Method and apparatus for an e-commerce message using sms

• US 20060058048A1
• Filed: 10/03/2003
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ng, Joanna W., Kapoor, Rohit V., Lo, Jimmy W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,331,871 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

The invention provides a method for generating an SMS business message for processing by a software application comprising the steps of: a data collection interface accepting outgoing instructions and outgoing data from said software application; a message encoding engine encoding said outgoing instructions and outgoing data from said software application using an encoding template to generate the SMS business message as a categorized SMS message formatted for processing by a data processing system; and a dispatcher runtime processor processing said SMS business message for transmission over a network to a recipient.

Claims

1. A method for generating an SMS business message for processing by a software application comprising the steps of:

a data collection interface accepting outgoing instructions and outgoing data from said software application;

a message encoding engine encoding said outgoing instructions and outgoing data from said software application using an encoding template to generate the SMS business message as a categorized SMS message formatted for processing by a data processing system; and

a dispatcher runtime processor processing said SMS business message for transmission over a network to a recipient.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of transmitting the SMS business message over a network to a recipient.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the SMS business message comprises:

a message text entry field for alerting the recipient about a commerce event; and

an encryption string entry field.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the SMS business message further comprises:

a response indicator label;

a recipient data entry field associated with said response indicator label;

a recipient authentication indicator label; and

a recipient authentication data entry field associated with said recipient authentication indicator label.

5. The methods of claims 3 wherein said encryption string entry field is adapted to accept communication session identification data.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said session identification data may be used to associate a response to a sent message.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said session identification data may be used to identify a software application to process a response to a sent message.

8. The methods of claims 3 wherein said encryption string entry field is adapted to accept security data.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein said recipient authentication data entry field is adapted to accept a personal identification number (PIN) from said recipient.

10. The method of claim 4 wherein the SMS business message further comprises:

a first recipient data entry field associated with said response indicator label, wherein said first recipient data entry field is adapted to allow a response to be inserted by a responding recipient; and

a second recipient data entry field associated with said authentication indicator label, wherein said second recipient data entry field is adapted to allow a response to be inserted by a responding recipient.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the encoding template comprises:

categorisation meta data defining a categorisation of SMS business messages, wherein;

the categorisation represents a specific businesses intended usage;

the categorisation meta data provides a definition of the categorisation; and

the categorisation meta data is parsable by said data processing system for generating SMS business messages.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the encoding template further comprises:

a message entry field for insertion of a message entry of full SMS message length for access by a recipient, wherein;

said template provides an additional field in said SMS business message for categorisation meta data; and

said meta data provides instructions for encoding a business intended usage of an SMS business message.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said meta data includes instructions for dispatching said SMS business message including instructions selected from:

a message priority;

a delivery time;

a number of recipients;

a delivery channel;

a need for confirmation;

a need for authentication;

a need for encryption; and

an intended web application to handle a response.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein said meta data includes instructions for identifying a software application intended to handle a response to said SMS business message.

15. The method of claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

a server receiving a response messages from a recipient in response to the transmission of said SMS business message;

decoding an encryption string within said SMS response message with an appropriate key to verify that said response message is directed to said server;

extracting identification from said SMS response message for processing information in said response;

identifying and obtaining a corresponding inbound template for said response message from said server;

parsing said response message with said inbound template to extract incoming data and incoming instructions contained in said response message, if any, for processing said data and instructions.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the forwarding said incoming data and incoming instructions to an application server for processing.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said SMS response message includes:

an encryption string encoded with an encoding key;

identification of a software application capable of processing said response; and

user authentication information.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein:

said server has access to said encoding key; and

said server has access to said inbound template.

19. The method of claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

a server receiving an SMS response message from a recipient in response to the transmission of said SMS business message; and

a response tracking database tracking said SMS response message in a response tracking database.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising the steps of:

an inbound template database identifying and parsing said SMS response message;

said dispatcher processing said SMS response message and forwarding said SMS response messages to said software application.

22. A computer program product directly loadable into the internal memory of a digital computer, comprising software code portions for performing, when said product is run on a computer, the method of claims 1.

21. Means for generating an SMS business message for processing by a software application comprising:

means for a data collection interface accepting outgoing instructions and outgoing data from said software application;

means for a message encoding engine encoding said outgoing instructions and outgoing data from said software application using an encoding template to generate the SMS business message as a categorized SMS message formatted for processing by a data processing system; and

means for a dispatcher runtime processor processing said SMS business message for transmission over a network to a recipient.

23. A method for processing an incoming e-commerce SMS response message received by a server from a recipient responding to an outgoing e-commerce SMS message, comprising:

receiving said SMS response message;

decoding an encryption string within said SMS response message with an appropriate key to verify that said response message is directed to said server;

extracting identification from said SMS response message for processing information in said response;

identifying and obtaining a corresponding inbound template for said response message from said server;

parsing said response message with said inbound template to extract data and instructions contained in said response message, if any, for processing said data and instructions.

24. An SMS commerce message format for use in sending a commerce message over a network to a recipient comprising:

a message text entry field for alerting a recipient about a commerce event;

an encryption string entry field;

a response indicator label;

a recipient data entry field associated with said response indicator label;

a recipient authentication indicator label; and

,

a recipient authentication data entry field associated with said recipient authentication indicator label.

25. The SMS message format of claim 24 wherein said encryption string entry field is adapted to accept communication session identification data.

26. The SMS message format of claim 24 wherein said encryption string entry field is adapted to accept security data.

27. The SMS message format of claim 24 wherein said recipient authentication data entry field is adapted to accept a PIN number from said recipient.

28. An SMS universal encoding template for encoding outbound SMS business messages for a data processing system for transmission over a network;

comprising;

categorization meta data defining a categorization of outbound SMS messages;

said categorization representing a specific businesses intended usage; and

said categorization meta data providing definitions of messages and instructions that are parsable by said data processing system for generating SMS business messages.