A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
The present invention generally relates to employee stock plan administration. Particularly, the present invention relates to computer systems and methods, which provide automated employee stock plan administration and management functionality.
A number of employers, e.g., companies, offer compensation and benefits to their employees via stock plans, such as an employee stock option plan (“ESOP”), employee stock purchase plan (“ESPP”), restricted stock agreement plan (“RSA”), etc. Stock plans provide a variety of benefits for both the employer and employee. Employers, for instance, may benefit with increased tax savings, cash flow, and productivity, and employees granted a stake in the company therewith are able to share in the company's success. An employee stock option is generally a contractual right granted to an employee or employees that give employees the option to purchase company stock during a specified period at a predetermined price. An ESPP similarly allows employees to purchase company stock, however, rather than at a predetermined price, the employee usually purchases the stock at a discounted price. Under a restricted stock agreement, the company generally grants company stock to an employee subject to specific vesting and transfer restrictions.
As attractive as the employee stock plans may be, administering the various types of stock plans and the individual contracts or agreements thereunder may prove to be a complex and burdensome endeavor particularly because each of respective plans include a number or qualifications and limitations, either contractual or regulatory, associated therewith which must be adhered to in order for the parties to attain the maximum benefit from the respective stock plans. The burden is compounded for companies conducting business on a national or international scale having a relatively large number of employees that are qualified or able to participate in the respective plans provided by the employer.
Automated systems appearing in the art, such as the Stock Option Control and Exercise System disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,346, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, attempt to reduce the burden associated with managing and exercising stock options. The systems and corresponding methods disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,346, however, have numerous shortcomings, including limited general applicability for administering or managing plurality types of stock plans. There is therefore a need for systems and methods which provide greater efficiency with respect to administering a plurality of employee stock plans.
In accordance with this invention, computer systems and methods are disclosed that provide centralized employee stock plan administration. In one aspect of the present invention, centralized employee stock plan administration is provided by receiving identification information from a user, determining the user's entitlement to available features based on the identification information, which entitlement may be company specific, and displaying an administrator's dashboard interface screen including therein an administrator's dashboard interface that provides various metrics that are displayed according to the user's entitlement. The metrics are generally associated with one or more employee stock plans of a company, thereby providing users with key numerical data regarding at least one employee stock plan.
In one embodiment, the metric comprises at least one of processing statistics for workflow requests, processing statistics for reporting requests, plan activity for particular employee stock plans, and plan statistics for particular stock plans. The plan activity metric may be data pertaining to at least one of the number of shares of company stock exercised, vested, expired, settled, and released. The plan statistics metric may be data pertaining to at least one of the number of active participants, outstanding grants, outstanding options, outstanding plan value, outstanding shares, and total elections. The administrator's dashboard interface may also provide the user with at least one feature selected from a group consisting alerts, contact information, and market information.
In one embodiment, the administrator's dashboard interface screen includes therein at least one of a plurality of available key business function navigation elements displayed according to user's entitlements, which allow users to access therewith key business functions. The key business function navigation elements may be displayed consistently within each of the key business function interface screens corresponding to each of the available key business functions. The key business navigation elements may allow users to access key business functions such as at least one of an administrator's dashboard function, a participant inquiry function, a workflow function, a reporting function and a site administration function.
A participant inquiry interface screen, displayed in response to a user's navigation request, e.g., to access the participant inquiry function, includes therein form elements allowing the user to specify search criteria to search for participants of at least one employee stock plan. A search result interface screen listing participants matching the user's search criteria may be displayed after receiving the search criteria from the user. The search result interface screen may include at least one navigation element therein allowing the user to access participant information for a particular participant. A participant profile interface screen may thus be displayed in response to a request for a participant profile for a particular participant. The participant profile interface screen generally providing personal information relating to the participant, and including therein navigation elements allowing a user to access at least one of administration data, comments, registration data, leave of absence data, participant plan information, and trade summaries for the selected participant.
The workflow functionality allows the user the ability to request particular administration tasks such as changing a participant's status to “terminated” or run a particular report. The user may attach files to the request and may ask to be notified via email once the task has been accomplished.
A workflow interface screen, displayed in response to a user's navigation request, provides a status summary for workflow requests. The workflow interface screen may include therein form elements allowing a user to specify search criteria to search for workflow requests. A search result interface screen listing workflow requests matching the user's search criteria may thus be displayed in response the receipt of the user's search criteria. The search result interface screen may include at least one navigation element therein allowing the user to access a case summary for a particular workflow request and, in one embodiment, may also provide a status summary for workflow requests submitted by all users assigned a specific role.
The workflow interface screen may also include form elements therein allowing a user to submit a particular type of a new workflow request. A new workflow request interface screen particular to the type of workflow request may be displayed in response to receipt of a new workflow request. The workflow request interface screen preferably includes form elements therein allowing the user to specify details of the request. In one embodiment, the workflow interface screen includes therein a participant ID form element requiring the user to input a participant's identification number in order to initiate a new workflow request for a participant. The form elements included in the new workflow request interface screen may then be automatically populated based on the participant's identification number. The particular type of new workflow requests may be any one selected from a group consisting of a general change request for a participant, a request for a participant demographic change, a grant change request, a request to indicate participant termination, a request for a participant tax profile change, a request for an exercise revision, a request to block users from the system, and a request to change insider status. The workflow interface screen may also include therein at least one navigation element associated with a particular workflow requests listed therein allowing the user to request a workflow case summary.
A plan reporting interface screen, displayed in response to a user's navigation request, allows the user to request a report based on at least one of user defined criteria and a report template of a plurality of available templates, and allowing the user to view reports. The plan reporting interface screen may include therein navigation elements allowing a user to navigate to an interface screen selected from a group consisting of a run report interface screen allowing a user to request a report therewith, a report queue interface screen proving a list of active, pending and scheduled, reports, and a finished report interface screen listing reports that the user is entitled to view, the finished report interface screen including navigation elements therein allowing the user to request an action with respect to the listed reports.
The invention is illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawings, which are meant to be exemplary and not limiting, in which like references refer to like or corresponding parts, and in which:
Stock plan administration is typically handled by specialists that may either be employed by the company providing stock plans or specialists that provide administration services to the company on a contractual basis. In either event, stock plan administrators must typically manage a variety of plan types for a number of plan participants. Managing may include tracking, handling stock transactions, maintaining records, generating reports, analyzing data, etc., which typically have been accomplished using a combination of manual and automated steps, and also using a plurality of securities trading and/or stock plan administration platforms. In accordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention, employee stock plan administration is facilitated by providing stock plan administrators or other users with centralized employee stock plan administration. Centralized employee stock plan administration is used herein to generally refer to systems and corresponding methods which provide users with key business functions and data on a single platform thereby providing an effective and efficient way for users to administer and manage employee stock plans. A business function generally relates to an activity performed in the course of administering employee stock plans.
In one embodiment of the present invention, users of the system access the centralized administration functionality, as described herein, with a client interface communicatively connected to a stock plan administration system, which may be managed by a financial service firm, such as UBS Paine Webber. Referring to
In one embodiment, the web/application server 118 includes application programming logic that provides the backend functionality of the invention. The server computers 102, 118 include at least one program application or program module for displaying or causing to be displayed, on a client device 108, an administrator's dashboard interface screen including therein an administrator's dashboard that provides features and metrics associated with at least one employee stock plan relevant to the user logged on to the platform. A dashboard is a user interface that organizes and presents relevant information, such as employee stock plan data, in a way that is easy to view. This aspect of the invention allows users to get key information, e.g., numerical data, relevant to their daily duties, such as alerts, processing statistics, plan activity, plan statistics, contacts, market view, etc., without having to search through various platforms, applications, or interface screens. In one embodiment, the administrator dashboard screen is a homepage or a first page displayed to a user, after logging on to the system, which includes stock plan administration statistics relevant to the user for the previous (yesterday), the current (today), and the following day (tomorrow). In another embodiment, the server computers 102, 118 include at least one application or module that provides navigation and access to a plurality of interface screens and underlying applications consistently throughout the interface screens of the platform. Preferably, the server computer 102, 118 includes applications or modules that provide users with key business functions, such as administrator's dashboard, participant inquiry, workflow, reporting, site administration, file exchange, client profile, events calendar, etc., each of which are discussed in more detail below.
The client devices 108 preferably include programming therein, such as an Internet or Web browser application, for displaying a plurality of graphic user interface screens and for allowing users to communicate requests and data to the stock plan administration system, particularly to the server computers 102, 118. The server computers 102, 118 are associated with one or more databases 120 populated with information relevant for administering employee stock plans, such as information pertaining to participants, stock plans, stock prices, etc. Particular units of information relevant to administering employee stock plans, which may populate the databases 120, are discussed in more detail below in connection with the key business function applications and corresponding interface screens.
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If the system receives the request from the appropriate IP address, it receives the identification information from the user, step 308, and proceeds to authenticate the identification information, e.g., the user ID and password, step 310. Authentication generally denotes verifying the identity of the user that is attempting to access the system. It is understood that authentication may be accomplished in a variety of ways. In one embodiment, authentication includes comparing the identification information communicated by the user with identification information for a plurality of authorized users stored in one of the databases 120 and/or data stores 224, step 312. If authentication fails, the system displays or causes to be displayed an error interface screen indicating the failed login attempt, step 314. The error interface screen may also include form elements therein which allow users to reattempt login. In one embodiment, the number of login attempts will be limited to a predefined number, such as 3, 4, 5, etc. In the event the predefined number of login attempts have been exhausted, the error interface screen is displayed without the form elements therein.
If at step 312 authentication is satisfied, in one embodiment, the system determines the user's entitlements to available features, step 316. The system, for instance, may determine whether the user is entitled to the relevant metrics provided via an administrator's dashboard interface screen, such as entitlement to alerts 318, processing statistics 320, plan activity and plan statistics for ESOP 322, ESPP 324, and RSA 326 plans, contacts 328, e.g., contact information, and market view 330, e.g., market information. In one embodiment, all users are entitled to the market view feature. The system may also determine entitlement to key business functions, such as entitlement to participant inquiry 332, workflow 334, reporting 336, site administration 338, file exchange 340, client profile 342, and events calendar 344. For users that manage or administer stock plans for a plurality of companies, the level or degree of entitlement may be company specific. For instance, the user may be entitled to view plan activity and processing statistics for company A while only being entitled to plan activity for company B. Entitlement may be determined by accessing an entitlement database that includes data regarding entitlements to particular features, metrics, functions, etc. for particular users. The system may also determine row and column entitlement. With regard to row entitlement, the system generally determines and limits access to data for particular participant, and with regard to column entitlement, the system determines and limits access to particular types of data, such as confidential or sensitive participant information. Participant data and/or particular types of data may be filtered and thereby not presented to the user based on one of a plurality of filter criteria, such as country, location, subsidiary, name, address, phone, email address, officer description, officer code, date of birth, social security number, salary, account number or officer class. The administrator's dashboard interface screen may then be displayed or caused to be displayed according to the user's entitlements regarding employee stock plans of a first company, step 346.
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In another embodiment, the administrator's dashboard interface screen includes key business function navigation elements 402 therein allowing users to access key business functions, such as an administrator's dashboard, participant inquiry, workflow, reporting, site administration, file exchange, client profile, events calendar, etc., and allowing the user to access the particular key business function interface screen associated therewith in accordance with the user's entitlements. Each key business function navigation element is preferably displayed on the administrator's dashboard interface screen 400 as an individual tab with at least one tab highlighted to indicate which of the available interface screens is being displayed. For instance, when the administrator's dashboard is being displayed, the home tab may be highlighted. The key business function navigation elements, according to one embodiment, are displayed consistently within each of the key business function interface screens. Thus, the user gains access to the key business functions by selecting or clicking a key business function navigation element which results in a navigation request communicated to the system and the system displaying or causing to be displayed a corresponding interface screen, such as an administrator's dashboard interface screen, a participant inquiry interface screen, a workflow interface screen, a reporting interface screen, a site administration interface screen, a file exchange interface screen, a client profile interface screen, or an events calendar interface screen, each including therein key business function navigation elements.
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A plan profile interface screen provides general plan information for a particular participant. Referring to
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The workflow interface screen may also include form elements, such as input boxes 2506, allowing a user to search for particular requests by tracking number, or other attributes of a workflow request, such as by participant information, user (submitter) information, type of request, status of request, priority of request, open and closed dates, etc. Alternatively or in addition, the search may be facilitated with a workflow interface screen as shown in
The workflow interface screen 2500 may also include form elements, such as input boxes and drop down lists 2504, allowing a user to submit or initiate a particular type of new workflow request therewith for a particular participant. In one embodiment, a participant ID number is a required data element that must be specified by the user in order to initiate a new workflow request. The participant ID may also be used by the system to retrieve participant data for the workflow request, such as the participant's name, address, relevant dates, etc., which will be used to automatically populate form elements in the new workflow request interface screens. In addition to being able to request information regarding stock transactions, such as options exercised, purchased stock, etc., users may also be able to make a general change request for a participant, a request for a participant demographic change, a grant change request, a request to indicate participant termination, a request for a participant tax profile change, a request for an exercise revision, a request to block users from the system, a request to change insider status, etc. A request for a particular type of new workflow request is received by the system, step 2424, and provided the user is entitled or authorized to submit the particular request for the participant, a new workflow request interface screen for the particular type of request is displayed at the client device, step 2430, as shown in
The workflow request interface screen may include navigation elements, such as hyperlinks, associated with particular workflow requests listed therein, allowing a user to request a workflow case summary and to view detailed information regarding the workflow request. A request for a workflow case summary may therefore be received by the system, step 2416, and if the user has access to view the participant's information, step 2418, a case summary interface screen is displayed or caused to be displayed at the client device, step 2422.
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In response to a request, step 3606, a run report interface screen is displayed or caused to be displayed, step 3607. A run report interface screen generally provides a list of products, categories, and reports that the user is entitled to execute, and allows a user to request a report therewith. If at step 3608, a report request is communicated to the system, a corresponding report is produced or scheduled to be produced, step 3610, otherwise, a user may communicate a navigation request thereby causing to be displayed an interface screen according to the navigation request. In one embodiment, the system automatically notifies the report requester, such as by email, on the closure of the request, e.g., when the report is available for viewing. In another embodiment, the user may save a search, e.g., the search report criteria, for future submission, and may further schedule reports to be run periodically.
Similarly, in response to a request, step 3612, a report request queue interface screen is displayed or caused to be displayed, step 3613. A report queue interface screen generally provides a list of active, pending, scheduled, and failed report requests for the user.
Additionally, in response to a request, step 3618, a finished report interface screen is displayed or caused to be displayed, step 3619. A finished report interface screen generally provides a list of reports that the user is entitled to view, including those submitted by the user and those run by other users that were published to the user. The finished report interface screen may also include therein elements, such as hyperlinks, allowing a user to request an action with respect to the listed reports, such as a request to view a report, save a report, delete a report, and publish a report to other users thereby ensuring that a plurality of users are provided with consistent information and reducing the need for redundant reports. If at step 3620 an action is requested, the system performs the action accordingly, step 3622.
In one embodiment, site administration interface screen includes therein navigation elements, such as hyperlinks displayed in the form of sub-tabs, allowing a user to navigate to related interface screens, as shown in
While the invention has been described and illustrated in connection with preferred embodiments, many variations and modifications as will be evident to those skilled in this art may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and the invention is thus not to be limited to the precise details of methodology or construction set forth above as such variations and modification are intended to be included within the scope of the invention.