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US 9,317,824 B2Granted
Vendor management system and process
AssigneeHartford Fire Insurance Company
InventorsTracie L. Cloutier, Susan B. Gray, Jeanne T. Peckham, Donald R. Pierce
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a novel vendor management system and method that enables one or more parties to assign various types of files to one or more other parties for review and processing. Multiple business clients are able to refer a variety of files to a select group of vendors having expertise in a particular business or process. Further, the present invention provides a robust and flexible platform to support diverse referrals and workflow needs as well as access to referred files by the vendor, client, and adverse party.
Claims22
A computer system for managing and distributing a plurality of files and data among a plurality of vendor computer systems and a plurality of client computer systems, said system comprising:
- a data storage device storing information associated with said plurality of files and said plurality of vendors;
- a computing system, in communication with said data storage device, said plurality of vendor computer systems, and said plurality of client computer systems, said computing system having a processor configured to transmit a set of files using a communication module from one of said client computer systems to a selected one of said vendor computer systems for processing by said selected vendor and to provide access to materials relevant to said transmitted files to both said one of said client computer systems and said vendor computer systems;
- and
- wherein the computing system is configured to (i) identify a plurality of acceptable vendors from said plurality of vendors, (ii) determine, for each one of the plurality of files, a likelihood of a desired outcome resultant from file processing by the identified acceptable vendors, employing a computerized predictive model, (iii) score said acceptable vendors to determine which one of said acceptable vendors is best qualified to receive each of said plurality of files, and (iv) select the one of the plurality of acceptable vendors determined to be best qualified for receiving each one of the plurality of files, the determining based on the information associated with the files, the determined likelihood of the desired outcome, and the information associated with the vendors;
- and
- wherein said vendors are attorneys and debt collectors, and said determination of likelihood of the desired outcome by the computerized predictive model is based on:
- data relating to at least one of the files and data relating to the vendors including:
- expertise of the vendors in the same field as the at least one file, vendors' performance by work type, vendors' performance on client files received by the vendors to date, prior success rate of the vendors, and time for successful completion by the vendors;
- wherein the computing system is further configured to, in a batch process, generate extract files containing file data, make the extract files available to the vendor computer systems for download and to permit download of extract files accessible in a report format, and purge the extract files after a predetermined period of time;
- and further, configured to determine, by executing instructions in vendor-controlled computer code, automatic vendor acceptance or rejection of the files;
- and
- wherein the computing system further comprises a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon processor-executable instructions, which instructions include a generating module which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to generate at least one report describing which specific files should be transmitted to certain vendors best suited for processing of said specific files using said scoring of said vendors.
9 more elements
A computer implemented method for managing and distributing a plurality of files to a plurality of vendor computer systems from a plurality of client computer systems wherein the files comprise at least some materials related to each of the clients seeking compensation from at least one adverse party, the method comprising:
- identifying by one of the plurality of client computer systems a plurality of acceptable vendors from said plurality of vendors;
- determining by the client computer system, for each one of the plurality of files, a likelihood of a desired outcome resultant from file processing for each of the files by the identified acceptable vendors, employing a computerized predictive model;
- scoring, by the client computer system, the plurality of acceptable vendors to determine which one of said acceptable vendors is best qualified to receive each one of the plurality of files, and selecting, by the client computer system, the one of the plurality of acceptable vendors determined to be best qualified to receive each one of the plurality of files, the determining based on stored information associated with the plurality of files, the determined likelihood of a desired outcome, and stored information associated with the vendors;
- and
- transmitting a set of the files by the client computer system from the client to the selected vendor and providing access to materials relevant to said transmitted files to both said client and said vendor,
- wherein said vendors comprise attorneys and debt collectors, and the determining of likelihood of the desired outcome using the computerized predictive model is based on:
- data relating to the file and data relating to the vendors including:
- expertise of the vendors in the same field as the file, vendors' performance by work type, vendors' performance on client files received by vendors to date, prior success rate of the vendors, and time for successful completion by the vendors;
- wherein the computing system further, in a batch process, generates extract files containing file data, makes the extract files available to the vendor computer systems for download and permits download of extract files available in a report format, and purges the extract files after a predetermined period of time;
- and further determines, by executing instructions in vendor-controlled computer code, automatic vendor acceptance or rejection of the files;
- and
- wherein the computer system further generates at least one report describing which specific files should be transmitted to certain vendors best suited for processing of said specific files using said scoring of said vendors.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.