Method and system for remotely managing business and employee administration functions

• US 20020022982A1
• Filed: 01/04/2001
• Published: 02/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Cooperstone, Elliot, Pham, H. Thach
• Granted Patent: US 7,636,665 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1057 Benefits or employee welfare, e.g. insurance, holiday or retirement packages

Abstract

Human resource and employee benefit products for businesses, implemented on one or more computing devices connected to the Internet, are managed and administered. The combination of human resource and employee benefit products required by the businesses are determined, and are classified according to criteria including a number of employees, type of work performed, and similarity of needs of these businesses in the human resource and employee benefit management areas. A local set of the human resource and the employee benefit products is provided, as is a third party provider set of products located on the third party provider'"'"'s computers. Both sets of products are then organized into integrated benefits packages, each of which packages may be modified by the customer by adding and subtracting products. The price of each integrated and modified benefits package is determined, which price will be binding on the third party provider for a defined period of time.

Claims

1. A method of management and administration of human resource and of employee benefit products for a business, the human resource and the employee benefit products being implemented on at least one computing device, the at least one computing device being connected to a network, said method comprising:

(a) determining which human resource and employee benefit products are required by the business, the business being classified according to criteria including a number of employees, type of work performed, and similarity of needs in human resource and employee benefit management areas;

(b) providing a first set of the human resource and the employee benefit products on the at least one computing device, said first set being provided on the basis of determination made in step (a);

(c) requesting at least one third party provider to offer a second set of the human resource and the employee benefit products, said second set being provided on the basis of determination made in step (a);

(d) providing said second set on at least one third party provider computing device;

(e) organizing the human resource and the employee benefit products from the first set and the human resource and the employee benefit products from the second set into at least one integrated benefits package; and

(f) determining a price of each said at least one integrated benefits package, said price binding said at least one third party provider of employee benefit services comprising said individual benefits package for a defined period of time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first set of the human resource and the employee benefit products and said second set of the human resource and the employee benefit products are accessible over the network.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said second set of the human resource and the employee benefit products comprises one or more applications from the set comprising:

retirement plans including 401K;

unemployment insurance;

Worker'"'"'s compensation insurance;

group health insurance;

dental insurance;

group life insurance;

disability insurance;

employee assistance;

tax filing services; and

child care services.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said first set of the human resource and the employee benefit products comprise:

payroll;

human resource compliance services;

employee development tools and advisory services;

discount procurement;

purchasing cards; and

work share and e-mail.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising a step of said at least one third party provider supplying a price calculating method, whereby said step of determining price is performed according to said price calculating method.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said price calculating method comprises the steps of:

considering state regulations and local requirements;

assessing business profiles by said third party provider; and

discounting of promotional services offered.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of:

modifying said at least one integrated benefits package, whereby the human resource and the employee benefit products from said first set and the human resource and the employee benefit products from said second set are added and removed.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

communicating information about the businesses intending to purchase said at least one integrated benefits package, said information being of a kind included in said criteria; and

offering said at least one integrated benefit package most suitable to the to serve the businesses.

9. A method of integrating a plurality of human resource and employee benefit products, some of said products comprising a source of data, wherein at least two of said products format said sources of data differently, said method comprising:

(a) receiving a request from a requestor to conduct an operation on said data of said plurality of products;

(b) conducting said operation on a shared data source;

(c) initiating a plurality of tasks to perform said operation for each of the plurality of products, wherein same data regarding said operation to be performed is formatted to accommodate different formatting of each of said data source belonging to the plurality of products;

(d) determining which of said plurality of tasks are critical and creating a sorted first list of all said tasks initiated to perform said operation on the plurality of products that are determined to be critical;

(e) synchronously executing said tasks from said first list, wherein one said task is being executed at a time in order of priority, with a subsequent task waiting for a previous task to complete;

(f) determining which of said plurality of tasks are not critical and creating a second list of all said tasks initiated to perform said operation on the plurality of the products that are determined to be non-critical; and

(g) executing said tasks from said second list in asynchronous order.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising a step of initiating security lookup to determine whether said request to conduct said operation is authorized and whether all of said plurality of products are available to the requestor.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein if any one of said synchronously executed tasks is not successfully completed all said synchronously executed tasks are rolled back.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said tasks from said second list are executed by queuing and scheduling execution according to requirements of the products that are determined to be non-critical and executing said tasks at a scheduled time.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said request to conduct said operation on said data of said plurality of products is issued by a triggering event, said triggering event comprising one or more events from among events in lives of employees, calendar events, and pre-determined events.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the network is the Internet.

16. The method of claim 14, where if said user requested operation is dependent on a state regulation, the information supplied in reply to the user request will depend on a state in which the user is employed.

18. The network site of claim 17, wherein the second set of the human resource and the employee benefit products offered by the third party providers comprises one or more applications from the set comprising:

retirement plans including 401K;

unemployment insurance;

Worker'"'"'s compensation insurance;

group health insurance;

dental insurance;

group life insurance;

disability insurance;

employee assistance;

tax filing services; and

child care services.

19. The network site of claim 18, wherein the first set of the human resource and the employee benefit products comprise:

payroll;

human resource compliance services;

employee development tools and advisory services;

discount procurement;

purchasing cards; and

work share and e-mail.

20. The network site of claim 17, wherein the computer server provides a user interface to an authorized client user to modify the integrated benefits package, whereby the human resource and the employee benefit products from said first set and the human resource and the employee benefit products from said second set may be added and removed.

14. A method of managing and administering a plurality of human resource and employee benefit products on a network, said plurality of products being implemented on a plurality of computing devices, the method comprising:

anticipating life events triggering operations on data sources of each of said plurality of products and user requests to perform operations on said data sources; and

performing said operations in an integrated fashion, whereby said user views all of said plurality of products as residing on same computing device.

17. A network site comprising a computer server that provides display pages to requesting client machines, the network site further comprising:

(a) a first set of human resource and employee benefit products installed at the computer server and accessed by a client machine; and

(b) one or more network links from the computer server to computer servers of corresponding third party providers, each of whom offers one or more human resource and employee benefit products that are accessed from a client machine by the network link, thereby comprising a second set of human resource and employee benefits products;

wherein the computer server receives requests from client users for services from the first and second set of human resource and the employee benefit products, and responds by determining the appropriate application to process the client user request, thereby comprising an integrated benefits package accessed by the client machines, wherein the third party providers are bound to a determined price and defined period of time for maintaining the links from the computer server.

21. A network computer server that integrates a plurality of human resource and employee benefit products, said products operating on respective sources of data, wherein at least two of said products format said respective sources of data differently, the server comprising:

(a) a communications interface through which the server receives a request to conduct an operation on said data of said plurality of products;

(b) a processor that conducts said operation on data retrieved from a shared data source and initiates a plurality of tasks to perform said operation for each of the plurality of products;

wherein some data regarding said operation to be performed is formatted to accommodate different formatting of each of said data source belonging to the plurality of products, and wherein the processor determines which of said plurality of tasks are critical and creates a sorted first list of all said tasks initiated to perform said operation on the plurality of products that are determined to be critical, then synchronously executes said tasks from said first list, wherein one of said tasks is executed at a time in order of priority, with a subsequent task waiting for a previous task to complete, and then the processor determines which of said plurality of tasks are not critical and creates a second list of all said tasks initiated to perform said operation on the plurality of the products that are determined to be non-critical, and then executes said tasks from said second list in asynchronous order.

22. The server of claim 21, wherein the processor further initiates security lookup process to determine whether said request to conduct said operation is authorized and whether all of said plurality of products are available to the requestor.

23. The server of claim 22, wherein if any one of said synchronously executed tasks is not successfully completed, then the processor causes all said synchronously executed tasks to be rolled back.

24. The server of claim 23, wherein said tasks from said second list are executed by the processor by queuing and scheduling execution according to requirements of the products that are determined to be non-critical and executing said tasks at a scheduled time.

25. The server of claim 23, wherein said request to conduct said operation on said data of said plurality of products is initiated by one or more triggering events, said triggering events comprising one or more events from among events in lives of employees, calendar events, and pre-determined events.

27. The server of claim 26, wherein the network is the Internet.

28. The server of claim 26, wherein the processor responds to a user request in accordance with a particular geographic location of the user residence.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

converting the retrieved updated data records into a data format that is compatible with the requesting network process; and

providing the converted data records to the requesting network process.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the requesting network processes include applications that are installed at a host network server that receives the requests, and includes applications that are installed at third party network servers that receive data requests from the host network server.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the employee information data store includes data record storage at the host network server and data record storage located remotely from the host network server.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the employee information data store includes data record storage at the third party network servers.

34. The method of claim 29, wherein the triggering event is an automatically generated event.

35. The method of claim 29, wherein the triggering event is an employee entered change to one of the data records.

37. The server of claim 36, wherein the retrieved updated data records are converted into a data format that is compatible with the requesting network process, and the processor provides the converted data records to the requesting network process.

38. The server of claim 36, wherein the requesting network processes include applications that are installed at a host network server that receives the requests, and include applications that are installed at third party network servers that receive data requests from the host network server.

39. The server of claim 36, wherein the employee information data store includes data record storage at the host network server and data record storage located remotely from the host network server.

40. The server of claim 39, wherein the employee information data store includes data record storage at the third party network servers.

41. The server of claim 36, wherein the triggering event is an automatically generated event.

42. The server of claim 36, wherein the triggering event is an employee entered change to one of the data records.

26. A network computer server that manages and administers a plurality of human resource and employee benefit products on a network, said plurality of products being implemented on a plurality of network computing devices, the server comprising:

(a) a communications interface through which the server receives a user request to perform data operations on data sources of said plurality of products; and

(b) a processor that conducts said data operations on the data sources of each of the plurality of products;

wherein said processor determines triggering events that require actions on said data sources of each of said plurality of products and performs said actions in an integrated fashion, whereby said user views all of said plurality of products as residing on a single computing device.

29. A method of processing operations in an integrated human resource management system over a computer network, the method comprising:

detecting a triggering event that is associated with one or more data records in an employee information data store of the human resource management system and that comprises new employee information to be added to the associated data records to produce an updated data record;

determining the data records in the data store that are affected by the detected triggering event;

determining if additional new employee information is needed to correctly change the affected data records and, if so, then eliciting the additional new employee information from a system user;

updating the determined affected data records in the data store with the new employee information such that the updated data records are immediately available to computer network processes of the human resource management system; and

responding to a request from one of the computer network processes by retrieving the updated data records from the data store.

36. A network computer server that provides processing in response to user requests in an integrated human resource management system, the server comprising:

(a) a communications interface through which the server receives a user request; and

(b) a processor that responds to the user request by detecting a triggering event that is associated with one or more data records in an employee information data store of the human resource management system and that comprises new employee information to be added to the associated data records to produce an updated data record, and then determines the data records that are affected by the detected triggering event, determines if additional new employee information is needed to correctly change the affected data records and, if so, elicits the additional new employee information from a system user, updates the affected data records in the data store with the new employee information such that it is immediately available to computer network processes of the human resource management system, and responds to a request from one of the computer network processes by retrieving the updated data records from the data store.