Method and apparatus for obtaining data from vendors in real time
AssigneeAllstate Insurance Company
InventorsGerald R. Haught, Ernest M. Pihl, Jr., James M. Batman, Karl M. Babij
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method of controlling a computer network to obtain information needed to render risk evaluative decisions from vendors in real time. The information may be obtained for agents preparing insurance applications or for an automated application processing system. Agents or automated application processing systems require access to an external vendor to obtain information about a customer, such as car accident or credit records. The request for data must be formatted to be read by the vendor system, which sends the responding data in real time. This responding data is forwarded to the requesting party for further processing of the application.
Claims14
A method of controlling a computer network to assemble data for rendering decisions based on the data, the network including a data manager having a memory, and a data gathering system coupled to vendors of data, the method comprising the steps, performed by the data manager, of:
- processing a request for data to evaluate an application;
- and
- invoking real time information interface processes to retrieve needed additional data through the data gathering system, the step of invoking including the substeps of
- applying a series of templates to the request,
- formatting the request according to the data vendors,
- sending formatted request to the appropriate data vendors for real time processing,
- receiving data from the data vendors in response to the formatted request in real time,
- matching the received data with the request, and
- delivering the matched data to the data manager.
A system for assembling data to render decisions based on the data, the system including:
- a data manager having a memory;
- means for processing a request for data to evaluate an application;
- a data gathering system coupled to vendors of data;
- means for invoking real time information interface processes to retrieve needed additional data through the data gathering system;
- means for applying a series of templates to the request;
- means for formatting the request according to the data vendors;
- means for sending formatted request to the appropriate data vendors for real time processing;
- means for receiving data from the data vendors in response to the formatted request in real time;
- means for matching the received data with the request;
- and
- means for delivering the matched data to the data manager.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.