Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-28
2004-05-04
Rones, Charles (Department: 2175)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C705S014270, C725S046000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06732092
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One key element in a successful partnership between relationship managers and their clients is the exchange of timely and relevant communication. Traditional relationship managers include brokers, agents, sales professionals, stock brokers, financial advisors, real estate agents, travel agents, insurance agents, professionals (such as doctors and lawyers), and any person who initiates contact with clients or customers. The goal of a successful relationship manager is to further develop, enhance and grow the relationship with their clients. However, relationship managers lack the adequate tools to perpetuate new reasons to contact the client to achieve these goals.
Specifically, one of the most significant attributes a successful relationship manager must have is the ability to stay abreast of the news and information which affects their area of specialization as well as the interests of their clients. Presently, the only tools available to the relationship manager are back-end customer relationship management (CRM) applications such as ACT and Goldmine, web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Netscape or AOL, standard web-based search engines and electronic mail utilities.
These prior art tools do not adequately assist the relationship manager. For example, the CRM tools only solve the problem of organizing client information after the relationship manager has already initiated contact with the client or potential client. The CRM tools are used to collect information about the client and possibly record notes regarding prior conversations with the client. Similarly, the web browser is limited to pointing to any domain name address the user purposely finds and manually inputs. The web-based search engines are limited to finding articles or links based on a formula determined by the search engine provider who usually ranks returned results based on the highest commercial bidder vying for a high ranking in the search engine. Electronic mail requires an address book, forcing the user to duplicate the client profile information stored in the CRM, and also requires the manual process of cutting and pasting information into the body of the message. Presently, a novel, advanced and complete solution is required to efficiently find information relevant to the interests of one or more clients, and a means to quickly provide that information that is located to the interested clients.
To illustrate further, the prior art solution requires a complex and tedious number of manual steps. First, the relationship manager (“user”) must open the CRM application and browse through client information, interests and notes. The user then opens a web browser and points to a search engine such as msn.com, altavista.com or askjeevescom. Next, the user refers back to the CRM to relocate a specific client and decide on the client's interests based on information in a single client's profile. Then, the user manually enters terms or phrases representing that specific client's interests in the web browser and initiates a single search on the world wide web utilizing a single search engine. After the search engine results are returned, the user must read through the listing of retrieved results, open each resulting link, read the retrieved article and determine if the article provides useful information that should be delivered to the client. The user is burdened by the additional fact that the retrieved results quite often consist of irrelevant information that does not correspond to the terms of interest that were entered manually by the user.
If the user happens to find an article of interest from the thousands of retrieved search results, the user may (i) open his or her electronic mail application such as Outlook or Netscape Messenger, (ii) open an address book to find the client or retrieve the electronic mail address from the CRM, (iii) manually copy and paste the text of the article into an electronic mail message, and (iv) send the article to an individual client. Clearly, this is a very tedious process. Imagine the scenario where a typical user, such as a broker, has hundreds of clients, whereby this process would require most of the broker's time. The prior art solution causes the broker to fail at the primary goal of timely and relevant communication with one or more clients because: 1) the prior art solution requires an inordinate amount of the broker's time; 2) it is nearly impossible to keep track of the specific interests of each client; and 3) the sources of information are neither relevant to the interests of the client nor conveniently available.
In contrast, the present invention uses an advanced, multi-tiered database and information delivery algorithm to retrieve and deliver targeted news items, articles and information based on the interests of a client. The present invention eliminates the need for the tedious prior art process that requires a CRM application, a web browser, a search engine and an electronic mail utility.
The present invention provides the user, such as a broker or agent, with a solution to improving and enabling communication with their clients by utilizing algorithms that cross-reference the interests of clients with any information pool and present a list of clients who are interested in the relevant information. Specifically, a successful relationship manager requires the solution provided by the present invention to provide a competitive edge in finding specific news and information that pertain to the specific interests of their clients. The solution provided by the present invention adds significant value to the broker/client relationship and results in the broker's ability to increase communication with their existing clients and ultimately to increase their clientele.
A need exists to provide a method and system of discovering new and relevant reasons to precipitate communications with clients by querying news and information sources based on user-based and/or individual-based keyphrases.
Another need exists to provide one tool which allows the relationship manager, such as a broker or agent, to add client profile information and keyphrases based on clients' interests into a database by means of a graphical user interface.
A further need exists to allow the relationship manager to conduct a search of one or more information service providers based on the interests of all clients, a single client and/or the interests of the relationship manager and to view the retrieved results in a viewer.
A further need exists to allow the relationship manager to view the retrieved articles that pertain to specific clients' interests whereby each retrieved result is mapped by keyphrase, date, source and client name which have corresponding keyphrases of interest stored in the client/customer profile database.
Yet another need exists for a system and method that allows the relationship manager to import external information into the application and cross-reference that information with the interests of one or more clients to determine which clients would find that information helpful and would benefit by receiving a phone call, electronic mail or other form of communication from the relationship manager regarding the information.
Another need exists for a system and method that allows the relationship manager to take action by adding the relevant, retrieved information to an action list or to electronically mail the information to one or more interested clients.
The present invention relates to associating keyphrases of interest to one or more client/customer profiles and conducting queries on one or more news service databases for an entire clientele group. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and system of retrieving objects from one or more databases based on client/customer profiles with associated keyphrases by means of software on a personal computer, wireless device, or web-enabled phone; sorting retrieved objects; and taking action on selected retrieved objects. In addition, the presen
Lucas Scott
Moore Erik
Client Dynamics, Inc.
Fish & Neave
Rones Charles
LandOfFree
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