System and method for managing and updating information relating to economic entities

• US 7,370,044 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2001
• Issued: 05/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Equifax, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Equifax, Inc.
• Inventors: Satterfield, Markus R., Karas, David J., Mulhern, Robert Kelly, Redman, James Crawford
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US09/992,809
• Publication Number:
  US 20030097380A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,360 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/100, 707/102, 707/203, 707/200, 707/202, 707/201, 707/204, 707/1, 707/6
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/381 using identifiers, e.g. barcodes, RFIDs for URLs G06F16/9554
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

Methods and systems for managing and updating information relating to economic entities using sets of unique identifiers. A universe database contains record entries. Each of the record entries is associated with a unique universe identifier. A customer database contains customer record entries. Each customer record entry is associated with a unique customer identifier. A conversion table provides a mapping between the unique universe identifiers and the unique customer identifiers. The information contained in the customer database is updated using the unique universe identifiers, unique customer identifiers and the conversion table. The unique universe identifiers and the unique customer identifiers are stable over a period of time.

Claims

1. A method for updating a customer file having a plurality of record entries, comprising:

receiving raw data corresponding to at least one event generating entity;

processing the raw data and generating at least one processed record entry;

storing a plurality of processed record entries in a universe database, each record entry being associated with a unique universe identifier (“

UUID”

);

accessing content of a customer file;

comparing the content of the customer file with the content of the universe database;

generating a matched customer file and a non-matched customer file;

assigning a unique customer number (“

UCID”

) for each record entry contained in the matched customer file and the non-matched customer file, wherein the UCID is different from the UUID, and the UCID is distributed to a single customer and the UUID is not distributed to the customer;

associating each UCID with a corresponding UUID via a conversion table; and

updating a portion of at least one record entry in the matched customer file with information contained in the processed record entry associated with the UUID corresponding to the UCID associated with the at least one record entry.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each UUID is stable;

and each UCID is stable, and the raw data is subject to change.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a UCID is assigned to every record entry contained in the customer file regardless of whether a record entry corresponds to an existing economic entity.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of comparing the content of the customer file with the content of the universe database comprises organizing the record entries in the customer file per person.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of comparing the content of the customer file with the content of the universe database comprises using public domain identity data common to the customer file and the universe database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of associating each UCID with a corresponding UUID comprises:

generating a conversion table providing a mapping between the UCID'"'"'s with a set of the UUID'"'"'s contained in the universe database.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of updating a portion of at least one record entry is accomplished using a batch mode.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the action of updating at least a portion of at least one record entry is accomplished via the Internet.

9. A method for updating a plurality of customer files, each customer file having a plurality of record entries, comprising:

receiving raw data corresponding to at least one event generating entity;

processing the raw data and generating at least one processed record entry;

storing a plurality of processed record entries in a universe database;

each Record entry being associated with a universe identifier (“

UUID”

);

comparing content of each of the plurality of customer files with the content of the universe database;

generating a matched customer file and non-matched customer file for each of the plurality of customer files;

assigning a set of unique customer identifiers (“

UCID'"'"'s”

) for each customer file, each UCID within the set being associated with each record entry contained in the matched customer file and the non-matched customer file corresponding to the set of UCID'"'"'s wherein the UCIDs are different from the corresponding UUIDs, and the UCIDs are distributed to a single customer while the UUIDs are not distributed to the customer;

associating each UCID with a corresponding UUID via a conversion table; and

updating a portion of at least one record entry in at least one matched customer file with information contained in the processed record entry associated with the UUID corresponding to the UCID associated with the at least one record entry.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each UUID is stable over a period of time;

and each UCID is stable over another period of time.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a UCID is assigned to every record entry contained in each of the plurality of customer files regardless of whether a record entry corresponds to an existing economic entity.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the action of associating each UCID with a corresponding UUID comprises:

generating a conversion table for each of the plurality of customer files, each conversion file providing a mapping between the set of UCID'"'"'s assigned to the corresponding customer files with a set of the UUID'"'"'s contained in the universe database.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the action of updating a portion of at least one record entry is accomplished using a batch mode.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the action of updating at least a portion of at least one record entry is accomplished in near real-time via the Internet.