Business-to-business social network

• US 9,799,001 B2
• Filed: 02/18/2015
• Issued: 10/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AirBNB Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Burckart, Erik J., Ivory, Andrew, Schumacher, John F., Shook, Aaron K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Roman, Denisse Ortiz
• Application Number:
  US14/624,602
• Publication Number:
  US 20150161560A1
• Time in Patent Office: 979 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing a social network. The methods involve: creating a relationship between a first entity and a second entity; setting authorization which indicates that a user of said first entity is authorized to view inventory data of said second entity; receiving a request to view first inventory data of said first entity and second inventory data of said second entity by said user; and determining whether said user is authorized to view said second inventory data. If said user is authorized: querying a first remote inventory management system of said first entity for said first inventory data and a second remote inventory management system of said second entity for said second inventory data; receiving said first and second inventory data; generating an aggregate view comprising said first and second inventory data; and providing content of said aggregate view to a client computing device of said first entity.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a gateway computing device coupled to a network including an inventory management system in a server, a first entity computing device, a second entity computing device, and a social network service provider system, and a social network service provider system, comprising:

receiving by the gateway computing device, a first message from the first entity computing device rendering a view of the inventory management system, wherein the server including the inventory management system comprises a physical layer of storage for storing inventory data in a data store, a conceptual layer of relationships of inventory and purchase data in the data store, and a logical layer providing views of inventory and purchase data in relationships in the conceptual layer;

processing, by the gateway computing device, the first message to determine whether the first message comprises an inventory-related message concerning a purchase order;

in response to determining that the first message is an inventory-related message, the gateway computing device performs;

extracting pre-defined inventory-related data from said first message;

generating a second message comprising said extracted pre-defined inventory-related data;

sending the first message to the second entity computing device to process the purchase order and initiate delivery of a product described by the purchase order for the first entity computing device;

sending the second message to the social network service provider system to store the extracted pre-defined inventory-related data as historical transaction data in a data store; and

in response to determining that the first message is not an inventory-related message, sending, by the gateway computing device, said first message to the second entity computing device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pre-defined inventory-related data comprises at least one of an available quantity, a purchased quantity, and a total quantity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the gateway computing device only sends the first message if the first message is not the inventory-related message.

4. A system coupled to a network including an inventory management system in a server, a first entity computing device, a second entity computing device, and a social network service provider system, comprising:

a gateway computing device having a processor and computer readable storage medium having computer program code executed by the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving a first message from the first entity computing device rendering a view of the inventory management system, wherein the server including the inventory management system comprises a physical layer of storage for storing inventory data in a data store, a conceptual layer of relationships of inventory and purchase data in the data store, and a logical layer providing views of inventory and purchase data in relationships in the conceptual layer;

processing, by the gateway computing device, the first message to determine whether the first message comprises an inventory-related message concerning a purchase order;

in response to determining that the first message is an inventory-related message, the gateway computing device performs;

extracting pre-defined inventory-related data from said first message;

generating a second message comprising said extracted pre-defined inventory-related data;

sending the first message to the second entity computing device to process the purchase order and initiate delivery of a product described by the purchase order for the first entity computing device;

sending the second message to the social network service provider system to store the extracted pre-defined inventory-related data as historical transaction data in a data store; and

in response to determining that the first message is not an inventory-related message, sending, by the gateway computing device, said first message to the second entity computing device.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the pre-defined inventory-related data comprises at least one of an available quantity, a purchased quantity, and a total quantity.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the gateway computing device only sends the first message if the first message is not the inventory-related message.

7. A computer program product implemented in a gateway computing device coupled to a network including an inventory management system in a server, a first entity computing device, a second entity computing device, and a social network service provider system, wherein the computer program product comprises a computer readable storage medium having computer program code executed by a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving a first message from the first entity computing device rendering a view of the inventory management system, wherein the server including the inventory management system comprises a physical layer of storage for storing inventory data in a data store, a conceptual layer of relationships of inventory and purchase data in the data store, and a logical layer providing views of inventory and purchase data in relationships in the conceptual layer;

processing, by the gateway computing device, the first message to determine whether the first message comprises an inventory-related message concerning a purchase order;

in response to determining that the first message is an inventory-related message, the gateway computing device performs;

extracting pre-defined inventory-related data from said first message;

generating a second message comprising said extracted pre-defined inventory-related data;

sending the first message to the second entity computing device to process the purchase order and initiate delivery of a product described by the purchase order for the first entity computing device;

sending the second message to the the social network service provider system to store the extracted pre-defined inventory-related data as historical transaction data in a data store; and

in response to determining that the first message is not an inventory-related message, sending, by the gateway computing device, said first message to the second entity computing device.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the pre-defined inventory-related data comprises at least one of an available quantity, a purchased quantity, and a total quantity.

9. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the gateway computing device only sends the first message if the first message is not the inventory-related message.