System and method for improving resolution of channel data
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system for managing a product distribution channel having a plurality of channel participants, comprising:
- one or more reference record databases;
one or more reference records within the reference record databases, each reference record providing an association between business information and spatial data for a specific channel participant, wherein each reference record includes a reference record spatial identifier determined by geo-coding said spatial data;
transaction data related to at least one channel participant wherein said transaction data includes a transaction data spatial identifier determined by geo-coding spatial data associate with said transaction data;
a candidate identification mechanism for determining more than one candidate reference record from one of the reference record databases using both spatial and business data derived from the transaction data;
responsive to determining more than one candidate reference records, a matching mechanism for matching at least one candidate reference record from the determined more than one candidate reference records to the transaction data, wherein said matching mechanism includes a lexical matching process; and
storing in the reference record databases a match identifier associated with the match between the at least one candidate reference record from the determined more than one candidate reference records and the transaction data.
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Abstract
A method for processing distribution channel data integrating business information with geographic data to produce integrated data, wherein the integrated data has greater resolution than the business information. Distribution channel data is captured and correlated with the integrated data to increase the resolution of the distribution channel data.
54 Citations
33 Claims
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1. A system for managing a product distribution channel having a plurality of channel participants, comprising:
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one or more reference record databases; one or more reference records within the reference record databases, each reference record providing an association between business information and spatial data for a specific channel participant, wherein each reference record includes a reference record spatial identifier determined by geo-coding said spatial data; transaction data related to at least one channel participant wherein said transaction data includes a transaction data spatial identifier determined by geo-coding spatial data associate with said transaction data; a candidate identification mechanism for determining more than one candidate reference record from one of the reference record databases using both spatial and business data derived from the transaction data; responsive to determining more than one candidate reference records, a matching mechanism for matching at least one candidate reference record from the determined more than one candidate reference records to the transaction data, wherein said matching mechanism includes a lexical matching process; and storing in the reference record databases a match identifier associated with the match between the at least one candidate reference record from the determined more than one candidate reference records and the transaction data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for identifying distribution channel participants comprising:
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generating a transaction record comprising business and spatial data that identifies at least one channel participant with a first degree of precision; geo-coding spatial data within the transaction record to determine a transaction spatial identifier for the transaction record; providing a reference record database comprising a plurality of reference records wherein each reference record comprises business and spatial information having a second degree of precision, and wherein the second degree of precision is greater than the first degree of precision and each reference record is associated with a reference record spatial identifier, said reference record spatial identifier being determined by geo-coding spatial information within each reference record; and determining at least one match between the transaction record and the plurality of reference records based on a comparative analysis of both lexical matching of transaction record business data to reference record business information and association of the transaction spatial identifier with reference record spatial identifiers, storing in the reference record database a match identifier associated with the at least one match between the transaction record and the plurality of reference records. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A computer-based method for resolving ambiguous transaction records, comprising:
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storing reference records in memory that each provide an association between business information and spatial data for each of a plurality of distribution channel participants, the spatial data including a geocode; and with a resolver mechanism running on a computer having access to the memory, receiving a transaction record comprising transaction information and location information, wherein the transaction information includes an imprecise identification for one of the distribution channel participants associated with the stored reference records preventing a direct match with the business information and spatial data of the one distribution channel participants to be made with certainty; responsive to failing to identify a direct match between the transaction record and the one distribution channel participant, operating the resolver mechanism to parse the location information in the transaction record and generate a geocode based on the parsed location information; comparing the generated geocode with the reference record geocodes of each of the plurality of distribution channel participants to select one or more candidate reference records from the stored reference records; performing lexical processing of the imprecise identification for one of the distribution channel participants with reference to the business information in the selected one or more candidate reference records; and based on the lexical processing, matching the received transaction record to one of the selected one or more candidate reference records wherein a match identifier associated with the match between the received transaction record and one of the selected one or more candidate reference records is stored in memory. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33)
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Specification