WO2005069817A2

WO2005069817A2 - A competence value exchange system and method therefor

Info

Publication number: WO2005069817A2
Application number: PCT/US2005/001074
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lise-Lotte Palmgren
Original assignee: Comvex Inc.
Priority date: 2004-01-22
Filing date: 2005-01-13
Publication date: 2005-08-04
Also published as: EP1719059A2; WO2005069817A3; EP1719059A4

Abstract

The method is for obtaining an educational service and a first user (16) visits a web site (24, 26) and activating a link to a redirect a web browser to an educational exchange (20). The first user orders a course module (13). An administrator (14) makes a request to a first educational service provider (12) and a second educational service provider (12) of the course module on behalf of the first user (16) and a group of additional users. A list price for the course module is withdrawn from the bank account (28). A value exchange on the educational exchange determines a discount price of the course module. A deposit signal is sent to the bank account (28) to deposit an amount defined by a difference between the list price and the discount price.

Description

A COMPETENCE VALUE EXCHANGE SYSTEM AND METHOD THEREFOR I

Technical Field The present invention relates to a competence value exchange system of course modules and method therefor.

Background of the Invention

There is currently a great need for more skilled employees in a variety of industrial fields. Additionally, the projected increase in the number of future retirees in combination with an increase in the number of sick days per person exacerbates the problem of the insufficient skilled labor force. As a result, there is an increasing demand for educating the currently available labor force. The administration of educating the labor force is often very cumbersome for companies and other organizations. Most companies are not set up to effectively administer and monitor how the resources, allocated for education, are used. There is a need for a more effective way of administrating educational services provided while being able to monitor and control the use of the educational resources. Attempts have been made to establish individual learning accounts but they have lacked secured payment solutions and control systems and were cumbersome to use. There is also a need for more effectively negotiating prices charged for the educational services while maintaining a high quality.

Summary of the Invention The system of the present invention provides a solution to the above-outlined problems. More particularly, the method is for obtaining an educational service and a first user visits a web site and activating a link to a redirect a web browser to an educational exchange. The first user orders a course module. An administrator makes a request to a first educational service provider and a second educational service provider of the course module on behalf of the first user and a group of additional users. A list price for the course module is withdrawn from the bank account. A value exchange on the educational exchange determines a discount price of the course module. A deposit signal is sent to the bank account to deposit an amount defined by a difference between the list price and the discount price.

Brief Description of the Drawing Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a flow chart of the competence value exchange system of the present invention; and Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of an information flow within the competence value exchange system of the present invention .

Detailed Description With reference to Figs. 1-2, the competence value exchange system 10 of the present invention has educational service providers 12, an administrator 14, users/customers/employees 16 associated with an organization 17 and a financial unit such as a bank 18. The service providers 12 and the administrator 14 may be directly linked, via the Internet, to an educational exchange 20 such as a web site that, among other things, provides information about educational course modules 13 of the service providers 12 that are associated with and approved to participate in the system 10. One function of the administrator 14 is to administer a brokerage service of the course modules 13 on the educational exchange 20. An important feature of the present system 10 is that the service providers 12 are requested to enter into a general agreement 15 with the administrator 14 to ensure good quality and availability. The agreement 15 may relate to general criteria such as the service providers' delivery capacity, geographical area covered by the provider, the number of professors of the service provider and other such information. The authorization procedure of the service providers 12 may be handled by the administrator 14 that use pamphlets that have been developed together with the industry to which, for example, the organization 17 belong. In addition, each course module 13 of the service providers must be authorized as outlined in a module agreement 19 before the modules 13 can be presented on the site 20. The module agreement 19 may relate to specific information about each course module 13 including the content of the course, schedule, course requirements and other such course specific information. In this way, certain modules of a service provider may be excluded without having to exclude the service provider. As described in more detail below, each module 13 may be traded on the site 20 so that the actual price of the course module 13 at least partly depends on the supply and demand. The customers 16 may be directly connected to a competence-area/site 24 and to an account web site 26 including accounts 28 that may be administrated by administrator 14 or an account administrator 21. The customer 16 may have been allocated an amount 42 that may be used to purchase course modules 13 on the educational exchange 20 when certain criteria have been met. When a course module 13 has been purchased, the price for the module 13 is deducted from the amount 42 of one of the relevant accounts 28. The bank 18, which is a participant in the system 10, may obtain corporate, such as the organization 17, and individual customers to place accounts with the bank 18. Every organization 17 that becomes a system customer of the bank 18 may automatically gain access to the education site 20 and the approved course modules that are offered by the authorized service providers 12. The administration of each individual account of the employees of the organization 17 may be administered by the administrator 14 while the bank 18 manages and invests the total funds of the accounts. To gain access to the accounts 28 it may be necessary to log into the competence site 24 or the bank web site 26 and provide customer identification and password. The first time a user is using the system 10, it may also be necessary to provide personal information and preferences that are stored in a knowledge inventory 32 for future use. The competence site 24 have links to the bank web site 26 and vice versa so that the user may use both sites. Each service provider 12 pays a registration fee 46 to the administrator 14 and a commission fee 48 for the course modules 13 that are successfully traded or sold on the educational exchange 20. In general, the educational exchange 20 makes it possible for educational service providers to present and list course modules 13 which may include courses, seminars etc. The administrator 14 may handle booking of courses received from customers via the site 20. The service providers 12 may also deal with the service agreement 19 and module agreement 15 with the administrator 14 via the site 20. Preferably, the competence area/site 24 is connected to the educational exchange 20 via the Internet for retrieval of data therefrom and so that the organization 17, that could be the employer of the customers 16, may request cost quotes and request additional educational modules 13. In this way, it is possible for organizations to search, negotiate and obtain educational services from one source, i.e. the educational exchange 20 that substantially reduces the administrative costs for the organizations as a result of the more effective buying process of the educational services. Individual customers may search and directly book courses on the site 20 in addition to obtaining information about the availability, booking status and confirmation information. The display of the information on the educational exchange 20 may be role- based so that the information displayed is adapted to the viewer of the displayed information. For example, the displayed information may be adapted to the allocated authorization of the viewer. The educational exchange 20 may be associated with a course market unit 36, a course logic unit 38 and an invoice billing unit 40. The course market 36 monitors and keeps track of the demand and time periods of all the courses such as statistical data of the supply and demand of various course modules 13. The statistical data may be stored in a course database 44. The course logic unit 38 may be used to determine what statistical data from the database 44 the service providers 12 and other users of the educational exchange 20 should have access to. The organization 17 may send a request for new course modules that are forwarded via the course logic unit 38 to the service providers 12 in order to customize course modules. If the administrator 14 has developed a customized course module that has sold more than three times, the administrator 14 may sell the right to market the customized course module to the service providers. In this way, the administrator 14 does not compete with the service providers. The invoice billing unit 40 is associated with a transaction account that keeps track of the transactions that take place on the educational exchange 20 such as the trade of educational modules 13. The competence site 24 makes it possible for organizations/companies such as the organization 17 to present educational services available to the employees 16 that may be paid for by funds in the accounts 28 associated via a knowledge-accounting , logic 30 that governs how the accounts are handled. The accounts may include a variety of account types related to education, rehabilitation, trade union expenses, sick payments, severance payments, restructuring expenses and retirement savings. For certain accounts the organization provides the funds while in other accounts the individual employee makes deposits to save for future use. For competence accounts, the contributions are made by both the employee and the employer. Only the individual employee can view all the accounts of the individual. The competence site 24 is associated with a knowledge inventory unit 32, a course matching unit 34 and the course market unit 36. The knowledge inventory unit 32 is used to create a knowledge profile 46 that may include information about the employee 16 such as, title, employment history, current skills/competence, education, previously completed courses and special skills and other past experiences. The information in the profile 46 may have been provided by the employee/customer 16. The course matching unit 34 may include pre-selected courses that the organization 17 would like a particular employee 16 to consider and that are in line with the preferences of the organization 17. When using fund from accounts that have been sponsored by the organization 17, the employee 16 may only be able to select the courses that have been pre-selected by the organization. In operation, when the employee/user 16 would like to order a course module, the employee may first log into the web site 26 and inspect the accounts 28 by sending a log-in signal 50 to the bank web site 26 and then trigger an inspection command 52 to find out the balance available on the accounts . The employee 16 may then trigger a look-at-courses command 54 by activating a link 59 on the web site 26 that goes to the educational exchange 20. The command 54 triggers a redirect command signal 56 that redirects the user's web browser so that the request is sent to the administrator 14. A message signal 58 is then send to the administrator 14 that includes the encrypted message digest information such as the user' s identification number and course specifications from the knowledge profile 46 that have been previously submitted by the user 16 by using previously stored information in the knowledge inventory 32. The message signal verifies that the request and the user are genuine. It also ensures that the user will only see courses that are relevant to the user 16. The knowledge profile database 46 and an agreement profile database 60 are preferably not linked together since they represent different data domains. The database 46 is based on data on an individual basis while the database 60 includes rules for the individual purchaser. The knowledge profile database 46 may include profile parameters for each user including the user' s ranking of parameter such as cost, service provider, geographical region and time period during which the course module should be started and finished. Since the web browser has been redirected to the administrator 14 all subsequent requests and signals from the user are sent to the administrator 14 and the user is automatically logged-in to the educational exchange 20. This procedure of using the message signal 58 guarantees that the requester is authorized to book courses and that the user has an account 28 that is part of the system 10. Once the user 16 has been approved, the user may send a show-course signal 62. The course matching unit 34 is then matching the course modules selected by the employee with the pre-selected courses 35 for the employee 16 that have been made by the organization 17. The matching produces a net list 37 of permitted course modules 13. The matching unit 34 also considers information from the knowledge profile 46 of the requesting user and the relevant agreement profiles 60 of the user. The matching between the database 46 and the database 60 may be done by using a generic coding that described the individual's needs outlined in database 46 with the database 60. The coding may be based on a CPV code. Certain accounts, such as those sponsored by trade unions, may not be subjected to any restrictions . The user may then select a course module 13 from the net list 37 by triggering a link that sends a select signal 64 and a buy signal 66 to the administrator 14. A reservation signal 68 is sent from the administrator 14 to the service provider 12 that provides the selected course module. The signal 68 temporarily books the course module and if no confirmation signal is sent to the service provider within a predetermined time that reservation is discarded. Upon receipt of the signals 64, 66, the administrator sends a redirect signal 70 to redirect the user's web browser to the bank web 26 and a buy signal 72 is then sent to the bank web site 26 to initiate the payment procedure for the ordered course module. The buy signal 72 includes the course number, price and other information about the selected course module. When there are sufficient funds available on the account 28, a buy message signal 74 is sent from the web site 26 to the administrator 14 that forwards an acquire signal 76 to the selected service provider 12. The service provider sends back a confirmation signal 78 to the administrator 14. Upon receipt of the confirmation signal 78, the administrator 14 sends a receipt signal 80 to the bank's web site 26 and to the invoice billing unit 40 of the administrator so that the list price for the course module 13 is deducted from the customer's account. The list price charge by the service provider 12 may vary with the quantity so that the list price is reduced as the quantity goes up. If the quantity of purchased course modules continues to increase up to the deadline for taking on new customers for the course module, the actual final list price may be lower than the list price charged to the customer at the time the customer 16 purchased the course module. The customer 16 may then be entitled to receive a credit that is the difference between the discount price and the list price charged. The web site 26 then forwards a receipt signal 82 back to the user 16. All purchases and invoicing transactions are monitored and registered by the billing unit 40. The invoicing may be based on a fixed subscriber price or on each transaction. The accounts may also be debited a fixed cost per user or per time period. The price of the course modules 13 is determined by a value exchange on the educational exchange 20. For example, a lower price per module may be obtained if many employees would like to buy the same course module at the same time to take advantage of the higher purchasing power of a coordinated booking of educational modules. The administrator 14 may ask several authorized service providers to bid on the project. At the time of the booking/purchasing of the educational module, the employee sees the number of other customers that have requested the same course module at the same time and the number of educational service providers that are competing for the order of the course modules. If the winning service provider does not have sufficient capacity, it may be possible for the other non-winning service providers to be sub-vendors to the successful service provider. The sub-vendors may be forced to carry out the service for a lower price than the price charged by the successful service provider. This is particularly important for customers who have specifically requested the buy the course module from a certain preferred service provider. A list price for the course module may first be deducted from the account and if a discount price is obtained by the administrator, the customer's account may be credited with the difference between the list price and the discount price minus any fees to the administrator. The timing of the booking of the educational modules may determine the actual price paid by the customer assuming that the customer filled in price as one of the determining factors. Other parameters may include a specific service provider, a specific geographical location or time period so that the customer may not be entitled to a lower price if the course module is provided by a different service provider or given at a different location or time period. Before booking the course module, the customer may review feedback information provided by previous customers that have already purchased the course module. As a result, the service providers are likely to become larger but more narrow in the number of course modules provided instead of small with a wide range of course modules. When the customer 16 has completed the course module, the knowledge profile 46 is updated and the administrator 14 will contact the customer 16 for feedback. By being associated with the system 10, the banks 18 may make a profit from managing the funds of the accounts, the service providers 12 may increase sales of certain course modules, the customers 16 may get discounted prices of the course-modules and the organizations 17 get a better control of the use of educational funds for the employees/customers. While the present invention has been described in accordance with preferred compositions and embodiments, it is to be understood that certain substitutions and alterations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the following claims .

Claims

Patent Claims :

1. A method of obtaining an educational service, comprising: a first user (16) visiting a web site (24, 26) and activating a link to a redirect a web browser to an educational exchange (20); the first user ordering a course module (13); an administrator (14) qualifying a first educational service

(12) provider and a second educational service provider (12) before the service provider are permitted to participate in the educational exchange; the administrator making a request to the first educational service provider and the second educational service provider of the course module on behalf of the first user and a group of additional users; a list price for the course module being withdrawn from the bank account (28); a value exchange on the educational exchange determining a discount price of the course module; and sending a deposit signal to the bank account to deposit an amount defined by a difference between the list price and the discount price.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the first user preparing a user profile stored in an agreement profile database and an employer of the first user preparing pre-selected course modules for a course matching unit .

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the administrator qualifying each course module of the educational service providers before the course modules of the educational service providers are made available on the educational exchange.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the service provider paying a commission fee to the administrator for each course module traded and sold on the educational exchange.

5. The method according to claim 2 wherein the method further comprises the educational exchange only displaying the preselected course modules for the first user.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the first user sending a buy signal to the administrator and the administrator sending a reserve signal to the service provider of the selected course module.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein the method further comprises the administrator sending a redirect signal to the first user to redirect a web browser to the bank web site to initiate a payment procedure for the selected course module.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the method further comprises the bank sending a confirm buy message signal to the administrator that forwards an acquire signal to the service provider .

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises the service provider sending back a confirmation signal to the administrator within a time period to prevent cancellation of the purchase of the selected course module.

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein the method further comprises the administrator sending a receipt signal to the bank web site and to an invoice billing unit of the administrator to record a transaction of the course module.