SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAINTAINING SHARING GROUPS IN A SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEM

• US 20180146099A1
• Filed: 11/22/2016
• Published: 05/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Manitoba Telecom Services Incorporated (BCE Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Manitoba Telecom Services Incorporated (BCE Incorporated)
• Inventors: Griffiths, Brett, Schellenberg, Anna, Monkman, April, Balkaran, Janet, Balkwill, Kelly, Na, Hyon
• Granted Patent: US 10,462,307 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/43 Billing software details
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/72 by the user
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/745 Customizing according to wishes of subscriber, e.g. friends or family
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

In a service delivery system, a computing system is provided for maintaining membership in a sharing group associated with a sharable service. The system includes a CRM module generating a user interface for displaying current membership in the sharing group and receiving, via the user interface, instructions to modify the current membership. The CRM module automatically generates and inserts into a transaction table at least one pending modification transaction for the sharing group in accordance with the instructions, and a billing module comprising a billing database storing associations between one or more member services and the sharing group modifies the associations in the billing database in accordance with the at least one pending transaction. A computer-implemented method and computer-readable medium are also provided.

Claims

1. In a service delivery system, a computer-implemented method for maintaining membership in a sharing group associated with a sharable service, the method comprising:

generating a user interface for displaying current membership in the sharing group;

receiving, via the user interface, an instruction to modify the current membership; and

in accordance with the instruction, automatically;

generating and inserting into a transaction table at least one pending modification transaction for the sharing group; and

modifying associations in a billing database between one or more member services and the sharing group in accordance with the at least one pending modification transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to modifying associations;

constructing a payload based on all pending modification transactions for the sharing group; and

generating and inserting into a middleware messaging queue a message comprising the payload,

wherein modifying associations comprises processing the message to extract the payload.

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

in the event that the number of member services to be associated with the sharing group is to be changed, stopping and then restarting the sharable service.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

producing a success or failure message for each of the one or member services in the payload based on success or failure of the modifying associations in the billing database.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the payload comprises one or more mobile data numbers (MDN) each in association with an ADD or REMOVE instruction.

6. In a service delivery system, a computing system for maintaining membership in a sharing group associated with a sharable service, the system comprising:

a CRM module generating a user interface for displaying current membership in the sharing group and receiving, via the user interface, instructions to modify the current membership, the CRM module automatically generating and inserting into a transaction table at least one pending modification transaction for the sharing group in accordance with the instructions; and

a billing module comprising a billing database storing associations between one or more member services and the sharing group, the billing module modifying the associations in the billing database in accordance with the at least one pending transaction.

7. The computing system of claim 6, wherein:

the CRM module further constructs a payload based on all pending modification transactions for the sharing group and generates and inserts, into a middleware messaging queue, a message comprising the payload;

wherein the system further comprises;

a middleware module comprising the middleware messaging queue and processing the queued message, the middleware module further instructing the billing module to conduct the modifying.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the billing module is configured to stop and restart the sharable service in the event that the number of member services to be associated with the sharing group is to be changed.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the billing module is configured to return a success or failure message to the middleware module for each of the one or member services in the payload.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the payload comprises one or more mobile data numbers (MDN) each in association with an ADD or REMOVE instruction.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a computer program executable on a computing system for maintaining membership in a sharing group associated with a sharable service, the computer program comprising:

computer program code for generating a user interface for displaying current membership in the sharing group;

computer program code for receiving, via the user interface, an instruction to modify the current membership; and

computer program code for automatically, in accordance with the instruction;

generating and inserting into a transaction table at least one pending modification transaction for the sharing group; and

modifying associations in a billing database between one or more member services and the sharing group in accordance with the at least one pending modification transaction.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising:

computer program code for, prior to modifying associations;

constructing a payload based on all pending modification transactions for the sharing group; and

generating and inserting into a middleware messaging queue a message comprising the payload,

wherein modifying associations comprises processing the message to extract the payload.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising:

computer program code for, in the event that the number of member services to be associated with the sharing group is to be changed, stopping and then restarting the sharable service.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising:

computer program code for producing a success or failure message for each of the one or member services in the payload based on success or failure of the modifying associations in the billing database.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12 wherein the payload comprises one or more mobile data numbers (MDN) each in association with an ADD or REMOVE instruction.