Custom score generation system and methods

• US 8,996,391 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2013
• Issued: 03/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dun & Bradstreet Corp., DUN & Bradstreet Incorporated (Dun & Bradstreet Corp.), Hoover's Incorporated (Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Credibility Corp. (Dun & Bradstreet Corp.)
• Inventors: Stibel, Jeffrey M., Stibel, Aaron B., Hackett, Judith G., Kazerani, Moujan
• Primary Examiner(s): OUELLETTE, JONATHAN P
• Application Number:
  US13/874,170
• Publication Number:
  US 20140280217A1
• Time in Patent Office: 700 Days
• Field of Search: 705 11-912
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a custom score generation system by offering third parties access to data from a shared database that they can merge with their own proprietary data for the purpose of defining and producing new data services. The system provides interfaces for selecting data elements from the shared database, attributing weights to the selected data elements, and defining scoring rules or parameters to automatically evaluate the significance of the data element values. Additionally, conditions may be specified to include different sets of the selected data elements, to attribute different weights to the different sets of the selected data elements, and to define different scoring rules according to which conditions are satisfied. The system then automatically formulates the algorithm to produce the custom score in conformance with the provided inputs and based on values for the selected data elements that are specific to different entities.

Claims

1. For a custom score generation system, a method for enabling a third party to offer data-based services that are not restricted to data elements within a third party database operated by the third party independent of a shared database operated by the custom score generation system, the method comprising:

providing at least one interactive display interface to the third party, the interactive display interface presenting a listing of data elements from the shared database that can be included as part of a custom score definition, wherein the data elements include data elements that are not present in the third party database;

receiving a first third party selection based on interactions that the third party has with the interactive display interface, the first third party selection identifying a first set of the data elements from the shared database to include as part of the custom score definition;

receiving a second third party selection based on input from the third party, the second third party selection identifying a second set of data elements from the third party database to further include as part of the custom score definition;

modifying the custom score definition by defining a score range, wherein defining the score range comprises setting a minimum score and a maximum score for a custom score of the custom score definition;

modifying the custom score definition by defining a score distribution, wherein defining the score distribution comprises setting a percentage of entities that will be assigned each score between the minimum and maximum scores;

configuring the custom score definition with a scoring rule, said scoring rule defining a correlation between values of the first set of data elements and the second set of data elements to different values of the custom score according to said score range and said score distribution; and

outputting the custom score for a particular entity to the third party in response to a request from the third party for the particular entity'"'"'s custom score, wherein outputting the custom score comprises retrieving values of the particular entity for each data element of the first set of data elements from the shared database and values of the particular entity for each data element of the second set of data elements from the third party database and evaluating said values according to the scoring rule.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the third party with a link to request the custom score for any entity, the link comprising a first identifier identifying the custom score from other scores defined using the system and a second identifier identifying a particular entity to score.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving from the interactive display interface, a weight that the third party attributes to at least one data element of the first and second sets of data elements, the weight defining an impact that each data element has on the custom score.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising configuring the system with access to the third party database for retrieval of the second set of data elements.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising defining a condition that includes a first subset of the first and second sets of data elements as part of the custom score definition when the condition is met and that includes a different second subset of the first and second sets of data elements as part of the custom score definition when the condition is not met.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising computing and outputting the custom score using values for the first subset of the first and second sets of data elements when an entity being scored satisfies the condition and computing and outputting the custom score using values for the second subset of the first and second sets of data elements when the entity being scored does not satisfy the condition.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising defining a condition that attributes a first set of weights to the first and second sets of data elements when the condition is met and that attributes a second set of weights to the first and second sets of data elements when the condition is not met.

8. A method performed by a custom score generation system enabling a third party accessing the custom score generation system to offer a data-based service that is not restricted to available data elements from a database of the third party, the method comprising:

with a machine of the custom score generation system comprising a processor executing instructions for;

defining a custom score according to input from the third party, said input identifying (i) a first set of data elements from a first plurality of data elements that are available from the third party database and (ii) a second set of data elements that are not available from the third party database and that are obtained from a second plurality of data elements of a shared database of the custom score generation system;

generating a scoring rule by quantifying an impact that each data element value for each of the first and second sets of data elements has on the custom score, wherein quantifying the impact comprises (i) obtaining a distribution of actual data element values assigned to a plurality of entities for each data element of the first and second sets of data elements and (ii) computing from the distribution of each data element, an impact that each data element value in the distribution has on the custom score;

receiving at the custom score generation system, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) from the third party, the URL comprising a first identifier identifying the custom score to be produced from other scores defined by the system and a second identifier identifying the particular entity for which the custom score is to be produced;

merging a first set of the particular entity'"'"'s values for each data element of the first set of data elements from the third party database with a second set of the particular entity'"'"'s values for each data element of the second set of data elements from the shared database of the custom score generation system by using the first identifier to identify the first and second sets of data elements and the second identifier to identify the particular entity'"'"'s values for the first and second sets of data elements;

producing the custom score for the particular entity by quantifying the first set of values and the second set of values according to said scoring rule; and

providing the custom score from the custom score generation system to the third party in response to said request.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising providing the first and second sets of values as inputs to the scoring rule.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein merging the first set of the particular entity'"'"'s values comprises accessing and retrieving the particular entity'"'"'s values for each data element of the first set of data elements from the third party database.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the third party is prevented from obtaining the second set of data elements from the shared database of the custom score generation system.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising adjusting a weight for each quantified value based on weights attributed to each of the first and second sets of data elements.

13. A method enabling a data service provider accessing a custom score generation system to offer a data-based service that is not restricted to available data elements from a database of the data service provider, the method comprising:

with a machine of the custom score generation system comprising a processor executing instructions for;

providing an interactive interface with which a first data service provider defines a first custom score and a second data service provider defines a different second custom score, and wherein providing the interactive interface comprises presenting a plurality of drill-down layers, wherein the plurality of drill-down layers comprise a first drill-down layer populating the interactive interface with a set of financial data elements from a shared database of the custom score generation system, a second drill-down layer populating the interactive interface with a set of organizational data elements from the shared database, and a third drill-down layer populating the interactive interface with a set of historical data elements from the shared database, wherein any data element from the set of financial data elements, the set of organizational data elements, and the set of historical data elements can be selected for inclusion as part of a custom score definition using said interactive interface;

retrieving a first entity'"'"'s values for a first set of data elements from a database of a first data service provider according to a definition of the first custom score specified by the first data service provider;

retrieving a second entity'"'"'s values for a second set of data elements from a database of a second data service provider according to a definition of the second custom score specified by the second data service provider;

producing at the custom score generation system, (i) the first custom score by merging the first entity'"'"'s values for the first set of data elements with the first entity'"'"'s values for a first subset of the financial, organizational, and historical sets of data elements that the first data service provider selects from at least one of the first, second, and third drill-down layers using the interactive interface and (ii) the second custom score by merging the second entity'"'"'s values for the second set of data elements with the second entity'"'"'s values for a different second subset of the financial, organizational, and historical sets of data elements that the second data service provider selects from at least one of the first, second, and third drill-down layers using the interactive interface; and

providing (i) the first custom score to the first data service provider and (ii) the second custom score to the second data service provider, wherein the first custom score becomes available as part of a data-based service offered by the first data service provider such that the first custom score is not available at the second data service provider, and wherein the second custom score becomes available as part of a data-based service offered by the second data service provider such that the second custom score is not available at the first data service provider.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising obtaining from the first data service provider, a first value set and a first value range for the first custom score, and obtaining from the second data service provider, a second value set and a second value range for the second custom score, wherein the first value set and the first value range differ from the second value set and the second value range.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising obtaining from the first data service provider, a first set of scoring rules to quantify values for the first subset of the financial, organizational, and historical sets of data elements and obtaining from the second data service provider, a second set of scoring rules to quantify values for the different second subset of the financial, organizational, and historical sets of data elements differently than the first set of scoring rules.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising providing a first set of weights to each data element of the first subset of data elements as part of the first custom score definition and a second set of weights to each data element of the second subset of data elements as part of the second custom score definition.