Claims
- 1. A vertically integrated method for facilitating the processing of transactions for entities, comprising:
receiving a request for a transaction from an entity; determining software programs, among a plurality of software programs providing processing for different services, for processing the transaction; accessing the software programs to process the transaction; receiving results of the processing; and providing the results to the entity.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving step includes receiving the request via a network.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the accessing step includes accessing a solution stack having a plurality of software programs providing services to process the transaction.
- 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the accessing step includes using an integration block to access the software programs and maintain the software programs decoupled.
- 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the accessing step includes using the software programs providing the following services: credit card processing, calculation of taxes, warehouse management, shipping, and invoicing.
- 6. The method of claim 1, further including providing to the entities a single access point for processing of transactions using the software programs.
- 7. An apparatus for providing a vertically integrated solution for processing transactions for entities, comprising:
a module configured to receive a request for a transaction from an entity; a module configured to determine software programs, among a plurality of software programs providing processing for different services, for processing the transaction; a module configured to access the software programs to process the transaction and to receive results of the processing; and a module configured to provide the results to the entity.
- 8. A method for providing a single source for facilitating the processing of transactions for business entities using a plurality of software programs, comprising:
providing to the entities a single communication point; receiving via the single communication point requests for transactions from the entities; calling a plurality of software programs in a solution stack to process the transactions; receiving results of the processing; and returning to the entities via the single communication point the results of the processing.
- 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising decoupling the plurality of software programs using an integration block.
- 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the calling step includes using the plurality of software programs providing the following services: credit card processing, calculation of taxes, warehouse management, shipping, and invoicing.
- 11. The method of claim 8 wherein the receiving step includes receiving the requests via a network.
- 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the returning step includes sending the results of the processing to the entities via the network.
- 13. The method of claim 8 wherein the calling step includes using software plug-ins to access the plurality of software programs.
- 14. The method of claim 8 wherein the calling step includes using one of the plurality of software programs that calls the others of the plurality of software programs for processing the transactions.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority to, and the benefit of, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/468,903, filed on May 8, 2003, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60468903 |
May 2003 |
US |