Personalized interactive network architecture

Abstract

A system for personalizing interaction between a user communicating over at least one communication channel and a provider of information/products/services, the user having a communication device for communication over the channel with the provider, the system comprising a channel interface for interfacing with the channel, an information/product/service interface for interfacing with an information/product/service provider; and a knowledge management system coupled to the channel and information/product/service interface, the knowledge management system comprising a knowledge management repository storing information concerning the user, the information obtained from interaction with the user over the channel including current interactions between the user and the knowledge management system, and further storing information concerning a plurality of information/products/services to offer to the user, and a personalization engine for making a decision as to which of the plurality of information/product/services to present to the user over the communication channel based on the stored information in the knowledge management repository.

1 . A method for personalizing interaction between a user and a provider of information/products/services: 
 interfacing the user with a channel;    interfacing a knowledge management system with the channel and an information/product/service provider;    assembling information from a knowledge management repository concerning the user, the information being obtained from current and past interactions between the user and the knowledge management system from at least two channels;    assembling information in the knowledge management repository concerning a plurality of information/products/services to offer to the user; and    making a decision as to which of the plurality of information/product/services to present to the user over the channel.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of assembling information from a knowledge management repository concerning a user comprises the steps of: 
 storing information concerning the user in a plurality of selected ones of the following: a contact data base, workflow database, security database, audit database, customer preference database, customer entitlement database, content database, application database, data warehouse, data mart, customer profile database, segmentation database, business rules database, campaign rules database and product/service/information database; and    accessing the stored information.    
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: forming a user profile based on the assembled information from the knowledge management repository concerning the user.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the user profile includes information about the user including at least one of information/product/service preference, address/telephone number, demographic information, channel preference, user interests and other user identification information.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of assembling information in the knowledge management repository concerning a plurality of information/products/services to offer to the user comprises: 
 accessing rules in a rules database for making a determination as to the information/product/service to present to the user;    applying the rules to the assembled information concerning the plurality of information/products/services to offer to the user and the assembled information concerning the user;    making a decision as to which of the plurality of information/product/services to present to the user over the channel.    
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the channel comprises at least one of the Internet, Extranet, ATM/kiosk, direct mail, e-mail, fax, call center and branch office.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the channel comprises the internet and the user interfaces with the channel via a display terminal.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising: assembling information personalized to the user using selected display objects stored in a content data base for display on the user's display terminal.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information/product/services comprises one of a plurality of financial products.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the financial products comprise at least one of a small business financial product, credit card account, automobile financing, home financing, savings account, investment, insurance, education finance and unsecured loan.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of making a decision as to which of the information/product/services to present to the user comprises: 
 personalizing information presented to the user by at least one of click stream analysis, collaborative filtering based on past and present interaction, explicit information provided by one of the user and another input device, rules based on interaction with the user and explicit information and events including transactional and service related events.    
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising using collaborative filtering to make a recommendation as to the information/product/service to present to the user based on a “like mind” analysis.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising: storing value propositions comprising information/product/services to provide to the user together with weights for each value proposition for the particular user.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising: maintaining the value proposition in a value proposition database along with the weights for each value proposition.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising: determining at least one of the value propositions to present to the user.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising: building a personalized proposal based on a selected value proposition and the user profile.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of making a decision comprises: 
 personalizing information provided to the user based on at least one event, the at least one event including a user life event, market/bank information feed event, customer relationship event, sales related event, advice related event, service related event, transactional/workflow event, user interaction event and user profile related event.    
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 providing a content repository for at least one content elements including images for selected channels and pointers to content for selected channels;    retrieving a content element from the content repository;    evaluating the content element; and    assembling the content element for presentation to the user.    
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising: 
 providing a pointer in the content element and responding to the pointer by presenting a selected value proposition to provide an assembled content to the user.    
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising: 
 mapping a selected value proposition to a content element in the content repository and returning the content element to the user via the channel.    
     
     
         21 . A method for personalizing interaction between a user and a provider of information/products/services, the method comprising: 
 interfacing the user with multiple channels;    interfacing a knowledge management system with the multiple channels and an information/product/service provider;    storing information from a knowledge management repository concerning the user, the information obtained from past and present interactions with the user;    storing information in the knowledge management repository concerning a plurality of information/products/services to offer to the user; and    making a decision as to which of the plurality of information/product/services to present to the user and which of the multiple channels over which to make the presentation.