Web enabled business to business operating system for rental car services
DCFirst Claim
1. An Internet enabled automatic rental vehicle transaction system, said system having an internet web portal through which a third party authorized purchaser of rental vehicle services for use by another may access, for bi-directional communication and functional interaction, a rental vehicle services provider using a digital data entry device connected to the internet, a rental vehicle software program resident on a computer system remote from said third party authorized purchaser, said rental vehicle software program being configured to automatically respond to a series of commands from said third party authorized purchaser and communicate a plurality of rental vehicle reservations through said rental vehicle software program to a second software program for fulfillment at a specific geographically remote rental vehicle location at which vehicles for rent are situated, each of said reservations including an identification of an associated repair facility where a vehicle of said another is undergoing repairs and wherein said reservations have a plurality of associated repair facilities, said rental vehicle software program collecting data relating to said plurality of reservations into a database accessible by said third party authorized purchaser and being further configured for managing of said reservations by said third party authorized purchaser including automatically generating repair facility call back lists authorizing said reservations, processing said reservations, and billing said reservations to said third party authorized purchaser so that said plurality of rental vehicle reservations may be automatically processed thereby, the repair facility call back lists being configured to allow said third party authorized purchaser to sort said reservations tat are open by at least the associated repair facilities wherein said list groups together the open reservations by one or more associated repair facilities.
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Abstract
An Internet enabled, business-to-business computerized transaction system is disclosed in its preferred embodiment for use in providing rental car services for high volume users and comprises an Internet web portal through which the high volume user may access an integrated business computer network for the rental vehicle service provider. The rental vehicle services provider computer network is configured to interconnect a geographically diverse plurality of branch offices, cataloguing their available rental vehicles and schedules for same as well as handling all transactional data relating to its business. The Internet web portal provides ubiquitous connectivity and portability for a multi-level business organization who regularly places high volumes of rental purchases with its business partner. Utilizing the method and apparatus of the present invention large volumes of rental transactions may be placed, monitored, altered during performance, and closed out with financial accounting and payment being made virtually without human intervention.
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Citations
46 Claims
- 1. An Internet enabled automatic rental vehicle transaction system, said system having an internet web portal through which a third party authorized purchaser of rental vehicle services for use by another may access, for bi-directional communication and functional interaction, a rental vehicle services provider using a digital data entry device connected to the internet, a rental vehicle software program resident on a computer system remote from said third party authorized purchaser, said rental vehicle software program being configured to automatically respond to a series of commands from said third party authorized purchaser and communicate a plurality of rental vehicle reservations through said rental vehicle software program to a second software program for fulfillment at a specific geographically remote rental vehicle location at which vehicles for rent are situated, each of said reservations including an identification of an associated repair facility where a vehicle of said another is undergoing repairs and wherein said reservations have a plurality of associated repair facilities, said rental vehicle software program collecting data relating to said plurality of reservations into a database accessible by said third party authorized purchaser and being further configured for managing of said reservations by said third party authorized purchaser including automatically generating repair facility call back lists authorizing said reservations, processing said reservations, and billing said reservations to said third party authorized purchaser so that said plurality of rental vehicle reservations may be automatically processed thereby, the repair facility call back lists being configured to allow said third party authorized purchaser to sort said reservations tat are open by at least the associated repair facilities wherein said list groups together the open reservations by one or more associated repair facilities.
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22. An Internet-enabled automatic rental vehicle transaction system, the system comprising:
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a first computer network operated by a rental vehicle service provider, the first computer network comprising a plurality of branch office computers located in a plurality of geographically remote locations at which a plurality of rental vehicles are available for rent from the rental vehicle service provider, a database in which reservation data regarding the rental vehicles available for rent at the plurality of remote locations is stored, and a first computer network mainframe in bidirectional communication with the database and the branch office computers, the first computer network mainframe being configured to execute a fulfillment software program, the fulfillment software program being configured to process and store rental vehicle reservation data in the database for access by the branch office computers when the branch office computers fulfill rental vehicle reservations; and a second computer network comprising a plurality of authorized business partner computers, a second computer network mainframe, and a web portal; wherein the second computer network mainframe is in bidirectional communication with the first computer network, the second computer network mainframe being configured to execute a rental vehicle software program, the rental vehicle software program being configured to access the database to create and manage rental vehicle reservations in response to a series of commands received from the authorized business partner computers; wherein the web portal is in bidirectional communication with the second computer network mainframe and further in bidirectional communication with the authorized business partner computers via an Internet connection therebetween, the web portal being configured to provide a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for display on the authorized business partner computers, the GUIs being configured to interface a user of an authorized business partner computer with the rental vehicle software program; wherein the authorized business partner computers are configured to access the rental vehicle software program via the Internet connection to the web portal'"'"'s GUIs, thereby providing users of the authorized business partner computers with the ability to provide the series of commands to the rental vehicle software program for creating and managing rental vehicle reservations on behalf of third parties; wherein the rental vehicle software program is further configured to access the database to generate, in response to input from a user of an authorized business partner computer, a report for display on the user'"'"'s authorized business partner computer via at least one web portal GUI, the report being configured to detail a plurality of rental vehicle reservations, the user input being received by the rental vehicle software program through at least one web portal GUI, the report being sortable by a criteria specified by the authorized business partner computer user through at least one web portal GUI; wherein a plurality of open rental vehicle reservations correspond to open rental vehicle reservations for third parties whose vehicles are undergoing repairs at a repair facility; wherein the database is configured to store, as part of the data corresponding to a rental vehicle reservation, data identifying the repair facilities where the third parties′
vehicles are undergoing repairs; andwherein the report displays data about a plurality of open rental vehicle reservations, the displayed data including the data identifying the repair facility corresponding to the open rental vehicle reservations, and wherein the user-specified sorting criteria comprises a “
by repair facility”
criteria. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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26. An Internet-enabled automatic rental vehicle transaction system, the system comprising:
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a first computer network operated by a rental vehicle service provider, the first computer network comprising a plurality of branch office computers located in a plurality of geographically remote locations at which a plurality of rental vehicles are available for rent from the rental vehicle service provider, a database in which reservation data regarding the rental vehicles available for rent at the plurality of remote locations is stored, and a first computer network mainframe in bidirectional communication with the database and the branch office computers, the first computer network mainframe being configured to execute a fulfillment software program, the fulfillment software program being configured to process and store rental vehicle reservation data in the database for access by the branch office computers when the branch office computers fulfill rental vehicle reservations; and a second computer network comprising a plurality of authorized business partner computers, a second computer network mainframe, and a web portal; wherein the second computer network mainframe is in bidirectional communication with the first computer network, the second computer network mainframe being configured to execute a rental vehicle software program, the rental vehicle software program being configured to access the database to create and manage rental vehicle reservations in response to a series of commands received from the authorized business partner computers; wherein the web portal is in bidirectional communication with the second computer network mainframe and is farther in bidirectional communication with the authorized business partner computers via an Internet connection therebetween, the web portal being configured to provide a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for display on the authorized business partner computers, the GUIs being configured to interface a user of an authorized business partner computer with the rental vehicle software program, wherein the authorized business partner computers are configured to access the rental vehicle software program via the Internet connection to the web portal'"'"'s GUIs, thereby providing users of the authorized business partner computers with the ability to provide the series of commands to the rental vehicle software program for creating and managing rental vehicle reservations on behalf of third parties, wherein a plurality of the rental vehicle reservations correspond to rental vehicle reservations for third parties whose vehicles are undergoing repairs at a repair facility, wherein the database is configured to store, as part of the data corresponding to a rental vehicle reservation, data identifying the repair facility where the third party'"'"'s vehicle is undergoing repairs; and wherein the rental vehicle software program is further configured to access the database to generate a list for display on the user'"'"'s authorized business partner computer via at least one web portal GUI, the list grouping a plurality of open rental vehicle reservations by their corresponding stored repair facility data such that open rental vehicle reservations having a common corresponding stared repair facility are commonly-grouped. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29)
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30. A method for conducting a plurality of rental vehicle transactions between a rental vehicle service provider and a plurality of authorized business partners, the method comprising:
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providing a plurality of branch office computers located in a plurality of geographically remote locations at which a plurality of rental vehicles are available for rent from the rental vehicle service provider; providing a database in which reservation data regarding the rental vehicles available for rent at the plurality of remote locations is stored, storing repair facility data in the database for rental vehicle reservations to identify a plurality of repair facilities at which renters′
vehicles are undergoing repairs;providing a first mainframe in bidirectional communication with the database and the branch office computers, the first mainframe having fulfillment software resident thereon, the fulfillment software being configured to process and store rental vehicle reservation data in the database for access by the branch office computers when the branch office computers fulfill rental vehicle reservations; providing a second mainframe, wherein the second mainframe is in bidirectional communication with the first computer network, the second mainframe having a rental vehicle software program resident thereon, the rental vehicle software program being configured to, upon execution, access the database to manage rental vehicle reservations in response to a series of commands received from a plurality of authorized business partner computers providing a web portal, wherein the web portal is in bidirectional communication with the second mainframe and is further in bidirectional communication with the authorized business partner computers via an Internet connection therebetween, the web portal being configured to provide a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for display on the authorized business partner computers, the GUIs being configured to interface a user of an authorized business partner computer with the rental vehicle software program resident on the second mainframe such that the user can provide the series of commands for managing rental vehicle reservations; receiving a command via at least one of the web portal GUIs from a user'"'"'s authorized business partner computer; communicating the received command to the rental software program; executing the rental vehicle software program in response to the communicated command to thereby manage a rental vehicle reservation; and responsive to the executing step, displaying a web portal GUI on the authorized business partner computer, wherein the displayed web portal GUI includes a repair facility callback list for a plurality of open rental vehicle reservations. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. An automatic rental vehicle transaction system, the system comprising:
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a first computer network operated by a rental vehicle service provider, the first Computer network comprising a plurality of branch office computers located in a plurality of geographically remote locations at which a plurality of rental vehicles are available for rent from the rental vehicle service provider, a database in which reservation data regarding the rental vehicles available for rent at the plurality of remote locations is stored, at least a portion of the reservation data corresponding to rental vehicle reservations for third parties whose vehicles are undergoing repairs at a repair facility, the stored reservation data including data identifying the repair facilities where the third parties′
vehicles are undergoing repairs, and a first computer network mainframe in bidirectional communication with the database and the branch office computers, the first computer network mainframe having fulfillment software resident thereon, the fulfillment software being configured to process and store rental vehicle reservation data in the database for access by the branch office computers when the branch office computers fulfill rental vehicle reservations; anda second computer network comprising a plurality of authorized business partner computers and a second computer network mainframe; wherein the second computer network mainframe is in bidirectional communication with the first computer network, the second computer network mainframe having a rental vehicle software program resident thereon, the rental vehicle software program being configured to access the database to create and manage rental vehicle reservations in response to a series of commands received from the authorized business partner computers; wherein the authorized business partner computers are configured to access the rental vehicle software program via an electronic connection, thereby providing users of the authorized business partner computers with the ability to create and manage rental vehicle reservations on behalf of third parties, including the ability to generate a report for display on the authorized business partner computers the report comprising details about the plurality of rental vehicle reservations including sorted data therefor that identifies at least one selected from the group consisting of (1) the repair facilities where the third parties′
vehicles are undergoing repairs, (2) the authorized number of days for the plurality of rental vehicle reservations, and (3) the number of days behind for rental vehicle reservations that have been open for more than the authorized number of days, the number of days behind being calculated as a difference between the number of authorized days for an open rental vehicle reservation and a number of days that that rental vehicle reservation has been open. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification