(12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 7,716,156 B1 Eubank Et Al
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USOO7716156B1 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 7,716,156 B1 Eubank et al. (45) Date of Patent: May 11, 2010 (54) SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SHARING 2003/0188262 A1* 10, 2003 Maxwell et al. ............. 715/507 DATA FROMWEBACCESSED 2006/0242040 A1* 10, 2006 Rader ............... ... TOS/35 CALCULATORS 2008.0015919 A1 1/2008 Busse et al. .................... 705/8 (75) Inventors: Mason Eubank, Boston, MA (US); Nikolay Eshkenazi, San Antonio, TX (US); Neff Karl Hudson, San Antonio, TX (US); Michael Wayne Lester, San OTHER PUBLICATIONS Antonio,s TX (US) Agent9. Oriented Software Pty.y Ltd., “Jack Intelligent9. Agents9. WebBot Manual.” Jun. 10, 2005, 5(2), 1-66. (73)73) ASS1ginee : United.NS, S Aut uses bil, (US) CapitalStream, “The Emergence of Web Services For the Financial Services Industry.” 2002, 1-7. (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this Cisco Systems, “Solutions: Transforming Branch Banking Through patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Technology Renewal.” 2002, 4 pages. U.S.C. 154(b) by 216 days. Fonesca, I. et al., “The Wealth Management Technology Landscape 2005. Celent, LLC., Aug. 2005, 1-35. (21) Appl. No.: 11/486,876 Polar Lake, "Standards-based Integration in Financial Services: The (22) Filed: Jul. 13, 2006 Promise of XML, Web Services and the Enterprise Service Bus.” a lays 2004, 1-27. (51) Int. Cl. TechnologySolutions Company, “Creating a Customer Value Archi G06F 7/30 (2006.01) tecture for Financial Services: Achieving Customer Value Optimiza G06F 3/00 (2006.01) tion with an Information Architecture.” 2005, 1-8. G06O 40/00 (2006.01) RAM Technologies Inc., “WEB CALC: On-line Financial Calcula G06O 90/00 (2006.01) tors,” created Oct. 2001, downloaded Jun. 2006, 1 page. (52) U.S. Cl. ........................ 707/1: 707/100; 707/104.1; 715/221; 715/224; 715/225; 715/226; 705/1; (Continued) 705/35: 705/36 R (58) Field of Classification Search .....................s 2972 PriC.E.O. E iner JWinSier Trujill 707/507, 1,100,104.1, 375/261; 715/507, p 715/224, 221, 225, 226; 705/1, 35, 36 R (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Chadbourne & Parke, LLP: See application file for complete search history. Walter G. Hanchuk (56) References Cited (57) ABSTRACT U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 5,764,699 A * 6/1998 Needham et al. ............ 375,261 Various embodiments disclosed herein are directed to man 5.999,971 A 12, 1999 Buckland aging and sharing data between web accessed calculators. 6,631.402 B1 : 10/2003 Devine et al. ............... 709/217 The systems include a data store to persist calculator inputs 2050, s R ck 1 2.2. aSWallonly Gal. .............- - - - - - - - - - - - 0.. and outputs and share them with other calculators and with 2002, 0046053 A1 4/2002 Hare et al. customer service representatives. 2002fOO73005 A1* 6, 2002 Welnicki et al. ... ... 705.35 2003/0061131 A1* 3/2003 Parkan, Jr. ................... 705/30 15 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets User System Server CGI Script database 203 N. 205 27 u? i. -21 215 27 209 213 Run Csiscript search database 225 29 N 221 Yes Return option to uss N crawls as 1 223 227 -231 - 2 235 229 E" H Aarone Runcis Script Population ancisco Return data 245 Receive web page with retum webpage with 239 23F Xplated calculatof opiatad calculator 243 247 re, its in ast fisks 248 display Calculator output 257 sendinput and output data Passifiput and output data to serve test Program Strasts Ostase US 7,716.156 B1 Page 2 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Wealth Vision, “Wealth Management Platform.” downloaded Jun. 2006, 3 pages. Samtani et al. “Easier Enterprise Application Integration?' Web Ser vices Architect, Oct. 17, 2001, 9 pages. * cited by examiner U.S. Patent May 11, 2010 Sheet 1 of 8 US 7,716,156 B1 99 /9 99 | | | | | | | |-|9 ZZ|--••!--- 89Iaum31.g to N. c. !| U.S. Patent May 11, 2010 Sheet 2 of 8 US 7,716,156 B1 z9um31.I. U.S. Patent May 11, 2010 Sheet 3 of 8 US 7,716,156 B1 99|| e6edeuoHs, e6edeuo}} JequuÐIN U.S. Patent US 7,716,156 B1 U.S. Patent May 11, 2010 Sheet 5 of 8 US 7,716,156 B1 ? ?ši?????š?&&# &##############3 §§§&#######&& U.S. Patent May 11, 2010 Sheet 6 of 8 US 7,716,156 B1 6/| aseqeqeqJæAIJCI Jasn 99|| squauÁed U.S. Patent May 11, 2010 Sheet 7 of 8 US 7,716,156 B1 §2am31.I. U.S. Patent May 11, 2010 Sheet 8 of 8 US 7,716,156 B1 909 US 7,716,156 B1 1. 2 SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SHARING tors may be used to develop financial plans that take into DATA FROMWEBACCESSED account the assets, liabilities, debts, and expenses of an indi CALCULATORS vidual. A disadvantage shared by sites that provide web pages with CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED calculators is that data entered by the customer is not saved for APPLICATIONS future use by the customer and the business. Another disad Vantage of the way calculators have been implemented in This application is related by subject matter to the disclo many sites is that data entered into one calculator cannot be Sure in the following commonly assigned U.S. application shared with another calculator that may use the same data. Ser. No. 1 1/487,037, filed on Jul. 13, 2006 entitled “Systems 10 Consequently, as customers use multiple tools and calcula and Methods for Sharing Data from Web Accessed Calcula tors, the same questions are asked multiple times. Further tors.” The disclosure of each application is incorporated by more, calculator inputs are not fed to a customer service reference herein in its entirety. representative's system so that they can analyze customers needs. TECHNICAL FIELD 15 SUMMARY This application relates generally to business to consumer Methods, computer-readable media and systems are pro electronic commerce web sites, and in particular to systems vided for collecting, managing and sharing data generated by and methods for capturing and sharing data from and between a user in a calculator included in a web page. In one such calculators provided consumers in a web page. method, the data is shared among a plurality of calculators by creating a relational database that is used to save and search BACKGROUND for data values generated by a user through the use of any calculator. Electronic commerce is a term that is commonly used to 25 In another method, the data is collected shared and stored describe the distribution, purchase, sale, marketing, and Ser for a limited period of time. vicing of goods or services over electronic networks such as There is also provided a methodology for managing data the Internet. One critical requirement for the success of an generated by a user in a calculator included in the web page electronic commerce web site is that they must provide value including the sharing of data among calculators and the abil to the customer, as well as providing service and perfor 30 ity to mine the data for marketing purposes. aCC. The systems and methods disclosed reduce the amount of One way that businesses provide value to customers in a customer time required to complete calculations from mul web site is to provide them with tools that the customer can tiple calculators. Additionally, the systems and methods dis use in solving a particular problem associated with the goods closed will facilitate customer switching between channels or services provided through a web site. Among the many 35 and reduce the amount of customer service representative tools provided are calculators that assist the customer in mak time required to assess the needs of a customer. ing a purchasing decision. For example, in a web site for a These and other features described in the present disclo business that sells home-improvement products, such as sure will become more fully apparent from the following flooring, appliances etc. the web site may provide calculators description and obtained by means of the instruments and in a web page that make it easy for customers to size their 40 combinations particularly pointed out in the appended needs. If the customer is interested in flooring, the retailer claims, or may be learned by the practice of the systems and may provide a carpet calculator where the customer can input methods set forth herein. This Summary is provided to intro a room width and length, select a width of the carpet, and the duce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are calculator will determine the number of square yards that the further described below in the Detailed Description. This customer requires. Similarly, if the customer is interested in 45 Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential an air-conditioning unit a calculator may be provided where features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be the customer can input the room width, length, and height, used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject and the calculator will determine the cooling capacity (in matter. BTUs) required. One industry that is very active in the electronic commerce 50 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS area is the Financial Services industry. Financial services refers to services provided by organizations that deal with the The foregoing Summary, as well as the following detailed management of money. Among the types of businesses description, are better understood when read in conjunction involved in financial services are banks, investment banks, with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating insurance companies, credit card companies and stock bro 55 the claimed Subject matter, there is shown in the drawings kerages, which provide a variety of money and investment example constructions of various embodiments; however, the related services.