System and method for managing requests to document archives, routing requests and delivering requests to a variety of channels or delivery mechanisms

• US 7,431,201 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2004
• Issued: 10/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: US Bank National Association (US Bancorp)
• Original Assignee: US Bank National Association (US Bancorp)
• Inventors: Brey, Kari, Hall, Charles, Eliason, Matthew, Wentland, Stephanie
• Primary Examiner(s): Labaze; Edwyn
• Application Number:
  US10/888,157
• Publication Number:
  US 20060006222A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,551 Days
• Field of Search: 235/379, 235/382, 235/385, 235/487, 235/375, 902/7, 382/305, 709/201, 709/217, 709/219, 705/42, 705/35, 705/45, 705/44, 705/67
• US Class Current: 235/379
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

An Archive Interface Manager (AIM) can provide a common interface between the image delivery channels and image archives. AIM handles requests and fulfillment of queries and images between the image delivery channels and the image archive/s. AIM processes requests for documents to the appropriate document archive/s and fulfills and returns a list of items that matches the request and subsequently, the requested item to the requestor. AIM processes the request, searching multiple archives, going to the appropriate place of record, combining the hit list with all the items and returning a single hit list with the matched request. AIM also allows the requestor to query and retrieve items without seeing a hit list such as in a request for a single item.

Claims

1. A method of managing archive interfaces to a plurality of archives, the method comprising:

receiving, at a first financial institution, an item request from a requesting application in a common format, the item being located in at least one archive of a plurality of archives at a second financial institution, wherein the item request corresponds to an image of a financial information document, wherein the first and second financial institutions are distinct;

identifying the one archive of the plurality of archives at the second financial institution where the requested item is located;

communicating a request to the identified at least one archive for the requested item;

communicating the requested item to the requesting application, and further comprising parsing the request into sub-queries, launching an appropriate number of threads to execute all sub-queries in parallel, and gathering sub-query results from applicable plurality of archives wher information of an item describing how to retrieve its images.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial information document requested is a check image, deposit slip, GL ticket, lobby payment, or other bank-related documents.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the requesting application with a hit list of items satisfying the item request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the item request comprises a request for multiple images.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the at least one archive where the requested item is located comprises identifying a date associated with the requested item and selecting the at least one archive based on the identified date.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the at least one archive where the requested item is located comprises identifying a financial institution associated with the requested item and selecting the at least one archive based on the identified financial institution.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating a request to the identified one archive for the requested item comprises communicating a batch of requested items to the identified one archive.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating the requested item to the requested application comprises communicating a batch of requested items to the requesting application.

9. A software application that provides a common interface between image delivery channels and image archives, the software application comprising:

computer code to handle requests and fulfillment of queries from a first financial institution and images from a second financial institution between image delivery channels and a plurality of image archives, wherein the images are checks, wherein the first and second financial institutions are distinct; and

computer code to parse requests into sub-queries, launch threads to execute all sub-queries in parallel, and gather sub-query results from applicable plurality of archives where each sub-query result includes meta information of an item describing how to retrieve its images.

10. The software application of claim 9, wherein the fulfillment of queries comprises providing a hit list of images found in a search.

11. The software application of claim 9, wherein the computer code identifies archives where requested images are located.

12. The software application of claim 11, wherein the archives are identified based on dates associated with check images requested.

13. The software application of claim 11, wherein the archives are identified based on a financial institution associated with check images requested.

14. A system of providing a common interface between image delivery channels and image archives, the system comprising:

an archive interface manager at a first financial institution;

a plurality of archives containing check images at a second financial institution, wherein the first and second financial institutions are distinct; and

programmed instructions executed by the archive interface manager to convert protocols of requested images to a common format, determine a destination archive for a received request, access the determined destination archive from the plurality of archives containing check images to retrieve the requested images, parse image requests into sub-queries, launch threads to execute all sub-queries in parallel, and gather sub-query results from applicable plurality of archives where each sub-query result includes meta information of an item describing how to retrieve its images.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the destination archive is determined based on date of a check whose image is requested.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the destination archive is determined based on a financial institution where a checking account corresponding to the check is located.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the destination archive is determined based on a financial institution receiving a check whose image is requested.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising an authorization module coupled to the archive interface manager to authenticate access to the requested images.

19. The system of claim 14, further comprising a subscriber computer coupled to the archive interface manager via the Internet.