Payment Gateway Integrating Offer Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current payment processing systems and offer redemption systems are inefficient due to separate processing of payments and offers, leading to duplicative resource allocation, time delays, and inefficient use of computation resources.
Innovation Solution
A gateway in the payment processing network that receives authorization requests and determines applicable offers, allowing for the direct application of offer benefits during transaction processing, bypassing acquirer processors and integrating payment and offer processing for streamlined and efficient transaction handling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If payment processing and offer processing are handled by separate systems, then system modularity and independence are maintained, but processing time increases and computation resources are duplicated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines payment processing and offer processing into a single integrated system. The transaction handler receives authorization requests containing both payment information and offer redemption information, processes them simultaneously, and generates a single authorization response. This merging eliminates the time delay between separate processing operations while managing integration complexity through unified system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The transaction handler is designed as a multi-functional component that can process both payment transactions and offer redemptions within the same system. It handles authorization requests that contain multiple types of information (payment details, offer identifiers, account information) and performs multiple processing functions (payment validation, offer eligibility checking, benefit calculation) in a single operational flow.
2Loss of energy
If separate systems are used for payment processing and offer processing, then system maintenance and updates are easier, but computation resources are allocated duplicatively
Solution Approach 1:
By merging payment processing and offer processing into one system, the patent eliminates duplicative computation resources. The transaction handler shares common infrastructure, databases, and processing logic for both functions, reducing redundant resource allocation while maintaining the ability to update and maintain the unified system through standardized interfaces and modular components.
3Reliability
If offer benefits are applied after transaction processing, then transaction integrity is ensured, but redemption time is delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary validation of offer eligibility and benefit calculation during the authorization phase, before the transaction is fully processed. The transaction handler checks offer conditions, validates account balances, and calculates benefits in advance, ensuring transaction integrity is maintained while reducing the time delay for benefit redemption by having these computations ready before final transaction completion.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, configured to integrate the processing of transactions and offers applicable to the transactions, includes: a data warehouse storing an offer in association with a financial payment account; a gateway configured to receive an authorization request that is transmitted from a transaction terminal without going through an acquirer processor, the gateway coupled with the data warehouse to determine whether the offer is applicable to the authorization request and if so, apply a benefit of the offer to the authorization request; and a transaction handler coupled with the gateway to process the authorization request submitted from the gateway, provide an authorization response corresponding to the authorization request, and communicate with the acquirer processor to credit funds according to the authorization request to a merchant account associated with the transaction terminal.