MOBILE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING SECURE REMOTE IN PERSON TRANSACTIONS

• US 20120030124A1
• Filed: 08/24/2011
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mobile Title Agency of Michigan LLC
• Original Assignee: Mobile Title Agency of Michigan LLC
• Inventors: Cronkright, Thomas W. II, Duthier, Lawrence R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,881,264 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/316
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/167 Closing

Abstract

A mobile system and method are provided for securely sending, receiving and signing documents remote from a home office. A mobile unit capable of connecting to a home corporate network where documents are stored relating to a transaction is used as part of the system. While in route to or at the remote signing location, the mobile unit connects to the corporate network and prints the documents, or the home office sends the documents through a secure wireless connection to the mobile unit. The transaction is conducted at a remote location, and the executed documents are scanned and sent securely to the corporate network. The housing and mobile unit may be moved to a subsequent location and the mobile unit connects, while in route to or at the subsequent location, prints the documents for the subsequent transaction.

Claims

1. A method of operating a mobile system for processing secure in-person transactions remote from a home office having an office network, with a mobile unit including a printer, scanner and a network device for communicating with said home office over a wide area network, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving an order requiring in-person signing of documents;

preparing documents at the home office relating to the order;

providing scheduling information to the mobile unit including a transaction location and expected time of signing;

traveling to the transaction location with the mobile unit;

pushing the prepared documents by the home office to the mobile unit while said step of traveling to the transaction location with the mobile unit is occurring;

printing the prepared documents to create printed documents in response to said step of pushing the prepare documents by the home office;

preparing the printed documents for an in-person signing;

signing of the documents to create signed documents;

scanning of the signed documents to create electronic signed documents;

sending the electronic signed documents to the home office; and

distributing the signed documents.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said method does not include any step of faxing documents and said steps of pushing the prepared documents and sending the electronic signed documents to the home office do not include faxing of the documents.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said method further includes the step of establishing a secure connection between the mobile unit and the home office over the wide area network using the network device.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said step of establishing a secure connection further includes the steps of:

providing power to the network device;

automatically connecting to the wide area network with the network device upon completing said step of providing power to the network device; and

automatically establishing a secure connection between the home office network and the mobile unit upon completing said step of automatically connecting to the wide area network.

5. The method of claim 4 further including the steps of:

providing a printer identification associated with the printer in the mobile unit to the home network upon completing said step of automatically establishing a secure connection between the home office and the mobile unit;

showing the printer identification on the home office network as connected to the home office network upon completion of said step of automatically connecting to the wide area network; and

sending any prepared documents in a queue for the printer in the mobile unit using the secure connection between the home office and the mobile unit as part of said step of pushing the prepared documents and then performing said step of printing the prepared documents to print any documents located in the queue.

6. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:

verifying at the home office the signed documents; and

sending an approval of the signed documents from the home office.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said step of verifying at the home office the signed documents is performed by automatically comparing the number of pages received in the electronically signed documents to the number of pages in the prepared documents in said step of pushing the prepared documents.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein said step of verifying at the home office the signed documents includes a manual review of the signed documents.

9. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:

traveling to a second transaction location with the mobile unit;

printing a previously prepared document on said printer while performing said step of traveling to a second transaction location.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of travel to the transaction location further includes the step of leaving a base location and wherein said base location is not said home office and wherein said method further includes the step of returning to the base location after distributing the signed documents.

11. The method of claim 1 further including the step of providing location information to at least party expected to be at the transaction location and wherein the location information includes an expected arrival time of the mobile unit at the transaction location.

12. The method of claim 11 further including the step of updating the location information while performing said step of traveling with the mobile unit to the transaction location.

13. The method of claim 11 further including the step of notifying the at least one party through an electronic communication that the mobile unit has arrived at the transaction location.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of receiving an order includes at least one of the following steps selected from the group consisting of, uploading initial documents to the home office network and identifying initial documents on the home office network to be used in an expected transaction.

15. The method of claim 1 further including the step of locking the prepared document prior to said step of printing the prepared documents to prevent changes to the documents.

16. The method of claim 15 further including the steps of:

receiving a requested change by one of the parties to the transaction after said step of locking the documents;

notifying each party to the transaction of the requested change;

obtaining approval from each party to the transaction for the requested change;

unlocking the prepared document to allow changes to the prepared document; and

making the requested change to the prepared document to create a changed document.

17. The method of claim 16 further including the steps of:

notifying an operator of the mobile unit of the changes to the document; and

printing changed document on the printer in the mobile unit to create printed documents for use in the transaction.

18. The method of claim 17 further including the step of destroying said printed document that were printed during said step of printing the prepared document to create printed document.

19. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of:

traveling to a second transaction locating after said step of distributing the documents;

receiving a schedule change from corporate to travel to a third transaction location; and

automatically printing prepared document relating to the third transaction.

20. The method of claim 19 further including the step of automatically printing prepared document relating to the second transaction while traveling to the second location.

21. A method of operating a mobile system for processing secure in-person transactions at a transaction location remote from a home office having an office network, using a mobile unite including a printer, scanner a power source and a network device for communicating with said home office over a wide area network, said method comprising the steps of:

providing power from the power source to the printer and the network device;

automatically and without human intervention connecting the network device to the wide area network upon completing said step of providing power from the power source;

automatically and without human intervention establishing a secure connection between the home office network and the mobile unit upon completing said step of automatically and without human intervention connection said network device to the wide area network;

traveling to the transaction location with the mobile unit;

automatically and without human intervention printing a set of prepared documents to create printed documents while performing said step of traveling to the transaction location;

arriving at the transaction location and obtaining the printed documents from the printer;

presenting the printed documents obtained from the printer to at least one party at the transaction location; and

obtaining a signature on the printed documents from the at least one party at the transaction location to create signed documents.

22. The method of claim 21 further including the steps of:

scanning the signed documents to create electronic signed documents;

automatically sending the electronic signed documents to the home office network over the established secure connection.

23. The method of claim 22 further including the steps of:

verifying the electronic signed documents by automatically and without human intervention comparing the electronic signed documents to the printed documents; and

sending a verification approval.

24. The method of claim 21 further including the step of automatically and without human intervention sending successful print notice to the home office after said step of automatically and without human intervention printing a set of prepare documents to create printed documents and before said step of presenting the printed documents obtained from the printer to at least one party at the transaction location.

25. The method of claim 21 further including the step of automatically and without human intervention sending print error to the home office.

26. The method of claim 25 further including the step of automatically and without human intervention notifying an operator of the mobile unit of the print error receiving in said step of automatically and without human intervention sending print error to the home office and wherein said notification is not provided through the printer.

27. The method of claim 25 further including the step of automatically and without human intervention notifying an operator of the mobile unit of the print error receiving in said step of automatically and without human intervention sending print error to the home office and wherein said notification is not provided through a laptop computer.

28. The method of claim 21 further including the steps of:

receiving an order requiring in-person signing of documents;

preparing documents at the home office relating to the order;

providing scheduling information to the mobile unit including the transaction location and expected time of signing and providing scheduling information related to at least one subsequent transaction.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein said step of preparing documents at the home office includes the step of printing the prepared documents to a queue relating to the printer in the mobile unit and holding the documents in the queue.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein said step of printing the prepare documents to a queue further includes the step of providing a transaction date associated with the prepared documents and further including the step of holding the documents in the queue until the transaction date.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein said step of holding the document in the queue further includes the steps of:

verifying the transaction date matches the current date;

verifying at least one of an actual location or an expected location the mobile unit;

determining based upon said step of verifying that the mobile unit is likely traveling to the transaction relating to the documents in the queue;

automatically and without human intervention releasing the documents in the queue the location of the mobile so that said step of automatically and without human intervention printing a set of prepared documents to create printed documents while performing said step of traveling to the transaction location may be performed.

32. The method of claim 21 further including the step of locking the documents to prevent changes to the documents before said step of automatically and without human intervention printing a set of prepared documents to create printed documents while performing said step of traveling to the transaction location.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein further including the steps of:

receiving a requested change by one of the parties to the transaction after said step of locking the documents;

notifying each party to the transaction of the requested change;

obtaining approval from each party to the transaction for the requested change;

unlocking the documents to allow changes to the documents; and

automatically and without human intervention notifying an operator of the mobile unit upon performing said step of unlocking the documents to allow changes.

34. The method of claim 34 further including the steps of:

making the requested change to the documents to create changed documents after said step of unlocking the document;

printing changed documents on the printer in the mobile unit to create printed documents for use in the transaction.