WO2021100055A1

WO2021100055A1 - Virtual bill payments system and corresponding methods thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2021100055A1
Application number: PCT/IN2020/050550
Authority: WO
Inventors: Naveen Nekkalapudi
Original assignee: Naveen Nekkalapudi
Priority date: 2019-11-21
Filing date: 2020-06-24
Publication date: 2021-05-27

Abstract

A method for enabling virtual bill payment for a multiple- billers includes the steps of, providing a unified billing platform to a biller of the multiple billers for sending / processing of a multiple bills and for receiving a multiple-payments; using multiple data points (critical data) for preparing invoice for each bill of the multiple bills and for preparing a graphical user interface (GUI) for a multiple customers; allowing the multiple customers to pay the multiple bills via a multiple payment methods; and, providing an application resource to the multiple customers for secured and flexible payments of the multiple bills corresponding to the multiple payment methods.

Description

VIRTUAL BILL PAYMENTS SYSTEM AND CORRESPONDING METHODS THEREOF

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the field of bill Payments systems, and, more particularly, to “’Virtual Bill Payments” systems and corresponding methods thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Sending Bills/Invoices to the customer is the most time-taking process for billers. It requires human force to process invoices and post them to the customer location. For instance, ‘citizen’ receives monthly power bills from an ‘Energy’ company; thus, the billing company uses human force/software from processing bills to sending billing information to customer place is a time taking process. This conventional process is only for sending information but not receiving the payments in the same environment. So, the customers are relying on other platforms to pay money for bills. Even though the biller receives the same billed amount, but from different platforms in various volumes, money reconciliation is difficult for organizations/billers. Organizations/Billers use multiple platforms for processing/sending bills, and receiving payments from other categorized platforms seem a two-platformed process. These three crucial steps (processing, sending, and collecting payments) use different platforms for money to be received by the Biller and customers also found it very hard to understand the billing information and to choose the payment option at their flexibility. With the explosive development on the Internet in the course of recent years and the rapid increase in the number of consumers with access to the World Wide Web, there has been a lot of enthusiasm for the improvement of electronic commerce on the Internet. Traditional financial exchanges are being changed. Specifically, conceivable outcomes for the use of smart cards are expanding. Also called chip cards, integrated circuit cards, memory cards or processor cards, a smart card is normally a credit card-sized plastic card that incorporates at least one semiconductor integrated circuits.

A smart card can interface with a point-of-sale terminal, an ATM, or with a card reader integrated with a computer, telephone, vending machine, or an assortment of different devices. The smart card may be customized with different types of functionality such as a stored-value application, credit or debit application, a loyalty application, cardholder information, etc.

Although a plastic card is as of now the mechanism of choice for smart cards, it is anticipated that a smart card may also be implemented in a smaller form factor, for instance, it might append to a key chain or be as tiny as a chip module. A smart card may also be implemented as a major aspect of a personal digital assistant, telephone, or take an alternative form.

A smart card contains a hardware encryption module for performing an assortment of encryption algorithms. Encryption may likewise be performed in software. Applied Cryptography, Bruce Schneier, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996 talks about reasonable encryption algorithms and thus fused by reference.

Numerous mechanical and electrical characteristics of a smart card and aspects of its contact with a card reader device are depicted in Smart Card Handbook, W. Rankl and W. Effing, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 1997, which is consolidated thus by reference.

Generally, virtual payment methods issued by the banks include a system of dispensing single-use and multiple-use virtual payment cards through a mobile device. In operation, while applying for a payment card, a customer has to personally visit a bank to stand in queues and spent time filling out multiple bank forms.

Subsequently, the bank will process a credit card application by inspecting the solvencies of an applicant, verifying his credit history and occupational information. Moreover, the processing of payment cards including carving names and card numbers on the card and storing magnetic information on the magnetic stripe of the card takes a definite amount of time. Thus, while procuring a payment card after filing an application may be an enduring procedure, customers may need a payment card immediately. Additionally, customers may want to avoid physical plastic cards and may want to have only virtual cards to avoid cons related to personal payment data.

Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for innovative, novel, efficient solutions for providing virtual bill payment systems and corresponding methods thereof. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 4

The embodiments of the present disclosure have several features, no single one of which is solely responsible for their desirable attributes. Without limiting the scope of the present embodiments as expressed by the claims that follow, their more prominent features will now be discussed briefly. After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading the section entitled “Detailed Description”, one will understand how the features of the present embodiments provide advantages.

In one embodiment, a method for enabling virtual bill payment for a multiple billers include the steps of, providing a unified billing platform to a biller of the multiple billers for sending / processing of multiple bills and for receiving multiple payments; using multiple data points (critical data) for preparing an invoice for each bill of the multiple bills and for preparing a graphical user interface (GUI) for multiple customers; allowing the multiple customers to pay the multiple bills via multiple payment methods; and, providing an application resource to the multiple customers for secured and flexible payments of the multiple bills corresponding to the multiple payment methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 : Illustrates the process of creating Virtual Bill Payment platform, in accordance with an embodiment of the present Invention;

FIG. 2: Illustrates exclusiveness of the system using unique gateway from biller’s computer to setting up Customer GUI, in accordance with an embodiment of the present Invention; FIG. 3: Illustrates the sequence of process performed from billers’ end to create structured format of bill along with payment option within, in accordance with an embodiment of the present Invention; and,

FIG. 4.1 & 4.2: Illustrates the Novelty of the present Invention, in accordance with an embodiment of the present Invention.

FIG. 5: Illustrates work and internal mechanisms of the system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The table 301,302,303, connects to customer account using Info-ID to send bills tagged with banking information to it. Table 304,305,306 receives the invoice information in a structured format along with the payment option embedded to that billers tab. The payment option in the biller’s tab in the customer application links to customers' virtual payment methods. In this entire platform, the customer will choose the payment option based on his financial flexibility, and it can be changed to another payment option whenever the customer needs it. The two steps connect seamlessly using "Info-ID” to send real-time information.

The two formats shown in the figures are for understanding the commercial value of the product. This explanation is not restrictive to a single process. Thorough reading on both billers gets a complete resolution on the system.

In the process, fig. 4.1, billerl uses or buys our tool to send the Invoice/Token/Energy bill to the customerl in real-time into the customerl account because the billerl has the email ID/Mobile of the customerl. The customerl has a virtual bill payment platform account registered with the same email ID/mobile. With the use of this tool, billerl can see the critical information highlighted with the payment option and the total invoice tagged to its biller’s tabs in the customerl web/app account. After receiving the invoice, customerl can choose to pay/schedule the amount based upon his flexibility within the platform. Customerl can change its financial institution/credit cards from the virtual payment platforms linked to the account anytime. Changing Financial Institutions will be applied to the whole account. In the process, fig. 4.2, biller2 (not a partner) doesn’t have our virtual bill payments platform linked to their enterprise computer. In this process, biller2 depends on time taking bill processing and on postal services to reach the customer2. Even though biller2 has the consumed email and he/she chooses to receive billing to mail, the whole process only shows the invoice. Once the consumed gets the invoice, he/she depends on third-party platforms only to pay. In this process, if customer2 wants to change the payment method frequently, biller2 will have low money reconciliation, and every customer cannot follow the same platform as customer2 to pay for this biller2, until biller2 gets an innovative tool/monopoly for processing bills. Various embodiments of the present invention are disclosed hereinbelow, which relate to the virtual bill payments system and corresponding methods thereof.

Generally, the systems and methods as disclosed herein are aimed at providing a separate platform by extending the limits of using virtual payment cards for processing bills. In use, the embodiments of the present invention integrate the biller and the customer in real-time by a unique software tool to enhance the invoicing, payment, and Bill processing experience for both customers and biller’s by using "Info ID” as a gateway platform. Specifically, for receiving payments and sending bill information, the tool uses "Info-ID” as a gateway to connect with the customer in a single environment in a seamless way using cloud computing. The innovative software tool as disclosed herein prepares bills dynamically using critical data from the process of billing, sends the billing invoices to the customer in real-time, gives flexibility to the customer to change their payment institution with an easy select option based on their financial situation, and the like.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the software tool also highlights the critical data in the bill for easy understanding to the consumer to make a payment, wherein the machine learning program embedded in this software tool reads out the essential data in the process of billing.

In accordance with an embodiment of the Virtual Bill Payment System, various modules of the present invention will prepare customer’s GUI and compare month to month spending on bills, will also give an option to make schedule/periodic payments for every individual invoice.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the novel and unique aspects of the present invention include three essential features to make a complete system, including, creation of an exclusive software system which runs on "Info ID” gateway connected to cloud with the customer application, a "Machine learning Program” (Our Tool) embedded to billing organization (Tailored to individual trading needs); and, a Billing application for the custom graphical user interface to the customer. This whole system connects in an unimagined way to Send/process/store/pay all individual consumer bills (Power, Internet, phone, Gas, Water, and more) either for residential or commercial use at the single environment (Web, App) to make payments effortlessly using virtual payment cards through Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. This software system works using unique "Info-ID (e-mail/Mobile)” of the consumer, which is usually submitted by a consumer to the billing organization. This innovative tool linked to the biller’s computer uses critical data from the bill includes (Billing period, Bill created, Due date, Amount owing, etc.) and then uses consumer "Info-ID” as a gateway to Send/process/store/pay bills in real-time.

In this system, a consumer paying to the invoice is a single streamlined process that stores the biller’s banking information (Differs from every biller) in the background. This software engine integrates with virtual payment cards (Customer)platforms to make secure and confident payments.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a method for enabling virtual bill payment for a multiple-billers includes the steps of, providing a unified billing platform to a biller of the multiple billers for sending / processing of multiple bills and for receiving multiple payments; using multiple data points (critical data) for preparing an invoice for each bill of the multiple bills and for preparing a graphical user interface (GUI) for multiple customers; allowing the multiple customers to pay the multiple bills via multiple payment methods; and, providing an application resource to the multiple customers for secured and flexible payments of the multiple bills corresponding to the multiple payment methods. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes the step of providing the unified billing platform to different billers of the multiple billers to send multiple invoices to the multiple customers. In use, the multiple payment methods include a virtual payment Cards Platform and each customer can add at least one card to the virtual payment method.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes the steps of, providing automated storage of the multiple bills in a database; providing an option to each customer to select an instant payment option based on their flexibility; and, providing banking information of the biller to the customer via the GUI (through web and app; GUI shows critical data in the invoice). In use, the database connects the billers with the customers. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes the steps of, using multiple information IDs (email, mobile) for sending information and for receiving multiple bills into the application resource for multiple customers; providing multiple features via multiple modes (Cloud as a network device, software as a service (SaaS)); and, integrating multiple biller modules with a Customer billing Application/Web to generate an understandable GUI with payment information tagged to individual Billers Tab. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes the steps of, providing each month’s spending compared to the multiple customers; and, providing the flexibility of changing a payment option for one or more bills. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes the steps of, connecting the virtual payment platform to any electronic mailing platform based upon customer’s preference; and, providing a customer email address to the biller to send and receive payments.

Embodiments of the instant invention are further aimed at solving problems associated with the prior art, such as, for example, but not limited to, errors due to receiving several bills in a billing cycle. The present invention aims to provide novel and inventive billing and payment systems that are utilized by multiple utility providers.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the innovative methods and systems are implemented as a computerized billing and payment processing system. In use, the billing data is obtained from a service provider and is related to a bill for payment. In further use, the billing data is combined and is electronically accessible by the customer. Those of ordinary skills in the art will appreciate that the systems and methods as disclosed herein are executed with a multi-user computer network like the Internet.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, an exemplary use of the systems and methods as disclosed herein include an instance, but not limited to, a customer energy usage information is collected from Meter/Device/Market by billers and stored in the database unit. Thereafter, the biller uses this innovative tool to mark critical data using the processor/Algorithms in this virtual Bill payment platform tool; which is embedded to the individual biller’s computer and it sends the information to the customer with the payment option within. Similarly, multiple billers who have this virtual payment platform tool can directly send the invoices and receive the payments within. In use, the billers banking information is added to individual organization tool in the background, which shows up as a GUI in the customer's application for payment.

Embodiments of the Present invention as disclosed herein are aimed at providing novel and inventive solutions by eliminating the need to use different interfaces when multiple billing transactions are to be settled. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the billers and the customers are integrated, wherein while a Customer is setting up the energy account or joining any organization for an account, the input is given to the biller here is customers "email ID/Phone NUM” is very commonly used and given. In use, different countries have various options but "email ID/Phone” NUM is mandatories in every field. Subsequently, once the plurality billers receive the gateway information which is email "ID/Phone NUM” the virtual Bill payment Platform uses it as a "Info ID”, thereafter using this unique Info-1 D Biller will send the bills to Plurality of Customers and receive payments within. Likewise, the Plurality of customers can Pay the invoice/Bill to Plurality of Billers using this "Virtual Bill Payment Platform”.

In addition to the above, systems and methods as disclosed herein are capable of being embodied to provide multiple techniques, methods, and computer programs for various offerings covering energy utility from one or more sources by way of a single interface. In such embodiments, the data of a transaction is received and the billing of the transaction is run through an interface available to multiple billing sources as generated by one or more providers.

Those of ordinary skills in the art will appreciate that the paying/scheduling the Bill Payment is achieved using the systems and methods as disclosed herein. The method as claimed wherein said plurality of payment methods includes a virtual payment card method and each customer can add at least one card to said virtual payment method. In use, the payments are further classified into Instant payments option and scheduling the payment for every individual biller. Generally, once the "Virtual Payment cards” are added to the customer Billing application; thereafter the application will ask to select one at a time for the Plurality of the billers existed in the current customer account; if the customer instantly pays the money deducts from the card which selected as a prime. Likewise, scheduling Payment can be done to the Plurality of billers but individually concerning the Due date of the individual biller.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the flexible payment option is provided to the customers in the manner disclosed herein. In use, the customer doesn’t make the bill payments on a single payment card every time but wants to make on a single-tier platform which gives maximum flexibility across the range of payment options. Concerning the customer billing account, the virtual payment cards are added to the application thus performs payments from the customer side. Also, from the payment cards, customers can only select one single card which will be a prime card to the whole application to process payments. Likewise, customers can change those pluralities of the cards to any individual Biller as prime, based upon the financial flexibility and situation in a single platform. Nevertheless, of amount, due date customers can receive a plurality of Bills from Plurality of Billers to a single account where customers can pay with maximum flexibility. Those of ordinary skills in the art will appreciate that various innovative systems and methods as disclosed herein provide various unique aspects to the users, including, but not limited to, a payment plan (splitting payments), time-saving of users, involving no human intervention, higher money reconciliation, business to business features, links to VA / future Al for seamless communication, opens up continental business, and the like. Also, since this platform uses email/phone numbers and it is common in every area, and payment options are done through virtual payment card platforms which at least very common for every person on this planet. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the method further comprises the steps of, integrating a biller tool with a plurality of third parties to collect information; and, providing a machine learning tool embedded into the biller tool and asking relevant third parties for data to match customer information to process one or more respective bills. In use, as an example, a traffic infringement fine issuer will get customer data from the RTO to look up for matching data to decide an invoice.

Those of ordinary skills in the art will further appreciate that various embodiments as disclosed herein may be executed in a system environment including one or more customer devices, a communication network, one or more third-party systems, and the like. In alternative configurations, different and/or additional components may be included in the system environment as well. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the customer devices may include one or more computing devices capable of receiving user input as well as transmitting and/or receiving data via the communication network. In one embodiment, a customer device may include a conventional computer system, such as a desktop or a laptop computer. Alternatively, a customer devices may be a device having computer functionality, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a smartphone or another suitable device.

In operation, the customer device is configured to communicate via the communication networks. In one embodiment, the customer device executes an application allowing a user of the customer device to interact with the social networking aspects as disclosed hereinabove. As an example, the customer device may execute a browser application to enable interaction between the customer device and the social networking aspects as disclosed hereinabove via the communication network.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the customer device may interact with the social networking aspects as disclosed herein through an application programming interface (API) running on a native operating system of the user device, such as IOS^® or ANDROID^®. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the customer devices are configured to communicate via the communication network, which may comprise any combination of the local area and/or wide area networks, using both Wired and/or wireless communication systems. In use, the communication network uses standard communications technologies and/or protocols. For example, the communication network includes communication links using technologies such as Ethernet, 802.11, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), 3G, 4G, code division multiple access (CDMA), digital subscriber line (DSL), etc. Examples of networking protocols used for communicating via the communication network include multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), hypertext transport protocol (HTTP), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), and file transfer protocol (FTP). In use, data exchanged over the communication network may be represented using any suitable format, such as hypertext mark-up language (HTML) or extensible mark-up language (XML). In some embodiments, all or some of the communication links of the communication network may be encrypted using any suitable technique or techniques.

The conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” “may,” “e.g.,” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment. The terms "comprising," "including," 'having," and the like are synonymous and are used inclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additional elements, features, acts, operations, and so forth. Also, the term "or" is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so that when used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term "or" means one, some, or all of the elements in the list.

While there has been shown and described the preferred embodiment of the instant invention it is to be appreciated that the invention may be embodied otherwise than is herein specifically shown and described and that, within said embodiment, certain changes may be made in the form and arrangement of the parts without departing from the underlying ideas or principles of this invention as outlined in the Claims appended herewith. Therefore, the appended claims are to be construed to cover all equivalents falling within the true scope and spirit of the invention.

Claims

Claims I claim,

1. A method for enabling virtual bill payment for a plurality of billers, said method comprising the steps of: providing a unified billing platform to a biller of said plurality of billers for sending / processing of a plurality of bills and for receiving a plurality of payments; using a plurality of data points (critical data) for preparing an invoice for each bill of said plurality of bills and for preparing a graphical user interface (GUI) for a plurality of customers; allowing said plurality of customers to pay said plurality of bills via a plurality of payment methods; and, providing an application resource to said plurality of customers for secured and flexible payments of said plurality of bills corresponding to said plurality of payment methods.

2. The method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the step of providing said unified billing platform to different billers of said plurality of billers to send a plurality of invoices to said plurality of customers.

3. The method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said plurality of payment methods include a virtual payment method (example: Gpay, Spay, Apple pay) and each customer can add at least one card to said virtual payment method/sync whatever the cards they are currently using to customer’s billing application.

4. The method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the steps of: providing automated storage of said plurality of bills in a database, said database connecting said plurality of billers with said plurality of customers; providing an option to each customer to select an instant payment option based on their flexibility; and, providing banking information of said biller to said customer via said GUI

(web, app, GUI shows critical data in the invoice).

5. The method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the steps of: using a plurality of information IDs (info-IDs) (email, mobile) for sending information and for receiving a plurality of bills into said application resource for a plurality of customers; providing a plurality of features via a plurality of modes (Cloud as a network device, software as a service (SaaS)); and, integrating a plurality of biller modules with a biller device to generate an understandable GUI with payment information tagged to said GUI.

6. The method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the steps of: providing each month’s spending comparison to said plurality of customers; and, providing the flexibility of changing a payment option for one or more bills.

5

7. The method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the steps of:

Using said virtual payment platform to any electronic mailing platform address (For creating, a way to send bills and receive payments) based upon 10 customer’s preference; and, providing a customer email to said biller to access, view and pay said plurality of bills.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said method further 15 comprises the steps of: integrating a biller tool with a plurality of third parties to collect information; and, providing a machine learning tool embedded into said biller tool and asking relevant third parties for data to match customer information to process 20 one or more respective bills.