AU2004100897A4

AU2004100897A4 - Network-Based Method and System for Distributing Inspection Reports

Info

Publication number: AU2004100897A4
Application number: AU2004100897A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Anne Louise O'Connor
Original assignee: ANNE O CONNOR
Current assignee: ANNE O CONNOR
Priority date: 2003-10-20
Filing date: 2004-10-20
Publication date: 2004-12-09
Anticipated expiration: 2012-10-20

Description

PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION NETWORK-BASED METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTING INSPECTION REPORTS The invention is described in the following statement: In this document 'inspection report' and 'report' refer to 0 reports that are carried out on a building or property (For z example building reports, pest reports, fire safety reports etc.) In this document, 'property' refers to building and/or land; for 0 commercial or residential o In this document, 'inspector' means a person 0 C who is qualified to carry out the inspection of the property In this document, 'registered user' refers toan entity; that is registered in the system; and has a view to supplying reports to the remote service provider.

In this document, 'user' refers toan entity; that uses the system, including registered users.

e cm .n 8 NETWORK-BASED METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTING INSPECTION REPORTS

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00 2 BACKGROUND 0 This invention relates to the system of information sharing and distribution in relation to Inspection Reports. Currently each separate person that is interested in a property seeks various reports from various inspectors; this is not only a waste of information and time but it's expensive to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on reports each time you are interested in a property.

These problems are overcome by the present invention, which provides a method and system to share this information over a network the internet or the telephone).

Advantages to Users of the Invention: Users that wish to view information, don't necessarily need to make an appointment with an inspector and set aside time, they can see the data straight away.

9eacya 3 Users can see the history of a property by viewing old reports on the property as well as new.

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z In most cases, the report would cost less than it's original cost as this expense is shared with other users.

00 o In some instances, inspectors (or the people that provided the 0 information) make money on reports each time they are viewed.

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SUMMARY

0 z Multiple methods and systems for distributing data over a data transmission network are disclosed.

o00 0 In one embodiment, a user interface, soliciting input of a desired property

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address is provided. An input signal representing the users input is o received. A list of matching report descriptions and addresses is then disclosed to the user. The user selects a report. An input signal representing the users selection is then received. An interface soliciting payment is provided. Payment information is received. Validation of the payment information is initiated. Responsive to validation of the payment information, desired report data is transmitted to the user via the network. The user may choose to downland this information.

In another embodiment, a user interface, soliciting input of a desired property address is provided. An input signal representing the users input is received. A list of matching reports and addresses is then disclosed to the user. The user selects a report. An input signal representing the users selection is received. The user is given the option to enter their phone number to arrange payment and report delivery. An input signal representing the user details is received.

In further embodiment, a user interface, soliciting input of a desired property address is provided. An input signal representing the users input is received. A user interface, informing the user that no reports for the desired address/addresses exist in the database, is displayed. The option to request a report is displayed. If the user is interested, an input signal representing the users decision and user details, is received and acted 0 z upon.

In further embodiment, a user interface, soliciting input of a desired property address is provided. An input signal representing the users input 0 is received. A user interface, informing the user that no reports for the desired address/addresses exist. The option to be informed if a report is o added to the system is displayed. An input signal representing the 0 CA decision is received. The user is informed in the future if a report/s is received for that property.

Various people will be authorised to send report information to the data service centre. They are disclosed below: In one embodiment, an inspector that has made the report either of their own accord, or for a previous customer, supplies the report.

In another embodiment, a customer of an inspector receives the report that they have permission to sell on, supplies the report.

In a further embodiment, we will employ an inspector to make the report on our behalf.

Pcmse- Multiple methods and systems for receiving the report data, at the service data centre, over a data transmission network, are disclosed.

In one embodiment, a user interface for soliciting input data is provided.

Information representing the users identity is received. The user information is verified. Responsive to the verification of the user input 0 data, the interface to send the report is displayed. The report is received _at the data processing system and stored in the database.

0 N In other embodiments, the report may be obtained from the registered user by fax, email, post or in person.

It is possible to become a registered user (someone that supplies reports to the data processing system) in various ways. These are disclosed below.

In one embodiment, a user interface for soliciting input data is provided.

Information representing the user is received. This data is then verified and stored in the database.

In another embodiment, a user gives this information over the phone.

The information is verified and then stored in the database.

Par. Y- 00

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0 c'4 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments.

Fig. 1 is a schematic block diagram depicting an exemplary architecture of a network-based system for distributing data.

Figs. 2a-2c show exemplary user interfaces for selecting desired service data from a web site.

Fig. 3 depicts an exemplary process for downloading or viewing report data by a user from the remote service provider.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

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Z Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of an exemplary system architecture upon which an exemplary embodiment is implemented. The embodiment uses this system for illustrative purposes only. Similar principles and obvious variations may apply to various types of services, devices, parts, 00 2 components, and/or systems. In addition, although specific data is described for purpose of illustration, other data for various purposes can 0 o be distributed on similar principles conveyed by the embodiments.

In Fig. 1 The local data processing system 101 can communicate with a remote service provider 104 via a data transmission network 103, such as the internet. The remote service provider 104 is a data processing system, such as a server, that maintains a user database 105 and a report database 106. The user database 105 stores user information for users authorised to send data to the provider, such as names, account number, credit card information, previous sent data etc. The report database 106 stores various types of data, such as inspection report data.

The local data processing system 101 can be a personal computer configured to communicate with a remote data processing system via a wireless network. The remote data processing system can be the remote service provider 104, or a data processing system that can access the remote service provider 104 via a data transmission network.

The user database 105 and the report database 106 may be maintained either on an internal data storage device within the system, such as an internal hard disk, or on an external data storage device 107 Ill IlPaI'le c 1 connected to the data processing system. The remote service provider 104 may further connect to other data processing systems or computer z networks 108. The databases thus may be distributed on several other data processing systems that are connected to and accessible by the remove service provider 104.

0 The report database 106 is updated frequently to include the most updated report data. The local data processing system 101 can connect to o the remote service provider 104, when desired, to access the most 0 updated report data by sending a request to the remote service provider 104 and then viewing or downloading the desired report data onto the local data processing system 101.

For example, if the local data processing system 101 is used to retrieve report information, the local data processing system 101 connects to the remote service provider 104 to retrieve historical and the most up to date inspection reports, that are on the system. After receiving the report information, the local data processing system 101 can view and/or download this information.

The network connection between the local data processing system 101 and the remove service provider 104 is implemented using certain network protocols, such as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). TCP/IP allows communication between interconnected networks of computers having diverse hardware architectures and various operating systems. On an application level, the system may use Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to conduct data transfer between systems connected to the internet. TCP/IP provides source and destination addresses of the data. Furthermore, the local data 4,ja oprocessing system 101 and remote service provider 104 are both assigned unique TCP/IP addresses.

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The remote service provider 104 maintains a web site created by using, for example, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). The web site contains a plurality of web pages 109 accessible by the local data 00 processing system 101. The local data processing system 101 may use a o web browser 102, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape to access the web pages and retrieve data from or submit data to the remote service provider 104.

When a user using the browser submits a request to access a web page from the remote service provider 104, the browser locates the TCP/IP address for that particular page. The web pages contain user interfaces for a user of the system to retrieve data stored in the report database 106 or entering data into the user database 105.

Pate-" USER INTERFACE 0 z Figs. 2a-2c show exemplary user interfaces provided by the remote service provider 104 for a user to access a report. Only the relevant 00oo sections of the screens are shown in the diagrams. The user interface

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o provides access to the databases in the remote service provider 104.

0 o Fig. 2a, the user interface provides various input and drop down boxes to solicit input from the user to select the whole, or part of, the address that he/she is interested in. In response to the input of all or part of an address the remote service provider 104 provides a second user interface, in Fig 2b, to solicit selection of reports. (In this example the user has entered the address: 20 Ram st, Northside, 2021, Sydney). Links are provided in the right hand column to select a report. In one embodiment, the user is able to sort the report information by clicking on the column headings to sort the report descriptions by the 'date of report' the user would click this heading).

After a report is selected, the remote service provider 104 further provides a user interface asking the user to enter their phone number so that report payment and delivery can be arranged. In another scenario, a user interface is provided requesting user payment details. On verification of these details, the report is displayed. Further scenarios are described earlier in this document.

Claims

2. A machine-implemented method for providing inspection report data over a data transmission network, comprising the steps of: providing a user interface for soliciting input of desired property data; receiving an input signal representing the users input is received; disclosing a list of matching reports and addresses to the user; receiving an input signal representing the users selection; providing the option to enter contact data to arrange payment and/or report delivery; receiving an input signal representing the user details.
3. A machine-implemented method for providing inspection report data O over a data transmission network, comprising the steps of: providing a user interface for soliciting input of desired property data; receiving an input signal representing the users input; and providing a user interface informing the user that no reports for the 0 desired address/addresses exist; and 2 displaying the option to request a new or other report; Oreceiving an input signal representing the users details is received and acted upon if the user is interested.
4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the data is used to evaluate a property The method of any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the user receives the report via fax, email, post, face to face or via the network.