System, computer program product and method for managing documents
First Claim
1. A method for managing documents, comprising the steps of:
- receiving a request from a remote user;
providing said user with consulting advice regarding said request based upon data input by said user, said consulting advice including advice on document retrieval costs, document storage strategies, document storage organization, protection of secured documents, or delivery options of documents;
selecting an application service provider from a plurality of application service providers based on said request, wherein said request is not related to said application service provider;
forwarding said request to said application service provider;
providing said application service provider with a user access level that includes first, second and third sections, each section indicating a different hierarchical level of access, wherein said first section indicates a business entity, said second section indicates a department, and said third section indicates an individual;
receiving information from said application service provider indicating information of a document provided from said application service provider to said user;
formatting said document from said application service provider into a standardized format regardless of which application service provider of said plurality of application service provides is selected;
generating a unified bill from bills received from application service providers; and
transmitting said unified bill to said user.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system, method and computer program product for managing documents. The system includes a document manager that is configured to search for application services providers (ASPs) over a network and based on a user input. The document manager can search documents within the ASPs, retrieve documents and URLs, store documents and data, format documents, generate and issue unified bills from a plurality of bills from a plurality of ASPs. The document manager can provide consulting advice to the user regarding document managing, and can manage the documents stored on a user storage device, for example by transferring these documents to a ASP storage device after storage time periods associated with the documents.
107 Citations
57 Claims
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1. A method for managing documents, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a request from a remote user; providing said user with consulting advice regarding said request based upon data input by said user, said consulting advice including advice on document retrieval costs, document storage strategies, document storage organization, protection of secured documents, or delivery options of documents; selecting an application service provider from a plurality of application service providers based on said request, wherein said request is not related to said application service provider; forwarding said request to said application service provider; providing said application service provider with a user access level that includes first, second and third sections, each section indicating a different hierarchical level of access, wherein said first section indicates a business entity, said second section indicates a department, and said third section indicates an individual; receiving information from said application service provider indicating information of a document provided from said application service provider to said user; formatting said document from said application service provider into a standardized format regardless of which application service provider of said plurality of application service provides is selected; generating a unified bill from bills received from application service providers; and transmitting said unified bill to said user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 40, 41, 42)
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11. A system for managing documents, comprising:
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means for receiving a request from a remote user; means for providing said user with consulting advice regarding said request based upon data input by said user, said consulting advice including advice on document retrieval costs, document storage strategies, document storage organization, protection of secured documents, or delivery options of documents; means for selecting an application service provider from a plurality of application service providers based on said request, wherein said request is not related to said application service provider; means for forwarding said request to said application service provider; means for providing said application service provider with a user access level that includes first, second and third sections, each section indicating a different hierarchical level of access, wherein said first section indicates a business entity, said second section indicates a department, and said third section indicates an individual; means for receiving information from said application service provider indicating information of a document provided from said application service provider to said user; means for formatting said document from said application service provider into a standardized format regardless of which application service provider of said plurality of application service provides is selected; means for generating a unified bill from bills received from application service providers; and means for transmitting said unified bill to said user. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 43, 44, 45)
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21. A computer program product, comprising:
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a computer storage medium and a computer program code mechanism embedded in the computer storage medium for causing a computer to manage documents over a computer network, the computer program code mechanism including; a first computer code device configured to receive a request from a remote user; a second computer code device configured to provide said user with consulting advice regarding said request based upon data input by said user, said consulting advice including advice on document retrieval costs, document storage strategies, document storage organization, protection of secured documents, or delivery options of documents; a third computer code device configured to select an application service provider from a plurality of application service providers based on said request, wherein said request is not related to said application service provider; a fourth computer code device configured to forward said request to said application service provider along with a user access level that includes first, second and third sections, each section indicating a different hierarchical level of access, wherein said first section indicates a business entity, said second section indicates a department, and said third section indicates an individual; a fifth computer code device configured to receive information from said application service provider indicating information of a document provided from said application service provider to said user; a sixth computer code configured to format said document from said application service provider into a standardized format regardless of which application service provider of said plurality of application service provides is selected; a seventh computer code device configured to generate a unified bill from bills received from application service providers; and an eighth computer code device configured to transmit said unified bill to said user. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 46, 47, 48)
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31. A method for managing documents, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a request from a remote user; receiving a document, storage information and an access level from said user, wherein said access level includes first, second and third sections, each section indicating a different hierarchical level of access needed to access said document, wherein said first section indicates a business entity, said second section indicates a department, and said third section indicates an individual; providing said user with consulting advice regarding said request based upon data input by said user, said consulting advice including advice on document retrieval costs, document storage strategies, document storage organization, protection of secured documents, or delivery options of documents; selecting an application service provider from a plurality of application service providers based on said storage information; transmitting said document, said access level and at least part of said storage information to a storage device of said application service provider; formatting said document from said application service provider into a standardized format regardless of which application service provider of said plurality of application service provides is selected; generating a unified bill from bills received from application service providers; and transmitting said unified bill to said user. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 49, 50, 51)
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34. A system for managing documents, comprising means for receiving a request from a remote user;
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means for receiving a document, storage information and an access level from said user, wherein said access level includes first, second and third sections, each section indicating a different hierarchical level of access needed to access said document from said user, wherein said first section indicates a business entity, said second section indicates a department, and said third section indicates an individual; means for providing said user with consulting advice regarding said request based upon data input by said user, said consulting advice including advice on document retrieval costs, document storage strategies, document storage organization, protection of secured documents, or delivery options of documents; means for selecting an application service provider from a plurality of application service providers based on said storage information; means for transmitting said document, said access level and at least part of said storage information to a storage device of said application service provider; means for formatting said document from said application service provider into a standardized format regardless of which application service provider of said plurality of application service provides is selected; means for generating a unified bill from bills received from application service providers; and means for transmitting said unified bill to said user. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 52, 53, 54)
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37. A computer program product, comprising:
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a computer storage medium and a computer program code mechanism embedded in the computer storage medium for causing a computer to manage documents over a computer network, the computer program code mechanism comprising; a first computer code device configured to receive a request from a remote user; a second computer code device configured to receive a document, and an access level from said user, wherein said access level includes first, second and third sections, each section indicating a different hierarchical level of access needed to access said document, wherein said first section indicates a business entity, said second section indicates a department, and said third section indicates an individual; a third computer code device configured to provide said user with consulting advice regarding said request based upon data input by said user, said consulting advice including advice on document retrieval costs, document storage strategies, document storage organization, protection of secured documents, or delivery options of documents; a fourth computer code device configured to select an application service provider from a plurality of application service providers based on said storage information; a fifth computer code device configured to transmit said document, said access level and at least part of said storage information to a storage device of said application service provider; a sixth computer code configured to format said document from said application service provider into a standardized format regardless of which application service provider of said plurality of application service provides is selected; a seventh computer code device configured to generate a unified bill from bills received from application service providers; and an eighth computer code device configured to transmit said unified bill to said user. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 55, 56, 57)
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Specification