Apparatuses, methods and systems for a global benefits purse facilitator

• US 9,659,062 B1
• Filed: 10/15/2010
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Iqor US Inc. (IQOR Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: IQOR Holdings Incorporated, Iqor US Inc. (IQOR Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Madhavarapu, Abhilash, Kapoor, Vikas
• Primary Examiner(s): Waldron, Scott A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ohba, Mellissa M
• Application Number:
  US12/905,239
• Time in Patent Office: 2,412 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24561 Intermediate data storage techniques for performance improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24564 Applying rules; Deductive queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1057 Benefits or employee welfare, e.g. insurance, holiday or retirement packages

Abstract

The APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A GLOBAL BENEFITS PURSE FACILITATOR (hereinafter “GBPF”) implement efficient and scalable monitoring, regulation, and allocation of computational processing, data, labor, and/or the like resources within an enterprise. The GBPF may facilitate the provision of tailored benefits packages to employees within an enterprise, where employees may be provided with a purse allowance and a selectable list of benefits on which that allowance may be spent. The GBPF may be configured to receive benefits selections, to deduct corresponding costs from the employee purse, and to facilitate the generation of a benefits package based on the employee selections. The GBPF may further be configured to enforce regulations, rules, company policies, and/or the like with regard to benefits.

Claims

1. A purse-based global benefits plan facilitating processor-implemented method, comprising:

maintaining a database of employee information, having an employee identifier and a purse amount allocated by an employer to a plurality of its employees;

associating the purse amount with an employee identifier, the purse amount being based on an employment position associated with the employee identifier, wherein the purse amount is further based on at least one token of a descriptive business grammar configured string associated with the employee identifier;

querying a database of employee information and obtaining employee information;

obtaining and evaluating a plurality of employee benefit rules for the enterprise from the business grammar rule database, wherein at least one benefit rule relates to employer-specific benefit offered by the employer based on the employee position and determining a plurality of additional employee and other type of information data sources that need to be accessed for evaluation of the employee benefits based on the evaluated benefits rules;

receiving a selection of benefits offered and maintained by the employer, each benefit having an associated cost, wherein said benefits include employee-specific benefit offerings made available for selection by the employer to the employee;

providing through a real-time user interface to an individual employee a selection screen displaying the employee-specific benefit offerings made available for selection by the employer to the individual employee;

obtaining user input from the selection screen for the employee'"'"'s choices of employee-specific offered benefits;

utilizing a dynamic hierarchical table-tracking string syntax, evaluated user input and the evaluated employee benefit rules for the enterprise to obtain and display a plurality of additional data items for the individual employee, wherein the dynamic table-tracking string syntax is based on user inputs and different strings will be formed in accordance with user input;

determining a total cost as an aggregate of the associated cost for each benefit of the selection of benefits;

confirming that the total cost is less than the purse amount;

automatically comparing and applying the selection of benefits to a plurality of benefit rules, said benefit rules being based on an employment position associated with an employee identifier and employer-specific benefit policies and evaluation of the associated benefit rules;

allocating a portion of the purse amount to at least one of said selection of benefits based on the evaluated business grammar rules for the plurality of benefits offered and maintained by the employer, and storing an allocation of a remainder of the purse amount toward at least one other benefit of the plurality of benefits offered and maintained by the employer;

determining presence of at least one universal variable in the additional data items identified after evaluation of the business grammar rules for the enterprise, and, when present, obtain from the database and evaluate said universal variable, wherein said universal variable comprises user-defined intermediate data objects that allows access and selective mapping of logically interrelated table fields in a plurality of disparate relational databases and external data sources containing enterprise-specific and employee-specific data, and wherein the universal data variable is organized into a hierarchical structure following the business grammar construct for the enterprise and each segment of the hierarchy follows a user-defined business grammar token type, and wherein the use of the universal variable for mapping and access is also dependent on the evaluated business grammar rules for the enterprise;

performing real-time update to modify selectively mapped logically interrelated table fields in the plurality of disparate relational databases and external data sources containing the enterprise-specific and user-specific data to reflect the user selections; and

creating a benefits package offered by the employer for the employee and associated with the employee identifier if the associated and evaluated business rules are satisfied.

2. A purse-based global benefits plan facilitating processor-implemented method, comprising:

maintaining a database of employee information, having an employee identifier and a purse amount allocated by an employer to a plurality of its employees;

associating the purse amount for each employee with an employee identifier, the purse amount being based on an employment position associated with the employee identifier, wherein the purse amount is further based on at least one token of a descriptive business grammar configured string associated with the employee identifier;

providing a real-time user interface for each employee, having a selection screen for displaying the employee-specific benefit offerings made available for selection by the employer to each employee;

obtaining user input from at least one employee the selection screen for the employee'"'"'s choices of employee-specific offered benefits;

querying a database of employee information and obtaining employee information;

obtaining and evaluating a plurality of employee benefit rules for the enterprise from the business grammar rule database, wherein at least one benefit rule relates to employer-specific benefit offered by the employer based on the employee position and determining a plurality of additional employee and other type of information data sources that need to be accessed for evaluation of the employee benefits based on the evaluated benefits rules;

requesting, obtaining and providing a selection of benefits offered and maintained by the employer, each benefit having an associated cost, wherein said benefits include employee-specific offerings made available for selection by the employer to a plurality of its employees, wherein the provided selection is based on the evaluated plurality of benefit rules and the employee position with employer;

utilizing a dynamic hierarchical table-tracking string syntax, evaluated user input and the evaluated employee benefit rules for the enterprise and employee, to obtain and display a plurality of additional data items for the individual employee, wherein the dynamic table-tracking string syntax is based on the user input and different strings will be formed in accordance with the user input;

determining presence of at least one universal variable in the additional data items identified after evaluation of the business grammar rules for the enterprise, and, when present, obtain from the database and evaluate said universal variable, wherein said universal variable comprises user-defined intermediate data objects that allows access and selective mapping of logically interrelated table fields in a plurality of disparate relational databases and external data sources containing enterprise-specific and employee-specific data, and wherein the universal data variable is organized into a hierarchical structure following the business grammar construct for the enterprise and each segment of the hierarchy follows a user-defined business grammar token type, and wherein the use of the universal variable for mapping and access is also dependent on the evaluated business grammar rules for the enterprise;

allocating a first portion of the purse amount to at least one benefit of a plurality of benefits offered and maintained by the employer based on the at least one benefits rule, and allocating a second portion of the purse amount based on the employee-specific benefit policies and evaluation of the associated benefit rules;

performing real-time update to modify selectively mapped logically interrelated table fields in the plurality of disparate relational databases and external data sources containing the enterprise-specific and employee-specific data to reflect the user selections; and

storing an allocation of a remainder of the purse amount toward at least one other benefit of the plurality of benefits offered and maintained by the employer.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

storing a benefits package for an employee associated with the employee identifier based on the allocating the first portion of the purse amount and on the allocation of the remainder of the purse amount.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one benefits rule is based on a legal regulation.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the purse amount is further based on a geographic location associated with the employee identifier.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one benefits rule is selected based on a geographic location associated with the employee identifier.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein querying at least one benefits rule based on the employee identifier further comprises:

querying at least one descriptive business grammar configured string based on the employee identifier;

extracting at least one token from the at least one descriptive business grammar configured string; and

querying at least one benefits rule based on the at least one token.

8. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

selecting the plurality of offered benefits from a benefits database.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of offered benefits are selected based on a geographic location associated with the employee identifier.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of offered benefits are selected based on at least one token of a descriptive business grammar configured string associated with the employee identifier.

11. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a reimbursement request;

evaluating the reimbursement request according to a reimbursement authorization rule associated with the at least one benefit or the at least another benefit to determine a reimbursement authorization; and

instructing payment of a reimbursement if the reimbursement authorization is positive.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least another benefit is labeled as a taxable benefit.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one benefit is labeled as a mandatory benefit.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one benefit is labeled as a default benefit.

15. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

providing a registration form for the at least another benefit;

receiving registration inputs via the registration form; and

storing the registration inputs in association with the employee identifier.

16. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a brochure access request associated with the at least another benefit;

retrieving at least one brochure file based on the brochure access request; and

providing the at least one brochure for display to a user associated with the employee identifier.

17. A purse-based global benefits plan facilitating apparatus, comprising:

a memory;

a processor disposed in communication with said memory and configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions stored in the memory, wherein the processor issues instructions to;

maintain a database of employee information, having an employee identifier and a purse amount allocated by an employer to a plurality of its employees;

associate the purse amount for each employee with an employee identifier, the purse amount being based on an employment position associated with the employee identifier, wherein the purse amount is further based on at least one token of a descriptive business grammar configured string associated with the employee identifier;

provide a real-time user interface for each employee, having a selection screen for displaying the employee-specific benefit offerings made available for selection by the employer to each employee;

obtain user input from at least one employee the selection screen for the employee'"'"'s choices of employee-specific offered benefits;

query a database of employee information and obtain employee information;

obtain and evaluate a plurality of employee benefit rules for the enterprise from the business grammar rule database, wherein at least one benefit rule relates to employer-specific benefit offered by the employer based on the employee position and determining a plurality of additional employee and other type of information data sources that need to be accessed for evaluation of the employee benefits based on the evaluated benefits rules;

request, obtain and provide a selection of benefits offered and maintained by the employer, each benefit having an associated cost, wherein said benefits include employee-specific offerings made available for selection by the employer to a plurality of its employees, wherein the provided selection is based on the evaluated plurality of benefit rules and the employee position with employer;

utilize a dynamic hierarchical table-tracking string syntax, evaluated user input and the evaluated employee benefit rules for the enterprise and employee, to obtain and display a plurality of additional data items for the individual employee, wherein the dynamic table-tracking string syntax is based on the user input and different strings will be formed in accordance with the user input;

determine presence of at least one universal variable in the additional data items identified after evaluation of the business grammar rules for the enterprise, and, when present, obtain from the database and evaluate said universal variable, wherein said universal variable comprises user-defined intermediate data objects that allows access and selective mapping of logically interrelated table fields in a plurality of disparate relational databases and external data sources containing enterprise-specific and employee-specific data, and wherein the universal data variable is organized into a hierarchical structure following the business grammar construct for the enterprise and each segment of the hierarchy follows a user-defined business grammar token type, and wherein the use of the universal variable for mapping and access is also dependent on the evaluated business grammar rules for the enterprise;

allocate a first portion of the purse amount to at least one benefit of a plurality of benefits offered and maintained by the employer based on the at least one benefits rule, and allocating a second portion of the purse amount based on the employee-specific benefit policies and evaluation of the associated benefit rules;

perform real-time update to modify selectively mapped logically interrelated table fields in the plurality of disparate relational databases and external data sources containing the enterprise-specific and employee-specific data to reflect the user selections; and

assign an allocation of a remainder of the purse amount toward at least one other benefit of the plurality of benefits offered and maintained by the employer.

18. A purse-based global benefits plan facilitating a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium, comprising:

a plurality of processing instructions stored in the storage medium and issuable by a processor to;

associate the purse amount for each employee with an employee identifier, the purse amount being based on an employment position associated with the employee identifier, wherein the purse amount is further based on at least one token of a descriptive business grammar configured string associated with the employee identifier;

provide a real-time user interface for each employee, having a selection screen for displaying the employee-specific benefit offerings made available for selection by the employer to each employee;

obtain user input from at least one employee the selection screen for the employee'"'"'s choices of employee-specific offered benefits;

query a database of employee information and obtain employee information;

obtain and evaluate a plurality of employee benefit rules for the enterprise from the business grammar rule database, wherein at least one benefit rule relates to employer-specific benefit offered by the employer based on the employee position and determining a plurality of additional employee and other type of information data sources that need to be accessed for evaluation of the employee benefits based on the evaluated benefits rules;

request, obtain and provide a selection of benefits offered and maintained by the employer, each benefit having an associated cost, wherein said benefits include employee-specific offerings made available for selection by the employer to a plurality of its employees, wherein the provided selection is based on the evaluated plurality of benefit rules and the employee position with employer;

utilize a dynamic hierarchical table-tracking string syntax, evaluated user input and the evaluated employee benefit rules for the enterprise and employee, to obtain and display a plurality of additional data items for the individual employee, wherein the dynamic table-tracking string syntax is based on the user input and different strings will be formed in accordance with the user input;

determine presence of at least one universal variable in the additional data items identified after evaluation of the business grammar rules for the enterprise, and, when present, obtain from the database and evaluate said universal variable, wherein said universal variable comprises user-defined intermediate data objects that allows access and selective mapping of logically interrelated table fields in a plurality of disparate relational databases and external data sources containing enterprise-specific and employee-specific data, and wherein the universal data variable is organized into a hierarchical structure following the business grammar construct for the enterprise and each segment of the hierarchy follows a user-defined business grammar token type, and wherein the use of the universal variable for mapping and access is also dependent on the evaluated business grammar rules for the enterprise;

allocate a first portion of the purse amount to at least one benefit of a plurality of benefits offered and maintained by the employer based on the at least one benefits rule;

perform real-time update to modify selectively mapped logically interrelated table fields in the plurality of disparate relational databases and external data sources containing the enterprise-specific and employee-specific data to reflect the user selections; and

assign an allocation of a remainder of the purse amount toward at least one other benefit of the plurality of benefits offered and maintained by the employer.