Systems and methods for identifying third party products and services available at a geographic location

• US 8,433,617 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2010
• Issued: 04/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allconnect, Inc. (Red Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Allconnect, Inc. (Red Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Goad, Glenn R., Singer, Neil J., Martin, David N., Chapple, Ryan J., Baugh, Earl D. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pond, Robert M.
• Application Number:
  US12/754,930
• Publication Number:
  US 20110137745A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,120 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 Item locations

Abstract

Systems and methods for identifying third party products and services available to geographic location. Generally, the system identifies a subject address or location at which services are desired. Next, the system parses, standardizes, and verifies the subject address as a valid physical location. Then, the system identifies relevant market(s) corresponding to the subject address, and determines product and service offerings in the relevant market(s). Further, the system determines capabilities required to effectuate the determined service offerings at the location, and identifies capabilities available at the geographic location. Subsequently, the system compares the required capabilities of the services to the available capabilities at the location to generate serviceability information corresponding to services actually available at the location. Finally, the system provides the serviceability information to a user for selection of particular products and services, or stores the information for further processing within the system.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for identifying products and services available at a geographic location, wherein a plurality of service providers offer a plurality of services to users at a plurality of geographic locations, and wherein one or more steps of the computer implemented method are performed via a computer processor, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving location information corresponding to a particular geographic location associated with a user, wherein the particular geographic location is associated with a specific property at the particular geographic location;

identifying one or more services offered by one or more service providers to the particular geographic location based on the location information corresponding to the particular geographic location;

receiving service information associated with the one or more services offered to the particular geographic location by the one or more service providers, the service information including capabilities required information indicative of physical capabilities required by properties to effectuate the one or more services at geographic locations;

receiving capabilities available information at the computer processor from one or more electronic databases corresponding to pre-existing physical capabilities of the specific property at the particular geographic location for receiving the one or more services offered to the particular geographic location;

comparing, via the computer processor, the received capabilities required information of the one or more services to the received capabilities available information of the specific property at the particular geographic location to identify a subset of the one or more services that includes capabilities required information that matches capabilities available information of the specific property at the particular geographic location; and

generating serviceability information comprising information related to the identified subset of the one or more services capable of being offered to the particular geographic location associated with the user,

whereby the serviceability information is used to assist the user in ordering services for the specific property at the particular geographic location associated with the user.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the location information is selected from the group comprising:

a house number, apartment number, street name, cardinal direction, zip code, city, state, province, county, country.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

parsing the location information corresponding to the particular geographic location associated with the user into discrete elements; and

reassembling the discrete elements into a standardized geographic location based on a standardized format.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, further comprising the step of comparing the standardized geographic location against known address information in a verification database to verify the standardized geographic location.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying one or more services offered by one or more service providers to the particular geographic location further comprises the steps of:

defining one or more markets corresponding to services offered in the markets; and

identifying a particular market associated with the particular geographic location based on at least one address element included in the location information.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the one or more markets are defined based on geographic areas in which the one or more services are offered.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the one or more markets are defined based on the service information associated with the one or more services.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the service information is retrieved from pre-stored information in an electronic database.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more electronic databases are associated with one or more of the following:

the one or more service providers, pre-stored information in an address database, real estate sources, city plans blueprints, census data, city authorities, tax records.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the capabilities required information indicative of physical capabilities required by properties to effectuate the one or more services at me geographic locations is selected from the group comprising:

cable connection required, satellite dish required, security system required, telephone line required, water line required, connected to sewer system required, gas connection required, DSL connection required, on recycling pickup route.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the capabilities available information corresponding to pre-existing physical capabilities of the specific property at the particular geographic location is selected from the group comprising:

cable connection available, satellite dish available, security system available, telephone line available, water line available, connected to sewer system, gas connection available, DSL connection available, on recycling pickup route, modem available, septic system present.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more services offered by the one or more service providers to the geographic location are selected from the group comprising:

electricity, natural gas, satellite television, cable television, wireless telephone, landline telephone, Internet, home security, home insurance, home warranty, newspaper delivery, recycling pickup, home cleaning service, moving service, dry-cleaning, trash pickup, pest control.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the serviceability information is displayed to the user via a user interface, printed in a printed report, or stored in an electronic database for further processing.

14. A computer implemented method for providing serviceability information identifying products and services available at a geographic location to a user, wherein one or more steps of the computer implemented method are performed via a computer processor, the method comprising:

receiving location information corresponding to a particular geographic location associated with a user, wherein the particular geographic location is associated with a specific property at the particular geographic location;

verifying the location information;

determining one or more services offered by service providers and available in a predefined market segment based on the location information;

retrieving service information regarding the one or more services offered by the service providers, the service information including capabilities required information indicative of physical capabilities required by properties to effectuate the one or more services at geographic locations;

retrieving capabilities available information at the computer processor from an electronic database for the particular geographic location indicative of physical capabilities of the specific property at the particular geographic location for receiving the one or more services at the particular geographic location; and

displaying a list of services available at the particular geographic location based on analysis via the computer processor of available services offered by service providers and a match between the capabilities required information for the one or more services in the market segment and the capabilities available information of the specific property at the particular geographic location associated with the user.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 14, further comprising parsing the location information to obtain individual address elements corresponding to preconfigured address elements from the location information corresponding to the particular geographic location associated with the user.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 15, further comprising normalizing the individual address elements to obtain a standardized address.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the verifying step further comprises returning a list of near matches to the user if the location information provided by the user does not completely match with any address in an address database.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the verifying step farther comprises returning an error message to the user if the location information provided by the user does not significantly match with any address in an address database.

19. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the step of retrieving service information further comprises retrieving service information regarding the services offered by the service providers from a cached database of service information provided by service providers.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the location information is selected from the group comprising:

a house number, apartment number, street name, cardinal direction, zip code, city, state, province, county, country.

21. The computer implemented method of claim 14, wherein the service information regarding the one or more services offered by service providers may be determined in real time.

22. A system for providing serviceability information identifying products and services available at a geographic location, wherein a plurality of service providers offer one or more services to users at a plurality of geographic locations, the system comprising:

an electronic database for storing (a) location information corresponding to geographic locations associated with users, (b) service information associated with the one or more services offered to geographic locations by the plurality of service providers, the service information including capabilities required information indicative of physical capabilities required by properties to effectuate the one or more services at the geographic locations associated with users, and (c) capabilities available information corresponding to pre-existing physical capabilities of properties at the geographic locations for receiving the one or more services;

a processer cummunicably coupled to the electronic database, wherein the processer is configured to;

receive particular location information corresponding to a particular geographic location associated with a user, wherein the particular geographic location is associated with a specific property at the particular geographic location;

verify the particular location information corresponding to the particular geographic location associated with the user;

determine one or more services available in a predefined market segment based on the particular location information corresponding to the particular geographic location associated with the user;

retrieve from the electronic database service information regarding the one or more services offered by service providers, including the capabilities required information for the determined one or more services;

retrieve from the electronic database capabilities available information corresponding to pre-existing physical capabilities of the specific property at the particular geographic location for accepting the one or more services at the particular geographic location; and

display a list of services available at the particular geographic location based on an analysis of services offered by the service providers and a match between the capabilities required information for the one or more services in the market segment and the capabilities available information of the specific property at the particular geographic location associated with the user.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the processor is further configured to parse the particular location information to obtain individual address elements corresponding to preconfigured address parameters from the particular location information corresponding to the particular geographic location associated with the user.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the processor is further configured to normalize the individual address elements to obtain a standardized address.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the processor is further configured to return a list of near matches relating to the particular geographic location if the particular location information does not completely match with any address in the electronic database.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the processor is further configured to return an error message if the particular location information does not significantly match with any address in the electronic database.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein the electronic database receives capabilities available information from one or more electronic databases in real time.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the one or more electronic databases are associated with one or more of the following:

the one or more service providers, pre-stored information in the one or more electronic databases, real estate sources, city plans blueprints, census data, city authorities, tax records.

29. The system of claim 22, wherein the particular location information is selected from the group comprising:

a house number, apartment number, street name, cardinal direction, zip code, city, state, province, county, country.

30. The system of claim 22 wherein the location information stored in the electronic database is received from one or more of the following:

users, the one or more service providers, pre-stored information in an address database, real estate sources, city plans blueprints, census data, city authorities, tax records.

31. The system of claim 22, wherein the predefined market segment depends on one or more of the following factors:

geographic areas in which the one or more services are offered by the service providers, the service information associated with the service providers.

32. The computer implemented method of claim 22, wherein the service information regarding the one or more services offered by the service providers is determined in real time.

33. A computer implemented method for identifying services offered by service providers and available at geographic locations associated with users, wherein one or more steps of the computer implemented method are performed via a computer processor, the method comprising:

receiving location information corresponding to a particular geographic location associated with a user, wherein the particular geographic location is associated with a specific property at the particular geographic location;

receiving service information associated with one or more services offered by service providers, the service information including capabilities required information indicative of capabilities required by properties to effectuate the one or more services at geographic locations;

receiving capabilities available information at the computer processor from one or more electronic databases corresponding to pre-existing physical capabilities of the specific property at the particular geographic location for accepting the one or more services offered to the particular geographic location;

comparing, via the computer processor, the received capabilities available information and the service information associated with the one or more services including the capabilities required information to identify one or more specific services from the one or more services in a manner such that the capabilities required information matches with the capabilities available information of the specific property at the particular geographic location; and

generating serviceability information related to the identified one or more specific services at the particular geographic location associated with the user.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the one or more electronic databases is selected from the group comprising:

the service providers, pre-stored information in an address database, real estate sources, city plans blueprints, census data, city authorities, tax records.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the location information is received from one or more of the following:

the user, the service providers, pre-stored information in an address database, real estate sources, city plans blueprints, census data, city authorities, tax records.

36. A computer implemented method for identifying services offered by service providers and available at geographic locations associated with users, wherein one or more steps of the computer implemented method are performed via a computer processor, the method comprising:

receiving location information corresponding to a particular geographic location associated with a user, wherein the particular geographic location is associated with a specific property at the particular geographic location;

receiving capabilities required information associated with one or more services offered by service providers, the capabilities required information indicative of physical capabilities required by properties to effectuate the one or more services;

receiving capabilities available information at the computer processor from one or more electronic databases corresponding to pre-existing physical capabilities of the specific property at the particular geographic location for accepting the one or more services offered to the particular geographic location;

generating, via the computer processor, serviceability information relating to a subset of the one or more services applicable to the specific property at the particular geographic location associated with the user by comparing the received capabilities available information and the received capabilities required information associated with the one or more services.