Patent Issued for Enterprise Message Management System And Method (USPTO 10,263,946)

2019 APR 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Humana Inc. (Louisville, Kentucky, United States) has been issued patent number 10,263,946, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventor is Fehling, Jeff (Louisville, KY).

This patent was filed on May 9, 2016 and was published online on April 29, 2019.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Medium and large sized organizations that interact with the public must frequently provide communication to certain individuals and groups which may be internal to the organization, external to the organization, or a combination of both. These communications may be in several forms. For example, direct mailings, emails, mobile messages, social media messages, fax messages, and various types of voice communications. Voice communications in particular may take the form of interactive incoming call management systems (interactive voice response and automated call distributions systems) and outgoing voice communication messages, either automatically delivered or performed from a script by persons associated with the organization. In addition to the various communication methods used, these communications may be one of several forms, for example, outgoing mail may take the form of general marketing material or material specific to an individual or group of individuals.

“These communications are often largely uncoordinated across an organization resulting in inefficient use of resources and irritation or confusion amount the recipients of such messages. For example, many organizations are formed from several divisions. Because of the different business focus of these divisions, the messages that they provide may differ, with the potential to cause confusion, overload the recipient, and result in unnecessary expenditures to deliver duplicate or inconsistent messaging. In some circumstances, communications to a general audience may contradict messaging targeted towards a specific person or group of persons.

“Depending upon the organization, a significant portion of an organization’s budget may be consumed by the cost of the aforementioned communications. As such, an organization may wish to deploy one or more analysis methods to gauge the effectiveness of various messages and means of communicating those messages. However, unless there is a method for coordinating the messaging taking place, it may become extremely difficult for such an analysis effort to determine exactly which messages are responsible for generating a desired response. For example, a health care provider or similar organization may wish to offer incentives to its members in order to encourage participation in an exercise program. The organization may communicate information about these incentives via a posting on social media at the same time as it communicates the very same information in a billing insert. In such an example situation, it may be very difficult to determine which of the communication methods utilized may have generated the greatest level of increase in interest among the members of the organization. Additionally, in such a promotion, an organization may be aware of a health condition that would prevent a recipient from participating in the exercise program promoted. In these circumstances, the organization may wish to avoid communicating such an exercise program to those recipients which the organization knows are unable to participate.

“What is needed is a system and method for managing the various messaging produced by an organization and communicated to a group of recipients. Additionally, a system and method is needed to analyze the resultant messaging in order to gauge its effectiveness.

“In an embodiment of the invention, a messaging management system may be comprised of computerized components, such as an incoming message depository, a message analysis function, a message fulfillment function, archiving functions, and analytical and reporting functions.

“In certain embodiments, the messaging management system may comprise an interactive message depot that facilitates a user’s creation and editing of a message while considering applicable organizational communications rules.

“Embodiments of the invention may also include the capability to coordinate messaging across the various groups within an organization to help prevent the creation and delivery of redundant or conflicting messages.

“Embodiments of the invention may also comprise watchlist functionality which permits a user to configure one or more watchlist functions whereby the user may be alerted when a message is directed to a particular group or type of recipients.

“Embodiments of the invention may also comprise reporting functionality which may be configured to analyze and report on the messaging history with regard to one or more contacts or message topics.

“Further features and advantages of the devices and systems disclosed herein, as well as the structure and operation of various aspects of the present disclosure, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying figures.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “Medium and large sized organizations that interact with the public must frequently provide communication to certain individuals and groups which may be internal to the organization, external to the organization, or a combination of both. These communications may be in several forms. For example, direct mailings, emails, mobile messages, social media messages, fax messages, and various types of voice communications. Voice communications in particular may take the form of interactive incoming call management systems (interactive voice response and automated call distributions systems) and outgoing voice communication messages, either automatically delivered or performed from a script by persons associated with the organization. In addition to the various communication methods used, these communications may be one of several forms, for example, outgoing mail may take the form of general marketing material or material specific to an individual or group of individuals.

“These communications are often largely uncoordinated across an organization resulting in inefficient use of resources and irritation or confusion amount the recipients of such messages. For example, many organizations are formed from several divisions. Because of the different business focus of these divisions, the messages that they provide may differ, with the potential to cause confusion, overload the recipient, and result in unnecessary expenditures to deliver duplicate or inconsistent messaging. In some circumstances, communications to a general audience may contradict messaging targeted towards a specific person or group of persons.

“Depending upon the organization, a significant portion of an organization’s budget may be consumed by the cost of the aforementioned communications. As such, an organization may wish to deploy one or more analysis methods to gauge the effectiveness of various messages and means of communicating those messages. However, unless there is a method for coordinating the messaging taking place, it may become extremely difficult for such an analysis effort to determine exactly which messages are responsible for generating a desired response. For example, a health care provider or similar organization may wish to offer incentives to its members in order to encourage participation in an exercise program. The organization may communicate information about these incentives via a posting on social media at the same time as it communicates the very same information in a billing insert. In such an example situation, it may be very difficult to determine which of the communication methods utilized may have generated the greatest level of increase in interest among the members of the organization. Additionally, in such a promotion, an organization may be aware of a health condition that would prevent a recipient from participating in the exercise program promoted. In these circumstances, the organization may wish to avoid communicating such an exercise program to those recipients which the organization knows are unable to participate.

“What is needed is a system and method for managing the various messaging produced by an organization and communicated to a group of recipients. Additionally, a system and method is needed to analyze the resultant messaging in order to gauge its effectiveness.

“In an embodiment of the invention, a messaging management system may be comprised of computerized components, such as an incoming message depository, a message analysis function, a message fulfillment function, archiving functions, and analytical and reporting functions.

“In certain embodiments, the messaging management system may comprise an interactive message depot that facilitates a user’s creation and editing of a message while considering applicable organizational communications rules.

“Embodiments of the invention may also include the capability to coordinate messaging across the various groups within an organization to help prevent the creation and delivery of redundant or conflicting messages.

“Embodiments of the invention may also comprise watchlist functionality which permits a user to configure one or more watchlist functions whereby the user may be alerted when a message is directed to a particular group or type of recipients.

“Embodiments of the invention may also comprise reporting functionality which may be configured to analyze and report on the messaging history with regard to one or more contacts or message topics.

“Further features and advantages of the devices and systems disclosed herein, as well as the structure and operation of various aspects of the present disclosure, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying figures.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A computerized messaging management system comprising: a computer server; a message depot in electronic communication with said computer server, said message depot configured by said computer server to receive message content data from a user, wherein said message content data comprises message characteristics selected by the user, said characteristics selected from the group consisting of: a workgroup, a recipient definition, a language selection, a definition of message variables, and a selection of applicable rules; a communication governance database in electronic communication with said computer server, said communication governance database comprising organizational messaging governance data; a message storage database in electronic communication with said message depot; a message analytics engine in electronic communication with said message storage database, said message analytics engine storing software instructions, which when executed configure the message analytics engine to analyze message content data stored in said message storage database and generate an alert should said message content data violate a predetermined limitation; a message fulfillment system in electronic communications with the message storage database, said message fulfillment system comprising software instructions, which when executed configure the message fulfillment system to convert said message content data into at least two different formats selected from the group consisting of: web content format, mobile device format, social media post format, voice communication systems format, postal mail format, email format, fax format, customer resource management system format, and fax communication system format, and transmit the formatted message content data to at least one fulfillment provider for transmission to a number of predetermined recipients; a message archival and retrieval system in electronic communication with said computer server and also in electronic communication with said message fulfillment system; and software instructions stored on said computer server, which when executed configured the computer server to: generate a template based on said selected message characteristic, populate said template with the message content data, retrieve and apply said governance data from said communications governance database to the received message content stored at said message depot to generate message content feedback data, notify the user of said message content feedback data and prompt the user to override said message content feedback data or modify said message content, retrieve said message content data after application of said governance data and store said message content data at said message storage database, and receive said message content data stored at the message storage database that has been provided to said at least one message fulfillment provider and store said message content data at said message archival and retrieval system; wherein said message analytics engine is also in electronic communication with said message archival and retrieval system, said message analytics engine comprising additional software instructions, which when executed configure the message analytics engine to retrieve message content data from said message archival and retrieval system and analyze contact history of said retrieved message content data and produce data representing message effectiveness for transmission to the user.

“2. The computerized messaging management system of claim 1, wherein said predetermined limitation is selected from of one of a business rule or the occurrence of a business event within a predetermined time of an intended date of the communication.

“3. The computerized messaging management system of claim 1, wherein said application of said governance data to said received message content data comprises a comparison of said governance data to said received message content data to identify common communication content.

“4. The computerized messaging management system of claim 3, wherein said governance data comprises workflow collaboration data consisting of message content data from at least one user other than the user from which the message content data was retrieved.

“5. The computerized messaging management system of claim 1, wherein said application of said governance data to said received message content data comprises a comparison of said governance data to said received message content data to identify common communication content.

“6. The computerized messaging management system of claim 5, wherein said governance data comprises data representing the effectiveness of at least one prior message.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Fehling, Jeff. Enterprise Message Management System And Method. U.S. Patent Number 10,263,946, filed May 9, 2016, and published online on April 29, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,263,946.PN.&OS=PN/10,263,946RS=PN/10,263,946

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