Method and apparatus for performing collective validation of credential information

• US 10,719,842 B1
• Filed: 05/21/2018
• Issued: 07/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Versata Development Group, Inc. (ESW Capital, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Versata Development Group, Inc. (ESW Capital, LLC)
• Inventors: Gharavy, Shari
• Primary Examiner(s): Rudy, Andrew Joseph
• Application Number:
  US15/985,099
• Time in Patent Office: 792 Days
• Field of Search: 705 30, 705 35, 705 38, 705 39, 705 44, 709203, 709217-223
• 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 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

An embodiment of the invention comprises a method and apparatus for performing collective validation of credential information. The invention has applicability in industries that require sales agents or those related to the distribution of a certain product to be credentialed (e.g., licensed and/or appointed) when selling certain products (e.g., life insurance, etc. . . . ). For example, in order to sell some financial instruments sales representatives must meet state and/or federal licensing requirements. Embodiments of the invention provide a way to ensure that sales representatives operate within any regulatory constraints put in place by government or any other organization. Companies may, for instance, utilize embodiments of the invention to ensure that sales representatives operate within a set of defined constraints. One aspect of the invention provides a method for validating sales agents'"'"' credentials while processing the sales transaction data to determine commission amounts. The system is configured to perform such transaction processing in an efficient manner that minimizes the amount of computational resources required to determine whether a sales agent has valid credential at the time of a particular sale and is therefore entitled to compensation (e.g., a commission) for the sale.

Claims

1. A system for collectively performing validation of credential information of one or more product distributors associated with one or more product distribution transactions, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory, coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the memory includes code that when executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform;

accessing a set of available credential information of each of the one or more product distributors associated with the one or more product distribution transactions;

storing the set of credential information;

accessing a set of credential validation rule data;

accessing the one or more product distribution transactions associated with the one or more product distributors;

processing the one or more product distribution transactions and the credential validation rule data to;

(i) validate the obtained one or more product distribution transactions associated with the one or more product distributors in accordance with predetermined validation criteria to determine if the one or more transactions can be used for compensating one or more product distributors, (ii) validate the obtained credential information of one or more product distributors associated with one or more transactions to determine whether the one or more product distributors meet eligibility requirements for compensation associated with each of the obtained product distribution transactions for the one or more product distributors, and (iii) generate results data representing at least any validated transactions and determined-eligible product distributors; and

generating compensation data from the results data for each of the one or more product distributers to be compensated for the one or more product distribution transactions.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the code for accessing said set of available credential information further is further executable by the one or more processors for denormalizing data from a plurality of database tables.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the code for accessing said set of credential validation rule data is further executable by the one or more processors for accessing said set of rule data from a standard format data file.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the code for accessing said set of rule data from standard format data file is further executable by the one or more processors for parsing data from a file having an Extensible Markup Language (XML) format.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein said data file further comprises a data file having an Extensible Markup Language (XML) format.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the code for processing the rule data is further executable by the one or more processors for:

determining a set of rules associated with said collective group by using a set of preconditions to filter among a plurality of rules, said rule data comprising at least one test having an associated type;

partitioning said set of rules based on said type of said at least one test associated with said set of rules;

preparing said collective group wherein said collective group comprises tests associated with said test type; and

determining for said set of rule data whether said at least one test associated with said set of rules are valid.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the set of preconditions comprises at least one member of the group comprising:

a product class precondition;

a jurisdiction precondition; and

an end date precondition.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the compensation data represents an amount of compensation for each of the one or more product distributers to be compensated for the one or more product distribution transactions, the code is further executable by the one or more processors for:

computing the amount of compensation for each of the one or more product distributors to be compensated.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein compensation comprises a commission.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the code is further executable by the one or more processors for:

obtaining the set of available credential information for at least one of the distributors from two or more tables;

denormalizing said set of available credential information from said two or more tables into a denormalized database table;

wherein the rule data comprises a set of test conditions data from at least one data source; and

processing in the computer system the rule data comprises applying a credential test by querying said denormalized table with said set of test conditions data.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the code for denormalizing said set of credential information is further executable by the one or more processors for creating one or more database tables.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the code for denormalizing said set of credential information is further executable by the one or more processors for joining at least two database tables into at least one database table.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the code is further executable by the one or more processors for:

defining the rule data.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the code is further executable by the one or more processors for storing said rule data into a database table.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein the code for applying a credential test is further executable by the one or more processors for joining said set of test conditions data with said denormalized database table.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the code for accessing a set of available credential information is further executable by the one or more processors for using database connections.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the code is further executable by the one or more processors for:

obtaining the rule data from a data file.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein the product distribution transactions comprises data related to sales of a product.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more product distributors comprise one or more members of the group consisting of sales agents, sales representatives, supervisors of the sales agents, and supervisors of the sales representatives.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the rule data comprises credential information identifying regulatory constraints for each of the obtained sales transactions placed on at least one of the one or more distributors associated with said obtained sales transaction; and

the code for processing in the computer system the rule data to validate the obtained credential information is further executable by the one or more processors for determining if said credential information obtained sales transactions placed on at least one of the one or more distributors conforms to said regulatory constraints.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein predetermined validation criteria comprises at least one member of the group consisting of:

required educational credits;

required licenses;

required level of liability coverage;

license renewal requirements;

background check; and

residency rules.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein the code for processing in the computer system the rule data is further executable by the one or more processors for processing the rule data for multiple product distribution transactions comprises batch processing the rule data for multiple product distribution transactions for batches of product distribution transactions.