PRODUCT NOTICE MONITORING

• US 20140040305A1
• Filed: 07/31/2012
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Symberion Corporation
• Original Assignee: Symberion Corporation
• Inventors: Sinha, Vineet, Nasar, Ajmal
• Granted Patent: US 9,569,744 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

Various embodiments include at least one of systems, methods, and software for product notice monitoring. Some embodiments include at least one product notice database that is an aggregation of product notices, such as product recalls, bulletins, safety notices, updated usage guidelines, and the like, that may be issued by various different sources. The product notice database is monitored in such embodiments in view of products of an organization to identify possible matches. When a possible match is identified, the notice is provided to the organization. Some embodiments may include routing the notice to particular people or departments responsible for the relevant product(s) of the notice. The matching in some embodiments may be relative matching based on one or more forms of fuzzy logic, which allows for approximate matching, although not necessarily identical. The product notice monitoring may be performed in whole or in part in the cloud.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one processor, at least one memory device, and at least one network interface device;

at least one product notice database stored on the at least one memory device, the at least one product notice database storing data of product related notices; and

a research application stored on the at least one memory device and executable by the at least one processor to;

receive, via the at least one network interface device, a request for product notices relevant to products in inventory;

compare the data representative of the products in inventory with products identified in product related notices stored in the at least one product notice database to identify product notices relevant to the products in inventory; and

respond to the request for product notices by sending, via the at least one network interface device, a result set of data including data representative of the identified product notices relevant to the products in inventory and data identifying one or more products to which each respective product notice is relevant to.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein identifying product notices relevant to a product inventory includes:

comparing data representative of the product in inventory to data of a product related notices to obtain a relevancy score; and

when the relevancy score from the comparing meets a threshold, including the product related notice in the result set.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the result set includes a relevancy score associated with each product related notice indicating the relevancy of the product related notice to a respective product.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory device on which the at least one product notice database is stored is accessed via that at least one network interface device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein data representative of the products in inventory is accessed, via the at least one network interface device, from a database of an organization from which the request for product notices is received.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein data representative of the products in inventory is received with the request for product notices.

7. A method comprising:

receiving, over at least one network, a request for product notices relevant to products in inventory;

obtaining data representative of the products in inventory from a source of the request and comparing the product inventory data with products identified in product related notices stored in at least one product notice database to identify product notices relevant to the products in inventory; and

responding to the request for product notices by sending, via the at least one network, a result set of data including data representative of the identified product notices relevant to the products in inventory and data identifying one or more products to which each respective product notice is relevant to.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying product notices relevant to a product inventory includes:

comparing data representative of the product in inventory to data of a product related notices to obtain a relevancy score; and

when the relevancy score from the comparing meets a threshold, including the product related notice in the result set.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the result set includes a relevancy score associated with each product related notice indicating the relevancy of the product related notice to a respective product.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein data representative of the products in inventory is accessed, via the at least one network interface device, from a database of an organization from which the request for product notices is received.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein obtaining data representative of the products in inventory includes receiving the product inventory data with the request for product notices.

12. A method comprising:

maintaining a product inventory database including data representative of products;

periodically querying, through execution of instructions on at least one computer processor, a product notice database with regard to at least one product represented in the product inventory database to obtain product notices potentially relevant to each of the at least one products; and

receiving and storing, in response to the query, data representative of a product notice and data associating the product notice to at least one product for which the query was performed.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the periodic querying is performed on a periodic basis defined in a configuration setting of a computing application that performs the method.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the product notice database is remote to a system that performs the method and is accessed via at least one of the Internet, a virtual private network, and a web service.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

processing each product notice associated with a product represented in the product database received in response to the query in view of relevancy rules associated with product notice routing destinations, the relevancy rules when applied by the processing providing a relevancy score with regard to each product notice; and

when the relevancy score for a product notice with regard to a routing destination meets a threshold, routing a representation of the product notice according to a routing rule of the respective routing destination.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the routing rule of the respective destination causes a representation of the product notice to be routed to at least one inbox of one or more users responsible for considering the product notice.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

presenting, within a user interface of a user associated with the routing destination, a representation of the product notice and one or more selectable options representing how the product notice is handled; and

receiving a selection of one of the one or more selectable options; and

storing data representing the selected option.

18. A computer-readable medium, with instructions stored thereon, which when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, causes the computing device to:

provide, via at least one network, a product notice service access to data with regard to products in inventory;

transmit, over the at least one network to the product notice service, a request for product notices relevant to products in inventory; and

receive, via the at least one network and in response to the request for product notices, a result set of data including data representative of product notices relevant to at least one product in inventory and a product to which a respective product notice is relevant.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein providing the product notice service access to data with regard to the products in inventory includes providing an interface to a database storing product inventory data through which the product notice service accesses product inventory data via the at least one network.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein providing the product notice service access to data with regard to the products in inventory includes transmitting data representative of at least one product in inventory with the request for product notices.