Bespoke Service-On-Demand Platform

• US 20160350695A1
• Filed: 05/29/2015
• Published: 12/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: FivePals, Inc. (Alpine SG LLC)
• Original Assignee: FivePals, Inc. (Alpine SG LLC)
• Inventors: Koltunov, Dmitry, Shashou, Alexander, Effron, Justin, Evers, Samuel F.
• Application Number:
  US14/726,025
• Publication Number:
  US 20160350695A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants

Abstract

A computational system, which is a bespoke service-on-demand platform, is described. One or more computing units of a computational system can receive a request for performing a service associated with a property. The one or more computing units can receive the request to determine a relevant department within a plurality of departments of the property that should handle the request. The one or more computing units can send an indication of receipt of the request by the one or more computing units and the relevant department to a staff application programing interface (API) of the computational system. The staff API can generate a notification indicating the receipt of the request. The staff API can send the notification to a staff application executed by the relevant department via a communication network. Related systems, computer program products, apparatuses, techniques and articles are also described.

Claims

1. A computational system comprising:

a guest application programming interface operable to receive a request generated on a guest application operably coupled to the guest application programming interface via a first communication network;

one or more computing units operable to receive the request from the guest application programming interface, the one or more computing units being configured to read the request to determine a relevant department within a plurality of departments of a property that should handle the request; and

a staff application programming interface operable to receive data indicating the receipt of the request by the one or more computing units, the staff application programming interface being configured to generate a notification indicating the receipt of the request, the staff application programming interface being configured to send the notification indicating the receipt of the request to a staff application operably coupled to the staff application programming interface via a second communication network.

2. The computational system of claim 1, wherein:

the guest application programming interface is configured to receive an indication of an activity associated with the request from the staff application when the staff application receives an input indicating the activity associated with the request; and

the guest application programming interface is configured to send a notification indicating the activity associated with the request to the guest application, the guest application configured to display the notification indicating the activity associated with the request.

3. The computational system of claim 2, wherein the activity associated with the request comprises at least one of:

an acceptance of the request, an initiation of addressing the request, a pausing of addressing the request, a completion of the request, a deletion of the request, editing contents of the request, adding internal notes to the request, chatting with a guest, and applying other workflow transitions that vary for different requests.

4. The computational system of claim 1, further comprising:

a message queue that receives data representing the request from the guest application programming interface, the one or more computing units receiving the request from the guest application programming interface via the message queue.

5. The computational system of claim 4, wherein the one or more computing units comprise:

an authorization computing unit configured to receive the data representing the request from the message queue, the authorization computing unit configured to use a property management system to verify that an individual who has placed the request is a current occupant of the property;

a validation computing unit configured to verify that the request is feasibly serviceable;

a persistence computing unit configured to persist the request in a database system after the individual who has placed the request is verified to be a current occupant of the property and after the verification that the request is feasibly serviceable;

a processing computing unit configured to invoke and apply at least one business rule on the request to process the data representing the request; and

a dispatch computing unit configured to generate the processed data representing the processed request, the dispatch computing unit configured to send the data representing the processed request in another message queue through which the data representing the processed request is sent to the staff application programming interface.

6. The computational system of claim 5, wherein the dispatch computing unit is further configured to dispatch a notification that the request has been received to one or more entities via at least one of email, phone, point of sales system and a third party application programming interface.

7. The computational system of claim 5, wherein the processed data representing the request is stored in a scalable cloud computing cache that is adjustable for any number of requests.

8. The computational system of claim 4, wherein the message queue further receives data representing an activity associated with the request from the staff application programming interface, the one or more computing units receiving the data representing the activity associated with the request from the guest application programming interface via the message queue.

9. The computational system of claim 8, wherein the activity associated with the request comprises at least one of:

an acceptance of the request, an initiation of addressing the request, a pausing of addressing the request, a completion of the request, a deletion of the request, editing contents of the request, adding internal notes to the request, chatting with a guest, and applying other workflow transitions that vary for different requests.

10. The computational system of claim 8, wherein the one or more computing units comprise:

an authorization computing unit configured to authorize the data representing the activity associated with the request from the message queue;

a validation computing unit configured to validate that the activity associated with the request is feasible;

a persistence computing unit configured to persist the data representing the activity associated with the request in a database system after the authorizing and the validating of the activity;

a processing computing unit configured to invoke and apply at least one business rule on the data representing the activity associated with the request to process the data process the representing the activity associated with the request; and

a dispatch computing unit configured to generate data representing the processed data representing the activity associated with the request, the dispatch computing unit configured to send the data representing the activity associated with the processed request in another message queue through which the data representing activity associated with the processed request is sent to the guest application programming interface.

11. The computational system of claim 10, wherein the dispatch computing unit is further configured to dispatch a notification that the activity associated with the request has been performed to one or more entities via at least one of email, phone, point of sales system and a third party application programming interface.

12. The computational system of claim 1, further comprising:

a database configured to store the request along with data associated with a response to the request;

an analytics application programming interface to access the database to generate at least one of insights and trends associated with historical requests and historical responses to the historical requests, the historical requests including the request, the historical responses including the response to the request, the analytics programming interface configured to send the analytics to the staff application when an individual logged into the staff application is authorized to access the analytics, the staff application configured to display the analytics.

13. The computational system of claim 12, wherein the analytics application programming interface is configured to generate one or more reports including the analytics.

14. The computational system of claim 13, wherein the analytics application programming interface is configured to send the one or more reports to the staff application or to one or more entities via at least one of the first communication network and the second communication network.

15. The computational system of claim 1, wherein the staff application provides different levels of access to different entities accessing the staff application, the staff application identifying a level of access associated with each entity based on authentication data provided by the entity.

16. The computational system of claim 1, wherein the staff application is configured to display analytics and data used to generate the analytics when an entity having a particular access level is logged in to the staff application.

17. The computational system of claim 1, wherein:

the first communication network is one of internet and intranet; and

the second communication network is one of the internet and the intranet.

18. A method comprising:

receiving, by one or more computing units of a computational system, a request for performing a service associated with a property;

reading, by the one or more computing units, the request to determine a relevant department within a plurality of departments of the property that should handle the request;

sending, by the one or more computing units and to a staff application programing interface of the computational system, an indication of receipt of the request by the one or more computing units and the relevant department;

generating, by the staff application programming interface, a notification indicating the receipt of the request; and

sending, by the staff application programming interface, the notification to a staff application executed by the relevant department via a first communication network.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

sending, by the one or more computing units and to a guest application programing interface of the computational system, an indication of an activity associated with the request, the activity supposed to be performed by an entity of the relevant department;

generating, by the guest application programming interface, a notification indicating the activity associated with the request; and

sending, by the staff application programming interface, the notification indicating the activity associated with the request to a guest application via a second communication network.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the activity associated with the request comprises at least one of:

an acceptance of the request, an initiation of addressing the request, a pausing of addressing the request, a completion of the request, a deletion of the request, editing contents of the request, adding internal notes to the request, chatting with a guest, and applying other workflow transitions that vary for different requests.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more computing units receive the request from the staff application programming interface, the staff application programming interface receiving the request from the staff application.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

sending, by the one or more computing units and to a guest application programing interface of the computational system, an indication of receipt of the request by the one or more computing units;

generating, by the guest application programming interface, a notification indicating the receipt of the request; and

sending, by the guest application programming interface, the notification to a guest application via a second communication network.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more computing units receive the request from a guest application programming interface, the guest application programming interface configured to receive the request from a guest application via a second communication network.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein:

the first communication network is one of internet and intranet; and

the second communication network is one of the internet and the intranet.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more computation units receive the request from an automatic request generator that generates the request based on one or more business rules.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the one or more business rules include logic based on dates, schedules, location, or analytical insights.

27. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving, by the one or more computing units, contextual information on the staff members of the relevant department including schedules, dates, locations, load and capacity, or analytical insights; and

determining, by the one or more computing units and based on the contextual information, available staff members, wherein the sending of the notification comprises sending the notification to the staff application logged in by the available staff members.

28. The method of claim 18, wherein the request demands at least one of a service for the guest and a service for a physical portion of the property.

29. A non-transitory computer program product storing instructions that, when executed by at least one programmable processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request for performing a service associated with a property;

reading the request to determine an available staff member within a relevant department amongst a plurality of departments of the property that should handle the request;

generating a notification indicating the receipt of the request; and

sending the notification indicating the receipt of the request to a staff application operated by the available staff member via a first communication network.

30. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 29, wherein the request is received from at least one of:

a guest application when a guest of the property generates the request by using the guest application, and the staff application when a staff member of the property generates the request on behalf of the guest by using the staff application.

31. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 30, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the staff application, an indication of an activity associated with the request, the activity supposed to be performed by the available staff member;

generating a notification indicating the activity associated with the request; and

sending the notification indicating the activity associated with the request to the guest application via a second communication network.

32. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 29, wherein the request is an internal request generated by the staff application.

33. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 29, wherein the request is received from the staff application, the request being automatically generated by the staff application based on one or more of:

logic based on one or more of dates, schedules, location, and analytical insights.