CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Appl. No. 60/831,457, filed Jul. 18, 2006, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for providing rewards or loyalty incentive programs to consumers, and more particularly to systems and methods for operating a loyalty incentive program using transaction cards to permit consumers to receive discounts without requiring a coupon to be redeemed.

2. Related Art

Loyalty incentive or reward programs are used as a form of highly customizable and targeted marketing. A loyalty program provider will attract customers who sign-up for a loyalty program. Shopping benefits such as discounts are offered to the customers by the provider. The provider then markets to merchants that the provider can bring customers to the merchant. For example, a loyalty program provider may approach a merchant, such as the clothing retailer GAP® Inc., with an offer to bring customers to the GAP® in exchange for a fee. The provider would then send a solicitation (via email or regular mail) to its customers offering, for example, a 10% discount coupon that may be redeemed at the GAP® on a particular day. The success of the solicitation can be assessed based on the number of coupons redeemed.

In such a loyalty solicitation, the merchant would pay the loyalty program provider a percentage of the sales (e.g., 10%) that result from the solicitation. The merchant benefits from the increased sales. The loyalty program provider benefits from the commission that it receives, and the customers benefit from the received discount.

There are several areas that could be improved in such traditional loyalty programs. For example, such traditional programs suffer from leakage. Leakage occurs when the merchant does not fully report sales resulting from the solicitation. Leakage results in loss revenues for the loyalty program provider. Further, administration of coupon redemption by a merchant is costly and requires training. What is needed is a system and method improving upon traditional loyalty programs.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention meets the above-identified needs by providing a system and method for providing customers with loyalty incentives.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for providing loyalty incentives to a card member customer, the method having the following steps: a record of charge is received for a purchase made with a participating merchant by a card member customer; the record of charge is used to determine whether the purchase by the card member customer qualifies for a rebate credit in accordance with a discount offer from the participating merchant; and if the purchase qualifies for the rebate credit, then the rebate credit is provided to an account of the card member customer.

In another embodiment, a method for operating a loyalty incentive program includes the following steps: a list of participating merchants is received; a list of participating card members is received; a record of charge corresponding to a purchase by a card member customer is received from a merchant, and upon receipt, an account of the card member customer is debited by the amount of the charge, a merchant identification contained in the record of charge is compared with the list of participating merchants, and a card member identification contained in the record of charge is compared with the list of participating card members. If the card member is a participating card member and the merchant is a participating merchant, then it is determined whether the record of charge qualifies for a rebate credit. If the record of charge qualifies for a rebate credit, then the rebate credit is provided to an account of the card member customer.

In another embodiment, a method includes the following steps: participation of a merchant in a loyalty incentive program is solicited; an offer from a participating merchant is received; enrollment of a card member customer to the loyalty incentive program is solicited; the offer is provided to an enrolled card member customer; information is received which relates to a purchase by the enrolled card member customer in accordance with the offer from the participating merchant; an amount of a discount in accordance with the offer is calculated; and the amount of the discount is provided to a transaction account provider so that an account of the enrolled card member customer is credited in the amount of the discount.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system including an enrolled card member customer database having identification information of accounts associated with card member customers enrolled in the loyalty incentive program; an enrolled merchant database having identification information of merchants enrolled in the loyalty incentive program; a merchant offer database having identification information of discount offers provided by the merchants enrolled in the loyalty incentive program; and a registered card processor. The registered card processor receives a record of charge for a purchase made with an enrolled merchant by an enrolled card member customer and uses the record of charge to determine whether the purchase qualifies for a rebate credit in accordance with a discount offer from the enrolled merchant. If the purchase qualifies for a rebate credit, the registered card processor provides the rebate credit to an account of the enrolled card member customer.

An advantage of the present invention is that it may be used to provide coupon-less discounts on purchase made by card member customers. Another advantage is no leakage since an enrolled merchant does not have to process any coupons. In such a system, the merchant benefits from increased sales and elimination of the overhead required to manage a coupon program, the customer benefits from the coupon-less discount, and the loyalty program provider benefits from sales commissions and/or loyalty program fees paid by the merchant. In one embodiment, customers may also be charged a fee by the loyalty program provider for participation in the loyalty program. Further features and advantages of the present invention as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a high level flow diagram of a process for providing loyalty incentives to a card member customer in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a high level flow diagram showing data management flow of card member customer information and participating merchant information for transaction matching in the process of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary output file of matched transactions with corresponding statements of credit to a card member customer and debit to participating merchants.

FIG. 4 is a detailed high level flow diagram of the process of FIG. 1, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a high level flow diagram showing data flow of card member customer information and participating merchant information for transaction matching, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a transaction matching process, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating the processes associated with individual steps shown in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of transaction based data flow between a third party loyalty program provider and a transaction account provider, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a high level flow diagram of a process of providing loyalty incentives to a card member customer using a transaction card issued by a third party transaction account provider.

FIG. 10 is another high level flow diagram of the process of FIG. 9, providing an exemplary credit statement of the third party transaction account provider, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram of a method for determining whether a return relates to a purchase for which a rebate credit was provided to the card member customer, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram of another method for determining whether a return was made on a purchase in which the card member received a discount credit, in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system used for implementing the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

I. Overview

The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing loyalty incentives to a card member customer and operating a loyalty incentive program. The present invention is now described in more detail herein in terms of an exemplary embodiment. This is for convenience only and is not intended to limit the application of the present invention. While specific configurations and arrangements are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustrative purposes only. In fact, after reading the following description, it will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement the following invention in alternative embodiments. A person skilled in the pertinent art will recognize that other configurations and arrangements can be used without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It will be apparent to a person skilled in the pertinent art that this invention can also be employed in a variety of other applications.

The terms “user,” “end user,” “consumer,” “customer,” “participant,” and/or the plural form of these terms are used interchangeably throughout herein to refer to those persons or entities capable of accessing, using, being affected by and/or benefiting from the tool that the present invention provides for the rewards program described herein. This includes both individual consumers and corporate customers such as, for example, small businesses.

Furthermore, the terms “service provider,” “business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably with each other and shall mean any person, entity, distributor system, software and/or hardware that is a provider, broker and/or any other entity in the distribution chain of goods or services. For example, a service provider may be a retail store, a hotel company, an airline company, a travel agency, an on-line merchant or the like.

1. Transaction Accounts and Instrument

A “transaction account” as used herein refers to an account associated with an open account or a closed account system (as described below). The transaction account may exist in a physical or non-physical embodiment. For example, a transaction account may be distributed in non-physical embodiments such as an account number, frequent-flyer account, telephone calling account or the like. Furthermore, a physical embodiment of a transaction account may be distributed as a financial instrument. The term “transaction card” is used herein to be synonymous with the term “transaction account,” unless indicated otherwise.

A financial transaction instrument may be traditional plastic transaction cards, titanium-containing, or other metal-containing, transaction cards, clear and/or translucent transaction cards, foldable or otherwise unconventionally-sized transaction cards, radio-frequency enabled transaction cards, or other types of transaction cards, such as credit, charge, debit, pre-paid or stored-value cards, or any other like financial transaction instrument. A financial transaction instrument may also have electronic functionality provided by a network of electronic circuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto or within the transaction instrument (and typically referred to as a “smart card”), or be a fob having a transponder and an RFID reader.

2. Open Versus Closed Cards

“Open cards” are financial transaction cards that are generally accepted at different merchants. Examples of open cards include the American Express®, Visa®, MasterCard® and Discover® cards, which may be used at many different retailers and other businesses. In contrast, “closed cards” are financial transaction cards that may be restricted to use in a particular store, a particular chain of stores or a collection of affiliated stores. One example of a closed card is a pre-paid gift card that may only be purchased at, and only be accepted at, a clothing retailer, such as the clothing retailer Gap®, Inc.

3. Stored Value Cards

Stored value cards are forms of transaction instruments associated with transaction accounts, wherein the stored value cards provide cash equivalent value that may be used within an existing payment/transaction infrastructure. Stored value cards are frequently referred to as gift, pre-paid or cash cards, in that money is deposited in the account associated with the card before use of the card is allowed. For example, if a customer deposits ten dollars of value into the account associated with the stored value card, the card may only be used for payments together totaling no more than ten dollars.

4. Use of Transaction Accounts

With regard to use of a transaction account, users may communicate with service providers in person (e.g., at the box office), telephonically, or electronically (e.g., from a user computer via the Internet). During the interaction, the service provider may offer goods and/or services to the user. The service provider may also offer the user the option of paying for the goods and/or services using any number of available transaction accounts. Furthermore, the transaction accounts may be used by the service provider as a form of identification of the user. The service provider may have a computing unit implemented in the form of a computer-server, although other implementations are possible.

In general, transaction accounts may be used for transactions between the user and service provider through any suitable communication means, such as, for example, a telephone network, intranet, the global, public Internet, a point of interaction device (e.g., a point of sale (POS) device, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone, kiosk, etc.), online communications, off-line communications, wireless communications, and/or the like.

5. Account and Merchant Numbers

An “account,” “account number” or “account code,” as used herein, may include any device, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate, smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or other identifier/indicia suitably configured to allow a consumer to access, interact with or communicate with a financial transaction system. The account number may optionally be located on or associated with any financial transaction instrument (e.g., rewards, charge, credit, debit, prepaid, telephone, embossed, smart, magnetic stripe, bar code, transponder or radio frequency card).

The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic, electronic, magnetic, radio frequency (RF), wireless, audio and/or optical device capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to a second device. A customer account number may be, for example, a sixteen-digit credit card number. Each credit card issuer has its own numbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used by American Express Company of New York, N.Y. Each issuer's credit card numbers comply with that company's standardized format such that an issuer using a sixteen-digit format will generally use four spaced sets of numbers in the form of:

• • N₁N₂N₃N₄ N₅N₆N₇N₈ N₉N₁₀N₁₁N₁₂ N₁₃N₁₄N₁₅N₁₆

The first five to seven digits are reserved for processing purposes and identify the issuing institution, card type, etc. In this example, the last (sixteenth) digit is typically used as a sum check for the sixteen-digit number. The intermediary eight-to-ten digits are used to uniquely identify the customer, card holder or card member.

A merchant account number may be, for example, any number or alpha-numeric characters that identifies a particular merchant for purposes of card acceptance, account reconciliation, reporting and the like.

6. RFID and Transmission of Magnetic Stripe Data

It should be noted that the transfer of information in accordance with the present invention may be done in a format recognizable by a merchant system or account issuer. In that regard, by way of example, the information may be transmitted from an RFID device to an RFID reader, or from the RFID reader to the merchant system in magnetic stripe or multi-track magnetic stripe format.

Because of the proliferation of devices using magnetic stripe format, the standards for coding information in magnetic stripe format were standardized by the International Organization for Standardization in ISO/IEC 7811-n (characteristics for identification cards) which are incorporated herein by reference. The ISO/IEC 7811 standards specify the conditions for conformance, physical characteristics for the card (warpage and surface distortions) and the magnetic stripe area (location, height and surface profile, roughness, adhesion, wear and resistance to chemicals), the signal amplitude performance characteristics of the magnetic stripe, the encoding specification including technique (MFM), angle of recording, bit density, flux transition spacing variation and signal amplitude, the data structure including track format, use of error correction techniques, user data capacity for ID-1, ID-2 and ID-3 size cards, and decoding techniques, and the location of encoded tracks.

Typically, magnetic stripe information is formatted in three tracks. Certain industry information must be maintained on certain portions of the tracks, while other portions of the tracks may have open data fields. The contents of each track and the formatting of the information provided to each track is controlled by the ISO/IEC 7811 standard. For example, the information must typically be encoded in binary. Track 1 is usually encoded with user information (i.e., name) in alphanumeric format. Track 2 is typically comprised of discretionary and nondiscretionary data fields. In one example, the nondiscretionary field may comprise 19 characters and the discretionary field may comprise 13 characters. Track 3 is typically reserved for financial transactions and includes enciphered versions of the user's personal identification number, country code, current units amount authorized per cycle, subsidiary accounts, and restrictions.

As such, where information is provided in accordance with the present invention, it may be provided in magnetic stripe track format. For example, the counter values, authentication tags and encrypted identifiers may be forwarded encoded in all or a portion of a data stream representing data encoded in, for example, track 2 or track 3 format.

Persons skilled in the relevant arts will understand the breadth of the terms used herein and that the exemplary descriptions provided are not intended to be limiting of the generally understood meanings attributed to the foregoing terms.

It is noted that references in the specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it would be within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

II. System and Process

The invention is now described with reference to the figures. Referring first to FIG. 1, a high level flow diagram illustrates operation of an embodiment of the present invention. A transaction account provider (TAP) (such as American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc., of New York, N.Y.) operates a registered card platform 130 to implement a reward or incentive program (sometimes referred to herein a registered card program), which does not require paper coupons for fulfillment of merchant offers to card members. Registered card platform 130 provides the capability to match merchant (SE or “service establishment”) offers and card member (CM) customer information with card transactions for a card member customer's purchases or returns at a merchant participating in the registered card program. As a result of such matching capability, registered card platform 130 allows TAP to fulfill a merchant's discount offer applicable to card member customer's purchase by providing a rebate credit in accordance with the discount offer on the card member customer's transaction account statement. If a return is made on a purchase for which a rebate credit was previously provided, registered card platform 130 also allows the TAP to debit the card member customer the amount of the rebate credit and credit the same back to the merchant.

TAP can collaborate with a loyalty program provider to produce the reward or incentive program. While, as used herein, “loyalty program provider” (LPP) refers to an external, third-party provider of marketing packages that may be provided to CMs in accordance with the present invention, TAP may internally administer loyalty programs, such as restaurant or travel marketing program. Therefore, to distinguish from programs provided by an LPP, TAPs internal loyalty programs will be referred to herein as a “TAP marketing program” or simply a “TAP program.” In the figures, the service mark “TailorMade” is used to refer to an example loyalty program offered by an LPP. Accordingly, although embodiments of the present invention will be described herein in the environment of such collaboration between a TAP and an LPP, one of skill in the pertinent art(s) will recognize that a registered card program can be implemented with or without a loyalty program provider or other types of providers without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, in step 1, a merchant 102 enrolls and submits a discount offer to a loyalty program or other marketing program. These offers are compiled in an offer database 132. In step 2, a card member customer (CM) 104 registers their transaction account managed by TAP, such that CM's account is “registered” to the registered card program, thereby permitting the registered CM to receive coupon-less discounts in the form of rebate credits (via CM's account statement). Information relating to CM's now registered card is compiled in enrollee database 134. When CM shops and makes purchases (or returns) at a merchant using their financial transaction card, TAP will receive a record of charge (ROC) for the transaction, which may be stored in a card transaction database 136. The ROC may be any information that can be used to identify a card transaction. In step 3, matching is performed by registered card platform 130. In the case of a CM purchase, the CM's statement is credited and the merchant's account is debited in accordance with the merchant's offer, as illustrated in step 140. Further description of providing a credit to the CM and a debit to the merchant in step 140 is described below with reference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 2 provides another high level flow diagram illustrating the steps of solicitation 110 and enrollment 120 relative to transaction matching 130 (performed by the registered card platform), in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Solicitation 110 of a CM may include a targeted invitation, such as by e-mail, from loyalty program provider(s) or TAP, or by simply making available to a CM a link on TAP's website prompting the CM to enroll in TAP's registered card program. During enrollment 120, the CM opts to register their card information to enable registered card platform 130 to perform future matching of transactions. Box 122 sets forth exemplary fields of information stored by TAP for each enrolled CM. CM information is stored in database 134 (represented here as an arrow 134), and the information is provided to a matching transaction processor 138 of registered card platform 130. Matching processor 138 is shown and described in the example embodiments presented using the term “registered card engine” (RCE). As shown, in FIG. 2, RCE 138 is provided with merchant transaction information from participating merchants (i.e., a daily, “business as usual” (BAU) transaction file). This transaction information may be stored in transaction database 136 (shown here as an arrow 136). RCE 138 also receives participating merchant offers 132 (shown in FIG. 1) and matches them with transactions 136 made by registered CMs (i.e., via information from enrollee database 134). Matched transactions are provided in an output file 142.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary output file and credit and debit statement for the CM and the merchant, in accordance with step 140 of FIG. 1. Output file 142 from RCE 138 (as shown in FIG. 2) includes an itemization of a discount amount (i.e., incentive payment) to CM for a purchase made (i.e., ROC) at a participating merchant in which a discount offer was applicable. In this embodiment, upon enrollment in the registered card program, the registered accounts of the CM receive a registration identification (i.e., “registered #”), which is also included in output file 142. In this embodiment, output file 142 includes marketing programs administered by TAP and marketing programs administered by a loyalty program provider. One of skill in the pertinent art(s) will recognize that output file 142 may be configured in any number of ways and include less or more information represented in FIG. 3 without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. For example, a separate output file may be provided for each LPP or TAP program, and for each loyalty program offered by the same LPP. Further, the transaction and discount information reflected therein may be provided collectively or separately for downstream processing of a CM credit statement 144 and a merchant debit statement 146.

As shown in FIG. 3, output file 142 is processed by TAP to provide line item rebate credits on CM statement 144 for each purchase subject to a discount offer available pursuant to a marketing program. For example, CM statement 144 includes a TailorMade rebate credit of $71, for an original charge amount of $355 at participating merchant, Acme Clothing. Similarly, a credit of $37 under TAP's restaurant marketing program is provided for an original charge amount of $370 at participating merchant, Acme Food. Merchant debit statement 146 includes line item debits in accordance with CM's rebate credits also as line items for each marketing program. The debit for the merchant may be equal or unequal to the rebate credit to CM. For example, for Acme Clothing, the merchant debit of $71 is equal to CM credit of $71, whereas the debit for Acme Food is $74, corresponding to the sum of the rebate credit to CM and a commission or service fee of 10% of the original charge amount imposed by TAP for performing the services described herein. Although not shown here, a similar commission may be imposed by LPP and/or TAP on Acme Clothing's account and incorporated as part of a line item debit on its statement. Alternatively, such commission may be a separate line item from the line item for the merchant's debit for CM's rebate credit.

FIG. 4 is a detailed high level block diagram of the process of FIG. 1, showing processes for registration of a CM, calculation of a rebate credit to the CM (or a negative discount amount in case of a return), and downstream settlement with the CM and the merchant relating to the rebate credit (or negative discount amount), in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The CM registers with TAP to receive coupon-less discounts for purchases drawn on their transaction card/account. Generally, the registration process begins with solicitation 110 of the CM, followed by enrollment 120 of one or more transaction cards held by the CM. Description of exemplary embodiments of process for solicitation 110 and enrollment 120 will be provided further below. In order to enroll, each transaction card and corresponding customer information undergoes a validation process 410 to determine whether the CM's card is eligible for participation in TAP's registered card program. This registered card program may be made available to not only CMs holding transaction cards issued by TAP, but also to CMs holding cards issued by third party transaction account providers in a brand network. Third party transaction account providers are referred to herein collectively as Global Network Services (GNS). For example, “American Express” branded cards are available from both American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc (referred to herein as proprietary cards, or “Prop cards”) as well as from other issuers (referred to herein as “GNS cards”), such as Citibank, N.A. of New York, N.Y. Accordingly, validation process 410 may include validation of proprietary cards and GNS cards. For proprietary cards, customer information is validated by TAP's card authorization system (CAS) 412, and for GNS cards, CM information is validated by GNS's card authorization system 414.

The CM may be provided the option to enroll more than one card and link each second and additional card to a primary enrolled card, which is illustrated in FIG. 4 as linking 416. Linking 416 provides the capability to assign a single registration identification to the CM and provides the CM the flexibility to make a purchase on any of the linked cards, with discount payments appearing on the CM's statement for the primary card. The linked cards may be all Prop cards, all GNS cards, or a mixture of Prop and GNS cards. Further, the linked cards assigned to a single registration identification may be corporate cards, personal cards, or a mixture thereof. The registration process may also include the capability of batch enrollment 420 of a plurality of cards of one or more CMs in a single instance. Information relating to enrolled CMs are stored in enrollee database 134. Information relating to linking 416 of a plurality of cards to the CM is also contained therein. Information from the enrollee database 134 may then be provided to RCE 138, as described above with reference to FIG. 2.

In the embodiment of FIG. 4, information on participating merchants and their offers are divided into separate databases, i.e., an offer database 452 and a merchant database 454, and provided to RCE 138. As described above, TAP may collaborate with a loyalty program provider (LPP) 460 to deliver loyalty incentives to the CM in the form of coupon-less discounts. Accordingly, offer database 452 and merchant database 454 may be populated by TAP and/or LPP, with offers and merchants associated with TAP's marketing programs and LPP's marketing programs, respectively. TAP may screen merchants participating in LPP's marketing programs prior to accepting and storing them in merchant database 454. TAP's program administrator (not shown) may upload merchants and offers to the respective databases along with other information associating merchants and offers with one or more marketing programs.

For marketing programs administered by TAP, registered card engine 138 may include its own calculation of discount 432 for purchases made by registered CMs with merchants participating in TAP's marketing program. Further, LPP 460 may be responsible for calculation of discount 462 for purchases made at merchants participating in marketing programs administered by LPP 460. A merchant may be a participating merchant for a plurality of externally administered and/or internally administered marketing programs. Therefore, these offer and merchant databases may include a field identifying each offer and merchant to one or more marketing programs, as further described below with reference to FIG. 5.

Another input to RCE 138 are merchant ROCs 436, which may be compiled as a daily transaction file and stored in transaction database 136 (shown in FIGS. 1 and 2). RCE 138 performs transaction matching of merchant ROCs 436 with enrolled CM information from enrollee database 134 and participating merchant and offer information from respective databases 454 and 452. Further detail regarding this matching will be described below with reference to FIGS. 5 through 7. Matched transactions relating to loyalty programs administered by loyalty program provider 460 are provided as an output file 444 to LPP 460 for discount calculation 462, whereby LPP 460 returns an output file (represented here as arrow 442), which includes the discount amount, or rebate credit, similar to the incentive payment field in output file 142 described above with reference to FIG. 3. This process of discount calculation by LPP 460 and exchange of information thereof with RCE 138 is discussed below with reference to FIG. 8.

A problem to be overcome in implementing a loyalty incentive program as described herein is how to deal with returns. For example, assume a card member makes a purchase for $100 and receives a 10% discount (also called a rebate or incentive) on his or her account. If the card member then returns the purchased goods to the merchant, it is desirable to be able to ascertain whether the purchase involved an incentive so that a return credit can be made in the appropriate amount. The present invention solves this problem and provides a mechanism for dealing with returns. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, RCE 138 has the capability to process returns 456 on purchases for which a registered CM may have been provided a rebate credit pursuant to a marketing program. If a rebate credit had been previously provided, then processing of returns 456 includes providing a credit to the merchant for the earlier debited amount of the rebate credit provided to the CM and providing a corresponding debit to the CM of the earlier rebate credit. Processing of returns is similar to the transaction processing of purchases and is described in greater detail below with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. Accordingly, output file 444 from RCE 438 may include return transactions, whereby loyalty program provider 460 calculates a negative discount, or a discount reversal amount, 464 for each eligible return. Eligible returns may be identified based on a stock keeping unit (SKU) associated with the purchase or based on the date of the purchase and the amount of the purchase (i.e., “backtrack discounts”). Logic associated with matching prior purchases with returns by means other than SKUs is described in further detail with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12.

RCE 138 has the capability to convert the discount amount to an equivalent of membership reward points which may be redeemable in accordance with membership rewards program. Typically, a membership rewards program offers goods or travel packages in exchange for membership reward points. Moreover, the discount amount may be a combination of a monetary credit and an equivalent of reward points. To implement such conversions, as well as to support service fee calculation, etc. RCE 138 may include a configuration table 434. Configuration table 434 may include fields for each marketing program and corresponding information for converting the calculated discount (i.e., the rebate credit) between a monetary credit and/or an equivalence in membership rewards points (shown as “CM (%, $, Pts)”). Further, since a discount offer may be represented in units of monetary amount off or percent off a purchase price, or in terms of membership rewards points, then for internally calculated discounts 432, RCE uses configuration table 434 to match program, merchant, and conversion terms (shown as “SE (%, $)”) to convert the offer terms to the desired units for discount calculation. Configuration table 434 may also have a field for TAP's service fees for each program and participating merchants, and service fees may be in units such percent of purchase or monetary amount (shown as “TAP (%, $)”). Further, since a merchant may be submitting the same offer for more than one marketing program, configuration table includes a “priority” field that is used to identify repeated offers and ensure that the CM receives only a single rebate credit on a purchase that is eligible to receive a discount pursuant to multiple marketing programs.

The calculated discount (or discount reversal, if relating to a return) is provided to TAP settlement systems 470 for transactions on Prop registered cards, or to GNS settlement systems 480 for transactions on GNS registered cards. An AR system of TAP settlement systems 470 processes the discount amount and provides the rebate credit (as a monetary credit or an equivalence in reward points, or both) on CM's credit statement. If the rebate credit includes membership reward points, then information relating the rebate credit is also provided to membership rewards 472 for appropriate record keeping for that CM. AP systems of TAP settlement systems 470 processes the merchant debit in accordance with CM's rebate credit, as well as any service fee charged by TAP for providing the services described herein. Further detail regarding processing of matched transactions via TAP settlement systems is described below with reference to FIG. 8. GNS settlement systems 480 includes U.S. submissions 482, global clearing and settlement 484, and one or more issuers 486. Global clearing and settlement 484 may be considered a repository for RCE 138's matched transactions associated with GNS cards so as to permit each GNS issuer 486 to retrieve their respective GNS card transaction information, including information of the discount and any service fees charged by TAP. GNS issuers 486 may then use this information to provide a rebate credit to CMs accounts managed by issuers 486 and to provide a debit to participating merchants in a similar manner as described above with reference to FIG. 2. Further details regarding application of the registered card program to GNS registered cards is described below with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.

RCE 138 may further have the capability to provide TAP with reporting 490, which may include a marketing analysis or monitoring of the success of various marketing programs and information relating to card member participation therein. Reporting 490 thereby permits TAP to target CMs and deliver merchant offers that are desirable to its registered CMs and/or merchants.

Cancellations 440 of registered accounts by enrolled CMs are communicated to loyalty program provider 460 as well as to enrollment 120 so as to maintain enrollee database 134 with up-to-date enrolled CM information. Cancellations 440 may arise, for example, from a CM reporting a lost or stolen card or a CM requesting TAP to deregister one or more of its registered cards from the registered card program. It is an advantage of the invention that enrollee database 134 may be provided with timely and consistent updates to reflect lost and stolen cards. Cancellations 440 may also include deregistration of a CM from one or more particular marketing programs administered by TAP or LPP 460.

Further description will now be provided with respect to solicitation 110 and enrollment 120. As noted above with reference to FIG. 2, CM may be solicited to join an incentive program offered by TAP via an email invitation from LPP 460. In this instance, a CM may receive a solicitation email providing a link to a loyalty program's website landing page, whereby the CM may begin an enrollment process. The enrollment may include, for example, the steps of agreeing to the incentive program's terms and conditions, setting up a username and password and selecting marketing preferences, etc. Moreover, such an incentive program website may be hosted by LPP 460 and branded by TAP. As such, the enrollment process may further include providing TAP with the CM's email address, such as when the card member clicks on the link of the solicitation email to start the enrollment process. TAP may use CM's email address to validate the CM prior to enrollment 120 via validation process 410. Further, the incentive program's website may provide registered CMs with a customized home page where they may be presented with personalized offers (such as those identified based on their selected marketing preferences), as well as being able to engage in online shopping of goods and services offered by merchants participating in the particular marketing program(s) in which the card member enrolls. If a CM receives an email solicitation but is already enrolled in TAP's registered card program, then by clicking on the link provided in the solicitation email, the already enrolled CM may be prompted to log in to their customized homepage. As noted above, a CM may be solicited indirectly simply by being provided with access to a website link to the enrollment webpage and/or TAP's enrollment webpage for the registered card program. Further, enrollment in TAP's registered card program via a TAP-hosted website link may allow for enrollment in TAP's marketing programs as well as a marketing program offered in collaboration with one or more loyalty program providers.

Solicitation 110 may further include a pre-solicitation process prior to sending a solicitation email to a targeted CM. The pre-solicitation process may involve determining which CMs should be targeted and which offer clusters and particular marketing programs the CM may be eligible to participate in pursuant to the registered card program. Accordingly, TAP may collaborate with LPP 460 to identify appropriate CMs for email solicitation based on TAP's data on a CM's spending preferences and the LPP's clusters of merchant offers. These identified, targeted CMs may then reviewed so as to exclude solicitation of any targeted CMs having opted out of receiving direct marketing materials from TAP or LPP 460. TAP then provides LPP 460 with a marketing list of targeted CMs and associated identifying information (such as salutation, name, gender, and zip code). The marketing list may further be provided to LPP 460 with a given effective period during which solicitation emails may be sent, since the list should be updated periodically to exclude CMs from the list that have since opted out of receiving marketing materials. Upon receipt of the marketing list from TAP, loyalty program provider sends out email invitations to the targeted CMs.

Enrollment 120 may provide an option to the CM to participate in the registered card program as a preferred enrollee. For example, during enrollment a card member may choose to be eligible for “premium” offers in exchange for paying an enrollment fee. Alternatively, the CM may wish to forego payment of any enrollment fee and be eligible for “everyday” offers. Preferred (i.e., premium) customers may also be eligible for everyday offers. TAP's registered card program may therefore offer tiers of offer packages corresponding to the “premium” and “everyday” tiers of enrolled card members. Accordingly, RCE 138, during transaction matching, may consider whether an enrolled CM is registered as a premium card member or an everyday card member so as to identify CM purchases that qualify for a premium offer and/or an everyday offer.

An embodiment of the present invention in which TAP collaborates with loyalty program provider 460 will now be described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 5 through 8. FIG. 5 illustrates transaction-based data flow between databases at TAP during transaction matching by RCE 138. As shown, CM enrollee database 134 may include such data as a CM's registration identification (RC# ID) for one or more registered transaction cards linked together in accordance with linking step 416, described above; a list of account numbers for these linked cards; indication of whether the CM is a premium card member; and whether the CM and/or their registered transaction card(s) are active or canceled pursuant to cancellations 440 (shown in FIG. 4). A second enrollee database (i.e., database identified as “LPP# 2”) and other additional enrollee databases may be provided for enrollees of each distinct loyalty program or program provider. Alternatively, a single enrollee database 134 may be provided for all enrollees of the registered card program, with another data field provided which identifies the one or more loyalty program providers the CM is associated with. Likewise, separate merchant database may be provided for each loyalty program or program provider, or a single database may be provided with a data field identifying the merchant with the program(s) or provider(s). Merchant database 454 may include a merchant ID, its SE #, as well as whether the merchant is actively or inactively enrolled in the registered card program.

Merchant offer database 452 may include an offer ID, a corresponding merchant ID, a start and end date for the particular offer, a description, and whether the offer is a premium offer, as described above. Since TAP and LPP may each administer marketing programs, and since there may be multiple loyalty program providers, merchant offer database 452 may also include a field identifying each TAP or LPP marketing program to which the offer belongs. FIG. 5 also shows exemplary data contained in output file 444 provided to the loyalty program provider(s) for discount calculation (or discount reversal calculation, in the case of return), as described above with reference to FIG. 4. In this figure, “Tx” represents the term “transaction.” As shown, output file 444 includes: transaction ID, transaction date, merchant ID and offer ID, card member's registration identification (RC#), transaction amount, as well as whether the transaction type is a credit (return) or a debit (purchase).

In this embodiment, output file 444 includes CM's RC# as a substitute for the CM's actual transaction account number. Output file 444 is provided to LPP for discount calculation, and the level of security associated with LPP's network may prohibit allowing LPP using the actual account number as a means to identify the transaction for discount calculation. However, it should be understood that for internally calculated discounts 432 (described in FIG. 4) or in instance where secure networks exists with the loyalty program provider(s), then output file may contain the particular transaction account number associated with the transaction. As such, the discount calculated by LPP may be directly matched with the card number and may also be provided on the statement for a secondary card, rather than appearing on the statement of the primary card, which may occur when several linked cards are associated with CM's registration identification (RC#).

FIGS. 6 and 7 show in greater detail the process of transaction matching by RCE 138 when a registered CM shops at a participating merchant. FIG. 8 shows in detail an embodiment of a process for calculation (via LPP) of CM discount credits and discount reversal debits and their subsequent processing so as to appear on CM and merchant statements. The processes of FIGS. 6 through 8 are shown to incorporate both CM purchases and their returns. Accordingly, the output file provided to LPP and an input file from LPP to TAP (as shown and later described in step 814 in FIG. 8), as well as creation of a file of merchant credit-debit and card member credit/debit (as shown in step 822 of FIG. 8), are described to include information relating to both purchases and returns. It should be understood, however, that individual files at the noted steps may be provided, one for processing of discounts for purchases and another for processing discount reversals for returns, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Further description of methodologies for identifying whether a return is on a purchase for which a CM received a discount will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12.

FIG. 6 shows steps in a process from the point when the card member makes a purchase or return at a particular participating merchant to when an output file is provided to an LPP for discount calculation (or discount reversal calculations). In step 610, TAP receives daily ROCs from merchants via its financial capture system (FinCap). In step 620, TAP creates a consolidated daily ROC file of all merchants associated with TAP. As part of the consolidation, TAP may monitor ROC submissions for return ROCs, i.e., ROCs having a negative amount for the transaction amount, and/or for which the transaction type is identified as a credit, whereby the transaction may be subject to additional processing to determine whether a negative discount (i.e., discount reversal) is due prior to including the transaction on the output file provided to the LPP for discount reversal calculation. In step 640, TAP receives the list of participating merchants and offers from LPP. Participating merchants and offers are stored in merchant database 454 and merchant offer database 452, respectively. At step 650, merchants are matched to offers, and at step 660, ROCs are extracted for only those participating merchants that have unexpired offers. Also extracted are credit ROCs (i.e., ROCs for returns).

Once TAP identifies credit ROCs from participating merchants, TAP may compare them to transaction debits stored in transaction database 136 (see FIG. 8) over a given time period (e.g., the last 60 days, or the last 90 days) to determine whether there exists a debit ROC with the same merchant as the credit ROC, for the same registered card. If found, TAP further checks to see if the previous transaction was eligible for a rebate credit and the amount of the rebate credit that was provided to the CM. If the previous transaction is eligible for a rebate credit, then a debit corresponding to the amount of the rebate credit in full (corresponding to full returns) or in part (corresponding to partial returns) is charged to the card member. These debits thereby adjust the net return credit to equal the original purchase price less the rebate credit. The merchant is reimbursed for the amount of the debited rebate credit, and the merchant's reimbursement appears as a credit on the merchant's account. The determination of the discount reversal amount (i.e., amount of the debited rebate credit) is preferably based on the CM's rebated credit on the original purchase rather than the debit received by the merchant, since the merchant's previous debit for the CM's rebate credit may include an associated service fee imposed by TAP and/or LPP. As noted above, in one embodiment, stock keeping units (SKU's) of purchased goods/services are used to match purchases with returns and determine the discount reversal amount. In another embodiment, certain assumptions are made in accordance with a return logic policy to do the matching. Exemplary return logic policy is described below with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12.

At step 670, CM information in enrollee database 134 is used to match registered CMs with ROCs extracted in step 660, and each matched transactions is provided with a transaction ID. In step 680, output file 444 is created of transactions matched in step 670. At step 690, output file 444 is provided to loyalty program provider for discount/discount reversal calculation.

FIG. 7 shows in greater detail the matching processes of steps 650 and 670 and the process of extraction step 660 of FIG. 6, in accordance to an embodiment of the present invention. Step 650, for the matching of merchants to offers, may include steps 652, 654, 656 and 658. In step 652, the list of merchants from merchant database 454 is compared with the list of offers in merchant offer database 452. In step 654, offers are checked to be either premium or everyday offers. In step 656, offers are selected for inclusion in a master file in step 658 if the offers are currently in effect as determined by the offer start and end dates, and in step 658, a master file is created which includes the merchant SE#, the offer ID, the offer end date, and the offer type (premium or everyday). Extraction step 660 receives the ROC extraction file from step 630 (see FIG. 6) as well as the master file of step 658. In this embodiment, extraction step 660 includes steps 662, 664, 666 and 668. In step 662, merchant SE#s are compared to the ROC extract file of step 660 and master file of step 658, and in step 654, ROCs for merchants participating in TAP's registered card program are selected. Of the selected ROCs for participating merchants, the ROCs are extracted if (in step 666) the transaction date is less than the offer end date reflected in the master file, or if (in step 668) the ROC is a credit ROC. These extracted ROCs are an input to matching step 670 that includes steps 672, 674, 676 and 678. In step 672, CM account/card numbers from the extracted ROC file are matched with the registered accounts stored in enrollee database 134. In step 674, those ROCs corresponding to the registered accounts of CMs are selected. If the registered CM is a premium CM then at step 676, all ROCs are extracted for the CM; otherwise, at step 678 only ROCs that apply to everyday offers are extracted for the CM. These extracted ROCs are provided to step 680 of FIG. 6 for creation of output file 444.

As shown in FIG. 8, the LPP receives output file 444 from TAP at step 810. In step 812, the LPP calculates the discount or negative discount (i.e., discount reversal) amount for each purchase and return transaction, respectively. In step 814, a file including a discount or discount reversal calculation (such as file 442 provided to RCE 138, described above in FIG. 4) is provided to TAP. TAP uses this file at step 820 to update its transaction database with discount amounts or negative discount amounts, whereby the original ROC transaction is matched with these discounts or negative discounts. At step 822, TAP creates a file of CM credits and corresponding merchant debits for discounts associated with a purchase. Further, TAP may include CM debits and merchant credits for negative discounts associated with returns. In step 824, TAP's SPP (shopping portal processor) platform is used to create a FinCap file which is provided to FinCap, and in step 826, FinCap processes CM discounts (i.e., rebate credits) and CM discount reversals. In particular, as described above in FIG. 4, RCE 138 provides TAP's AP (accounts payable) system with information on merchant debits and credits for processing at step 828 and provides TAP's AR (accounts receivable) system with information on card member debits and credits for processing at step 830. Pursuant to step 828, a merchant's account is debited for the CM's rebated credit, may be further debited a service fee, and is credited a CM's discount reversal amount in the case of an eligible return. Pursuant to step 840, a CM's account (or monthly statement) shall show a credited amount in accordance with any rebate credit and a debited amount in accordance with any discount reversal arising from an eligible return.

Methodologies unique to processing of card member returns by means of a return logic policy in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention are now described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12. In these figures “TM tx” represents CM transactions which were eligible for a rebate credit in accordance with the TailorMade^SM registered card program described herein. FIG. 11 provides examples of actions taken in response to returns. For example, in line 1 of FIG. 11, a $1,000 return is made on Sep. 1, 2006. In response to this return, TAP will take no action with respect to debiting any rebate credit, because there were no transactions made in the prior 60 days to correspond to the $1,000 return. In line 2, for the same return, it is determined that there was a $1,000 purchase within the prior 60 days along with a $100 statement credit. Therefore, it is assumed that the $100 statement credit was a rebate credit that must be debited. In line 3, a $400 return is made. In this case, a proportional $40 debit is made to correspond to the portion of the rebate credit on the $400 purchase that was returned. Additional examples and assumptions/rationales are provided in FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 provides additional examples of return policy logic in which a CM may be debited for identified rebate credit(s) on TM (TailorMade^SM)transactions. As shown in FIG. 12, if the CM is debited for identified rebate credit(s), and if the CM disputes the credit and claims that the return is part of a non-TM transaction (i.e., a transaction in which the CM did not receive a rebate credit), then the rebate credit is written off of CM's account. For example, in the line 1 of FIG. 12, a return is made for $1000, and it assumed that the return is associated the first exact transaction in the past 60 days for that is the same amount as the return. In this example, transaction “6” is the first transaction of $1000, and the return is associated with transaction “6.” Since transaction “6” was discounted 10%, whereby the CM received a rebate credit of $100, then the CM is debited the $100. If the CM disputes the debit, such as by claiming that the return is in fact part of transaction “4,” then the debit is written off, since transaction “4” was not subject to a discount.

If in line 1 there is no exact matched transaction identified with the return, then, in line 2, the first transaction in the past 60 days which is greater than the amount of the return is identified with the return. As shown in line 2, transaction “6” for $5000 is the first matched transaction having an amount greater than the return. Since transaction “6” was not discounted, then no action is taken with regard to debiting CM. If CM claims that the return is part of transaction “5” and “2”, then a debit from the CM's account is made in the amount of the rebate credits (15% and 15%) for those transactions. If there is no transaction matched in lines 1 or 2, then in line 3, if the sum of the return is equal or smaller than the sum of all transactions in the past 60 days, then it is assumed that the return refers to TM transactions up to $1000, and a debit to CM's account is provided in accordance with the discounts on TM transactions 2 and 5.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show high level flow diagrams of a process for transaction matching (via RCE 138) of registered GNS cards. As shown in FIG. 9, transactions deserving of discounts or discount reversals as well as any service fees are provided to U.S. Submissions 482 which is placed at global clearing and settlement 484, which is a repository for collection by GNS issuers 486 for processing of credits and debits on GNS cards held by registered CMs (referred to as “GNS CMs”). Global clearing and settlement 484 is also a repository for daily ROC data that is submitted to RCE 138 for transaction matching. Although not shown here, GNS issuers 486 provide TAP with information on GNS accounts held by registered CMs to permit transaction matching, and also to permit enrollee database 134 to be updated according to cancellations 440 (as described above with reference to FIG. 4). In an embodiment shown in FIG. 9, card authorization system 414 may involve a one dollar authorization by which the CM's card is validated at enrollment. As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, U.S. submissions 482 receives discount, returns, and service fee information from RCE 138 that is used by GNS issuers 486 to settle with merchants and GNS CMs. U.S. submissions 482 passes a two line message to GNS issuers 486, which appears on the respective issuer's credit statement. A similar two line message may be provided on GNS CM's account statement, thereby providing transparency of the settlement of transactions made pursuant to TAP's registered card program to both GNS CMs and CMs holding cards issued by TAP, such as in the manner described above with reference to FIG. 2.

III. Example Implementations

The present invention or any part(s) or function(s) thereof may be implemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof and may be implemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems. However, the manipulations performed by the present invention were often referred to in terms, such as matching or selecting, which are commonly associated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No such capability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of the operations described herein which form part of the present invention. Rather, the operations may be machine operations. Useful machines for performing the operation of the present invention include general purpose digital computers or similar devices.

In fact, in one embodiment, the invention is directed toward one or more computer systems capable of carrying out the functionality described herein. An example of a computer system 1300 is shown in FIG. 13.

The computer system 1300 includes one or more processors, such as processor 1304. The processor 1304 is connected to a communication infrastructure 1306 (e.g., a communications bus, cross-over bar, or network). Various software embodiments are described in terms of this exemplary computer system. After reading this description, it will become apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement the invention using other computer systems and/or architectures.

Computer system 1300 can include a display interface 1302 that forwards graphics, text, and other data from the communication infrastructure 1306 (or from a frame buffer not shown) for display on the display unit 1330.

Computer system 1300 also includes a main memory 1308, preferably random access memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory 1310. The secondary memory 1310 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 1312 and/or a removable storage drive 1314, representing a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, etc. The removable storage drive 1314 reads from and/or writes to a removable storage unit 1318 in a well known manner. Removable storage unit 1318 represents a floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, etc. which is read by and written to by removable storage drive 1314. As will be appreciated, the removable storage unit 1318 includes a computer usable storage medium having stored therein computer software and/or data.

In alternative embodiments, secondary memory 1310 may include other similar devices for allowing computer programs or other instructions to be loaded into computer system 1300. Such devices may include, for example, a removable storage unit 1318 and an interface 1320. Examples of such may include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as an erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), or programmable read only memory (PROM)) and associated socket, and other removable storage units 1318 and interfaces 1320, which allow software and data to be transferred from the removable storage unit 1318 to computer system 1300.

Computer system 1300 may also include a communications interface 1324. Communications interface 1324 allows software and data to be transferred between computer system 1300 and external devices. Examples of communications interface 1324 may include a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernet card), a communications port, a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) slot and card, etc. Software and data transferred via communications interface 1324 are in the form of signals 1328 which may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or other signals capable of being received by communications interface 1324. These signals 1328 are provided to communications interface 1324 via a communications path (e.g., channel) 1326. This channel 1326 carries signals 1328 and may be implemented using wire or cable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, a radio frequency (RF) link and other communications channels.

In this document, the terms “computer program medium” and “computer usable medium” are used to generally refer to media such as removable storage drive 1314 and a hard disk installed in hard disk drive 1312. These computer program products provide software to computer system 1300. The invention is directed to such computer program products.

Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) are stored in main memory 1308 and/or secondary memory 1310. Computer programs may also be received via communications interface 1324. Such computer programs, when executed, enable the computer system 1300 to perform the features of the present invention, as discussed herein. In particular, the computer programs, when executed, enable the processor 1304 to perform the features of the present invention. Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of the computer system 1300.

In an embodiment where the invention is implemented using software, the software may be stored in a computer program product and loaded into computer system 1300 using removable storage drive 1314, hard drive 1312 or communications interface 1324. The control logic (software), when executed by the processor 1304, causes the processor 1304 to perform the functions of the invention as described herein.

In another embodiment, the invention is implemented primarily in hardware using, for example, hardware components such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardware state machine so as to perform the functions described herein will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s).

In yet another embodiment, the invention is implemented using a combination of both hardware and software.

While various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example, and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention should not be limited by any of the above described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

In addition, it should be understood that the figures and screen shots illustrated in the attachments, which highlight the functionality and advantages of the present invention, are presented for example purposes only. The architecture of the present invention is sufficiently flexible and configurable, such that it may be utilized (and navigated) in ways other than that shown in the accompanying figures.