WO2005048144A2

WO2005048144A2 - System for completing online forms

Info

Publication number: WO2005048144A2
Application number: PCT/GB2004/004790
Authority: WO
Inventors: John Terry Robinson
Original assignee: Sidenet Limited
Priority date: 2003-11-12
Filing date: 2004-11-12
Publication date: 2005-05-26
Also published as: GB2408113A; GB0326334D0; WO2005048144A3

Abstract

The present invention provides a system for allowing an individual to complete two or more online forms simultaneously comprising the steps: (a) interrogating the online forms of two or more websites to determine the requisite data set required for each website in order that a successful offer or goods or services can be provided; (b) compiling a consolidated form showing the requisite data set required for the two or more websites; (c) allowing the full or partial completion of the consolidated form; (d) submitting the data contained in the consolidated form to individual websites in the required format; (e) receiving the results of the submitted data; and (f) displaying the results of the completed online forms in an appropriate format. The present invention also provides for a means of implementing the system.

Description

DESCRIPTION SYSTEM FOR COMPLETING ONLINE FORMS

The present invention relates to a system of completing multiple online forms with the use of a single form comprising all the required data fields from each online form. The system is further capable of submitting the required data to individual forms and presenting the results from multiple submissions. The internet has proved to be a very important commercial business place, with online sales increasing rapidly the short period of time that it has been in operation. Due to the sheer number of possible websites from which consumers may choose goods from, the average consumer may have to spend a considerable amount of time searching for the lowest priced goods. In order to save time and have a centralised market place whereby consumers can establish the price of similar goods from multiple websites, a number of websites have gone into agreement with one another so as to allow their databases to be interrogated with a certain search criteria so that one website can show the price of similar goods from multiple websites. Whilst this has helped considerably there will still be a number of websites which may have cheaper goods, but are not party to such an agreement. Therefore, such agreements are usually found between larger trading entities. Indeed a number of larger trading entities may not subscribe to such agreements as there may not be any commercial advantage. For example a major air line web site would only provide prices on their own aeroplanes as other airlines may be

cheaper. Sales on the internet may also be for services and are not confined to tangible products. Such services may comprise insurance products and mortgages to name a few. Often a consumer is required to complete a lengthy form, inputting their details onto the form, which can span several web pages and take a great deal of time to complete before a service is offered and a quote based on the details is provided. As with buying goods online, a consumer will often spend a considerable length of time on different websites in order to find the most suitable service at the lowest cost. Additionally, there are centralised websites that can interrogate databases of multiple websites in order to save the time of the consumer and present the results of multiple service providers based upon data provided by the consumer on a pre-determined form. However, these centralised websites rely on various websites subscribing to the service and some websites that the consumer may wish to obtain a quote from may not be a subscriber. Furthermore, in order for the centralised websites to interrogate databases of different websites, there has to be secure connections between the centralised website and individual websites. Such secure connections can be prone to disruption and even hacking and therefore many companies will refrain from using such a centralised website. Furthermore, the data objects required by the centralised website need to be held in the same place on each database or at least have the same data object tag associated with it in order for correct interrogation to take place. Internet browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer™ have attempted to address one of the problems associated with having to fill in multiple online forms by

providing functionality that remembers (by means of caching data) entries placed in certain fields that are common throughout the forms, such as post code/zip code. Therefore, upon completion of a new form, the post code/zip code as previously entered appears in a drop down list in that field, which the user can then select using the cursor. However, the user still has the problem of having to complete forms separately and not all forms have 'generic labels' of fields. Therefore, there is a requirement for a system of completing multiple online forms, wherein the consumer can chose which websites he wishes to obtain quotes from. Such a system would not need to have an agreement in place with a given website in order that satisfactory results may be obtained, in the form of a quote of an offer of a service. It is an object of the present invention to address one or more of the problems associated with completing online forms as herein described above. In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a system for allowing an individual to complete two or more online forms simultaneously comprising the steps: (a) interrogating the online forms of two or more websites to determine the requisite data set required for each website in order that a successful offer or goods or services can be provided; (b) compiling a consolidated form showing the requisite data set required for the two or more websites; (c) allowing the full or partial completion of the consolidated form; (d) submitting the data contained in the consolidated form to individual websites in the required format; (e) receiving the results of the submitted data; and (f) displaying the results of the completed online forms in an appropriate format. Therefore, the present invention provides for a system which allows the completion of multiple forms, which only requires a consumer to enter the data required for all the websites once in order to receive multiple results. The term "simultaneously" is to be taken to mean that the system submits the data in a manner which could not be performed by an individual and the time taken for the submission and receiving of data will be related to internet connection speeds and processing power of a computer used to implement the system should such an apparatus be used to implement the system. For example, the system could submit data to separate websites in a consecutive manner or submit data in a piece meal manner depending on the speed at which a website processes the data supplied. Preferably, the two or more websites may be selected from a list supplied by the system. Additionally or alternatively, the two or more websites may be selected independently of the system and will be dictated solely by the user of the system. Therefore, whilst the system may have a number of suggested websites from which offers of goods or services may be obtained, websites that may not be as well known or new websites could be selected. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that a number of websites commonly have a form comprising a number of discrete pages, each page of which requiring completion before a user can proceed to the next page of the form. In order for the system to be able to compile the consolidated form, it completes each page with standard data which is submitted depending on the attribute or label that each field has on each page and the system can therefore proceed to subsequent pages in order to build a requisite data set for a given form from an individual website. In order to assist the completion of fields on multiple pages, a list of default data may be included in a lookup table, which can be interrogated to find a suitable data object for insertion into a given field of a form. The compiling of the consolidated form is performed by assessing the results of the interrogation of the form on the individual websites. The system will be able to assimilate whether two fields on separate websites relate to the same data object. For example some forms may require that a "Surname" be provided, which the system will be able to assess as the same as "Last Name". The same applies to the format of data such as the format of dates, some websites requiring DD/MM/ YY YY and others requiring DD/MM/YY. It will be evident to the skilled addressee that a range of date formats may be used by any given website, such as the month being chosen from a drop down menu or entered manually in a field. Whilst the system will be able to group together the same data objects together for the purposes of compiling the consolidated form, it will also be able to log which format is required and in which order the data objects are required for a given website so that the correct data object is unified with the correct field, when the data is being submitted to a given website. The system may also allow for the addition of two field names to be considered to be the same data object. This may be via an update of the system or via the user defining such a consideration. For example, the user may be able to define that "Surname=Last Name" should he wish to do so. Furthermore, the system may also have the ability to consider data objects which have drop down menus and also provide drop down menus where applicable to the consolidated form. Interrogation of individual websites may be performed by a number of ways. Preferably, the system will employ the use of "spiders" or "robots" which are commonly used by internet search engines to build lists of words found on websites. Such a spider or a robot can be modified or adapted to index the fields and data objects required on an online form. The consolidated form may have a number of sections, such as a main section which has a number of (data) fields requiring data entry which are common to all the chosen websites. Furthermore, a number of additional sections may also be included in the consolidated form that has a number of (data) fields that are specific to only one or a small number of websites selected. Therefore, the user can decide whether to fill in only the main section, should he wish only to complete the minimum amount of data in order to receive an offer of a service or products. Of course, should the user decide not to fill in the additional sections then a reduced number of offers will be produced. In order to help the user in deciding which sections to complete (and therefore decide how many offers he will receive), a number may be placed next to each field indicating the number of websites that require that data object. The system allows for the submission of the data contained within the consolidated form and such a submission will only be actuated when the user is ready to submit either the fully or partially completed consolidated form. The system will submit the data set for each website by automatically completing each form with the data provided on the consolidated form. The system will further put the data set into a suitable format for submitting to the website. For example, the correct date format for a given website will be provided and the data will be used to fill in the fields in the correct order. Additionally, should an online form be on multiple pages, the system will also be able to submit the data in a fragmented manner and also actuate the submission of a single page with data contained therein. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that may websites take the data entered onto a online fonn and convert it into a string for submission to a database in order to produce a offer of goods of services. Therefore, the system may submit a string to the website after determining what the string would comprise for a successful offer. Alternatively, the system may enter the data into the fields on the online form. The system can receive the results of the submitted data for all the online forms and either display the results internally, or open up separate screens on the internet windows displaying the results or indeed may provide both options so that the user can select and proceed with the purchase of the best offer. Should the results be displayed internally, then the format of the presentation can be defined by the user. For example, the date mode can be displayed in a DD-MM-YYYY format or a DD/MMM/YY format depending on the users preference. The system may also be capable of storing the users details so that he may return in the future an not have to complete the majority of the data again. Therefore, only extra details that may be required due to a change in criteria from a given website or new website will need to be entered into the system. The storing of users details may be password protected to ensure confidentiality is maintained. Indeed, the submitting and receiving of data from the various websites may also be performed in a secure manner such as encryption. Preferably, the encryption used is 128 bit encryption or higher. It will be apparent to the skilled addressee that new types of secure transmission may be developed in the near future and these types may also be used in accordance with the present invention. The system may automatically generate an email when an offer is due, such as a number of weeks prior to the expiry of a users insurance for example. The system as herein described above may be employed to complete a number of online forms for different products or services. Preferably, the system is employed in completing online forms for financial services, insurance services, mortgages, travel and holidays. However, it will be apparent that the system could be utilised in most commercial activities on the internet, whereby the user requests a quote or the offer to supply goods or services. The system may be in the form of a user interface that is used on a computer. Such an interface may be an executable computer program held on a computer readable means. The computer readable means may comprise a diskette or similar removable disk. Alternatively, the computer readable means may be a static disk such as a hard disk of a computer or a server. The user interface may additionally be incorporated into another computer program such as an internet browser and therefore be an "add on" or a "patch", but additionally, the system may also be incorporated into a website. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the user interface may be a plug-in rather than an internet browser itself, so that future protocols can be used without the need to update the interface itself. Many plug-ins allow newer protocols (such as operating systems) to be used and often such plug-ins can still interface with protocols of varying levels and standards. An executable computer program may be coded in a number of languages commonly used for internet website pages and may include languages which have yet to be developed. Preferably, the program will be written in one or more of the following languages: HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), XML (Extensible Markup Language), DHTML (Dynamic Markup Language), JAVA Script CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and JAVA. Additionally, the program may also be capable of working with a number of languages that may be used in the websites which the system may access such as PHP, ASP (Active Server Pages) or CGI. A specific embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures: Figure 1 is a screen shot of a user interface which may be used in accordance with the present invention; and Figure 2 is a process flow diagram outlining the architecture of a system in accordance with the present invention. With reference to Figure 1, there is provided a user interface 10 which can be displayed on a computer or similar device, which allows access to the system which is stored on a website. The interface 10 comprises a main section 12 that contains a number of fields in which a user can enter data such as a "Surname" field 14. All the fields in the main section 12 are common to all the websites that are being completed. An optional question section 16 contains a number of fields in which a user can enter data which is not required by all the websites. Within the optional question section 16, a number is displayed next to the field name denoting the number of websites that require this data. The interface 10 also provides for a website selection section 18 which displays a number of websites which have either been pre-selected by the system or which may include additional websites chosen by the user. The list of websites in the selection section 18 will be the websites which will be completed by the system. Should the user enter an additional website, then the interface 10 will re-compile and additional compulsory and/or optional questions will be displayed in the main section 12 and/or the optional question section 16. Additionally, the interface 10 also comprises an aliases section 20, which contains a number of aliases in order to allow the same data object to be assigned multiple labels, for example "Surname" being equal to "Last Name". The aliases section 20 permits the user to input further aliases should the need arise, although in most cases this will not be necessary as the interface will be intelligent in that it can produce its own aliases based on the requirement of entry to a particular field and additionally allows aliases to be based upon drop down menus. The interface 10 also comprises an output section 22, wherein the user can specify how the results are presented, such as on individual screens or the format of the date. When all the data has been loaded onto the consolidated form, the data set can then be submitted to the different websites by means of the "submit" button 24. In use, the interface 10 will automatically compile fields in the main section 12 and the optional question section 16 based upon interrogation of the websites listed in the website selection section 18. Should the user place more websites to the list, the interface will re-compile prior to allowing the user to enter any data. In such an instance, a message will be displayed informing the user that the form was re- compiling. Alternatively, if the user has already entered some data, then this will be copied across to the newly compiled form. Any aliases which the user thinks is required can be inserted to the list of aliases already contained within the aliases section 20, although in practice, this section will only be shown to the more experienced user to ensure that the interface can work in inexperienced hands. The user can then insert the required data into the main section 12 and also into the optional question section 16. The user may not wish to enter further information into the optional question section in order to save time if the questions only relates to one or more websites and if there are a large number of other websites that will produce results without this extra data. The user can then press the "submit" button 24 in order to submit the data to the various websites. The interface then relays the data to the various websites, re-formatting the data if required (such as converting the data into a string) and processing different pages if the website has a form spanning several pages. The results of the data submission is then either communicated back to the interface so that it can process the results in a user friendly format or can be communicated back to the user by opening separate screens as if the form had been done individually. The user can then chose the best offer such as the best insurance quote by continuing with the websites screen or by selecting a link on the interface. Additionally or alternatively, the results can be stored in the interface for future reference and retrieval. Furthermore, the interface can also send out emails if applicable, such as to remind the user that their car insurance is due for renewal. Such an e-mail may contain links of appropriate websites which may be willing to requote or which have provided new quotes. The interface can also store the users details for future so that they do not have to re-load any data previously entered into the interface. With reference to Figure 2, a flow diagram of the software architecture for an executable computer program. Firstly, an options page 26 on the user interface page displays any previously used search groups/terms, such as loans, mortgages or insurance. A decision 28 is then made as to whether to use an existing search group 28 and if "Yes", then pages from selected websites are loaded into the memory of the interface 30 and fields of that particular site are identified and field names, contents and format standardised if appropriate. Decision 32 is then taken (and also if the decision 28 is "No") as to whether to add a new website address. If the answer to decision 32 is "Yes", then the selected website is loaded into the memory of the interface and the fields identified 34 and field names, contents and format standardised where appropriate. The next step (and also if decision 32 is "No") is that the interface sorts the fields into frequency of appearance order 36. The fields are then populated with previous used values 38. A decision 40 as to whether a field is selected for editing is taken and if "No", then a further decision 42 as to whether the selected settings are to be saved and again, if the decision "No" is taken, then a further decision 44 is taken as to whether the submit button (denoted as 24 in Fig 1). If decision 44 is "No", then decision 40 is considered again. However, if decision to 44 is "Yes", then the webpage for each web site is opened and fields populated with the appropriate values. The results (not shown) will then be displayed so that a user can compare and contrast the various costs or services that have provided results. Additionally, there can also be a function to purchase the service and this may be linked to payment details that could work off a similar system as for the completion of online forms. The interface will also be compatible with encryption if required. Where the decision 40 is "Yes", then the fields are allowed to be edited and then the fields populated 38 as appropriate. When the decision 42 is "Yes", the group name is requested and all the web names and field values are saved.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A system for allowing an individual to complete two or more online forms simultaneously comprising the steps: (a) interrogating the online forms of two or more websites to determine the requisite data set required for each website in order that a successful offer or goods or services can be provided; (b) compiling a consolidated form showing the requisite data set required for the two or more websites; (c) providing means for allowing the full or partial completion of the consolidated form; (d) submitting the data contained in the fully or partially completed consolidated form to individual websites in the required format; (e) receiving the results of the submitted data; and (f) displaying the results of the completed online forms in an appropriate format.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the two or more websites are selected from a list supplied to by the system and/or supplied independently to the system.

3. A system as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the data set of a website is related to the labels or attribute assigned to each field required to obtain a successful offer.

4. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the system can assimilate whether two or more fields on separate websites relate to the same data object.

5. A system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the system only assigns one field on the consolidated form to two or more fields on different websites which relate to the same data object.

6. A system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the two or more fields on different websites relating to the same data object can be assigned to one field on the consolidated form.

7. A system as claimed in any of claims 4 to 6, wherein a data object is submitted to the website in the format required by that website, irrespective of its format on the consolidated form.

8. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the two or more websites are interrogated by means of an internet spider or robot.

9. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the consolidated form has a main section comprising all common fields required by all the websites selected.

10. A system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the consolidated form further comprises an additional section comprising fields that is required by one or less of the total websites selected.

11. A system as claimed in either claim 9 or 10, wherein an indication of the total number of web sites requiring data in any given field is provided.

12. A system as claimed in any of claims 9 to 11, wherein the consolidated form in not peπnitted to be submitted until at least the main section has been completed.

13. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the data can be submitted to a web site in a fragmented manner should the form on the website span over a number two or more pages.

14. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, where the data can be submitted as a string to the web site.

15. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the results for the submitted data is displayed within the system or on separate screens on the internet.

16. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the format of the displayed results can be pre-determined.

17. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the system can store details of the user using the system for future use.

18. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the system transmits encrypted data to websites.

19. A system as claimed in either claim 17 or 18, wherein the system is capable of generating an E-mail to alert a user of the system that a service or product is due for renewal or order.

20. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the system is employed for completing online forms for one or more of the following industries: financial services, insurance services, mortgages, travel and holidays.

21. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the system is in the form of a computer interface.

22. A system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the interface an executable computer program held on a computer readable means.

23. A system as claimed in either claim 21 or 22, wherein the computer readable means comprise a diskette or similar removable disk.

24. A system as claimed in either claim 21 or 22, wherein the computer readable means comprises a static disk such as a hard disk of a computer or a server.

25. A system as claimed in any of claims 21 to 24, wherein the user interface is incorporated into another computer program or incorporated into a website.

26. A system substantially as herein described in claims 1 to 25 with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying figure.