GB2412542A

GB2412542A - Mobile telecommunications systems and methods

Info

Publication number: GB2412542A
Application number: GB0405750A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Julia Bate; Diane Godsave; Tin Lin Lee
Original assignee: Vodafone Group PLC
Current assignee: Vodafone Group PLC
Priority date: 2004-03-15
Filing date: 2004-03-15
Publication date: 2005-09-28
Also published as: GB0405750D0

Abstract

In a mobile telecommunications system, mobile terminal users can use their mobile terminals to record their business expenses, and like information, at a service location comprising an expense database (II) and expense managing software. The expense database (II) is associated with the network and processes and stores business information relating to different companies or other employing entities. For example, the expense database (II) could be provided completely by the network operator or by defining a customised interface with a company's own database. A user (U) can input business expenses (Step A) in a standard message format which is received by the network operator and identified as an expense message (D). A user registered for expense managing purposes is flagged in the network (e.g. by a flag stored on the HLR) and thus recognised by the network. The message is then converted into suitable format for the expense database (Step I) and transmitted thereto. The expense database (II) may respond (e.g. with feedback information relating to the expenses such as currency conversion). The return message is received by the network (Step R), converted into suitable format (Step U) and sent back to the user (Step V). In this way, users can record their business expenses substantially as they arise and approval of expenses can be given electronically to users. The expense management software can periodically, or on request, transmit expense updates to the employing company.

Description

24 1 2542

MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS AND METHODS

The invention relates to mobile telecommunications systems and methods. In a system and method according to the invention, and to be described below by way of example only, a mobile user can supply specific information (such as relating to the user's activities) to a service location in the relevant mobile telecommunications network where the information can be processed and a response generated if required. In a particular example of such a system and method, a user can transmit information concerning the user's business expenses which can be processed and stored and (if required) resultant information can be fed back to the user.

According to the invention, there is provided a mobile telecommunications system, comprising a network, a plurality of mobile terminals registered with the network for communication therein, information processing means associated with the network, at least some of the terminals being also registered with the information processing means, and means within the network responsive to messages from the terminals for checking whether any such terminal is registered with the information processing means and in that case permitting information transactions between the terminal and the information processing means.

According to the invention, there is also provided a mobile telecommunications method for use by a plurality of mobile terminals registered with a mobile telecommunication network for communication therein, in which at least some of the terminals are also registered with information processing means associated with the network, and the network responds to messages from the terminals for checking whether any such terminal is registered with the information processing means and in that case permitting information transactions between the terminal and the information processing means.

Mobile telecommunications systems and methods according to the invention for use in processing mobile users' business expense information, and similar information, will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a flow chart showing exemplary use of the system and method.

In the mobile telecommunications systems and methods to be described, a service location within the network is set up to provide a service for subscribing organizations for processing and storing business expenses incurred by their employees or by persons otherwise associated with them (all hereinafter referred to as "employees" for ease of reference). Thus, the service will provide for each subscribing organization an expense database for storing expense information relating to the relevant employees and expense managing software for processing the expense information. Each employee can then use their mobile terminal to transmit information relating to their expenses to the service where it can be processed and stored. Results of the processing may be fed back to the mobile user at any time (on specific request or automatically). The service will periodically or on request transmit the stored information to each organization for its own internal processing and accounting purposes.

If a company has its own customised format for its expense claim forms, the company would be able retain such forms whilst using the expenses service being described. The service would enable the company to print onto its customised forms to enable ease of transfer to the service and allow certain employees to continue using any previous expense procedure.

In a particular example, the service may be provided by the operator of the mobile telecommunications network - that is, the service will be provided by the network operator as part of the mobile user's subscription to the network. In another example, it could be provided by a service provider connected to the network.

Instead, though, the service could be distributed among the employing organizations - so that a particular mobile user's transmission of expense information would transmit it to the expense database and expense managing software which would be operated by the relevant employing organisation.

In this way, a mobile user can record each item of business expenditure more or less immediately (or at a suitable chosen time), using their mobile terminal. The mobile user can therefore avoid the need for keeping extensive paper records and completing an expenses form on return from a business journey. Expenses can be transmitted by the mobile user substantially as soon as they are incurred, thus resulting in an up-todate record of expenses. This can be made available directly (electronically or in hard copy form) to the employing organization, and it or required parts of it can be transmitted back to the mobile user.

If the mobile user incurs business expenses in a foreign currency, the service can convert the expenses into the relevant local currency, and the converted amounts can be made available back to the mobile user; for example, the mobile user could transmit a proposed business expense in foreign currency to the service which could then provide the user with a conversion into local currency for review and consideration before the expense is actually incurred. Therefore, users can view their business expenses (by means of their mobile terminals) in a currency with which they are familiar. The service could be arranged to provide currency conversion automatically, without needing a user request.

For example, it could determine the relevant currency being used by a user, using GPS to locate the user's location.

In a case where business expenses, or business expenses for particular purposes or in excess of particular amounts, must be approved by the employing organization or the user's manager for example, the user can transmit details of the proposed expenditure to the service by their mobile terminal, with a request for approval. The expense managing software can then either provide the approval (or denial), using preprogrammed parameters for example, or may transmit the request to the user's manager for such approval or denial.

Messages between the user and the expense managing service will advantageously be transmitted by text message such as by SMS, long text or data packet. Instead they could be transmitted by voice which will of course require the use of a mobile terminal capable of voice recognition.

In a particular case, if a mobile user is subscribing to the service, the network operator will record this information by a suitable flag tagged to the mobile user's normal subscription. Thus, in response to an expense message sent by the mobile user, the network operator will interrogate the mobile user's subscription to check for the presence of this flag. For instance, the flag could be stored with the user's ID in the network operator's HER (Home Location Register), which would thus provide the necessary information to enable the expense message to be directed to the expense managing service where it would be processed and stored in the manner already explained. The expense managing software would then generate an acknowledgement, and any reply if required, which would then be directed back to the user's mobile terminal, again using the flag held in the HER by the network operator.

It will be understood that, for security purposes, it will be necessary to provide data encryption and decryption at various stages during operation ofthe server, and the mobile user will of course be authenticated by the network in the usual way.

Messages may be sent by the user in standardised formats. For example, a message by a user transmitting expense information to the expense managing service may comprise the following components: (a) account number; that is, the user's account number within the expense managing service.

(b) authentication information; enabling the user's identity to be authenticated within the system.

(c) date and time (and, possibly, location).

(d) amount of the expense transaction.

(e) the currency of the expense transaction.

(f) message details: details of the expenditure.

(g) payment method (e.g. cash, credit card) (h) message number.

(i) transaction confirmation number Other formats are of course possible.

The operation of the system and method will now be described in more detail with reference to the Figure.

At Step A, the subscriber or user "U" inputs expense information into their subscriber unit or mobile terminal by means of voice or text or other suitable input. At Step B. the expense information is placed in standard format (such as described above), to produce a message "M". At Step C, the message is transmitted to the network.

At Step D, the network operator's network controller identifies the message M as an expense message (from its format), and at step E the identity of the user U is checked.

At Step F. the network controller passes a query to the security/subscriber register held by the network operator, to check whether the user is also a subscriber to the expense managing service. This process is carried out at Step G. If confirmed (Step H), then the message M is updated into suitable format for transmission to the expense database at Step I. At Step J. an acknowledgement message is produced and transmitted back to the user (Step K) to confirm to the user that the expense transaction is being processed.

At Step L, the updated message M is transmitted to the expense managing software where it is decrypted (Step M). At Step N. the expense managing software carries out the necessary transactions with the expense database IT. Thus, during this process the expense managing software may simply extract and store the transmitted expense information or it may i n addition produce a reply or query (Step 0). Any such reply or query is then composed into a reply message "RM" (Step P) and transmitted (Step Q) to the network controller where it is decoded (Step R). An acknowledgement is then generated (Step S) and sent back to the expense managing service (Step T).

The message RM is then composed into a suitable format for sending back to the mobile user (Step U) and transmitted back to the user (Step V).

At Step W. the user's terminal produces an acknowledgement which is sent back to the network controller (Step X).

At Step Y. the user's terminal processes the received information and may then display it to the user and update expense data stored in the terminal.

The mobile user can arrange to print out expense information generated or received back from the system. For example, using appropriate commands, the user could send information for printing (in a predetermined format, for example) to any suitable selected device which has been authenticated by the system - such as by Bluetooth or wlan.

Information could be sent in pdf or other formats.

Although the system and method disclosed have been described for the purposes of processing business expense information, it will be appreciated that they could be used for processing other information such as information being collected by the user as part of a business or personal activity which needs to be centrally recorded, collated, stored or otherwise processed.

Claims

1. A mobile telecommunications system, comprising a network, a plurality of mobile terminals registered with the network for communication therein, information processing means associated with the network, at least some of the terminals being also registered with the information processing means, and means within the network responsive to messages from the terminals for checking whether any such terminal is registered with the information processing means and in that case permitting information transactions between the terminal and the information processing means.

2. A system according to claim 1, including network controlling means for storing information relating to the mobile terminals for authenticating them within the network for communication therein and for storing identification information relating to the terminals, the network controlling means also storing registration information for those of the terminals which are also registered with the information processing means.

3. A system according to claim 1 or 2, in which messages sent to the information processing means from mobile terminals registered therewith and messages sent by the information processing means to such terminals are sent in a predetermined message format, and including means in the network for recognising the format.

4. A system according to claim 3, including means in the network and responsive to a message in the said format received from a terminal registered with the information processing means to convert the message into a different format for sending to the information processing means.

5. A system according to any preceding claim, in which the information processing means is controlled by the operator of the network.

6. A system according to any preceding claim, in which the information processing means comprises means for separately processing information relating to respective groups of the mobile terminals registered with the information processing means.

7. A system according to claim 6, in which each separate group of mobile terminals comprises mobile terminals used by users which are associated with a respective organization.

8. A system according to claim 7, in which the information transmitted by and received by the mobile terminals of each group relates to business expenses incurred by those users, and in which the separate information processing means relating to that group processes those business expenses.

9. A system according to any preceding claim, in which the information processing means responds to information received at any said terminal registered with the information processing, means by generating a reply.

10. A mobile telecommunications method for use by a plurality of mobile terminals registered with a mobile telecommunication network for communication therein, in which at least some of the terminals are also registered with information processing means associated with the network, and the network responds to messages from the terminals for checking whether any such terminal is registered with the information processing means and in that case permitting information transactions between the terminal and the information processing means.

11. A method according to claim 10, in which the mobile terminal authenticating and identifying processes in the network also store registration information for those of the terminals which are also registered with the information processing means.

12. A method according to claim 10 or 11, in which messages sent to the information processing means from mobile terminals registered therewith and messages sent by the information processing means to such terminals are sent in a predetermined message format, and the network recognises the format.

13. A method according to claim 12, in which the network responds to a message in the said format received from a terminal registered with the information processing means and converts the message into a different format for sending to the information processing means.

14. A method according to any one of claims 10 to 13, in which the information processing means is controlled by the operator of the network.

15. A method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, in which the information processing means separately processes information relating to respective groups of the mobile terminals registered with the information processing means.

16. A method according to claim 15, in which each separate group of mobile terminals comprises mobile terminals used by users which are associated with a respective organisation.

17. A method according to claim 16, in which the information transmitted by and received by the mobile terminals of each group relates to business expenses incurred by those users, and in which the business expenses relating to that group are processed separately from the business expenses of the other groups.

18. A method according to any one of claims 10 to 17, in which the information processing means responds to information received at any said terminal registered with the information processing means by generating a reply.

19. A mobile telecommunications system, substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

20. A mobile telecommunications method, substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawing.