Patent Issued for Network server for segmenting and scheduling (USPTO 11934980): Hartford Fire Insurance Company

2024 APR 10 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Education Daily Report -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors McManus, Hope C (Simsbury, CT, US), Wojdyl, Wendy A. (West Hartford, CT, US), filed on March 30, 2023, was published online on March 19, 2024.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11934980 is Hartford Fire Insurance Company (Hartford, Connecticut, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “In applications associated with distributed communication networks, it may be important to help facilitate and/or schedule a series of communication events with resource units. For example, different types of resource units may respond to and/or react to different types and timings of communication events. Determining an appropriate schedule to achieve the best results from resource units, however, can be a time consuming and error prone task-especially when there are a substantial number of resource units (and associated communication devices) of many different types. It would therefore be desirable to provide systems and methods to facilitate the automated scheduling of a series of communication events with resource units.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A system is disclosed wherein a communication device database may store information about a plurality of communication devices, including at least one communication address associated with each communication device, wherein each communication device is associated with a resource unit. Moreover, a segmentation server may access information in a resource status database, automatically assign each resource unit to a resource segment based on at least one pre-determined algorithm and information in the resource status database, and transmit information about the resource segments. A scheduling server, coupled to the segmentation server, may receive the information about the resource segments from the segmentation server, automatically schedule a series of communication events with communication devices in accordance with the resource segments, using the communication addresses, via the distributed communication network, and arrange for communication links to be established for resource units in accordance with the scheduled series of communication events.

“By facilitating the automated scheduling of a series of communication events with resource units, embodiments may provide improved data exchange over a distributed communication network.

“With these and other advantages and features of the invention that will become hereinafter apparent, the invention may be more clearly understood by reference to the following detailed description of the invention, the appended claims, and the drawings attached hereto.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for segmenting and scheduling associated with a distributed communications network, comprising: a communication device database storing information about a plurality of communication devices, including at least one communication address associated with each communication device, wherein each communication device is associated with an employee of an employer; an employee status database storing a plurality of data item elements for each employee of the employer; and a network based segmentation server of an insurer, separate from and independent of the employer, in communication with the communication device database and the employee status database, programmed to: (i) access information in the employee status database, (ii) train at least one predictive model with results from current transactions such that the at least one predictive model adapts to changing conditions, (iii) automatically assign each employee to an employee segment, of a set of potential employee segments, based on the at least one predictive model, information in the employee status database, and historical buying behaviors associated with voluntary purchases of group benefit insurance products offered for sale by the insurer directly to other employees of other employers, said set of potential employee segments including a budget-stretchers segment, an up-and-coming segment, and an under-pressure segment, and (iv) transmit information about the employee segments; and (d) a scheduling server of the insurer, coupled to the segmentation server, programmed to: (v) receive a selection of a subset of the set of potential employee segments, (vi) receive the information about the employees assigned to each of the selected subset of potential employee segments from the segmentation server, (vii) automatically schedule a series of communication events with communication devices in accordance with the employees assigned to the selected subset of potential employee segments, using the communication addresses, via the distributed communication network, wherein the communication events are associated with voluntary group benefit insurance products offered for sale by the insurer directly to the employees of the employer, and (viii) arrange for communication links to be established for employees assigned to the selected subset of potential employee segments in accordance with the scheduled series of communication events.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the distributed communication network is associated with at least one of a public switched telephone network, the Internet, and a web portal.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified communication device is associated with at least one of: a telephone, a personal computer, a smartphone, a smartwatch, a tablet computer, and a chat interface.

“4. The system of claim 3, wherein the scheduling server is further programmed to: (viii) automatically arrange for a physical item to be delivered to a postal address associated with the communication device in connection with at least some of the scheduled series of communication events.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein employee segments are based on human resource census data of the employer that is specified and uploaded by the employer to the insurer, including a number of employees, gender information, salary information, and age information.

“6. The system of claim 5, wherein employee segments are further based on supplemental information, including at least one of: a level of education, a family status, an employment status, geographic information, answers to survey questions, a description of a company culture, and an indication of whether children live in a household.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the scheduled series of communication events is associated with at least one of: a website notice, administrator training, a notification ecard, an enrollment kit, an e-learning tool, promotional materials, a meeting, a benefit fair, reminder materials, digital education tools, a targeted email, a newsletter article, and annual re-enrollment planning materials.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is further to output at least one of: (i) an employee snapshot, (ii) a persona breakdown with benchmarking, (iii) a participation analysis, (iv) persona attributes, (v) a communication strategy describing timing, messaging, and tactics appropriate for the selected subset of potential resource segments, and (vi) a communication plan and timeline template appropriate for the selected subset of potential resource segments.

“9. A computer-implemented method for segmenting and scheduling associated with a distributed communications network, comprising: storing into a communication device database information about a plurality of communication devices, including at least one communication address associated with each communication device, wherein each communication device is associated with an employee of an employer; storing into an employee status database a plurality of data item elements for each employee of the employer; training at least one predictive model with results from current transactions such that the at least one predictive model adapts to changing conditions; utilizing a network based segmentation server of an insurer, separate from and independent of the employer, in communication with the communication device database and the employee status database, to: (i) access information in the employee status database, and (ii) automatically assign each employee to an employee segment, of a set of potential employee segments, based on the at least one predictive model, information in the employee status database, and historical buying behaviors associated with voluntary purchases of group benefit insurance products offered for sale by the insurer directly to other employees of other employers, and (iii) transmit information about the employee segments, said set of potential employee segments including a budget-stretchers segment, an up-and-coming segment, and an under-pressure segment; and utilizing a scheduling server of the insurer, coupled to the segmentation server, to: (iv) receive a selection of a subset of the set of potential employee segments, (v) receive the information about the employees assigned to each of the selected subset of potential employee segments from the segmentation server, (vi) automatically schedule a series of communication events with communication devices in accordance with the employees assigned to the selected subset of potential employee segments, using the communication addresses, via the distributed communication network, wherein the communication events are associated with voluntary group benefit insurance products offered for sale by the insurer directly to the employees of the employer, and (vii) arrange for communication links to be established for employees assigned to the selected subset of potential employee segments in accordance with the scheduled series of communication events.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein the distributed communication network is associated with at least one of a public switched telephone network, the Internet, and a web portal.

“11. The method of claim 9, wherein the identified communication device is associated with at least one of: a telephone, a personal computer, a smartphone, a smartwatch, a tablet computer, and a chat interface.

“12. The method of claim 9, wherein the scheduling server is further to: (viii) automatically arrange for a physical item to be delivered to a postal address associated with the communication device in connection with at least some of the scheduled series of communication events.

“13. The method of claim 9, wherein employee segments are based on human resource census data of the employer that is specified and uploaded by the employer to the insurer, including a number of employees, gender information, salary information, and age information.

“14. The method of claim 9, wherein employee segments are further based on supplemental information, including at least one of: a level of education, a family status, an employment status, geographic information, answers to survey questions, a description of a company culture, and an indication of whether children live in a household.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For additional information on this patent, see: McManus, Hope C. Network server for segmenting and scheduling. U.S. Patent Number 11934980, filed March 30, 2023, and published online on March 19, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11934980)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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