Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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1
METHOD FOR ORGANIZING THE EXCHANGE OF PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES BY MEANS OF A TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK
The invention relates to a method according to the preamble of claim 1.
This type of method is conventionally used for implementing the offering and
purchasing of products and services with the help of telephone/telecom network
facilities.
t o In the prior-art technique of purchasing products and services over a
telephone line
has on the service-user side been based on a method in which the caller first
places a
call to either a normal directory number of the telephone network or a special
value-
added number. When a normal directory number is called, the call is connected
to the
product or service provider, whereupon the caller places his order on the
basis of
~ 5 either a priori product information such as a product catalog or, e.g.,
verbal informa-
tion obtained during the call. The payment of the product or service may take
place
by means of, e.g., a cash-on-delivery postal service, a bank account payment,
credit
card or, in conjunction with the product delivery, as is the case with pizza
orders.
When the call is made to a special value-added number, the price of the
product or
2o service is billed according to the value-added charge associated with the
number.
Herein, the charge may be a one-time charge (e.g., FIM/call) or based on ticks
(e.g.,
FIM/min). Hence, the product or call can be charged in the telephone call
bill,
wherein it appears summed on the same row of value-added call charges accu-
mutated from all calls placed to the numbers of a certain prefix.
A problem of the prior-art technique is that its billing process needs manual
work and
in most cases is complicated as well as poor in its cost-efficiency when
purchasing a
product or service occurs by way of calling a normal directory number and, on
the
other hand, is hampered by an extremely inflexible billing procedure in regard
to the
3o caller as well as to the product or service to be vended and, furthermore,
payment for
a plurality of products or services during a single call is practically
impossible when
the call is placed to a value-added service number.
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When the call is placed to a normal telephone network directory number, the
product
or service provider bills the caller afterwards by the conventional billing
methods of
telephone service transactions. However, cash-on-delivery or a separate
invoice
mailed to the caller's address is an expensive method of billing particularly
for low-
price products and services. To avoid the possible risk of fraud, callers are
reluctant
to submit their credit card number to pay for the product or service. On the
other
hand, a bank account money transfer is badly suited for billing a service or
product,
because the account and reference number of the money transfer transaction
must be
given verbally to the caller during the call and the service/product provider
has no
firm security about due payment. Obviously, billing in conjunction with
product
delivery in certain cases (such as pizza orders) is rather uncomplicated, but
even
herein a risk of possible fraudulent behavior exists (e.g., in the form of
nuisance
orders directed to innocent third parties). Nevertheless, the person
delivering the
t 5 goods must always keep enough change with him. Also the present adoption
of the e-
money wallet concept undermines the convention of cash payment under these
circumstances.
When the call is placed to a value-added service number, the caller pays the
price of
2o the service or product in his telephone bill on a per call basis (FIM/call)
or a per time
basis (FIM/min). However, in practice it is impossible to adjust the prices of
ordered
products and services so that their grand total would match with the number of
ticks
sent during the call or any other call charge category. As there is a need for
flexible
changes in the pricing of products or services and there must be a possibility
of add-
25 ing a random combination of different products and services in the shopping
cart, a
conventional billing procedure would necessitate the management of a huge
number
of different charging combinations in order to attain correct billing at all
times for all
possible shopping cart contents.
3o Further, the conventional billing technique applied to calls placed to
value-added
service numbers does not allow during the call a cancellation of a product or
service
already selected into the shopping cart so that no billable charging ticks
would be
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sent to the caller. This invokes situations in which manual procedures must be
launched to compensate the caller for costs incurred from the call to said
value-added
service number. Moreover, today's billing routines of value-added calls do not
allow
the provider to directly and flexibly perform the pricing of products and
services.
Neither has the caller any possibility of analyzing individual purchasing
transactions,
products and services purchased and their individual prices in his telephone
bill,
since value-added calls generally appear in the bill bunched on single grand
total
rows according to their value-added communications call prefixes.
It is an object of the invention to overcome the above-described drawbacks and
to
provide an entirely new type of method for implementing the vending of
products
and services over a telephone network.
The goal of the invention is achieved by during a single call offering the
client a
~ 5 facility of selecting with the help of a voice-message menu a plurality of
differently
priced services or products that are billed to the client in conjunction with
his tele-
phone bill, for instance.
The invention provides significant benefits.
In the method according to the invention, billing can be arranged in a
flexible manner
so that the price to be charged for vended products and services is no more
dependent
on, e.g., the duration of the call or the number of ticks sent during the
call. Thus, the
caller (buyer) can freely fill items into his shopping cart and, when
required, also
remove items therefrom until feeling ready to confirm the shopping list. The
time
used for selecting items can be charged per a local call flat rate or,
alternatively, a
small extra fee may be added. The billing ticket is written only after the
caller
confirms the shopping list. Still alternatively, the caller may cancel all
items selected,
whereby the caller will not be billed by any amount in regard to products and
services.
In addition to its flexibility, the billing method according to the invention
is cost-
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4
efficient because the data of the purchasing transaction is transferred along
with the
call ticket to the operator's billing system, wherefrom the price of purchased
items is
printed on the telephone bill form. Thus, the service provider need not
invoice the
vended products and services separately. Furthermore, the provider will
receive
information on each confirmed purchasing transaction sent directly onto his PC
or
GSM mobile phone.
The invention also offers the benefit of allowing an easy printout of itemized
list of
purchases to be made on the telephone bill form. The list of purchases is
itemized by
time of purchasing transaction, purchased products and services, quantities
thereof,
item prices and grand totals. Furthermore, the detailed bill may be
complemented
with additional information about the available products and services and the
provider thereof.
~ 5 The voice message menu concept of the method according to the invention
can also
improve the efficiency of the provider's sales promotion by way of giving new
callers basic information on the available products and services, their
prices, etc. On
the other hand, the voice message menu concept facilitates a real time
connection to
the provider at any time for checking, e.g., the delivery time and method or
other
2o more specific product properties. Besides, the provider can always obtain
informa-
tion on his computer or GSM mobile phone on the products or services that are
picked at any time in the caller's shopping cart before the call will be
forwarded to
the provider.
25 With the help of the method according to the invention, the provider can
easily and
flexibly maintain his product and service selection and their pricing
information etc.
by entering the updates in the system data base DB and the voice message menu
of
the system IP/IVR device.
3o In the following, the invention will be described in more detail with the
help of
examples by making reference to the appended drawings in which
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FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the method according to the invention
for
ordering and billing products and services in one possible system environment;
and
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the method according to the invention
for
maintaining the product and pricing data base.
Referring to Fig. 1, the system environment shown therein comprises a
subscriber
connection 101 from which a call is placed to the service number, an SSP
exchange
102 nearest to the subscriber connection, an SCP server 103 with call control
data
base controlling the SSP exchange 102, a data base DB 104, an IP/IVR device
105
linked to the public telephone network, a product/service provider's computer
PC 106, a wireline connection 107 and a GSM mobile phone 108, both owned by
the
product/service provider, a billing server 109 and a bill 110 produced by the
same.
Obviously, the telephone system as a whole comprises a large number of
connections
~5 similar to subscriber connection 101 and from these, a number of
simultaneous calls
may be placed to the service number while, for the sake of greater clarity,
only one
subscriber coru~ection calling the service number is shown in the diagram.
Respec-
tively, there may be a plurality of product/service providers, whereby also
several
provider systems, each comprised of a provider-owned PC 106, wireline
connection
20 107 and GSM mobile phone 108, may be included in the overall system not
being
limited by diagram wherein only one of each component is shown for clarity.
The invention is next described with reference to FIG. 1, wherein the buyer
(caller)
1 OI of a product or service calls a value-added number and the call is
forwarded to
25 the nearest SSP (Service Switching Point) 102, wherefrom a request is sent
to an SCP
(Service Control Point ) call control data base 103. The SCP call control data
base
103 further makes a request to a data base DB 104 which contains real time
information on the products and services offered by the service provider that
owns
the value-added number. The SCP call control data base 103 requests a voice
3o response device IP/IVR 105 to play the buyer a voice message menu linked to
said
value-added service number. The menu tells the buyer 101 the different product
and
service items, their prices and when necessary, a short product description.
The voice
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6
message menu may also contain other information on the vended products and
services with an outline of the service provider company.
Next, the buyer 1 Ol is given the possibility of selecting one or more
products or
services with the help of the voice message menu. The real time status of the
buyer's
shopping cart is stored in the SCP call control data base 103. When the buyer
101
decides to check the final status of his shopping cart, information will be
sent him on
the content of the shopping cart, price of each product and service selected
into the
cart and the grand total of the shopping cart bill. As an option, the buyer 1
O1 may
also choose to talk with the product/service provider before closing his
purchase
order.
Information on the content of the buyer's shopping cart is transferred via the
data
base DB 104 either to the product/service provider's data base or via a GSM
data
~5 connection or short messages to the provider's GSM mobile phone 108. The
provider
may alternatively receive a notice about the caller's wish to talk with the
provider
prior to selecting items into his shopping cart. Herein, the caller 101 can be
forwarded to a connection 107 defined by the product/service provider, wherein
the
caller may submit additional information (e.g., mailing data) required for
proper
2o delivery of the selected product or service. Simultaneously, the provider
can come to
terms with the buyer on the availability and suitability of his products and
services.
Alternatively, the caller 101 may also request further information on the
provider's
products and services and their availability, whereupon the caller can return
to the
voice response menu of products/services. Hereupon, the connection between the
25 caller and the provider is released and the caller is reconnected to the
voice response
menu. Now, he can acknowledge the selected content of his shopping cart ready
for
billing, make changes thereto, listen to more information the available
products and
services, decide to ask for more information from the provider or even
terminate the
call.
When the caller 101 acknowledges the shopping cart content ready for billing,
he
will receive a voice message about the grand total of the shopping cart
content and
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the data of the payment transaction is transferred via the SCP call control
data base
103 and the data base DB 104 to the service provider as a confirmation of the
purchase transaction. The SCP call control data base 103 requests the SSP
exchange
102 to write a billing ticket on the payment of the shopping cart contents.
The billing
ticket contains the product/service codes purchased from said provider,
together with
the quantities of purchased items. When necessary, a plurality of billing
tickets can
be written so that the product/service codes and order quantities of all the
products
and services selected into the shopping cart can be written on the tickets.
The billing
tickets are next transferred along with the transfer of normal call charge
ticket data to
the system operator's billing system 109 that links the product/service codes
and
order quantities of products and services to be billed with the detailed
product data
and price information stored in the billing system at the instant of the
caller's pur-
chase transaction. After the crosslinking of data performed by the operator's
billing
system 109, the telephone bill 110 to be sent to the buyer (caller) 101
contains a
~ 5 detailed list of products and prices ordered by the buyer. Additionally,
the bill 110
may be complemented with service provider's contact data, delivery terms or
other
information of interest to the buyer.
The product or service provider maintains his product/service catalog and
price list in
2o the data base DB 104. This data base also contains up-to-date information
on one or
more target numbers of each service number to which an incoming call shall be
forwarded in the case that the buyer wishes to talk with the provider. The
provider
can update his information data base in real time via information networks
(e.g.,
using his PC 106) or, alternatively, by means of a control menu accessible by
the
25 touch-tone codes of the voice response device. Information on provider's
product/service codes and item specifications, as well as other data to be
printed on
the buyers' telephone bills is transferred from the data base DB 104 to the
operator's
billing system. The product/service provider can himself update his voice
message
menu in the voice response device IP/IVR 105. Herein, he can directly record
the
3o voice messages of menus, product specifications and other similar
information.
However, the recording of product/service price information cannot be
performed
directly by the provider, because they are played to the caller via the SCP
call control
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data base 103 on the basis of information stored in the data base DB 104.
As shown by arrows in FIG. 1, a call invoking vending of products and services
over
a telephone network comprises the following steps of the method:
1. Caller 101 first places a call to a value-added service number, whereupon
the call
is routed to the nearest SSP exchange 102.
2. The SSP exchange 102 sends a request to an SCP call control data base 103.
3. The SCP call control data base 103 identifies the call to be directed to a
voice
message product menu and sends a request to a data base DB 104, wherein the
data
of the service provider's voice message product menu is kept stored. Based on
the
stored data, the SCP call control data base 103 retrieves the up-to-date
information,
~5 among others, on proper voice message prompts, product/service codes,
prices, etc.
4. SCP call control data base 103 requests IP device 105 to play the caller
the voice
message product menu associated with the called service number. The caller can
navigate in the menu and add/remove products or services to be picked into his
2o shopping cart. If the caller wishes to contact the product/service
producer, this is
possible by a proper selection in the menu.
5. SCP call control data base 103 recognizes the need to connect the caller to
the
provider's telephone number and to send the provider information on the up-to-
date
25 status of the caller's shopping cart.
6. SCP call control data base 103 sends the information on the up-to-date
status of
the caller's shopping cart via data base DB either to ...
30 7a. ... the provider's PC 106 over information networks or ...
7b. ... the provider's GSM mobile phone 108 either as GSM data or SMS text
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message.
8a. Additionally, SCP call control data base 103 requests SSP exchange 102 to
connect the caller to the provider's telephone number which may be either a
wireline
connection 107 or ...
8b. a GSM mobile phone 108.
9. After the caller has completed the verbal contact with the provider (e.g.,
concern-
ing the content of the purchase, delivery terms or other product information),
the
provider hangs up and SSP exchange 102 returns the call control back to the
SCP call
control data base 103.
10. Hereupon, the caller is connected back to IP device 105, wherein he may
either
~ 5 acknowledge the payment of the selected content of his shopping cart, make
changes
therein, request for reconnection to the provider's telephone number or hang
up. In
the latter case, no billing for the content of the shopping cart will be
billed.
I I . When the caller acknowledges the payment of the selected content of his
2o shopping cart, a report thereof is sent to the provider and a billing
ticket with correct
provider and product codes is written.
12. SCP call control data base 103 sends the information on the caller's
shopping
cart status and payment acknowledge via data base DB 104 either to ...
13a. ... the provider's PC 106 over information networks or ...
13b. ... the provider's GSM mobile phone 108 either as GSM data or SMS text
message.
14. SCP call control data base 103 requests SSP exchange 102 to write a ticket
with
data identifying the service provider and the codes of purchased
products/services.
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15a. The billing tickets are passed through the operator's conventional
postprocess-
ing of tickets to the billing system 109.
5 16. Billing system 109 links billing ticket data (i.e., product and service
codes of
purchased products and services with their ordered quantities) with product
specifi-
cations and price information stored in the billing system that were valid at
the
instant of purchase. Based thereon, the buyer (caller) can see in his
telephone bill 110
a detailed itemization of his purchase as to the ordered products and their
prices.
Further, it is possible to print on the bill form the service provider's
contact data,
delivery terms or other information of interest to the buyer.
In FIG. 2 are indicated by arrows the method steps for maintaining the product
and
pricing data base, wherein the block symbols represent means associated with
said
~ 5 steps.
The system environment outlined in FIG. 2 comprises a data base 104, an IP/IVR
device 105, a product/service provider's computer PC 106, a wireline
connection 107
and a GSM mobile phone 108, both owned by the product/service provider, and a
2o billing server 109.
Now refernng to FIG. 2, the maintenance of product and service data in a
system for
vending of products and services over a telephone network in the manner
described
in FIG. 1 above comprises the following steps:
1 a. Service provider maintains the product and service data of his products
and
services by making updates in a data base DB 104. This is accomplished in real
time
either over information networks using, e.g., the provider's PC 106 as a
terminal or,
alternatively, ...
1 b. ... using telephone set 107, 108 for accessing the touchtone control menu
of an
automatic voice response device 105.
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2. Information on provider's product/service codes and item specifications, as
well
as other information to be printed on telephone bill form, is transferred from
data
base DB 104 to the system operator's billing system 109.
3a. The product or service provider updates his voice message product menu
stored
in automatic voice response device IP/IVR 105. This is accomplished by calling
the
voice response device 105 and then making the required changes in the stored
voice
messages of the menus, specifications of products and other voice information
to be
submitted to a caller. However, the recording of product/service price
information
cannot be updated over this path as they are played as system voice
announcements
via the SCP call control data base ( 103 in FIG. 1 ).
3b. Alternatively, the above-described operation can be carried out from the
~ 5 provider's GSM mobile telephone 108.
One important and novel technique of implementing the invention is by way of
the
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) concept. Resembling the Internet, WAP is a
information transfer architecture optimized for the special needs of wireless
commu-
2o nication. Being finalized during the years 1999-2000, the WAP concept will
facilitate
the integration of WWW browsers in mobile terminals so that the narrow
bandwidth
of the radio transmission path will be utilized more effectively. In due time,
WAP
will become fully integrated with the Internet so that all the components of
the
Internet architecture will have a counterpart in the WAP. For instance the
HMTL and
25 Java script conventions of the Internet are respectively available in the
WAP as the
WML (Wireless Markup Language) and WML scripts. In practice, data conversions
between these two "worlds" take place in so-called filter elements in the case
that a
given web server does not directly recognize the need for sending information
in
WAP format to an addressed mobile terminal.
In this embodiment of the invention, while the above described technique of
sending
information as short messages and over GSM data transmission channels still
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remains valid (items 7b and 13b of FIG. 1 ), the provider in practice does not
find
himself reading a short message or using the GSM data reception facilities,
hut rather
operates on the WAP browses of his mobile terminal. When the provider wishes
to
receive information over his WAP browses on the shopping cart status of buyers
and
s related payments, he can launch his own WWW application through his WAP com-
patible mobile terminal. The basic rule is that the status of the buyer's
shopping cart
will be shown on the provider's WAP browses not earlier than when the caller
wishes
to contact the provider for information on the product availability or other
product
data. Respectively, confirmed purchase transactions will be always indicated
on the
service provider's browses.
Theoretically, it is even possible to send continuously scanned updates on the
movements of buyers in the service menu and real time status of each shopping
cart.
Then, the provider could on his WAP browses conduct real time monitoring of
the
t5 shopping behavior of buyers visiting his "shop".
Also the above-described steps to be performed by the provider for updating
the
product and price specifications of his products and services over information
networks and using a PC may as well be earned out with the help of the
provider's
2o mobile terminal and WAP browses. Herein, while the update routines (item 1
of
FIG. 2) of data base DB 104 based on information networks will remain valid,
the
provider does not need a PC, but rather, can use the WAP browses of his mobile
terminal for accessing the data base DB 104 over suitable WAP-to-Internet
gateways.
25 Another essential modification of the method comprises transferring all the
billing
information (i.e., products, quantities thereof, product specifications,
general
information on products and provider, etc.) from the provider's data base DB
104
first to SCP 103, therefrom to the ticketing routine of SCP 102 and
transparent
therefrom onto the telephone bill form 110 as indicated by arrow 15b in FIG.
1.
In this embodiment, the provider's data base DB 104 would not update the
billing
server 109 with the basic product and provider information (billing server),
but
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13
instead all the itemized data and information to be printed on the telephone
bill form
would come via the tickets written by SCP 102. Then, the billing system 109
would
only need to manage the printing of the telephone bill.
This functionality of the invention makes it possible to format the telephone
bill in an
extremely flexible manner. Examples of such features are extra text lines,
graphics,
pictures, alphanumeric characters, bar codes, etc. One but not a limiting
application
is to perform said formatting of the billing data and other information for
printing on
the telephone bill form is to encode the information ASCII-8 format
characters,
wherefrom the text lines of desired content in regard to each purchase
transaction are
printed on the telephone bill form.
While the invention has been described above by making reference to a GSM
mobile
phone, short messages and GSM data transfer in the description related to
mobile
~5 terminals and data transmission techniques thereof, the present invention
is as well
applicable to other digital mobile terminal systems, networks and their data
trans-
mission methods.
