System and method for delivering financial services

• US 7,502,752 B1
• Filed: 09/27/2000
• Issued: 03/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Citicorp Credit Services Incorporated (Citigroup Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Citicorp Development Center Incorporated (Citigroup Incorporated)
• Inventors: Komarov, Boris, Lemons, Kyle, Boyd, Nik
• Primary Examiner(s): Weisberger; Richard C
• Application Number:
  US09/671,422
• Time in Patent Office: 3,086 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 45, 370/354, 717/102
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A delivery system and method allow a financial institution to provide financial services to a plurality of remote devices, such as personal computers, personal data assistants, and screen phones. In addition to providing services to these remote devices, the system and method provide services to automatic teller machines (ATMs), external service providers, and internally within the financial institution to staff terminals and to the individual branches of the financial institution. The delivery of financial services is not limited to any particular network but rather may be provided through dial-in access, Internet access, on-line service provider access, or other types of delivery networks. The system is comprised of a set of re-usable global components which are modular and are organized into services sets. By separating the components of the system into independent components, the system and method can be developed and tested on a component level rather than the entire system level, thereby substantially reducing the development and maintenance cycle time. The system and method operate in sessions and, for instance, employ a dialog component for gathering information from a customer, a rule broker component for providing answers to the various legal and regulatory rules in a particular country, a language man component for selecting appropriate language, a transaction executor component for performing transactions, and a presentation manager component for formatting outputs to the customer. The system and method provide state-of-the art interfaces with interface components and support legacy applications with legacy app bridge components. A system management aspect of invention makes use of an agent set that provides a communication mechanism such that managed components of the system can be queried for their status, as well as the concept of instrumentation in which software monitors the hardware devices that are part of the system.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing a components of financial services delivery system devices, comprising:

providing a plurality of management protocol agent versions, each capable of translating management requests from a different external system management protocol format, but running only one version of the management protocol agent adapted for translating management requests from a particular external system management protocol format;

receiving a management request via an external interface by the management protocol agent in the particular remote system management protocol format from an external system management component relative to a managed component of any one of a plurality of different types of financial services delivery devices;

translating the management request by the management protocol agent from the particular remote system management component protocol format into a specific command relative to the managed component in a format supported by a command dispatch agent and sending the management request to the command dispatch agent;

obtaining the managed component by the command dispatch agent from a component registry with which the managed component was previously registered;

executing the command by the command dispatch agent via an interface published by the managed component by dispatching the command to the managed component, receiving a response from the managed component, and providing the response to the management protocol agent;

translating the response by the management protocol agent from the format supported by the command dispatch agent into the particular remote management system protocol format for the external system management component; and

providing the response to the management request to the external system management component by the management protocol agent via the external interface in the particular remote management system protocol format.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein translating the management request further comprises translating the request into at least one of an inquiry command, a stop command, and a start command.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein translating the management request further comprises translating the request into the specific command for a command dispatch agent.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein dispatching the command by the command dispatch agent further comprises sending an inquire command to the managed component.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein dispatching the command by the command dispatch agent further comprises sending one of a stop command and a start command to the managed component.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the command further comprises collecting at least one instrument owned by the managed component.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the command further comprises inquiring about a value of at least one instrument owned by the managed component.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the command further comprises obtaining a status of at least one instrument owned by the managed component.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the response further comprises providing the status of at least one instrument owned by the managed component to the external system management component.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the response further comprises providing an acknowledgment of one of a stop command and a start command for the managed component to the external system management agent.

11. A machine readable medium on which is encoded program code for managing components of financial services delivery system devices, the program code comprising instructions for:

providing a plurality of management protocol agent versions, each capable of translating management requests from a different external system management protocol format, but only one version of which is adapted for translating management requests from a particular external system management protocol format;

receiving a management request via an external interface by said version of the management protocol agent in the particular remote system management protocol format from an external system management component relative to a managed component of any one of a plurality of different types of financial services delivery devices;

translating the management request by said version of the management protocol agent from the particular remote system management component protocol format into a specific command relative to the managed component in a format supported by a command dispatch agent and sending the management request to the command dispatch agent;

obtaining the managed component by the command dispatch agent from a component registry with which the managed component was previously registered;

executing the command by the command dispatch agent via an interface published by the managed component by dispatching the command to the managed component, receiving a response from the managed component, and providing the response to said only one version of the management protocol agent; and

the management protocol being further adapted for translating the response by said version of the management protocol agent from the format supported by the command dispatch agent into the particular remote management system protocol format for the external system management component; and

providing the response to the management request to the external system management component by said version of the management protocol agent via the external interface in the particular remote management system protocol format.

12. The machine readable medium of claim 11, said program code further comprising instructions for translating the request into at least one of an inquiry command, a stop command, and a start command by said version of the management protocol agent.

13. The machine readable medium of claim 11, said program code further comprising instructions for translating the request into the specific command for a command dispatch agent by said version of the management protocol agent.

14. The machine readable medium of claim 11, the program code further comprising instructions for executing the command by sending an inquire command to the managed component by the command dispatch agent.

15. The machine readable medium of claim 11, the program code further comprising instructions for executing the command by sending one of a stop command and a start command to the managed component by the command dispatch agent.

16. The machine readable medium of claim 11, the program code further comprising instructions for executing the command by the command dispatch agent by collecting at least one instrument owned by the managed component.

17. The machine readable medium of claim 11, the program code further comprising instructions for executing the command by the command dispatch agent by inquiring about a value of at least one instrument owned by the managed component.

18. The machine readable medium of claim 11, the program code further comprising instructions for executing the command by the command dispatch agent by obtaining a status of at least one instrument owned by the managed component.

19. The machine readable medium of claim 11, said program code further comprising instructions for providing the status of at least one instrument owned by the managed component to the external system management component by said version of the management protocol agent.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 11, said program code further comprising instructions for providing an acknowledgment of one of a stop command and a start command for the managed component to the external system management agent by said version of the management protocol agent.