Patent Application
20170041470
The present invention relates to a system, device, method, software application and data signal for monitoring an interaction and in particular, to a system, method, software application and data signal that is capable of determining the identity of a caller on a mobile (cell) telephone, with a view to recording information about aspects of the interaction between the caller and the callee.
The invention has been developed for users who provide a professional service, where it is necessary for a professional (such as a lawyer, accountant, financial planner or advisor/consultant) to keep track of the time they spend speaking to clients, the broader inventive concept will be described hereinafter with reference to this application. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to this particular field of use.
The following discussion of the background art is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention only. The discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to is or was part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of the application.
Many professionals, such as lawyers, accountants and patent attorneys work on an hourly rate. That is, they bill a client based on how much time they spend interacting with a client or working on a matter for a client. Lawyers, accountants and other professionals are required to keep very accurate and detailed records of the time they spend with clients, not only for billing purposes, but also because it is necessary, in some instances, to be able to determine (say, in a legal dispute over charges), the exact amount of time spent with a client or working on a client's matters.
With the advent of mobile phones (including mobile data), Wireless Internet connections, small portable devices such as ‘smartphones’ and ‘tablet computers’, many professionals now work away from a traditional office environment, and typically receive calls or emails at any time of the day or night. Such calls are harder to track because they generally occur away from an office environment (sometimes when a professional is not working, but is at home, in transit or engaged in a social activity).
In a first aspect, the present invention provides a device for monitoring an interaction, comprising an identification module arranged to monitor events on a hardware device to determine a trigger for an event, wherein, on determining the trigger for the event, a timer module is arranged to monitor for completion of the event, and upon completion of the event, the timer module records the total time of the event in an event record.
The device may further include an identification module arranged to identify a party associated with the event, wherein, upon completion of the event, information regarding the party associated with the event is recorded in the event record.
The timer module may further record at least one of a start time for the event, and end time for the event, a start date of the event and an end date of the event in the event record.
The identification module may also identify a reference identifier associated with the party, wherein, upon completion of the event, the reference associated with the party is recorded in the event record.
The identification module may identify a plurality of reference identifiers associated with a party and provides the reference identifiers to a user of the device, wherein upon selection of one or more of the plurality of reference identifiers by the user, the identification module associates and records the one or more reference identifiers in the event record.
The device may further include a charge module arranged to utilise information recorded by the timer module to generate an amount of billable time, wherein the billable time is recorded and associated with the event record.
The device may further include an invoicing module arranged to utilise the billable time recorded in the event record to generate an invoice. The invoicing module may be arranged to forward, via a communications module, the invoice to a remote device.
The device may further include a human machine interface arranged to allow a user of the device to interact with the device. The human machine interface may be a touchscreen.
The device may be a mobile communications device, such as a smartphone.
In a second aspect, there is provided a system for monitoring an interaction, comprising a device including an trigger detection module arranged to monitor events on a hardware device to determine a trigger for an event, wherein, on determining the trigger for the event, the trigger detection module invokes a timer module arranged to monitor for completion of the event, and upon completion of the event, the timer module records the total time of the event in an event record.
In a third aspect, there is provided a method for monitoring an interaction, comprising the steps of using a trigger detection module to monitor events on a hardware device to determine a trigger for an event, wherein, on determining the trigger for the event, the trigger detection module invokes a timer module arranged to monitor for completion of the event, and upon completion of the event, the timer module records the total time of the event in an event record.
In a fourth aspect, there is provided a software application including at least one instruction which, when executed on a computing system, causes the computing system to carry out the method in accordance with the third aspect of the invention.
In a fifth aspect, there is provided a data signal including at least one encoded instruction which, when received and executed by a computing system, causes the computing system to carry out the method in accordance with the third aspect of the invention.
Notwithstanding any other embodiments that may fall within the scope of the present invention, an embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures, in which:
Referring to
In this embodiment, the application is self-contained, with all information being held by the computing device. In another embodiment, as explained under the heading “iCY controller”, there may be provide a system which includes a device (i.e. a ‘dongle’) which records information and then is capable of uploading the information to another device, such as a smart phone or a computing system. Moreover, in some embodiments, either the application or the device access a separately administered database containing relevant data, in order to generate the invoice.
In more detail, there is provided a system for monitoring an interaction. The system includes a device including an trigger detection module arranged to monitor events on a hardware device to determine a trigger for an event. On determining the trigger for the event, the trigger detection module invokes a timer module arranged to monitor for completion of the event. Upon completion of the event, the timer module records the total time of the event in an event record.
Embodiments of the invention also provide for a method for monitoring an interaction which may be implemented on any suitable device or any suitable system (i.e. two or more devices which operate as a system). The method comprises the steps of using a trigger detection module to monitor events on a hardware device to determine a trigger for an event. On determining the trigger for the event, the trigger detection module invokes a timer module arranged to monitor for completion of the event. Upon completion of the event, the timer module records the total time of the event in an event record.
Referring to
The service may include storage devices such as a disk drive 108 which may encompass solid state drives, hard disk drives, optical drives or magnetic tape drives. The server 100 may use a single disk drive or multiple disk drives. The server 100 may also have a suitable operating system 116 which resides on the disk drive or in the ROM of the server 100.
In the ensuing description, for the sake of clarity, and in the context of the embodiment described, reference will be made to a “professional” (the person who is utilising the device and the software application) and a “client” (the person who is interacting, in the context of the examples and embodiments described herein, with the professional). However, it will be understood that these identifiers/labels are utilised only for the sake of providing a clear and easily understood example, and no gloss should be taken from these labels to limit the scope of any embodiments described, any features of any of the embodiments described, or the broader invention described herein.
Moreover, where a third party product is referred to in the ensuing description, the name of the product is marked with a “™” to denote a brand/mark. Where a brand name is used to describe a product, the intention of the writer is to provide a ‘real world’ example are utilised only for the sole purpose of providing a clear and easily understood example, and no gloss should be taken from these branded/marked examples to limit the scope of any embodiment, any feature of an embodiment, or the broader invention described herein.
The embodiment described herein, which is distributed under the trade mark “iChargeYou” or “iCY”, is a software application which, in the embodiment described herein, is an “app” (i.e. a software application that is specifically designed for use on a portable, handheld telecommunications device such as a smart phone or a tablet computing device). It will be understood that the portable device may communicate utilising any suitable technology (including but not limited to WiFi) and that any reference herein to a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM), 3rd Generation (3G) and 4th Generation (4G) and/or further generation telecommunications networks, or any other specific hardware or software, is provided for the purposes of illustration only and is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention.
Example interface screen captures of an embodiment of the iCY app are shown in
It will be understood, however, that the iCY application may also be provided as a “desktop” software application for use on a personal computing device such as a laptop, a notebook computer or a personal computer, or may be provided in any appropriate form, as computing technology evolves. Such variations are within the purview of the person skilled in the art.
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In the embodiment described herein, the iCY app utilises a hardware event on the device (or iPad/Phablet/laptop/portable computer) to trigger the automatic capturing of call summary, video or email/texting time duration information by the iCY app, either during and/or after an event (such as a call). That is, the iCY app includes an appropriate instruction which monitors for a hardware event on the device, and then begins to capture the event once alerted by the trigger.
For example, on a smartphone, a professional (such as a lawyer) may be carrying the smartphone on their person when they are out of the office. A client may call the professional, causing the professional's smartphone to ring. When the smartphone rings, the iCY app is activated, and begins monitoring to determine whether the professional will answer the call. If the professional answers the call, the app initiates a timer which is arranged to gather information regarding the total time of the conversation (call). In addition, where such information is available (i.e. where ‘caller ID’ technology is available and the client has not blocked their number), the app captures the telephone number associated with the phone call/conversation.
When the caller is not known to the device, or cannot be identified from the contacts available in an unassociated ‘contacts’ application, or the caller number is blocked, the iCY app continues to capture all other collectable call information, so that the professional can attribute or link the call time at the cessation of the call, by typing the party's name, or the matter's reference name, at the cessation of the call. It will be understood that the manual provision of information (e.g. identifying information about the caller) may be input utilising any appropriate interface, including a touchscreen, a keypad, voice and gesture/motion activation or any other mechanism that becomes available from time to time. Such variations are within the purview of a person skilled in the art.
When the iCY app is able to capture the telephone number, the iCY app attempts to identify the caller. This may occur in a number of manners. In one embodiment, the iCY app may access a database of contact names and numbers held in the memory of the smartphone to search for the captured number and for a name that corresponds to the number. In another example, the iCY app may be arranged to connect to a local and/or remote database (e.g. a database held on a server operated or accessible by the professional) to match the incoming number to a name and other relevant information, such as a client number or a file number.
A trigger hardware event may include the commencement of a telephone call via a SIM card or voice/video call over WiFi or an equivalent internet channel or connection. Detection of the commencement of an audio event or a video event may also trigger the iCY app to commence recording the duration of the communication on a mobile phone (iPad/Phablet) style device.
The types of trigger events that are detectable may be dependent on the limitations (hardware or software) of a particular device. For example, on some mobile computing devices, there may be some trigger events (such as the start of a video call) which are not ‘reportable’ and therefore there may be no way for the iCY app to receive any indication that such an event has taken place. In such a situation, the app may include a manual override, which allows the professional to manually ‘trigger’ the app at the time a call is initiated or received, to begin the timer. In this case, it may be necessary for the professional to manually enter an identifier (e.g. a number or a name), to allow the app to associate the time spent during the event with a client.
At the cessation of the audio or video communication, or email/texting communications, the iCY app automatically applies a predetermined professional services rate (for example if the advice provided was Legal Advice, Financial Planning, Construction, Medical, etc.) to the time duration and automatically adds the charge to a client's total charges and also to a log of all previous client and/or matter communications.
In some professional service industries, it is common for one client to have more than one matter with the professional. For example, a law firm may be performing many different legal tasks contemporaneously for a client. Therefore, in one embodiment, the iCY app contains not only information used to identify a client, but also list all matters for the client, so that the professional may associate the event with one or more matters (as required).
Similarly, there may be situations where the professional may wish to split a bill between a number of clients or a number of files. The iCY app also allows the professional to link a call, item or activity to multiple Clients or Contacts and allows the total charge to be replicated across each client, or alternatively split across each client, in any proportions required.
The iCY app may then send the total charge (and optionally all associated transaction information, such as the time and date, etc.) to a remote server, to allow the remote server to generate an invoice for the client. Alternatively, the iCY app may automatically generate an invoice within the app, and send the invoice (and optionally all associated transaction information, such as the time and date, etc.) to the client via any suitable communication means, such as SMS/MMS/email at the nominated time. In one embodiment, where the client prefers to receive a paper copy of the invoice, the invoice may be sent directly to a printer (say, in a mailroom), for automatic printing and mailing to a client.
The iCY app also has the ability to show all calls where amounts have been invoiced, and what calls or amounts have not been invoiced. That is, a historical database of all time entries and invoices are kept. This provides the ability to charge and report a target call and billing revenue amount to an actual amount billed.
Automated Invoice sending may occur via any suitable communication channel, including but not limited to email, SMS, MMS or any other data format: Moreover, invoicing may be triggered automatically when values stored by the database reach a predetermined value, such as:
The sending of an invoice may occur automatically (i.e. an invoice is sent without any intervention by the professional) or alternatively, the professional may need to take one or more steps (e.g. clicking a confirmation button) before the invoice is sent.
Where confirmation is required by the professional, an alert may be provided by the app to notify the professional that an invoice is ready to be sent. The professional may then review the invoice and authorise the app to send the invoice.
In addition, where there is either manual or automatic generation of invoices, the app may include one or more standard narrations which the professional may select (or alternatively which the app may select depending on whether the app has received enough contextual information) in order to include a narration on the invoice.
For example, if a professional always uses the same generic narration to describe work done in taking a phone call, then when a phone call is received, the client identified and the time of the call captured, an invoice may be automatically generated, a narration inserted and the invoice sent to the client by email in a matter of seconds.
In more detail, the iCY app may capture additional data and store the data in a local or remote database. The additional data may include, but is not limited to:
There may be some circumstances where a professional may need to pause the phone call (e.g. if the professional needs to consult with a colleague, for example) and may not wish to capture this time as part of the phone call. iCY includes a ‘pause’ function which allows the professional to pause the timer either in-call or during email/document creation to ‘stop the clock’.
It will also be understood that there may be many ways to trigger iCY beyond using a screen interface. Many modern computing devices, including smartphones, include other ways of interacting with the device, such as through voice recognition (such as Apple Siri and Google Voice), facial recognition, distinct device shaking/motion detection, etc. It will be understood that using such techniques, software and/or hardware to activate functions of the iCY app are within the purview of a person skilled in the art.
It will also be understood that the iCY app includes customisable features and the embodiment described herein includes a number of features that allow for very specific customisation, at a client level or at a matter level. For example, clients residing in different jurisdictions or geographical regions, may require different tax rates to be applied. In addition, iCY data can be aggregated into different user groups. For example within an organisation, different employee reporting groups exist and there may be a requirement to report billings or invoiced amounts by group rather than by individual.
Therefore, ICY includes the ability to create a client profile, and also a matter profile, which allows for the customisation of the following quantities (which are described here merely as examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention):
In addition, there may be charges that are not directly related to a trigger event (such as a phone call) that a professional may want to capture. For example, a lawyer travelling to the Lands Office to file some papers or purchase some documents, may want to capture travelling time plus any official disbursements (i.e. costs paid by the professional) to file or secure copies of any original documents.
The iCY app allows the user to record any other type of transaction or billable amount that could be invoiced. As this aspect of the iCY app allows a professional to input information in any way they wish, any type of billable item may be included and is confined only to the imagination of the person that enters the information. For example, mechanics can record iCY items as is done in a traditional spread sheet program such as Microsoft Excel™. In another example, Legal Professionals can record photocopying fees or back office costs at either the Matter or Client level.
The app may optionally provide a mechanism by which referral payments may be made. Existing users of the iCY app may send the iCY server-side database the first name, last name and email address of the referred potential customer. The sent information is then reconciled with the information provided from Apple™ App store and Google™ Play store against new purchases of iCY. Where new purchases are successfully matched, then the user who referred that purchasing customer is automatically paid a referral incentive payment.
The iCY app may also generate reports and charts in any appropriate format, such as line graphs, pie graphs, bar graphs and area graphs, depending on the requirements of a particular professional. This allows the professional to compare billing in a Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly or Quarterly fashion, and divide by calendar year, financial year, or any custom period of time as required by a professional. Of course, it is also possible to compare over time (historical reviews) as well as reviewing invoiced amount.
The app may also include a series of custom controls, including touch and hold buttons for commonly used functions, such as:
The iCY app may also be arranged to export files electronically to one or more Export to Vendor/Import from software products such as Aderant™, Inprotech™, Attache™, MYOB™, Reckon™, Sage MicOPay™, Xero™ and/or any other suitable accounting software.
It will also be understood that the iCY app can import the names of Clients and Matters from other accounting or software applications with client information. For example, when client names, matter names or project names and not presently found in the iCY app, iCY can import them from a spread sheet or comma delimited file. Alternatively, if such information is not available in an electronic format, the iCY app allows the user to create a new client name or matter name on the fly, by using the interface on the mobile device, when the correct name cannot be found to attribute or link the potentially billable time duration or invoice item. Similarly, iCY enables recording of all iCY user calls, into a Timesheet. Timesheet's can be daily, weekly or for any custom period.
The information exported and/or imported may include clients and billable matters/items e.g. legal matters, project items, discrete items that attract charges e.g. medical, construction, et al.
In one embodiment, the app may include a Record Client Verification/Consent to the purported duration of advice or professional services: The professional may ask the client to provide Storing Fingerprint, Signature, Verbal agreement, SMS, file as evidence of consent of timesheet or accepted charges.
In one embodiment, there is provided a separate device (referred to herein as the iCY Digital and Analogue Phone Call Controller Device (“iCY Controller”)), which acts as a ‘dongle’ to capture call events. The iCY controller is a self-contained embedded Wi-Fi® device with an integrated MAC, baseband processor, RF transceiver and power amplifier. The iCY controller's MAC/baseband processor, provides all the WLAN protocol, configuration functionality and TCP/IP stack in embedded firmware to allow the controller to operate as a self contained serial to wireless device for ultra low power WLAN applications. It conforms to the current WiFi 802.11n/ac standards, and includes an embedded processor with UART and SPI as host interfaces.
The iCY module has a number of hardware ports including a micro USB (or equivalent) port, an Ethernet port, and/or an Apple compatible port. The embedded firmware is also arranged to include an API which allows the device to physically connect to corresponding ethernet and/or analogue cabling, which allows it to interface with incoming and outgoing telephone calls, made with a landline handset or any Smart Phone data port.
In more detail, the API enables the controller to detect all digital and analogue signals (phone calls), transmitted through the ethernet or analogue line/cable to thereby detect the initiation of a call and to record one or more types of information, including but not limited to a) Call direction b) Caller ID c) Call start time, Call end time. The controller has suitable memory, such as RAM, to save/store all data until successfully transmitted to the iCY App Smart Phone’
Any iCY App installed on any Smart Phone works with any iCY controller, However, an iCY controller will only transmit data to ONE iCY App for the duration of the WiFi connection to one Smart Phone. Any iCY App Smart Phone, can be unlinked, and any other iCY App Smart Phone can be paired to the iCY controller. That is, one to one relationship/pairing at a time.
The controller further includes a Switch for WiFi (default) or WiFi-direct, transmission and an LED indicator.
Referring to
At step 1b there is shown an analogue embodiment which operates using the same process and features as digital landline calls.
All iCY Users can share all iCY data, on their Smart Phone with any other iCY users Smart Phone, if permission is granted to the requesting party, by the data owner (other iCY user). iCY data is sent via, Wifi, NFC or email or USB style memory stick import, to requesting iCY user, e.g. by the first users manager, or reporting team member.
In some embodiments, there may be provided additional features which allow use by specialised professions. For example, the iCY app may include appropriate ledgers and may comply with national or state requirements to allow the iCY app to operate as a lawyer's Trust Account. Such additions may include the ability to record alternative Trust Account or Bank Account running balance totals with iCY Receipt amounts automatically recorded in Trust Account running balance.
Similarly, the iCY app may be capable of recording invoice payments and debtors—that is, link any outstanding invoice, to any corresponding receipt or payment made and/or show any invoice and invoice amounts, as fully paid, partly paid, not paid paid. Such variations are within the purview of a person skilled in the art.
The iCY app may also include user (lawyer/advisor/product or service provider) payment processing support—iCY User's Clients (lawyers client), can complete Invoice Payments for work for which they were the beneficiary, from the iCY Users (lawyer/advisor/product or service provider) Smart Phone (the Invoice Senders Smart Phone).
In addition, in some embodiments, Invoice Recipient Payments may be enabled by generating invoices that include embedded links to available payment gateways, to settle any outstanding invoice amounts. Again, such variations are within the purview of a person skilled in the art.
The iCY app may also include User Profile Support, which records important government business identification data, such as for taxation reporting (ABN, ACN, Bank Acc BSB), Revenue Target Comparison support via comparing GDP, Inflation, Stock and Bond Market annual rates of return, to iCY users annual earnings rate of return, and iCY users organisation annual earnings and annual tax paid.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.
It will be understood that while the embodiment described herein has been described with reference to a ‘smartphone’, there are various other devices which could equally be utilised to implement embodiments of the invention. For example, the use of Google Glass™ plus other similar ‘smart’ devices could utilise embodiments of the invention to perform substantially similar or identical functions to the functions carried out by the embodiment and broader invention described herein. Such variations are within the purview of a person skilled in the art and are encompassed by the claimed invention.
Although not required, the embodiments described with reference to the Figures can be implemented as an Application Programming Interface (API) or as a series of libraries for use by a developer or can be included within another software application, such as a terminal or personal computer operating system or a portable computing device operating system. Generally, as program modules include routines, programs, objects, components and data files assisting in the performance of particular functions, the skilled person will understand that the functionality of the software application may be distributed across a number of routines, objects or components to achieve the same functionality desired herein.
It will also be appreciated that where the methods and systems of the present invention are either wholly implemented by a computing system or partly implemented by computing systems then any appropriate computing system architecture may be utilised. This will include stand-alone computers, network computers and dedicated hardware devices, such as programmable arrays. Where the terms “computing system” and “computing device” are used, these terms are intended to cover any appropriate arrangement of computer hardware capable of implementing the function described.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014901339 | Apr 2014 | AU | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/AU2015/050166 | 4/10/2015 | WO | 00 |
