Distributed, object oriented global trade finance system with imbedded imaging and work flow and reference data

• US 7,996,289 B2
• Filed: 03/17/2004
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CGI Technologies and Solutions Incorporated (CGI Group)
• Original Assignee: CGI Technologies and Solutions Incorporated (CGI Group)
• Inventors: Carden, Ronald W., Francis, James G.
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, JAGDISH
• Application Number:
  US10/801,832
• Publication Number:
  US 20040177028A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,701 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705 7- 9, 705/37, 705/39
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

An object oriented trade finance system designed to support a large-scale transactional work flow on a global basis. The system supports all facets of the trade finance business including but not limited to letters of credit, collections, bankers acceptances and reimbursements. A trade finance system organized into a central and distributed location hardware architecture having a user interface of a user work station which communicates with an application server including business objects. The business objects communicate with a database to obtain the data needed for the business logic and include all the business logic needed for the system. Work flow distribution rules are used to distribute the work items to a work item list for work group that can be distributed geographically in different time zones and to allow processing to continue when the originally assigned workgroup has reached an end of its business day.

Claims

1. A method of handling international trade finance transactions, comprising:

automatically assigning work items corresponding to a trade commerce transaction financing and comprising issuances, advisements, amendments and payments, created by a computer in a customer service front office spoke to work groups having workers at remote geographically dispersed locations across multiple time zones according to routing and distribution rules, the work groups each having workers belonging to processing center hub back-offices having computers in different time zones to allow the work items to be handed off to workers within a work group as a first workday ends in one hub to workers within the work group in a second hub as a second workday begins; and

processing, using at least one computer having a processor, at a consolidated centralized hub processing location coupled to customer service spokes, all the work items across multiple bank organizations, and consolidating back office processing of the work items in real-time with constant processing availability by using workflow routing between the remote locations as the remote locations become available for handling the work items and using a consolidated computer database in processing the work items, the database having multiple base currencies, each base currency corresponding to a country source of the transactions.

2. A method of handling international trade commerce transaction financing, comprising:

automatically assigning work items corresponding to a trade commerce transaction and comprising issuances, advisements, amendments and payments created by a computer in a customer service front office spoke to work groups having workers at remote locations in different time zones according to routing and distribution rules, the work groups each having workers belonging to diversely located processing center hub back-offices having computers in different time zones to allow the work items to be handed off to workers within a work group as a first workday ends in one hub to workers within the work group in a second hub as a second workday begins; and

back office processing of the work items across multiple bank organizations using at least one computer having a processor, and workflow routing between the remote locations across the different time zones in real-time using a consolidated computer database in processing the work items, the database having multiple base currencies, each base currency corresponding to a country source of the transactions, at a single consolidated hub processing location having one or more computers coupled to customer service spokes.

3. A method of handling international trade commerce transaction financing, comprising:

accessing, through a user interface by a computer at a customer service front office spoke, and automatically assigning work items corresponding to a trade commerce transaction financing and comprising issuances, advisements, amendments, and payments to transaction financier staff including workers belonging to work groups in remote locations geographically dispersed across multiple time zones according to routing and distribution rules, the work groups comprising workers belonging to diversely located processing center hub back-offices having computers in different time zones to allow the work items to be handed off to workers within a work group as a first workday ends in one hub to workers within the work group in a second hub as a second workday begins; and

processing by a single consolidated processing system using at least one computer having a processor coupled to customer service spokes, and workflow routing of the work items with Around-the-clock capability, the work items processed at the locations including multiple bank organizations in real-time using a consolidated database, the database having multiple base currencies.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein handing off of the work items is referenced to a global system time.

5. A method of handling trade commerce transaction financing, comprising:

initiating execution of a business object by a first application server belonging to a first processing hub at a first geographically distributed processing location of a plurality of geographically distributed processing locations dispersed across multiple time zones and handing the business object off to a second application server belonging to a second processing hub at a second geographically distributed processing location according to routing and distribution rules as a first workday ends and a second workday begins responsive to a guaranteed completion time based on Greenwich Mean Time to allow constant processing, each location including user work stations connected to one of the application servers and having a processor and a trade finance interface; and

performing, by the application servers, back office trade finance business logic for processing international trade finance transactions based on the business object across multiple bank organizations in real-time responsive to initiation by the work stations with constant processing availability using a consolidated database in processing, at a consolidated central processing location coupled to said distributed locations and customer service front office spokes, and the database having base currencies corresponding to country sources of the transactions.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein said business object communicates by the application servers with a consolidated database server for data required by the business logic.

7. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein one of the work stations executes a business object.

8. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein a communication object communicates between the interface and the business object.

9. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the business logic is performed relative to a trade instrument identified on said interface, the trade instrument having a trade document associated therewith and said system further comprising an image server storing an image of the document and a link to the instrument, allowing the interface to retrieve the image from the instrument.

10. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising connection and transport objects providing communication between said interface and said business object.

11. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein said interface includes only input output logic.

12. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising an object communication service requesting attribute values for fields of a window of said interface.

13. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising an attribute manager accessing an attribute object for an attribute of the business object.