Universal Merchant Intermediary for Contract Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional online bill payment systems restrict users to managing relationships with individual merchants separately, limiting their ability to efficiently manage and update contractual relationships across multiple disparate merchants.
Innovation Solution
A universal merchant intermediary (UMI) infrastructure allows customers to access and manage their relationships with multiple merchants through a third-party service, enabling centralized management, tracking, and updating of contractual details, such as service plans and payment methods, without direct interaction with each merchant.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a direct customer-merchant relationship is maintained for each merchant, then the customer can directly manage their account with each merchant, but the customer must interact with each merchant individually, increasing time and operational complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a service provider as an intermediary that acts as a go-between the customer and multiple merchants. The service provider establishes customer-merchant credentials with each merchant and uses these credentials to access and manage customer accounts on behalf of the customer. This allows the customer to manage multiple merchant relationships through a single interface rather than directly interacting with each merchant individually.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the customer directly manages each merchant relationship, then the customer has full control over account details, but the system complexity increases as the customer must maintain separate relationships with each merchant
Solution Approach 1:
The service provider creates a universal interface that consolidates multiple merchant-specific interfaces into a single system. The service provider maintains customer-merchant credentials for multiple merchants and uses this multi-functionality to access various merchant systems through a unified customer interface, allowing the customer to manage diverse merchant relationships through one versatile platform.
Solution Approach 2:
The service provider acts as an intermediary layer between the customer and multiple merchants, absorbing the complexity of maintaining separate relationships. The service provider establishes and manages customer-merchant credentials with each merchant, handling the complexity of multiple account connections while presenting a simplified interface to the customer.
3Extent of automation
If the service provider acts as a go-between with limited functionality, then the customer-merchant credentials can be obtained, but the service provider cannot perform specific complex interactions with merchants
Solution Approach 1:
The service provider enhances its intermediary capabilities by not only obtaining customer-merchant credentials but also by using these credentials to perform specific complex interactions with merchants. The service provider can access customer accounts, retrieve information, and execute transactions on behalf of customers across multiple merchant systems, going beyond basic credential management.
Solution Approach 2:
The service provider performs preliminary actions by establishing customer-merchant credentials with merchants in advance. This preliminary setup enables the service provider to subsequently perform specific complex interactions with merchants without requiring real-time credential establishment, allowing for more sophisticated account management operations.
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein are technologies to facilitate online payment of bills to an online merchant while enabling a customer to retain her choices in the contractual relationship. For example, the technology described herein enables the customer to select the funding source of her choice and to modify the contractual relationship in the manner allowed by the online merchant.