Billing data interface for conferencing customers
AssigneeSouthpath Conferencing Services, Inc.
InventorsAnne Bingaman, Dagny Evans, Boban Mathew
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A billing data interface provides billing data to customers in an accurate and efficient manner. Billing data is processed to preserve client billing information and to meet a customer's individual data requirements. The billing data may be presented in such a way that the customer may input the billing data directly into its client billing system. The billing data may be processed according to client billing specifications corresponding to a client billing system used by the customer. The processed data may preserve leading zeros, separate client code and matter code into two fields, etc. The resulting data file may be delivered to the customer for entry into the customer's client billing system.
Claims55
-66. (canceled)
A method for providing billing data to customers using conferencing services, comprising:
- establishing client billing specifications, based on a client billing system format, that specify how client billing information is to be separated, sorted, and converted;
- receiving, from a conference facility, cost data and the client billing information for a conference conducted by participants related to a customer;
- processing the cost data and the client billing information according to the client billing specifications to create a data file compatible with the client billing system format;
- and
- delivering the data file to the customer such that the data file may be input into a client billing system used by the customer to allocate costs from the conference.
The method of claim 8, wherein the cost data includes a call data record (CDR).
A method for processing billing data for customers using conferencing services, comprising:
- receiving, from a conference facility, cost data and client billing information for a conference conducted by participants related to a customer;
- processing the cost data to remove extraneous data;
- batching the processed data with the client billing information to create billable event data corresponding to the conference;
- separating data fields in the billable event data according to client billing specifications of the customer;
- sorting the billable event data according to the client billing specifications;
- converting the sorted billable event data into a data file according to the client billing specifications;
- and
- delivering the data file to the customer.
A system for providing billing data to customers using conferencing services, comprising:
- a receiving component configured to receive, from a conference facility, cost data and client billing information for a conference conducted by participants related to a customer;
- a processing component configured to process the cost data and the client billing information according to client billing specifications to create a data file;
- and
- a delivering component configured to deliver the data file to the customer such that the data file may be input into a client billing system used by the customer to allocate costs from the conference.
A system for processing billing data for customers using conferencing services, comprising:
- a receiving component configured to receive, from a conference facility, cost data and client billing information for a conference conducted by participants related to a customer;
- a processing component configured to process the cost data to remove extraneous data;
- a batching component configured to batch the processed data with the client billing information to create billable event data corresponding to the conference;
- a separating component configured to separate data fields in the billable event data according to client billing specifications of the customer;
- a sorting component configured to sort the billable event data according to the client billing specifications;
- a converting component configured to convert the sorted billable event data into a data file according to the client billing specifications;
- and
- a delivering component configured to deliver the data file to the customer.
A system for providing billing data to customers using conferencing services, comprising:
- means for receiving, from a conference facility, cost data and client billing information for a conference conducted by participants related to a customer;
- means for processing the cost data and the client billing information according to client billing specifications to create a data file;
- and
- means for delivering the data file to the customer such that the data file may be input into a client billing system used by the customer to allocate costs from the conference.
A system for processing billing data for customers using conferencing services, comprising:
- means for receiving, from a conference facility, cost data and client billing information for a conference conducted by participants related to a customer;
- means for processing the cost data to remove extraneous data;
- means for batching the processed data with the client billing information to create billable event data corresponding to the conference;
- means for separating data fields in the billable event data according to client billing specifications of the customer;
- means for sorting the billable event data according to the client billing specifications;
- means for converting the sorted billable event data into a data file according to the client billing specifications;
- and
- means for delivering the data file to the customer.
A computer-readable medium with code embodied therein for performing a method for providing billing data to customers using conferencing services, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a conference facility, cost data and client billing information for a conference conducted by participants related to a customer;
- processing the cost data and the client billing information according to client billing specifications to create a data file;
- and
- delivering the data file to the customer such that the data file may be input into a client billing system used by the customer to allocate costs from the conference.
A computer-readable medium with code embodied therein for performing a method for processing billing data for customers using conferencing services, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a conference facility, cost data and client billing information for a conference conducted by participants related to a customer;
- processing the cost data to remove extraneous data;
- batching the processed data with the client billing information to create billable event data corresponding to the conference;
- separating data fields in the billable event data according to client billing specifications of the customer;
- sorting the billable event data according to the client billing specifications;
- converting the sorted billable event data into a data file according to the client billing specifications;
- and
- delivering the data file to the customer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.