report generator is further configured to include a cause for a variance determined by said enterprise content settlement engine in said variance report.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving a set of service provider usage data from a service provider;

receiving a set of aggregator usage data from an aggregator;

receiving at least a portion of a contract between the service provider and the aggregator including at least one settlement rule; and

settling the set of service provider usage data and settling the set of aggregator usage data by way of an enterprise content settlement server according to the at least one settlement rule.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the contract defines a charge amount sharing relationship between the aggregator and the service provider, and the at least one settlement rule defines at least one charge apportionment between the aggregator and the service provider.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

summarizing the set of service provider usage data into summarized service provider usage data;

summarizing the set of aggregator usage data into summarized aggregator usage data; and

settling the set of service provider usage data and settling the set of aggregator usage data through use of the summarized service provider usage data and the summarized aggregator usage data.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

creating a set of correlated data based on the set of settled service provider usage data and the set of settled aggregator usage data; and

identifying at least one variance based on the set of correlated data.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining a cause for the at least one variance including at least one of:

(i) determining that an entire file was omitted in at least one of the set of service provider usage data and the set of aggregator usage data;

(ii) determining that a settlement rule of the contract is being interpreted differently by the service provider and the aggregator; and

(iii) determining that at least one of the service provider and the aggregator failed to apply an updated version of the contract at a designated time.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising generating a variance report based on the correlated data.

20. A computer-readable medium tangibly embodying computer-executable instructions comprising:

receiving a set of service provider usage data from a service provider;

receiving a set of aggregator usage data from an aggregator;

receiving at least a portion of the contract between the service provider and the aggregator including at least one settlement rule;

settling the set of service provider usage data and settling the set of aggregator usage data according to the contract;

creating a set of correlated data based on the set of settled service provider usage data and the set of settled aggregator usage data; and

identifying at least one variance based on the set of correlated data.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the contract defines a fee sharing relationship between the aggregator and the service provider, and the at least one settlement rule defines a fee apportionment between the aggregator and the service provider.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, further comprising determining a cause for the at least one variance including at least one of:

(i) determining that an entire file was omitted in at least one of the set of service provider usage data and the second set of aggregator usage data;

(ii) determining that a settlement rule of the contract is being interpreted differently by the service provider and the aggregator; and

(iii) determining that at least one of the service provider and the aggregator failed to apply an updated version of the contract at a designated time.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, further comprising generating a variance report based on the correlated data.