WO2019108413A1 - Systems and methods for modifying and reconciling negotiated documents - Google Patents
Systems and methods for modifying and reconciling negotiated documents Download PDFInfo
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- WO2019108413A1 WO2019108413A1 PCT/US2018/061513 US2018061513W WO2019108413A1 WO 2019108413 A1 WO2019108413 A1 WO 2019108413A1 US 2018061513 W US2018061513 W US 2018061513W WO 2019108413 A1 WO2019108413 A1 WO 2019108413A1
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- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
- G06F40/10—Text processing
- G06F40/197—Version control
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- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
- G06F40/10—Text processing
- G06F40/12—Use of codes for handling textual entities
- G06F40/131—Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces
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- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
- G06F40/10—Text processing
- G06F40/166—Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
- G06F40/169—Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
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- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
- G06F40/20—Natural language analysis
- G06F40/205—Parsing
- G06F40/216—Parsing using statistical methods
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- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
- G06F40/20—Natural language analysis
- G06F40/263—Language identification
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- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F40/00—Handling natural language data
- G06F40/20—Natural language analysis
- G06F40/279—Recognition of textual entities
- G06F40/289—Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
- G06F40/295—Named entity recognition
Definitions
- the present invention is generally directed to systems and methods of identifying, tagging, modifying, incorporating, associating and reconciling information contained in legal, commercial and business-related documents.
- predefined organization of data or content may be relied upon, or in some instances required by internal or external regulations when assembling important legal, commercial and/or business-related documents.
- Information in certain documents may need to be provided with a specified format or incorporating a pre-defmed data model. As modifications to a document occur over time, the desired format or model can be lost or significantly eroded, in some instances leading to loss of valuable rights.
- the document is, at least in part, a legal, commercial or business-related document.
- the document may have been (or is intended to be) modified several times by several different individual users, some of whom may use different applications or formatting when modifying the document.
- the system provides a user with a visual representation of the document throughout the negotiation process, or otherwise presents the user with a graphical representation of the status of the document to better monitor various manipulations occurring over the course of the document lifecycle.
- the system and method provides analysis of the content of a document, identifies relationship(s) between discrete content in the document and realized (both potential and actual) objects/fields that may be associated with the document, and may provide suggestions or recommendations to the user in the same regard. For example, the system may recommend one or more Salesforce fields that text within the document may be associated with.
- a system for identifying and extracting text from an electronic document may include one or more processors, memory and modules (including an identifier module and/or an extractor module) to receive and analyze the document and identify text and other fields in the document, recognize data to be associated within the document, and mark or tag that data.
- any document type may employ the systems and methods described herein, regardless of whether the document was created using the systems and methods described herein.
- terms, clauses or other information contained in the document may be parsed, identified, categorized, compared (to user defined criteria), matched and tagged.
- the system and method also comprises the step of converting the document to a recognizable format and/or creating new categories/criteria based on the identification of a new term, clause, etc.
- the general process of identifying and extracting text from a document involves performing optical character recognition (OCR) on the document.
- OCR optical character recognition
- the identifying and extracting steps may involve a natural language engine.
- the method may further comprise a learning engine.
- system and method further comprises a library or equivalent repository for a user to store and retrieve clauses or other content for a document type.
- system and method may be configured to automatically query, retrieve and incorporate content contained in the library, based on the document type, objects/fields identified within the document, or based on user preference.
- a computer readable storage medium comprising processor executable instructions operable to utilize the system or perform the methods is provided.
- each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at least one of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C", “one or more of A, B, or C" and "A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.
- the term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. As such, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can be used interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms“comprising”,“including”, and“having” can be used interchangeably.
- the term“automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers to any process or operation done without material human input when the process or operation is performed. However, a process or operation can be automatic, even though performance of the process or operation uses material or immaterial human input, if the input is received before performance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to be material if such input influences how the process or operation will be performed. Human input that consents to the performance of the process or operation is not deemed to be“material”.
- machine-readable media refers to any tangible storage that participates in providing instructions to a processor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media.
- Non-volatile media includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks.
- Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory.
- Computer- readable media include, for example, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid state medium like a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer or like machine can read.
- the computer-readable media is configured as a database
- the database may be any type of database, such as relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or the like. Accordingly, the invention is considered to include a tangible storage medium and prior art-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which the software implementations of the present invention are stored.
- module refers to any known or later developed hardware, software, firmware, machine engine, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, or combination of hardware and software that is capable of performing the functionality associated with that element. Also, while the invention is described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciated that individual aspects of the invention may be separately claimed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
- FIG. 1 illustrates one aspect of the present disclosure that permits a user to capture text in a document and associate that text with a data source, according to an embodiment
- FIG. 2 illustrates another view of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1;
- FIG. 4 illustrates yet another view of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1;
- FIG. 5 illustrates yet another view of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1;
- FIG. 7 illustrates a display for presenting a document for modification in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure
- FIG. 8 illustrates another display for presenting a document for modification in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure
- FIG. 9 depicts a reconciliation module display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.
- FIG. 10 depicts another reconciliation module display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure
- FIG. 11 depicts yet another reconciliation module display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure
- FIG. 12 depicts a clause identification module display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure
- FIG. 13 depicts yet another clause identification module display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure
- FIG. 14 depicts a suggestion service module display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure
- FIG. 15 depicts yet another suggestion service module display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure
- FIG. 16 depicts a merge module display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure
- FIG. 17 depicts a visualization display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure
- FIG. 18 depicts yet another visualization display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.
- FIG. 19 depicts yet another visualization display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.
- the present disclosure in varying embodiments relates to systems and methods for identifying, tagging, modifying and reconciling information contained in a document.
- the system and method applies to a variety of legal, commercial and business-related documents, and may be modified by one or more users over time.
- “modification” and variants thereof are intended to include additions, subtractions, associations, affiliations, revisions, reformats, comments, edits, attachments, linking, tagging, mapping, grouping, categorizing, replacing, removing or otherwise changing the content and affiliated information contained within the document.
- modifications are tracked and associated source data is updated to reflect those modifications.
- clauses, terms and conditions within a particular document and companion documents may be revised and the document dynamically altered by one or more individuals without loss of associated data, objects or fields.
- the system and method provides a user with the ability to create and manage templates based on clauses, terms and conditions (and subsequent revisions), which may be accessed by the user or a different user for incorporation with similar or related documents.
- the templates may be contained in a library or similar repository, and may be easily managed, searched and retrieved by a user.
- a user display may include one of several different types of documents, such as a contract, which is comprised of multiple clauses, terms and conditions.
- a user may select certain text or other information contained within the contract by highlighting the desired content.
- the user is preferably presented with a pop-over user interface 100 for selecting the appropriate object and/or field corresponding to a data source, such as a database or CRM, including Salesforce.
- the user may be presented with a listing of options 102 for mapping data corresponding to a“Contract Field” as well as the ability to search for a particular Contract Field 104.
- the user may be presented with a listing of options 106 for mapping data corresponding to a particular“Clause” in the contract, and the ability to “Search Clauses” 108 stored by the system.
- the user may select the appropriate data source to associate with the captured text.
- the user may select multiple data types to associate with a particular text string, clause or provision in the contract, etc.
- the pop-over user interface 110 shown in Figure 3 is displayed, allowing the user to name and save the selections in the system.
- Figures 4-5 a text string has been highlighted 112 to call up the pop-over user interface 114, similar to that described in connection with Figure 1.
- the pop-over user interface 114 may recognize a part of the text string, and provide suggestions of various object and/or field data to associate with the highlighted text.
- the user may select from the broader listing of options contained within the pop-over user interface 114, or may conduct a search for the appropriate selection(s).
- the user may select the option“Contract Start Date” 116 using any of the three options described above.
- the pop-over user interface 118 allows the user to save the selection, and may further display the document value and corresponding source data value (the “Document Value” 120 and “Salesforce Value” 122 fields shown in Figure 5).
- a user may select any tagged text string, clause or provision in the contract and quickly retrieve and modify, if necessary, the document value or the data source value.
- the user may extract the source data, perform reconciliation, or one of the other functions described herein using this user interface, several of which are described in further detail below.
- the system provides a user with the ability to quickly view and/or extract data linked to the selected text in a document. Furthermore, the system according to this embodiment allows a user to update source data information automatically, including in the event any one document (regardless of whether the document is the one containing the originally selected text or a companion document associated with the same) implicated by the source data is subsequently modified. This prevents errors and omissions when negotiating and finalizing the document.
- the system provides a user with the ability to efficiently identify text or other information in the document and associate the user selection with source data, such as Salesforce objects and/or fields.
- a system and method for dynamically modifying a document and tracking modifications made during the course of the document life cycle, including to data contained within the document.
- a user may desire to modify a document created by, for example, Microsoft Word.
- the user may have further associated data from a CRM, such as Salesforce, by using a composer tool such as Conga Composer.
- the user may extract data from Salesforce and embed that data in the Word document using Conga Composer.
- the system may advantageously mark or tag data elements that tell the user the data source.
- the tags are a hidden element, and not immediately visible to the user or a subsequent user of the system. In other embodiments, the tags are selectively visible by the user.
- the tags applied to data thereby permit selected text in the Word document to be associated with the data source(s), which allows the data to be updated in, for example, Salesforce or an equivalent CRM, even though the user may make modifications to the document independently from Salesforce. This feature will be described in more detail below as it relates to reconciliation of modified documents, and tagged data within those modified portions of a document.
- a user may begin the process using an application known as Conga Contracts.
- Conga Contracts One exemplary user interface is shown in Fig. 6, which comprises an overview of various capabilities and tools of the system described herein.
- the user has the ability to input activities 124 associated with a document, including adding a new event 126, a new task 128, inputting future steps 130 or comment on past activity 132, etc.
- the user interface of Fig. 6 further comprises the ability to send a selected document 134 to other parties for negotiation, or to view modifications made to a document by one or more parties.
- an original user of the document may communicate with other users, by email correspondence, with the document provided as an attachment.
- the system applies a tracking identifier.
- This identifier may be viewed as a service, running in the background of the system and independently of the user, for monitoring the evolution of the document and tagged data within the document as it is modified.
- the identifier service is programmed to listen for subsequent usage of the document by tracking the original email and subsequent emails in the thread.
- the service is specifically configured to watch for attachments to the email thread, as users respond and reply to the original email, and extract a subsequent version of the attached document. Once identified and extracted, the subsequent version of the document may be uploaded to, for example, Salesforce or equivalent CRM.
- the modified document attached to an email may be uploaded to a document repository in Salesforce called Content.
- Salesforce a document repository in Salesforce called Content.
- the system automatically watches for, extracts and uploads subsequent versions of the document, and in a preferred embodiment creates a new Content version of that particular document in the repository.
- each version of the modified document is automatically preserved and stored by the system.
- One aspect of the system then permits a user to compare any one version of the document with any subsequent version of the document.
- the system also permits individual or group users to incorporate comments, proposed terms or clauses, or other annotations to facilitate the completion of a final, negotiated document.
- a user interface 136 is shown according to one embodiment for a user to view dynamic modifications made to a document. Modifications may be made directly by another party, or may be merged into the document as a result of changes to the source data.
- the modifications are preferably highlighted 138 or called out to the user through the user interface 136, and may comprise changes to specific terms 140, as shown in Fig. 7, or to clauses 142 or other language appearing in the document, as shown in Fig. 8.
- the user may take on or more actions relative to their review of the modified document, as described in greater detail below.
- Figs. 9-11 another aspect of the system and method of the present disclosure is illustrated. After potentially numerous iterations to the document, a final negotiated document may be created through the system and methods described above. However, the document may still contain modifications, comments, annotations, etc. from several users, which require reconciliation before a true final document can be circulated.
- reconciliation may occur by providing the user with the ability to compare and automatically identify or call out certain differences to be reconciled, including between different versions of a document, differences between the language or terms in a document and one or more data sources, or between documents of a related or similar nature.
- a particular term may have been modified by a user during a portion of the negotiation, but in other parts of the document that same term is not modified.
- the system therefore allows a user to compare changes made between any versions of the document, while being alerted to discrepancies that have emerged during the modification process.
- the reconciliation process is a critical process for generating a final, clean document.
- this reconciliation process is provided by a module known as True- up, and is shown in relation to Figs. 9-11.
- the reconciliation module recognizes the presence of tags (hidden or otherwise) that have been applied to certain data in the document, and flags each for reconciliation by the user.
- the module may also make updates to source data from which the tagged text has been extracted.
- the module may search for and identify potential issues for further reconciliation by the user.
- the module may automatically reconcile issues created during the merging of modifications in a document, including modifications involving adding new content to a document.
- the module is configured to identify and store new content added to a document.
- the new content may be stored in the CRM or equivalent repository.
- a combination of automatic and user driven reconciliation if also contemplated in the present disclosure.
- the module recognizes that data merged from Salesforce has been modified, and those modifications accepted in the final document, the module has the ability to compare those modified data sets with the source data in Salesforce, and automatically update the source data with the modified values or text. Variations and combinations of the foregoing are contemplated.
- a user may access the True-up reconciliation module while utilizing the redlining features described above simply by selecting that module from a task bar, pick list, menu list or equivalent.
- a user may initiate the True-up module for a particular document and, as reflected in Figures 9-11, step through each term or clause in the document that requires some degree of reconciliation.
- the True-up module will prompt the user to reconcile that term with the source data (in Salesforce or otherwise).
- This reconciliation module provides an important service to the user, once the negotiation is completed, such that a document owner, or in some instances a Salesforce contract administrator, may reconcile modified data and ensure the data in the document matches the data in Salesforce or other repository system.
- the data to be reconciled consists of the data that was merged into the document when it was created, such as by Conga Composer, and appropriately tagged. In other embodiments, additional data may be tagged and tracked for future reconciliation, either by the original user or a subsequent user of the system.
- the present disclosure provides a system and method for associating source data information (by way of example but not limitation, object identifiers, field names and the like) with information included in one or more legal or business-related documents.
- a user may extract data from a document(s), including during and after modification of the document(s), where modifications have been made to fields that were merged in and otherwise contain source data information.
- the present disclosure comprises a system of “bookmarks” or equivalent tags associated with the merged data to track the source of the data that was merged.
- the system employs document variables to track the source of the data that was merged. As the information associated with the source data is modified, the corresponding source data may be updated automatically and seamlessly.
- each field that is merged into a document may be“bookmarked” by one or more invisible (or alternatively, visible) fields that contain pertinent source information needed to return updated data to the original source files. Whenever data is merged into a document, that data may be surrounded by the bookmarks in order for subsequent revisions to be interrogated for changes.
- the field type for the word field may be ADDIN, and is preferably not displayed to the user.
- the format of the fields will start with the following character sequence:
- CCFIELD comprises a string used to identify the ADDIN field as one to be parsed, and also indicates that other values should be ignored.
- VERSION represents the current version of the field specification, and in a preferred embodiment is set to 1.
- END comprise the two fields associated with the beginning and ending of each discrete merged piece of data, the beginning marked with a START and the ending marked with an END.
- OBJECTED represents the unique identifier of the object in the system the source data originated from.
- FIELDNAME represents the name associated with the given object that the data originated from.
- CHECKSUM A CRC32 comprises a checksum operation of the following fields, preferably concatenated together: CongaSystemldentifier + CongaObjectldentifier + OBJECTED + FIELDNAME.
- CHECKSUM A CRC32 is encoded.
- document variables are used in lieu of bookmarking to store origination data to validate returning data.
- These variables will include: A system identifier that uniquely identifies the system that generated the data. For example, in the example of a Salesforce application, this identifier may be set to the Organization ID, and may be used to validate data coming back in was created by the system in question. Variable may also include an object identifier, or unique ID of the object that generated the particular document. In the example of the Salesforce application, if a user generated a document off of a quote it would contain the ID of the Quote object that it was created from. In another embodiment, both bookmarking and document variables are employed with a document.
- a user may upload a document to the system, which may be presented to the user via the application user interface according to any of the embodiments described herein.
- the user may then select text, clause or other information contained in the document by highlighting the desired content.
- a pop-over user interface (for example, as shown in Figure 1) appears for making selections to associate the text string with source data, such as Salesforce objects and/or fields. If the pop-over user interface recognizes a part of the text string, the system may provide suggestions of objects and/or fields to associate with the highlighted text.
- the user may select from a listing of data source types contained within the pop-over user interface, or may conduct a search for the appropriate data source to associate with the text string.
- the pop-over user interface allows the user to save the selection(s), and then the user repeats these steps for all remaining text strings and clauses that the user desires to associate with source data.
- the system permits a user to inject text or other information contained within a dynamically created document with metadata. For instance, if a document was created and later undergoes revision that includes additional clause language in the document, a user may select to inject metadata corresponding to the newly added content and save time and/or resources otherwise required to individually select and map out data sources for text strings located within the additional clauses. Thus, injecting metadata may be accomplished to only a portion of a document, according to the user’s preference.
- the identifying and categorizing steps may involve a natural language module.
- the natural language module may be configured to recognize natural language appearing in a clause or section of a document.
- the natural language module may also be configured to determine a template correlating to the recognized language and either call up the template or provide the user with a selection of the closest matching templates. If the natural language engine determines that the recognized clause or section is not associated with a current template, the user may be provided with the option to create and name a new template.
- the system and method may comprise a deep neural net learning engine or equivalent computer machine learning engine, configured to model high-level abstractions in data appearing in a document.
- the system and method may further employ artificial neural networks comprising learned representations of data, and may further employ features such as automatic speech recognition, foreign language processing, and adaptive learning.
- the system may therefore comprise separate modules for employing each of the foregoing.
- a system and method for managing terms and clauses used in legal, commercial and business-related documents is disclosed.
- This system and method permits a user to search, identify, select and efficiently merge such terms and clauses into a document, and then manage the work product (i.e., the subsequent versions of the term or clause) in future document creation and/or negotiation.
- the system automatically creates a repository for storing versions of a document, clause or term with saved versions reflecting modifications from an original.
- a user may tag, name or otherwise label and/or categorize subsequent modifications to a document, clause or term, which may be viewed by other users during the negotiation and finalization of the document.
- the system further comprises a resource library or repository, where previously created or modified terms, clauses or complete documents, which may be configured for a specific user or user organization, have been automatically or manually categorized and managed.
- This library may be further subdivided to contain finally negotiated documents for managing by the user, or templates to be used in future document negotiation.
- the interface 150 preferably includes a portion 152 for displaying or previewing the document.
- the interface 150 may further comprise a list 154 to select a document type or category, and in certain embodiments may include the titles or names associated with the particular documents.
- the interface includes an option for the user to input and search for key words associated with the desired document.
- the user interface also provides the user with the ability to modify and store new versions of documents in the library, with the ability to categorize and name custom made documents for future ease in locating.
- a library or equivalent repository may be provided to a large population of users to retrieve clauses or other content for a particular document type.
- a user interface 156 may be included with the system for allowing a user to scan various clauses and/or sort clauses based on a number of different criteria including, by way of example but not limitation, the clause name 158, clause revision 160, clause type 162, document name 164, document type 166, document revision 168, creation date 170, last updated date 172, last updated by 174, and created by, which may be listed in the interface for ease of review. Variations on the search and sort capabilities of the user interface shown in Fig. 13 are contemplated and considered within the scope of the present disclosure.
- the system and method comprises at least one module for automatically providing the user with suggestions or recommendations.
- the system may be configured for automatically receiving suggestions or recommendations while engaged in any of the foregoing activities, for example suggesting a certain term based on either a particular clause incorporated by the user, or the appearance of a data source merged into a document accessible by the system.
- the system may comprise a suggestion service module configured to analyze the content of a particular document under consideration and, based on either user-supplied criteria or a machine learning engine, identify potential relationships between the content in the document and one or more objects or fields from the source data.
- a suggestion service module configured to analyze the content of a particular document under consideration and, based on either user-supplied criteria or a machine learning engine, identify potential relationships between the content in the document and one or more objects or fields from the source data.
- the system and method begins by calling up a document within the system. Next, the system consumes text strings from the document. Alternatively, a user may select certain text or clauses within a document before proceeding to the next step. After the text strings are identified or consumed by the system, each text string is analyzed and the system identifies and selects discrete entities within the text strings.
- the system consumes objects and fields within the source data and creates a schema of the source data, along with associated metadata.
- the system compares the discrete entities extracted from the text strings to the metadata and identifies potential relationships between the same (and presents the user with a suggestion).
- the system may optionally present the user with an interface 176 to further investigate each suggestion, as shown in Figs. 14-15, by highlighting 178 or otherwise calling out the entities with which the system has at least one suggestion.
- a pop-over display 180 preferably appears with the option of either selecting the suggestions identified by the system or, if preferred, searching all source data tags for making a new association between the particular entity and an object and/or field.
- the user is presented with the ability to save the entity values selected for the particular document.
- This functionality allows the user to save significant time, particularly with large and/or complex document types, by parsing a document and automatically identifying discrete entities within the document and suggestions of source data to associate with each of the discrete entities.
- the recommendation engine may serve as a launching point for a user interested in creating a particular type of document.
- the module may further comprise a rules engine, wherein the module queries the user according to the configuration of the rues engine, and then searches the repository for templates that most closely match the type of document desired by the user.
- system and method provides analysis of the content of a document, identifies relationship(s) between discrete content in the document and realized (both potential and actual) objects/fields that may be associated with the document, and may provide suggestions or recommendations as to one or more Salesforce fields that text within the document may be associated with.
- the system described herein may further comprise a module for merging a particular clause, term or condition in a document without causing any formatting or other problems with the document.
- a user may select a clause 182, for example, and access other clauses stored in the system.
- the clauses may be recalled from the library or repository described above.
- the user selects that clause and merges it into the document, effectively replacing the original clause 182 in the document.
- the merge tool may comprise the ability to filter clauses by type or name, or in certain embodiments search for a particular clause using natural language search algorithms or their equivalent.
- the step of merging stored clauses into a document may be repeated as many times as necessary until the document has the content the user prefers, and is ready for sharing with other users.
- the user may identify a clause that is more preferred than one in the library and decide to save that clause to the library.
- the system provides the user with this capability, thereby allowing the user to select the saved clause in future documents using the merge feature.
- the system may further provide the user with a visual representation of the document throughout the negotiation process, or otherwise presents the user with a graphical representation of the status of the document to better monitor various manipulations occurring over the course of the document lifecycle.
- the system preferably includes a tool for visualizing the process of negotiation that occurs from inception until document completion.
- this allow a user to create a visual representation of the document lifecycle, implement rules at different points in that lifecycle, and apply restrictions as necessary for different stages of the document negotiation.
- a certain task or activity or event may be represented in the system by a block 186, bubble or other icon. Additional tasks, activities and events may be subsequently built, with relationships interrelating the different icons.
- the visual representation may comprise multiple paths 188, 190, depending on a certain event occurring (or not occurring) or a different event occurring (or not occurring).
- the user is provided with a system for identifying and extracting text from a native document.
- the system may include one or more processors, memory, an identifier module and an extractor module, which receives the document, identifies text and other fields in the document, recognizes data to be associated within the document and marks that data.
- the method of using the system in this manner comprises several steps, described below, which permit the user to make and review modifications to a native document and then reconcile the document, as described above. In this manner, any document type may employ the systems and methods described herein.
- a method whereby data is automatically identified and retrieved from a document.
- Text from most electronically kept documents can be identified and categorized, regardless of the type of document.
- an OCR process may be applied to a document to first identify, and later mark, text representing data to be merged during the course of negotiating the document.
- a search algorithm may be employed to assist with identifying and locating all text to be tagged.
- the system and method comprises a text identifier and extractor module. More specifically, one or more hardware and software components may be involved, including one or more of the previously described hardware components, to perform one or more of the steps of this method.
- the method may be executed as a set of computer-executable instructions executed by a computer system and encoded or stored on a computer-readable medium.
- the method of identifying and extracting data may continuously flow in a loop, flow according to a timed event, or flow according to a change in an operating or status parameter. The method may be initiated when a document is received at the text identifier and extractor module.
- the text identifier and extractor module may perform an OCR or equivalent native language search process on the document to retrieve one or more text tokens.
- the text identifier and extractor module may apply one or more rules to the sequences of text tokens received from the OCR process, using an existing or new rules set. For example, knowledge of a particular document type may determine or influence one or more rules that are applied and thereby tags that are assigned to data identified in the document. The application of the rules continues in this step until it is determined if there are no further rules to apply to the document or the text tokens created during the preceding steps.
- the method may then move to the next step, where it is determined whether there are additional pages in the document in which to search for additional text tokens. If there are more pages to be searched, the method retrieves the next page and continues with the extraction steps described above. Otherwise, the method proceeds to the next step, where it is determined if the retrieved text token(s) match recognized pattern elements. These pattern elements may be closely tied to rules described above, and further assist in the method of associating the natively captured text with the type of information to be tagged in the document. If a match is found, the method then proceeds to identify the text to be tagged respective to that matched pattern, and continues for each pattern recognized from the native document. This process is completed until there are no more patterns recognized and no more rules to apply.
- the method may then create an original source document for use by the various systems and methods described above. Processes described above with respect to modifying and reconciling modifications to the document may commence.
- the OCR process referenced above may produce a sequence of text tokens, which represent lines of text on a page of the document. For example, for each line of text on a page, a separate token representing text desired for tagging may be generated. In some instances, multiple tokens may be generated for a single line of text in the document. In other instances, a single token may be generated for multiple lines of a document.
- a text verification module may be utilized. In this embodiment, the text tokens recovered by the OCR process may be compared to text characters in the native document or in a separate document of the same type, such as one of the documents located in the library or other repository described above. If any discrepancy between the tokens identified in the OCR process and the text are found, a separate discrepancy process may be initiated to resolve such a discrepancy.
- the text identifier and extractor module may utilize rules according to one or more document classifications. As one example, if the text identifier and extractor module is utilized to identify data from a business- related document, such as a warranty, the text identifier and extractor module may utilize rules previously established for warranty-related documents. The text identifier and extractor module may utilize a group or subgroup of rules applying to the document type, may utilize a group or subgroup of rules for a warranty with a specific vendor, or may utilize a group or subgroup of rules for a specific client.
- native documents are processed according to the systems and methods described above, those documents may be added to the library or other repository.
- the information may be sent to or otherwise associated with a user profile, such that a user associated with the user profile may access and/or send the document to another user or business entity.
- a method for suggesting certain associations between content in a document and one or more data sources comprises one or more of the following steps, regardless of sequence: calling up a document within the system; consuming text strings from the document; selecting text or clauses within a document; analyzing the text strings; selecting one or more discrete entities within the text strings; consuming objects and fields within a data source; creating a schema associated with the data source; gathering associated metadata; comparing the discrete entities to the metadata; identifying potential relationships; and, presenting the user with a suggestion.
- the systems and methods described above may further comprise an application, or be provided via one or several modules.
- the application/modules are designed to operate on a mobile device or mobile computer, and assist a user with managing organizational documents and associated data organization.
- the application/modules may comprise one or more data sets, tables or databases, including one or more relational databases.
- the application includes time and/or content-specific notifications.
- the application/modules further permit a user to sort, search and modify documents and manipulate data associated therewith, in many instances automatically.
- the application preferably is configured to run on a computer server or similar computational machinery.
- the application is also preferable configured to provide alerts.
- Alerts may be provided via the application (e.g., notification upon login, push notification), email, messaging, or any other suitable method of communication to the user.
- Alerts may be defined for certain conditions, for example, modification occurring to one or more clauses or data types in a document.
- alerts may be provided for continued modification or approval of a modified document.
- alerts may be provided based on all users completing the modification of a document.
- an alert may indicate a recommended course of action.
- the alert may recommend that content not already contained within a document be incorporated, or that specific data be modified to comply with predetermined rules established by one or more users.
- the application is advantageously configured to receive and send information by, for example, a user’s mobile device.
- the application is also preferably configured to generate a plurality of reports. Such reports may be used by the user to improve strategy and decision-making, to locate a template or sample clause from the library, or to facilitate reconciliation of different versions of a document.
- the application comprises one or more user interfaces and displays, such as the displays depicted in the drawing Figures appended hereto.
- the application may be stored or operated on a computing environment, wherein the systems, devices, servers, modules, etc. may execute.
- a pop-over interface is provided to allow a user to reconcile modifications made in a document, capture document content for association with one or more data sources, receive suggestions from the service and/or recommendation service modules, and access the document and clause library or other repository.
- the pop-over interface may be configured to appear automatically in one or more user interfaces, such that when a user performs a certain action or selects a certain tool, the pop- over interface locates the portion of the document where that action or tool is applicable and presents the information needed to complete the task selected by the user.
- the user may perform various different tasks using the pop-over interface, without the need to locate an item in one of several pick lists or drop-down menus.
- the computing environment preferably includes one or more user computers.
- the computers may be general purpose personal computers (including, merely by way of example, personal computers, and/or laptop computers running various versions of Microsoft Corp.’s WindowsD and/or Apple Corp.’s Macintosh ⁇ operating systems) and/or workstation computers running any of a variety of commercially-available UNIXD or UNIX-like operating systems.
- These user computers may also have any of a variety of applications, including for example, database client and/or server applications, and web browser applications.
- the user computers may be any other electronic device, such as a thin-client computer, Internet-enabled mobile telephone, and/or personal digital assistant, capable of communicating via a network and/or displaying and navigating web pages or other types of electronic documents. Any number of user computers may be supported.
- the network maybe a local area network (“LAN”), such as an Ethernet network, a Token-Ring network and/or the like; a wide-area network; a virtual network, including without limitation a virtual private network (“VPN”); the Internet; an intranet; an extranet; a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”); an infra-red network; a wireless network (e.g., a network operating under any of the IEEE 802.11 suite of protocols, the BluetoothD protocol known in the art, and/or any other wireless protocol); and/or any combination of these and/or other networks.
- LAN local area network
- VPN virtual private network
- PSTN public switched telephone network
- wireless network e.g., a network operating under any of the IEEE 802.11 suite of protocols, the BluetoothD protocol known in the art, and/or any other wireless protocol
- the system in varying embodiments may also include one or more server computers.
- One server may be a web server, which may be used to process requests for web pages or other electronic documents from user computers.
- the web server can be running an operating system including any of those discussed above, as well as any commercially-available server operating systems.
- the web server can also run a variety of server applications, including SIP servers, HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI servers, database servers, Java servers, and the like. In some instances, the web server may publish operations available operations as one or more web services.
- the computing environment may also include one or more file and or/application servers, which can, in addition to an operating system, include one or more applications accessible by a client running on one or more of the user computers.
- the server(s) may be one or more general purpose computers capable of executing programs or scripts in response to the user computers.
- the server may execute one or more web applications.
- the web application may be implemented as one or more scripts or programs written in any programming language, such as JavaTM, C, C# , or C++, and/or any scripting language, such as Perl, Python, or TCL, as well as combinations of any programming/scripting languages.
- the application server(s) may also include database servers, including without limitation those commercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, SybaseTM, IBMTM and the like, which can process requests from database clients running on a user computer.
- the web pages created by the application server may be forwarded to a user computer via a web server.
- the web server may be able to receive web page requests, web services invocations, and/or input data from a user computer and can forward the web page requests and/or input data to the web application server.
- the server may function as a file server.
- the computer system may also comprise software elements, including but not limited to application code, within a working memory, including an operating system and/or other code. It should be appreciated that alternate embodiments of a computer system may have numerous variations from that described above. For example, customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets), or both. Further, connection to other computing devices such as network input/output devices may be employed.
- one or more web servers are operable to provide web services to the user devices.
- the web server receives data or requests for data and communicates with the database server to store or retrieve the data.
- the web server functions as the intermediary to put the data in the database into a usable form for the user devices.
- a database server is any hardware and/or software operable to communicate with the database and to manage the data within the database.
- Database servers for example, SQL server, are well known in the art and will not be explained further herein.
- the database can be any storage mechanism, whether hardware and/or software, for storing and retrieving data.
- the database can be as described further herein.
- components of the web server can include hardware and/or software components.
- the web server includes a discovery web service.
- the discovery web service is operable to receive a first request from a user device.
- the first request is mapped to a predetermined web server.
- each mobile device is associated with a predetermined one or more web servers associated with the enterprise or organization of the user and/or user device.
- a discovery web service extracts information from the request, e.g ., the user’s name, a user’s mobile device identifier (e.g. , a cell phone number, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, etc.), or some other identifying information. This information is compared to a stored table or other data to match the user device to an assigned web server. If the mobile device is assigned to the web server, the request is passed to the device interface. However, if the mobile device is mapped to another web server, the discovery web service can redirect the request and the mobile device by replying to the request with a redirect message that includes the uniform resource locator (URL) for the other web server. In this way, the system is expandable, as new web servers can be easily added as new enterprises use the system.
- a redirect message that includes the uniform resource locator (URL) for the other web server.
- Conga Composer In varying embodiments described herein, reference has been made to Conga Composer. However, it should be understood that other documents, which have not been created using Conga Composer, may enjoy the benefits of the systems and methods described herein. For example, a document associated with the Salesforce CPQ application may be used with the foregoing systems and methods. In yet other embodiments, a completely native version of a document may be uploaded and used with the systems and methods described herein. In one embodiment, the native document may pass through an additional module or modules in order to associate data sources with text or other data contained in the native document, so as to enjoy the benefits of automatic tracking and management of modifications during the course of negotiation.
- machine-executable instructions may be stored on one or more machine-readable mediums, such as CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other types of machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronic instructions.
- machine-readable mediums such as CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other types of machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronic instructions.
- the methods may be performed by a combination of hardware and software.
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Priority Applications (4)
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AU2018374762A AU2018374762B2 (en) | 2017-03-06 | 2018-11-16 | Systems and methods for modifying and reconciling negotiated documents |
JP2020529176A JP2021504834A (en) | 2017-03-06 | 2018-11-16 | Systems and methods for modifying and aligning negotiation documents |
CA3076551A CA3076551A1 (en) | 2017-03-06 | 2018-11-16 | Systems and methods for modifying and reconciling negotiated documents |
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CN117272953A (en) * | 2023-11-15 | 2023-12-22 | 明度智云(浙江)科技有限公司 | Automatic document information filling method, system and storage medium |
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EP3676731A4 (en) | 2021-06-02 |
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