System and method for providing centralized management and distribution of information to remote users

• US 8,601,049 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United States Postal Service (Government of the United States of America)
• Original Assignee: United States Postal Service (Government of the United States of America)
• Inventors: Mendonca, Pat, Pruett, Jonathan C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pollack, Melvin H
• Application Number:
  US10/953,449
• Publication Number:
  US 20050197871A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,351 Days
• Field of Search: 709203-205, 709217-219, 709/223, 709/224, 709/248, 709/200, 705/8, 707/10, 707/104.1, 707/201, 707/203, 707/608, 707/621, 707/628, 707/694, 707/708, 707/728, 707/732, 707/737, 707/738, 707/748, 726/6, 726 27- 30
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/00 Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/006 with transmission via telephone network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

The invention includes systems, methods, and software applications for centrally maintaining information and automatically distributing relevant portions of the information to remote users. In one embodiment, a central server stores the information, which is maintained on the central server. Periodically, or each time the server information is updated, the server identifies the portion of the information that is relevant to each user and downloads the relevant portion of information to each user, for example to a mobile device such as a Blackberry™. The invention may be used to maintain and timely distribute information related to emergency response procedures, sales or servicing schedules, and delivery schedules, among other things.

Claims

1. A system for providing centralized management and distribution of information, comprising:

a central data processing apparatus that maintains a set of information for an organization and access rights to the information, divides the set of information into a plurality of subsets of information based on relevance to a plurality of users collectively having a plurality of access right levels and a plurality of areas of responsibility in the organization, each user individually having at least one of the plurality of access right levels and at least one of the plurality of areas of responsibility in the organization, with the relevance of the plurality of subsets of information and the access rights for each of the plurality of users corresponding to the level and area of responsibility of that user in the organization, and automatically transmits the plurality of subsets of information periodically over a network to an external user device regardless whether the information has changed since the last transmission, the external user device configured to receive, store the information locally to the external device, and present the subset of information to the user, the subset of information associated with a corresponding user based on the relevance of the information to the user and the access right of the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user device is one of a group of devices comprising:

a Blackberry®

device, a personal digital assistant, a laptop computer, and a home computer.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the network comprises a wireless communications link.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the central data processing apparatus comprises an updating component for sending a subset of information to a relevant user via the network after the subset of information is updated on the central data processing apparatus.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of information comprises emergency-response-related information.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of information comprises item-delivery-related information.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of information comprises service-visit-related information.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of information comprises sales-visit-related information.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein dividing the set of information into the plurality of subsets of information is based on relevance to each of the plurality of users.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the user device is a wireless device.

11. A system for providing centralized management and distribution of information, comprising:

means for storing information regarding an organization in a central apparatus;

means for storing access rights for a plurality of users collectively having a plurality of levels and a plurality of areas of responsibility in the organization and each individually having at least one of the plurality of levels and one of the plurality of areas of responsibility to the information in the central apparatus with the access rights for each of the plurality of users corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of levels of responsibility of that user;

means for accepting an update to the information;

means for determining a portion of the information that is relevant to a user based on a level of responsibility and an area of responsibility for the user in the organization;

means for determining what information is allowed to be communicated to the user based on the user'"'"'s access rights;

means for automatically and periodically communicating the portion of the information to a device associated with the user that the user is allowed to receive by the user'"'"'s access rights, the portion of information communicated regardless whether the information has changed since the last transmission, the device configured to store the portion of information locally on the device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the device is one of a group of devices comprising:

a Blackberry®

device, a personal digital assistant, a laptop computer, and a home computer.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the means for communicating comprises:

means for wirelessly communicating the portion of the information to a device associated with the user.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the information comprises:

emergency-response-related information.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the information comprises:

item-delivery-related information.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the information comprises:

service-visit-related information.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the information comprises:

sales-visit-related information.

18. A computer program product containing instructions for causing a processor to perform operations related to centralized management and distribution of information, the operations comprising:

storing information regarding an organization and access rights for a plurality of users to the information in a central location, the plurality of users collectively having a plurality of levels and a plurality of areas of responsibilities in the organization and each individually having at least one of the plurality of levels of responsibility and at least one of the plurality of areas, wherein the access rights for each of the plurality of users corresponds to the level and area of responsibility of that user in the organization;

accepting an update to the information;

determining a portion of the information that is relevant to a user based on his level and area of responsibility in the organization; and

automatically communicating the portion of the information periodically to a device associated with the user for storage locally on the device that the user is allowed to receive by the user'"'"'s access rights, the portion of the information automatically communicated regardless of whether the information has changed since the last transmission.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the device is one of a group of devices comprising:

a Blackberry®

device, a personal digital assistant, a laptop computer, and a home computer.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein communicating comprises:

communicating the portion of the information to a device associated with the user via a wireless link.

21. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the information comprises:

emergency-response-related information.

22. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the information comprises:

item-delivery-related information.

23. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the information comprises:

service-visit-related information.

24. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the information comprises:

sales-visit-related information.

25. A system for providing centralized management and distribution of emergency response procedures, comprising:

a server containing the emergency response procedures and access rights for a plurality of users to the emergency response procedures, the plurality of users collectively having a plurality of levels and a plurality of areas of responsibility in the organization, each user individually having at least one of the plurality of levels of responsibility and at least one of the plurality of areas, the access rights for each of the plurality of users corresponds to that user'"'"'s level and area of responsibility in the organization, the server automatically transmitting the plurality of emergency response procedures periodically regardless whether the emergency response procedures have changed, the procedures transmitted over a wireless communication network to a wireless device configured to receive and store the emergency response procedures locally to the wireless device, the emergency response procedures associated with a corresponding user of the plurality of users based on the relevance of the information to the user and the access right of the user.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the server determines the portion of the emergency response procedures to send based upon whether the portion corresponds to a user of the wireless device and whether the user is allowed to receive the portion by the access rights.

27. A system for providing centralized management and distribution of item delivery information, comprising:

a server containing the item delivery information and access rights for a plurality of users, the users collectively having a plurality of levels and a plurality of areas of responsibility, each of the plurality of users having at least one of the plurality of levels and at least one of the plurality of areas of responsibility, the server automatically transmitting the item delivery information over a wireless communication network to at least one wireless device when the item delivery information is updated, the at least one wireless device configured to receive the information for the user and store the information for the user, the item delivery information transmitted periodically regardless of whether the item delivery information has changed and stored locally at the at least one wireless device.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the server determines the portion of the item delivery information to send based upon whether the portion corresponds to a user of the wireless device needs the portion of the item delivery information to delivery an item and whether the user is allowed access to the portion by the access rights.

29. An apparatus for centralized management and distribution of information to a plurality of users, comprising:

a memory for storing information regarding an organization and access rights to the information for a plurality of users collectively having a plurality of levels and a plurality of areas of responsibility in the organization and each individually having at least one of the plurality of levels and at least one of the plurality of areas of responsibility in the organization;

a receiver for accepting an update to the information regarding the organization stored in the memory;

a processor for determining a portion of the information stored in the memory that is relevant to a selected user and is allowed to be transmitted to the selected user by the access rights for the selected user; and

a transmitter for automatically sending a signal representing the portion of the information to a device associated with the selected user for storage on the device, the portion of the information transmitted periodically regardless of whether the portion of the information has changed and stored locally at the device.

30. An apparatus for receiving distributed centralized information, comprising:

a receiver for receiving a subset of information from a set of information regarding an organization after the set of information is updated in a central data storage device, the subset of information being relevant to a user and transmitted to the user automatically based on access rights of the user corresponding to a level and an area of responsibility of the user, the subset of information received periodically regardless of whether the subset of information has changed;

a memory for locally storing the subset of information; and

a user interface for presenting the stored subset of information to the user.

31. A method for receiving distributed centralized information comprising:

receiving, at a device associated with a user, a subset of information from a set of information regarding an organization after the set of information is updated in a central data storage device, the subset of information being relevant to the user and transmitted to the user automatically based on access rights of the user corresponding to a level and an area of responsibility of the user, the subset of information received periodically regardless of whether the subset of information has changed;

storing the subset of information locally; and

presenting the stored subset of information to the user.

32. A method for providing centralized management and distribution of information, to users comprising:

storing information regarding an organization and access rights for a plurality of users to the information in a central apparatus with the plurality of users collectively having a plurality of levels and a plurality of areas of responsibility in the organization and each individually having at least one of the plurality of levels and at least one of the plurality of areas of responsibility in the organization;

accepting an update to the information;

determining a portion of the information that is relevant to a user and is allowed to be transmitted to the user by the user'"'"'s access rights; and

automatically communicating the portion of the information to a device associated with the user.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein communicating comprises:

wirelessly communicating the portion of the information to a device associated with the user.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the information comprises:

emergency-response-related information.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein the information comprises:

item-delivery-related information.

36. The method of claim 32, wherein the information comprises:

service-visit-related information.

37. The method of claim 32, wherein the information comprises:

sales-visit-related information.

38. The method of claim 32, wherein the device is one of a group of devices comprising:

a Blackberry®

device, a personal digital assistant, a laptop computer, and a home computer.