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WO2001043031A1 - Procede de listage et de recompense d'agents afin d'assister la production de references et les transactions - Google Patents

Procede de listage et de recompense d'agents afin d'assister la production de references et les transactions Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2001043031A1
WO2001043031A1 PCT/US2000/033407 US0033407W WO0143031A1 WO 2001043031 A1 WO2001043031 A1 WO 2001043031A1 US 0033407 W US0033407 W US 0033407W WO 0143031 A1 WO0143031 A1 WO 0143031A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
referral
recipients
sponsor
transaction
project
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2000/033407
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Woodrow Chin
Original Assignee
Referrals.Com
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Referrals.Com filed Critical Referrals.Com
Priority to AU20787/01A priority Critical patent/AU2078701A/en
Publication of WO2001043031A1 publication Critical patent/WO2001043031A1/fr

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
    • G06Q10/06—Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M3/42—Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04M2203/00—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
    • H04M2203/20—Aspects of automatic or semi-automatic exchanges related to features of supplementary services
    • H04M2203/2044—Group features, e.g. closed user group

Definitions

  • This invention relates generally to the field of sales and marketing, and in particular, to a referral system for fulfilling business or personal opportunities, including the acquisition of needed information as well as the identification and qualification of potential target clients, customers, or partners in a transaction.
  • e-commerce electronic commerce
  • e-mail electronic mail
  • a company that wishes to hire a new employee may go to an agency for help to find the right person or persons for the job.
  • the agency would be expected to charge a considerable commission or fee for satisfaction of such service.
  • individuals looking to execute other transactions, such as the sale of a house, fulfillment of a contract, etc. would likely prefer a transaction model that provides the needed information via less expensive and more efficient means.
  • referral business such that brokers, agents, and other service companies are no longer exclusive providers of information that lead toward fulfillment of a transaction.
  • an incentive based system to facilitate the organized formation of referrals, wherein differently sized businesses as well as individuals are encouraged to enter the referral business knowing that any referrer regardless of size or sophistication can provide input and effort with confidence that the most valued information will be rewarded.
  • a more specific object of the invention is to provide a system and method for enlisting agents to assist sponsors in finder's fee based lead generations and transaction fulfillment.
  • Yet another object of the invention is to provide a reward-based lead generation and transaction system via the Internet, wherein agents assist sponsors with the fulfillment of one or more projects.
  • a reward-based lead generation and transaction system comprising a sponsor component, a referral system component, and a plurality of recipient components.
  • the system of this invention is employed to fulfill business needs and opportunities over the Internet.
  • the sponsor component represents the sponsor who wishes to have such a need or opportunity fulfilled.
  • the recipient components represent the many recipients who assist with the referral process, eventually locating a recipient in the chain of referrals who is interested in closing a deal with the sponsor.
  • Both the sponsor and recipient components are each configured to interact with the referral system component, which in turn is configured to employ the necessary elements of the transaction and referral process.
  • the referral system of this invention is configured to operate as a medium between the sponsor and the plurality of recipients.
  • the sponsor such as an individual or corporate entity, typically contacts the referral system when a business or personal opportunity or transaction needs to be fulfilled. Such opportunities or transactions may include, for example, a job opening, a house or commercial property for sale, a request for services, etc.
  • the sponsor contacts the referral system and places a request for referrals.
  • one or more recipients such as sales agents, are contacted, wherein those recipients may contact yet further recipients, and so on.
  • one of the recipients accepts or proposes acceptance to the opportunity or transaction, fulfilling the objective of the original sponsor.
  • a completed transaction may result in one or more rewards being distributed to the recipients involved in the chain of communication between the sponsor and the final recipient.
  • the referral system provides a secure and confidential medium to communicate and interact with agents in order to fulfill a transaction.
  • the structure utilized by this invention enables recipients of any size to effectively interact with the referral system and the sponsor on a seemingly equal basis via the Internet. Thereafter, a reward may be distributed to those who perform the most valuable service or provide the desired information. Not only does this model reduce costs to the sponsor, it also increases efficiencies and broadens the scope of agents so that a more satisfactory objective is achieved.
  • FIG la shows the overall structure of the transaction system of this invention, according to one embodiment, configured to operate via the Internet;
  • FIG. lb shows a block diagram of the referral system having logical groupings of business functionality, according to one embodiment of the invention.
  • FIG. 2 illustrates an entity-relationship data model, according to one embodiment of the invention
  • FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of the relevant steps used by the referral system of this invention throughout the flow of a project transaction, according to one embodiment of the invention.
  • FIG. 4 shows an example interaction diagram, wherein a sponsor is shown fulfilling a project request via the referral system of one embodiment of this invention.
  • a reward-based lead generation and transaction system 100 is shown according to one embodimen of the invention, for enabling individual users and entities (referred to herein as 'sponsors') to fulfill business needs and/or personal opportunities over the Internet.
  • the fulfillment of such needs and opportunities is accomplished via agents and other participants (referred to herein as 'recipients'), as will be described in more detail below.
  • 'recipients' agents and other participants
  • the embodiment described herein with reference to Fig. la represents but one transaction system according to one component model and is not limited as such.
  • the lead generation and transaction system of this invention can employ telecommunication links other than the Internet.
  • Transaction system 100 comprises a sponsor component 2, a referral system component 4, and a plurality of recipient components 6a-6c. Furthermore, recipients 6a-6c as well as sponsor 2 are each configured to interact with referral system component 4 via Internet component 150, by utilizing computer systems 7a-7d, respectively. According to one embodiment of the invention, the interaction between referral system 4 and the computer systems 7a-7d is facilitated via electronic mail (e-mail).
  • e-mail electronic mail
  • referral system component 4 is configured to operate as a medium between the sponsor and the plurality of recipients.
  • the sponsor such as an individual or corporate entity, typically contacts the referral system when a business or personal opportunity or transaction needs to be fulfilled.
  • opportunities or transactions may include, for example, a job opening, a house or commercial property for sale, a request for services, etc.
  • the sponsor contacts the referral system and places a request for referrals.
  • one or more recipients such as sales agents, are contacted, wherein those recipients may contact yet further recipients, and so on.
  • one of the recipients accepts or proposes acceptance to the opportunity or transaction, fulfilling the objective of the original sponsor.
  • a completed transaction may result in one or more rewards being distributed to the recipients involved in the chain of communication between the sponsor and the final recipient.
  • the referral system component keeps track of sponsor and recipient activity by forcing all communications to originate at the referral system component. Therefore, if a recipient, for example, wishes to view a project, forward a project to another recipient, or even contact the sponsor to fulfill a project, he or she must first log on or otherwise contact the referral system component to provide a record of the activity that took place. As will be explained in more detail below, this process enables the system of this invention to accurately and fairly distribute rewards, as well as maintain confidentiality and enforce various predetermined business rules.
  • the above-mentioned interactive process of contacting and forwarding referrals to recipients may be employed, according to one embodiment, by e-mail, wherein sponsor 2 and one or more of recipients 6a-6c electronically transmit e-mail messages and otherwise communicate with each other via referral system component 4 and Internet component 150.
  • the referral system provides a secure and confidential medium to communicate and interact with agents in order to fulfill a transaction.
  • the structure utilized by this invention enables recipients of any size to effectively interact with the referral system and the sponsor on a seemingly equal basis via the Internet. Thereafter, the reward is distributed to those who perform the most valuable service or provide the desired information. Not only does this model reduce costs to the sponsor, it also increases efficiencies and broadens the scope of agents so that a more satisfactory objective is achieved.
  • Referral system component 4 comprises modules 8-26, including a project manager module 8, which is configured to store and manage the information that describes the opportunity (project) being presented.
  • Sponsor 2 typically initiates a project by contacting project manager 8, via connection 102, and providing the desired information.
  • the transfer of information via connection 102 is facilitated with an Internet connection.
  • project manager module 8 is also configured to obtain and store detailed information, such as project category, sponsor type, price, location, condition, etc. Any information that is necessary to convey the details and specifics of a project may be provided here.
  • project category describes the type of project being created.
  • project category can comprise the categories jobs, real estate, services, software, etc.
  • sponsor type may indicate whether the sponsor is seeking fulfillment or looking to fulfill a project.
  • the sponsor type for a real estate transaction may be a choice between buyer and seller.
  • a real estate project for the sale of a residential home may require information that details the price, school district, house condition, etc.
  • a project for a job opening may request entirely different details, such as salary, experience needed, education minimums, and a description of the position.
  • any of the above-mentioned information can be changed and / or updated by a sponsor who has proper authorization to access the project.
  • Referral system 4 also comprises access controller module 10 and reward planner module 12, which respectively control the access levels and reward plans configured by the sponsor at the initial stage of each project.
  • Access controller 10 is employed, based on specifications provided by the sponsor via connection 104, in order to enforce the access and privilege levels of the corresponding project.
  • the access controller is particularly useful in situations where the sponsor is operating as a corporate entity or business concern, wherein many employees may wish to access the system.
  • the access controller ensures that the management responsibilities for each individual representing the sponsor are broken down accurately into hierarchical privilege classes, such as access to view projects and activity (read class), access to refer or forward referral requests (refer / forward class), or full management access to update project attributes (full management class), etc.
  • Individual recipients can also have different access levels, which are controlled by the access controller. Thus, some recipients may be given the ability to forward a referral request, whereas others are only able to respond to one.
  • Reward planner 12 is employed when the sponsor starts a project, via project manager 8, wherein the sponsor is asked to specify a reward plan. Once specified, the reward plan is subsequently forwarded to the reward planner via connection 1 18, and is in turn forwarded to a pay in / out engine 14, via connection 122, which keeps track of the project and determines the precise recipients, if any, who should receive the different portions of the reward.
  • a reward plan is useful for providing incentives for recipients to assist with the fulfillment of a project.
  • Reward planner 12 assists both the sponsor and the system with generating different types of reward plans, such that each project can have different and distinct forms of compensation or incentives that are offered to recipients.
  • the incentive aspect of the reward plan is based on rewarding the recipients who were most helpful with the fulfillment of the project. Therefore, a common reward plan may be to pay the recipients closest the fulfilling party in the chain of referrals.
  • the reward plan can be customized in any fashion that is desirable to the sponsor.
  • Such customizations may include: (1) Forward - a reward creating an incentive to forward the opportunity a minimum number of times; (2a) Respond - a reward creating an incentive to respond to an opportunity, e.g., sending in a resume for a job posting; and (2b) Respond - a reward to referrers when someone responds (3) Fulfill - a reward creating an incentive to people in the referral chain to get the deal closed (e.g., a hire in a job posting).
  • the reward planner can also incorporate system limitations and / or other rules or restrictions. These include (1) Levels - the minimum and maximum referral levels or generations for which rewards are given. E.g., a forward reward can be limited to referral levels greater than one but less than three; (2) a limit to the number of people that each person can forward the opportunity to; and (3) Total Limits - the total number or dollar limit of rewards to be paid out.
  • a plan can limit the number of forward rewards to ten.
  • the system can establish other standards, such as minimum reward levels for each project category. For example, a bounty minimum of $1000 can optionally be set by the system for the project category "Real Estate.” Minimum rewards enable the system to maintain the quality of projects, as well as encourage professional recipients and referrers to utilize the system, etc.
  • sponsor 2 notifies a pay in / out engine module 14 of the fulfillment, via connection 1 16, so that the reward can be distributed.
  • Pay in /out engine 14 may contact reward planner 12, via connection 122, to retrieve any needed reward data.
  • Pay in /out engine component 18 also monitors the progress of projects, calculates the appropriate rewards and fees, and manages the payment and receipt of those, respectively.
  • the functions of this component include: ( 1) monitoring user progress towards referral forwarding requirements; (2) tracking and alerting interested parties about status of responses, e.g., "Participant X has responded to Opportunity 123 and has indicated that a deal has been completed;” (3) calculating awards as per project, company and reward plan specifications; (4) sending invoices according to project status and contracts specified with each sponsor (also contained within this component); (5) allowing sponsors to view and dispute line items and communicate discrepancies directly in the system; and (6) sending awards to referral chain according to business rules and user specified form of reward payment (e.g., cash, gift certificates, charity) and mode (e.g., e-mail, electronic, physical).
  • reward payment e.g., cash, gift certificates, charity
  • mode e.g., e-mail, electronic, physical
  • Referral system 4 further comprises an information escrow manager module 20, which is configured to use business rules, user preferences, and event-specific user permissions to disclose collected information to various parties.
  • business rules used by the system: (1) Sponsors cannot see the identities of people who are referred - except when those people choose to respond; (2) Recipients can only see who the sponsor is and who sent the referral request to them - the possible referrers between the sponsor and the last sender are hidden; and (3) Free agents can only view published projects for which they qualify (primarily driven by their referral performance).
  • sponsor 2 and the plurality of recipients 6a-6c communicate with each other through the information escrow manager, via connections 106 and 1 10, respectively.
  • the information escrow manager ensures, among other things, that confidential information is kept hidden from those who are not meant to have access to it.
  • referral reference Often in the off-line world, when one makes a referral, he gives information to both other parties involved, referred to herein as a referral reference. For example, the referrer would tell his friend about a job opportunity and tell the sponsor something about his friend, such as "I know him from school and I heard he's doing great things in the computer industry.” As such, in the proposed system, when a referrer sends an opportunity to a colleague, the referrer has an opportunity to send a referral reference "upstream" back to the sponsor. This piece of information would be for the benefit of the sponsor exclusively, and as such would not be available to anyone else.
  • the information escrow manager ensures that they only see whom the message was from, as opposed to all the people upstream. According to one embodiment, they may have access to some upstream information, such as the sponsor information. Also, the information escrow manager can be configured so that a sponsor cannot see any contact information beyond their immediate contacts (the initial recipients that they sent the referral request to). Thus, they cannot contact people downstream; the people downstream must opt to initiate contact with the sponsor through the system. It is understood that the system and / or sponsor, according to one embodiment of the invention, can modify the above- mentioned privacy and business settings as desired.
  • Information escrow manager comprises an identity manager module 26, a messaging engine module 22, and a message profiler module 24.
  • Identity manager module 26 manages the multiple identities and roles that an individual member may have. For example, one user may have received referrals for several projects, each going to a different Internet e-mail address. This component keeps track of the relationship between an individual and their multiple identities so that the system does not mistakenly believe that each e-mail address corresponds to a different person.
  • the identity manager module also tracks the relationships between the e-mail identities and sponsoring organizations.
  • Sponsoring organizations can add employees as new users to the system, with various privileges in the context of the organization, e.g., ability to create projects. Each employee added must have a unique company e-mail address.
  • the identify manager can determine a user's relationship with respect to a sponsoring organization.
  • Messaging engine 22 physically distributes outbound referrals and inbound responses. It works closely with a message profiler 24, described below, to ensure that the mode, timing, formatting, addressing etc. conform to both sender and recipient preferences and desires.
  • Message profiler 24 manages the user preferences for receiving and sending messages. It includes features that control anonymity, mode, timing, formatting, addressing, frequency, etc.
  • Referral system 4 also comprises a publishing engine module 16 and a subscription engine module 18 for assisting with the referral process when a project is started.
  • Publishing engine 16 retrieves some of the data from project manager 8, via connection 120, to determine where and when an opportunity (project) should be published.
  • sponsor 2 may decide to broadcast the project information to as many people as possible, or alternatively to confidentially release it to a few select recipients.
  • projects may be published to: (1) a private intranet of the sponsoring organization; (2) an internet (public) site of the sponsoring organization; (3) a category section of the entire system's web site; or (4) only qualified persons so that access is restricted on the public listings. According to one embodiment, selection of such qualified persons can be based, among other things, on performance ratings (objective), or network comments and ratings (subjective), for example.
  • Subscription engine module 18 works with the publishing engine to send published content directly to recipients. It allows the recipient to control when, how and what information or projects they receive, subject to publishing access controls. For example, a recipient can control which opportunities (projects) are sent to them by specifying: (1) minimum reward size of the opportunity; (2) category of the opportunity; (3) sponsor of the opportunity; (4) etc. In addition a user (recipient) can specify the mode (e-mail, hard-copy, fax, phone, etc.) and the frequency of notifications, where frequency can be defined by a time period or a threshold value of queued opportunities.
  • connections 102-124 can be implemented electronically via a computer or Internet system.
  • the Internet and a plurality of computer systems 7a-7d (Fig. lb) facilitate the communication process of some or all of connections 102-124.
  • one or more of connections 102-124 are facilitated via non-electronic systems.
  • the transfer of cash rewards or other payments via pay in/out engine 14 can be facilitated by a standard physical delivery configuration implemented by connections 1 14 and /or 1 16.
  • referral system 4 can perform an escrow function for both information and financial rewards.
  • This structure provides for a neutral and reliable method for keeping track of referrals, related information and comments, as well as monetary transactions. Such information may be selectively controlled by the referral system to limit revelation of information when necessary.
  • the project manager component can define breadth and depth limits for referrals. Such limits prevent referrals from being carelessly forwarded to an unlimited number of recipients.
  • Breadth refers to the number of referrals each recipient may forward.
  • the system can be configured to allow control of the breadth and depth of message propagation on at least 2 dimensions: breadth and depth.
  • Sponsors can limit the number of people to whom recipients can forward referrals (breadth) and the number of generations away from the sponsor that the referral is allowed to travel (depth).
  • Entity relationship model 200 comprises project module 202, which is configured to store information related to individual projects, such as a job opportunity, real property for sale, or a service offered or sought. Project module 202 may additionally have database relationships via links to one or more of a plurality of other modules, such as messages module 208, e-mail addresses module 244, etc.
  • project type module 206 stores the different categories of projects that are supported by the system, such as jobs, real estate, services, etc.
  • Client module 248 stores date corresponding to the users, recipients, sponsors, and co ⁇ orations of the system.
  • company module 250 is employed to store data corresponding to sponsor organizations. The structure of company module 250 is necessary for companies that wish to have multiple user access accounts for their many employees, all under one account 'umbrella.
  • ' Member module 250 stores data corresponding to any user or recipient of the system. As mentioned above, anyone who receives a referral request is automatically entered as a user of the system, via member module 250.
  • E-mail address module 244 stores all unique e-mail addresses that are used by members. Notably, as described herein, one task of this system is to identify multiple e-mail addresses that all belong to one user.
  • Role module 246 stores e-mail addresses that a user may have in the context of a particular company or organization.
  • contact module 242 is provided to support a contact list or address book feature.
  • Work group module 232 may be employed to combine many users or e-mail addresses into one logical group. This feature is facilitated via group assignment module 230, which allows users to assign individual users or e-mail addresses to a particular work group.
  • project access rule 228, allows a project owner, manager, or sponsor to grant specific privileges, such as read, manage, forward, etc., on a particular project, to individual users or members of work groups or projects.
  • Rating module 240 is employed to enable users or members to subjectively rate and view ratings of other members, sponsors, or co ⁇ orations.
  • Pricing plan module 224 is employed to determine the parameters and constraints that drive the pricing and reward plans for a project. According to one embodiment, this includes, minimum prices, minimum fees, etc. for a project type and /or a company. Contract module 236 associates a particular pricing plan to a corresponding company.
  • Interest module 238 allows a user to specify an interest in certain project types, wherein the system may subsequently alert that user with projects that he may be interested in fulfilling as a free agent.
  • member location module 226 allows a user to be associated with one or more geographical locations of interest.
  • Location module 234 stores data corresponding to the geographical locations and classifications of the system.
  • project location module 222 associates individual projects with a corresponding location.
  • Message module 208 is configured to store all communications within the system, such as communications between users and recipients, communications with the system, with the sponsor, etc.
  • response module 214 is employed specifically for messages between users and sponsors relating to transaction intent or fulfillment of a particular project.
  • Referral module 216 is employed specifically for user referral communications, where an opportunity if forwarded to a recipient who in turn is requested to respond to the opportunity or forward the opportunity to yet another individual.
  • Reward decay plan module 220 is configured to determine how the total reward pool is split among participants in the successful chain, according to one embodiment of the invention.
  • a 50% decay plan represents a decrease in the reward plan of 50% for each degree away from the final referral in the referral chain.
  • a referrer that is two degrees away in the referral chain will receive 25% of the reward (50% of 50%), etc.
  • Payment module 204 stores any financial transaction that is a consequence of a project and its related activities.
  • Receivable module 212 stores financial transactions where the operator of this system is due a payment from a sponsor of a project.
  • Payable module 210 stores financial transactions where the system owes payment(s) to participants in a successful referral chain.
  • FIG. 3 illustrates a flow diagram of the relevant steps used by the authoring system of this invention.
  • the referral system enables the sponsor to sign up as a member and generate a corresponding project.
  • project manager 8 is employed to generate projects such as this one, wherein the sponsor provides details of the transaction or service that needs to be executed.
  • the sponsor may create a project that requests consultant services or alternatively a project that seeks a buyer for the sale of a house.
  • the actual identification of the sponsor and / or specific details of the project are not revealed to the recipients so that they are forced to interact with the referral system in order to fulfill the project terms.
  • the minimum information required by project manager 8 is name, username, password and contact information.
  • a payment method for the project reward may be required as well as acknowledgement to certain legal terms, such as the binding effect of an electronic or other contract.
  • An organization such as a commercial concern, becomes a member, according to one embodiment, by signing a contract with the system operator.
  • Basic information about the entity will be part of the account, such as payment method.
  • one or more special users may be assigned authority to create other users, grant rights to create projects and authorize payments, etc.
  • a sponsor / user creates a project by specifying the nature of the project and by providing details of the projects. For example, a user may wish to sell his home. According to this example, he would most likely enter pertinent details about the home, including location, price, age, school district, etc.
  • the type of information collected can be different for different types of projects, e.g., job searches, professional services offered, product sought etc.
  • the sponsor must specify a reward plan for each project, which includes the amount of a monetary or other reward that a participant will receive when he or she: (1) forwards a referral; (2) responds to a referral; or (3) participates in a referral chain (by a series of forwards after her forward).
  • the system allows sponsors to define many attributes of the finders fee reward plan, including amount given to participants for the type of action and by their degree of association to the final deal.
  • the referral system provides subscription and publication options so that the project can be forwarded out to recipients, according to the preferences of the sponsor.
  • the sponsor may chose to forward the referral requests to a private group of recipients as well, and may choose to limit referral activity, such as with breadth and depth limitations, etc.
  • a sponsor may choose to publish a project if he does not know enough people first-hand to seed the search. In such cases, he can let anyone see the listing or can discriminate who gets to view the information based on criteria such as: (1) company affiliation; (2) location; (3) track record of filling assignments (by category as well); (4) community rating of the person; (5) etc.
  • a user can choose to receive notifications of published projects. By doing so, she becomes an active "free agent" of sorts. Thus even if a sponsor does not know her, she can receive a project request and use her contacts to try to fill the request.
  • Typical subscription attributes may include the category of the project, location, and award size, etc.
  • a user can search and browse listings. These listings may appear on company specific bulletin boards and web sites or on the systems main bulletin board. These listings may automatically discriminate access to individual listings by applying the rules that the sponsor applied to the project. According to one embodiment, the system will automatically restrict access to users who do not qualify to view the project.
  • referral requests are e-mail transmissions comprising a brief summary of the project and hypertext links or other means directing the recipient to the referral system where more information is available.
  • all interactions are facilitated via the referral system so that this invention can track the entire referral process.
  • information escrow manager 20 can track all recipient responses, including simple requests for information, to provide feedback to the sponsor or the referral system for future use.
  • a sponsor may change his or her list of initial recipients if it is discovered that a very small percentage from that list have a history of responding to the referral request for further information.
  • the information escrow manager module 20 is now utilized to ensure that the referral requests are sent to the proper destinations and in the proper formats.
  • identity manager 26 identifies the name and location of the recipients and the messaging engine 22 and the messaging profiler 24 distribute the message as well as provide proper formatting, timing, etc.
  • the sponsor can have referral requests sent automatically to a list of recipients stored in the referral system.
  • the publishing engine 16 and the subscription engine 18 can be utilized to transmit referral requests, as described above.
  • the sponsor / user, and others who have the correct permissions may forward a project referral request to people who, in their opinion, might be interested in the opportunity and/or knows someone who might be.
  • referral forwarding is accomplished via the Internet by accessing one or more web pages on the referral system web site. For example, selecting a potential recipient in such a manner may generate an e-mail message that gets transmitted to the recipient.
  • referral requests for opportunities can be sent to recipients (push model), or sponsors can take advantage of the community of active referrers to help them with their project (pull model).
  • a sponsor sends the referral only to a set of specific recipients.
  • a sponsor posts a description of the opportunity in a public or private venue (such as a web page or a classified section of a newspaper) and readers can self-select to forward the opportunity.
  • sponsors can control which active referrers can participate based on a number of attributes including location, qualifications, community ratings, affiliations, and performance ratings calculated by the system.
  • the recipients receive the referral requests, wherein they may contact the referral system to review further information corresponding to the referral and decides to either respond to the request, ignore the request, or forward the request to another recipient.
  • Access controller 10 ensures that only authorized users have access to the project. This process continues until a determined period, such as a pre-defined time limitation, or until one of the recipients successfully responds to the request.
  • Recipients most frequently do not open accounts in the same manner as the sponsors, since they are often introduced to the referral system via referral requests from sponsors or other recipients. Therefore, the first time a recipient receives a referral request (message) from the system, the system generates an account based on his or her e-mail address, etc. According to one embodiment, recipients who receive multiple referral requests (messages) for various projects can consolidate their multiple identities within the system into one logical user account. The identity manager 26 assists with this task, as described above.
  • a recipient receives an e-mail message that includes a hyperlink or URL that leads him to a web page having additional information about the project, including the reward plan and the sponsor's background.
  • the recipient is given the opportunity to either forward or respond to the offer.
  • To forward a referral the user simply types in a brief message to the eventual recipient and specifies the recipient via an address, such as an e-mail address.
  • the user may also provide some information about the recipient to the sponsor and to upstream referrers. This information is generally not shown to the recipient.
  • a recipient of a referral request can respond by indicating their interest, contact information, and other descriptive information and file attachments (such as a resume if it the project is for a job).
  • each recipient of a referral request can choose to forward or respond to the particular opportunity.
  • the reward plan specifies the reward amounts associated with forwarding, responding and participating in a chain that ultimately leads to a closed transaction.
  • a recipient responds to the opportunity he does so by providing the sponsor with his contact information.
  • the recipient is motivated to notify the system of the deal closure event by a reward and because he knows that people in the referral chain (some of whom he may know) will receive a reward.
  • the system is structured such that the sponsor is contractually obligated to close the deal. He is also discouraged from reneging on the contract, as he will receive negative ratings from the community. Once the deal closure is established and agreed upon by sponsor and recipient (respondent), the system automatically calculates appropriate fulfillment rewards and sends them to the persons in the referral chain.
  • the referral system allows both the sponsor and the recipients to review or track the status of the project and corresponding referrals.
  • the sponsor as well as certain recipients, may have access to information or data that others do not.
  • one view is a tree view in which each first level contact generates a "tree" of children and grandchildren nodes and so on. Only the identity of the first-level contacts and respondents may be shown for privacy reason.
  • Each recipient who forwarded a referral can also view the propagation path of the referral from his point in the chain and below.
  • the same privacy rules described above may apply as well.
  • the respondent's identify may or may not be shown, though the fact that someone has responded is shown.
  • the referral system receives a response from one of the recipients, satisfying the sponsor's project terms, wherein the deal is closed and the rewards, if any, are distributed.
  • the system automatically calculates and generates rewards to eligible participants. Users are typically notified via e-mail of their reward and are given the opportunity to select the type of reward including charity donations.
  • the ranking information is useful for subsequent projects, wherein during any part of the referral viewing, forwarding, responding and transacting process users can view other participants' performance ratings to help them gauge the integrity of the potential transaction.
  • the referral system can be configured to continually calculate the "batting average" of each participant to help sponsors determine which users to contact for projects.
  • This performance metric can include a person's involvement in a response several generations away from the person. For example, if A referred B and B referred C, if the sponsor hires C, then A is given partial credit but less credit than B would receive. Conversely, if the sponsor rated C as a poor match, then B would incur the greatest "damage" to his score, and A would also receive a negative score, but of smaller impact to his overall score.
  • the invention can allow users to store references (or testimonials) for sponsors that can be retrieved by the sponsor or the sponsor's potential customers to facilitate the selling process.
  • FIG. 4 shows a sponsor / user, namely recruiter(tDXYZ.com (an employee of XYZ Co ⁇ oration), as well as three recipients, namely MoefSqwertv.com. Groucho( )mail.com, and chico@mail.com.
  • recruiter(tDXYZ.com an employee of XYZ Co ⁇ oration)
  • recipients namely MoefSqwertv.com. Groucho( )mail.com, and chico@mail.com.
  • this figure corresponds to one embodiment of the invention, wherein sponsors and recipients are identified by their electronic mail (e-mail) addresses. It is understood, however, that the system of this invention is not limited as such and that user identification as well as corresponding communication means can be facilitated via technologies other than e-mail.
  • e-mail electronic mail
  • the sponsor XYZ is shown accessing the referral system in order to create a project and associated reward plan.
  • Sponsor XYZ is then shown sending referral requests for the created project to Moe. Notably, the referral request, as well as all subsequent communications is processed via the referral system.
  • the first recipient Moe receives the e-mail (referral request) describing the opportunity and rewards.
  • the e-mail invites Moe to contact the referral system for more detailed information. Moe contacts the system, views the opportunity, but chooses not to respond. Rather, he forwards the opportunity to another recipient, namely Groucho.
  • recipients can forward referral requests to more than one recipient.
  • the sponsor can create limits on the number of referral requests sent as well as rewards to encourage increased forwarding.
  • the referral system sends the referral request from Moe to Groucho. Again, Groucho is invited to contact the system for more details on the project. Groucho contacts the system and views the opportunity but decides not to respond, rather forwarding a referral request to Chico.
  • the referral system sends the referral request from Groucho to Chico.
  • Chico is now also invited to contact the referral system for more detailed information on the project. It is noted, that at this point in the referral chain, Chico may not be aware that he is at the third level of the chain.
  • the system may, according to one embodiment, only reveal the identity of Groucho, hiding all other upstream participants.
  • XYZ may be aware that three recipients have been contacted, but is otherwise not shown the recipients' contact information so that he must wait for them to respond via the referral system.
  • a recipient may only have limited access to the referral system and the particular project being forwarded to him or her.
  • These security and privacy factors preserve the structure of the referral system of this invention, by preventing individual recipients from bypassing the established chain of referrals, etc. Among other things, this ensures that the rewards are distributed in the proper amounts and to the proper individuals, based on the reward configuration established by the sponsor. Indeed, Chico, at step 408, is shown accepting the project established by XYZ. Thus, Chico is the one recipient in the chain of referrals successfully responding to and accepting the terms of the referral request. The sponsor then notifies the system to close the deal and pay the reward.
  • the reward is distributed to the recipients in the referral chain, depending on the reward structure established by the sponsor or other person.
  • the reward payments which may have been held in escrow by the system, are distributed to Moe, Groucho, and Chico, the three recipients who contributed to the successful closing of the project.
  • each of the three recipients may receive different reward payments based on the configurations selected by XYZ as well as possible minimum or maximum payment limits established by the referral system.
  • reward planner 12 and pay in /out engine 18 respectively handle the tasks of generating the reward structure and receiving and distributing the reward payment.
  • sponsors can create projects that solely request information rather than the fulfillment of a transaction.
  • a sponsor may wish to pay for a qualified lead instead of paying for a complete transaction.
  • many transactions in the business world are structured such that only the sponsor can satisfactorily fulfill them.
  • the system of this invention can still be utilized to provide information and leads so that the sponsor has the tools to more quickly and efficiently fulfill the transaction him or her self.
  • this type of project can be utilized in many other environments as well, not only those where sponsors need to fulfill the transactions themselves. Similar to the system described above, a reward structure can be provided here as well.
  • project manager 8 can be configured to request the following information from the sponsor when initiating such a transaction.
  • the sponsor provides details of the transaction and what reward will be provided to those who assist with the transaction.
  • a questionnaire is provided for the recipients as well as a target guide, so that recipients can respectively answer questions about the requested information or leads and the system can determine who qualifies and /or who would be interested in such a transaction.
  • the referral requests are forwarded via e-mail as with the above systems.
  • the sponsor receives copies of the completed questionnaires and determines who has supplied the desired information. The sponsor must then purchase the desired information from the successful recipient, wherein the reward is distributed to the individuals who contributed to this execution, as above.
  • each user can control when and where they will receive alert messages even when the sender specified an alternative location. For example, if a message is sent to joe( ⁇ ) fun.com. the owner of that identify may choose to have the message forwarded to ioe( ⁇ )serious.com if that is a valid alternative identity for the recipient. Similarly, users can create subscription profiles to receive active projects that they may wish to participate in.
  • the system of this invention provides many features and benefits over the prior art. For example, unlike other finders fee systems, this system rewards all levels of marketing progress - leads, responses and ultimate deal closures, all in a single system. Furthermore, this invention allows anyone, as an individual or business, to participate without signing a contract (which is optional according to one embodiment). Moreover, unlike many multi-level marketing schemes, this system does not promote blind propagation. Further, there is no disadvantage in joining a project late, as there are no static recruitment hierarchies that are established once. Rather, each project creates its own tree of participants and further even if a person joins late, if they provide the last referral that leads to a deal closure, they can receive the largest reward, not the smallest.
  • Each message provides an automated way to identify the order and chain of participants.
  • the invention can track all pertinent activity of the project. People receive alerts to visit the website where their actions can be tracked including but not limited to: (1) to who a message was sent; (2) who read the message and took some action to see more; (3) who forwarded the message and to whom; and (4) who responded to the message.
  • the system allows payment of rewards to charities.
  • project sponsors can create and propagate a project without any pre-payment. This may however create a certain amount of perceived risk to participants. Participants do have access to the sponsor's performance and integrity history through community ratings, if they exist. Therefore, the project sponsor can pre -pay the project reward fund in escrow and the system will display that to all participants. As an alternative, in some cases the system operator can choose to guarantee the performance of a sponsor and pay the rewards even if the sponsor defaults.

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Abstract

L'invention concerne un système de production de références et de transactions basées sur la récompense, comprenant un composant sponsor (2), un composant système de recommandation (4), plusieurs composants destinataires (6a, 6b, 6c). Selon un des modes de réalisation, le système de la présente invention sert à combler des opportunités et des besoins commerciaux par le biais d'Internet. Le composant sponsor représente le sponsor qui désire que ces opportunités et ces besoins soient remplis. Les composants destinataires représentent plusieurs destinataires assistants le procédé de recommandation, en localisant par exemple un destinataire dans la chaîne des sélectionnés intéressés à conclure une affaire avec le sponsor. A la fois les composants sponsor et destinataires sont conçus de manière à interagir avec le composant système de recommandation, à son tour conçu de manière à utiliser les éléments nécessaires de la transaction et du procédé de recommandation. Le sponsor, notamment un individu ou une entité commerciale, prend, en général, contact avec le système de recommandation lorsqu'une opportunité commerciale ou personnel ou des besoins de transactions doivent être remplis.
PCT/US2000/033407 1999-12-10 2000-12-08 Procede de listage et de recompense d'agents afin d'assister la production de references et les transactions WO2001043031A1 (fr)

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US17011399P 1999-12-10 1999-12-10
US60/170,113 1999-12-10
US52445500A 2000-03-10 2000-03-10
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AU757524B2 (en) * 1999-08-31 2003-02-27 Levi Menaker Method to encourage referrals
DE102004035550A1 (de) * 2004-07-22 2006-02-16 Siemens Ag Verfahren zum Betrieb eines Netzwerks
US7865390B2 (en) 2004-05-21 2011-01-04 Siebel Systems, Inc. Modeling of employee performance result data
US7904340B2 (en) 2003-03-24 2011-03-08 Siebel Systems, Inc. Methods and computer-readable medium for defining a product model
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US8112296B2 (en) 2004-05-21 2012-02-07 Siebel Systems, Inc. Modeling of job profile data
US8489470B2 (en) 2003-03-24 2013-07-16 Siebel Systems, Inc. Inventory location common object
US8510179B2 (en) 2003-03-24 2013-08-13 Siebel Systems, Inc. Inventory transaction common object
US20140089066A1 (en) * 2012-09-26 2014-03-27 PMB Marketing LLC Methods for managing referrals and devices thereof
WO2015157209A1 (fr) * 2014-04-07 2015-10-15 VeDISCOVERY LLC Traitement à distance de fichiers résidant sur des dispositifs informatiques de point d'extrémité
US9704120B2 (en) 2003-03-24 2017-07-11 Oracle International Corporation Inventory balance common object
US10789559B2 (en) 2016-06-23 2020-09-29 International Business Machines Corporation Virtually assisted task generation
US10970297B2 (en) 2014-04-07 2021-04-06 Heureka, Inc. Remote processing of memory and files residing on endpoint computing devices from a centralized device
US20220270125A1 (en) * 2021-02-07 2022-08-25 i-Refer Global Pty, Ltd. Referral revenue system

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US5995939A (en) * 1996-10-15 1999-11-30 Cymedix Lynx Corporation Automated networked service request and fulfillment system and method
US6112181A (en) * 1997-11-06 2000-08-29 Intertrust Technologies Corporation Systems and methods for matching, selecting, narrowcasting, and/or classifying based on rights management and/or other information

Cited By (15)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
AU757524B2 (en) * 1999-08-31 2003-02-27 Levi Menaker Method to encourage referrals
US8200539B2 (en) 2003-03-24 2012-06-12 Siebel Systems, Inc. Product common object
US9704120B2 (en) 2003-03-24 2017-07-11 Oracle International Corporation Inventory balance common object
US7904340B2 (en) 2003-03-24 2011-03-08 Siebel Systems, Inc. Methods and computer-readable medium for defining a product model
US7912932B2 (en) 2003-03-24 2011-03-22 Siebel Systems, Inc. Service request common object
US8510179B2 (en) 2003-03-24 2013-08-13 Siebel Systems, Inc. Inventory transaction common object
US8489470B2 (en) 2003-03-24 2013-07-16 Siebel Systems, Inc. Inventory location common object
US8112296B2 (en) 2004-05-21 2012-02-07 Siebel Systems, Inc. Modeling of job profile data
US7865390B2 (en) 2004-05-21 2011-01-04 Siebel Systems, Inc. Modeling of employee performance result data
DE102004035550A1 (de) * 2004-07-22 2006-02-16 Siemens Ag Verfahren zum Betrieb eines Netzwerks
US20140089066A1 (en) * 2012-09-26 2014-03-27 PMB Marketing LLC Methods for managing referrals and devices thereof
WO2015157209A1 (fr) * 2014-04-07 2015-10-15 VeDISCOVERY LLC Traitement à distance de fichiers résidant sur des dispositifs informatiques de point d'extrémité
US10970297B2 (en) 2014-04-07 2021-04-06 Heureka, Inc. Remote processing of memory and files residing on endpoint computing devices from a centralized device
US10789559B2 (en) 2016-06-23 2020-09-29 International Business Machines Corporation Virtually assisted task generation
US20220270125A1 (en) * 2021-02-07 2022-08-25 i-Refer Global Pty, Ltd. Referral revenue system

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