Payment Offer Redemption via Integrated Transaction Handler
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for processing payment transactions and redeeming offers, such as coupons and discounts, face inefficiencies due to separate processing systems, leading to resource duplication, time delays, and inefficient security measures.
Innovation Solution
A system that integrates payment processing and offer redemption by associating offers with user accounts in a data warehouse, allowing automated detection and fulfillment of redemption conditions through a transaction handler, which provides real-time notifications and statement credits, enhancing interoperability and resource allocation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If separate systems are used for payment processing and offer processing, then system independence and modularity are maintained, but resource duplication, time delays, and inefficient security measures occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges payment processing and offer processing into a single integrated system. The transaction handler receives both payment transactions and offer redemptions through unified interfaces, eliminating the need for separate processing systems. This consolidation reduces resource duplication and improves processing efficiency while maintaining security through centralized control.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated system performs multiple functions through a single platform: it processes payments, validates offers, checks redemption conditions, and provisions benefits. The transaction handler and notification handler work together to handle both payment transactions and offer redemptions, making the system universal and eliminating the need for separate specialized systems.
2Device complexity
If separate systems are used for payment processing and offer processing, then system simplicity and ease of implementation are maintained, but time delays occur from when redemption requirements are satisfied to benefit provisioning
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements continuous processing where the transaction handler monitors transactions in real-time and immediately validates offer redemption conditions upon satisfaction. The notification handler continuously monitors for satisfied conditions and provisions benefits without interruption or delay, ensuring continuous useful action from redemption eligibility to benefit delivery.
Solution Approach 2:
Offers are pre-loaded into the system with their redemption conditions defined in advance. When a transaction occurs, the system has already prepared the validation logic and can immediately check whether redemption conditions are met, eliminating the need for post-transaction analysis and reducing processing time.
3Device complexity
If separate systems are used for payment processing and offer processing, then system modularity and independence are maintained, but computation resource allocation becomes inefficient and duplicative
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines payment processing and offer validation into a single integrated architecture where computation resources are shared. The transaction handler and notification handler operate within the same system boundaries, allowing efficient resource allocation and eliminating duplicative computation that would occur in separate systems.
4Productivity
If integrated processing is implemented, then processing efficiency and time response are improved, but system complexity and integration challenges increase
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated system is segmented into distinct functional modules: the transaction handler for payment and offer processing, and the notification handler for benefit provisioning. This segmentation allows the system to achieve integration benefits while maintaining manageable complexity through clear separation of concerns and defined interfaces between modules.
Solution Approach 2:
The notification handler acts as an intermediary between the transaction handler and the benefit provisioning system. It receives notifications from the transaction handler about satisfied redemption conditions and coordinates the benefit provisioning process, simplifying the integration complexity by introducing a mediating component that manages the interaction between different functional areas.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method configured to provide a mechanism allowing a third party, not involved in a payment transaction made between a merchant and a payment account, to provide a credit to the payment account as an offer benefit redeemed in view of the payment transaction. The mechanism includes a transaction handler of a payment processing network configured to provide transaction information relevant to the offer to the third party. If the third party determines that a qualifying transaction in the payment account is entitled to the benefit, the third party communicates a request, via an application programming interface (API), to a portal of the transaction handler for a credit to the payment account for the payment transaction; if the request is approved, in response, the transaction handler generates a credit transaction for the payment account.