Invoice mediation system and method

• US 7,895,357 B1
• Filed: 02/18/2004
• Issued: 02/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Walker, Joel M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; F. Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHAAWAT, MUSSA A
• Application Number:
  US10/781,396
• Time in Patent Office: 2,561 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

A system and method for performing normalization processing and mediation processing on data. The system and method thus allows a singular system, in particular a work engine, to process and store data from several sources and to perform a mediation process, wherein received data is processed to provide customer requested output, based on a reference table which contains a registry of data identifiers and the mediation processes to be performed on data corresponding to the data identifiers.

Claims

1. A method for performing a mediation process on invoice data, the method comprising:

registering, with a mediation process manager stored in a computer readable storage media and executed by a processor, a plurality of data identifiers and a plurality of mediation processes in a reference table stored in a computer readable storage media, wherein each of the plurality of data identifiers is registered to correspond to at least one of the plurality of mediation processes, and wherein each of the plurality of mediation processes performs a different data processing function;

retrieving, with a mediation transform unit stored in a computer readable media and executed by a processor, invoice data from one or more data sources stored in a computer readable storage media, the invoice data corresponds to one of the plurality of data identifiers;

identifying, with the mediation process manager, the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes to perform on the invoice data by determining that the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes are registered in the reference table to correspond with the one of the plurality of data identifiers that corresponds to the invoice data; and

performing the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes on the invoice data to generate a mediated output, wherein the mediated output is different from the invoice data, wherein performing the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes on the invoice data includes performing the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes with at least one of a special handling function and a workflow adjustment function on the invoice data, wherein a workflow adjustment controller performs the workflow adjustment function on the invoice data, and wherein the workflow adjustment function comprises capturing current invoice data, awaiting future invoice data, capturing the future invoice data, and processing the current invoice data and future invoice data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each data identifier identifies a data source and the corresponding mediation process relates to the mediation process to be performed on data from that data source.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the invoice data is billing data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing a data transformation process in accordance with a predetermined defining structure before performing any of the special handling function and the workflow adjustment function on the invoice data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined defining structure is an Extensible Markup Language schema.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising retrieving data directly from a data generation unit via a direct data access controller, wherein at least one of the special handling function and the workflow adjustment function is performed on the invoice data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the mediated output is further defined as a mediated invoice.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the invoices are further defined as telephone bills and wherein the mediated output includes a portion of the call details from the telephone bill.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes on the invoice data further comprises:

providing a first billing system that generates a first invoice; and

providing a second billing system that generates a second invoice such that the mediated output is based on at least portions of the first and second invoices.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a special handling function controller performs the special handling function on the invoice data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the special handling function controller invokes the special handling function based on information registered in the reference table.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the special handling function comprises manipulating data.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the workflow adjustment controller invokes the workflow adjustment function based on information registered in the reference table.

14. The method of claim 4, wherein the mediation transform unit performs the data transformation process.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference table is coupled to a user interface.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of mediation processes comprise data transformation, data manipulation, and delayed data processing.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving, with the mediation transform unit, a second invoice data from one or more data sources stored in a computer readable storage media, the second invoice data corresponds to a second one of the plurality of data identifiers;

identifying, with the mediation process manager, the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes to perform on the second invoice data by determining that the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes are registered in the reference table to correspond with the second one of the plurality of data identifiers that corresponds to the second invoice data; and

performing the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes on the second invoice data to generate a second mediated output, wherein the second mediated output is different from the second invoice data, and wherein the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes performed on the second invoice data to generate the second mediated output is different from the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes performed on the invoice data to generate the mediated output.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

retrieving, with the mediation transform unit, a third invoice data from one or more data sources stored in a computer readable storage media, the third invoice data corresponds to a third one of the plurality of data identifiers;

identifying, with the mediation process manager, the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes to perform on the third invoice data by determining that the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes are registered in the reference table to correspond with the third one of the plurality of data identifiers that corresponds to the third invoice data; and

performing the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes on the third invoice data to generate a third mediated output, wherein the third mediated output is different from the third invoice data, and wherein the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes performed on the third invoice data to generate the third mediated output is different from the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes performed on the second invoice data to generate the second mediated output and the at least one of the plurality of mediation processes performed on the invoice data to generate the mediated output.