Real-time event-based notification system

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 62/259,548, filed Nov. 24, 2015, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

[0002] When an individual applies for a product or service with an entity, the entity often times requires credit information of the individual. The entity requests credit information for the individual from a credit bureau. Then the entity factors in credit information when negotiating the terms of the product or service with the individual. For example, an entity may present a loan with lower interest rates for individuals with higher credit scores than for individuals with lower credit scores. Credit information may also affect ancillary terms of an agreement. For example, the entity may require a different down payment for a real estate loan based on a credit score. When a credit bureau receives a request for credit information regarding a given consumer from a requesting entity, the bureau typically retrieves the relevant data from a credit database maintained by the bureau, generates a credit score (if requested), returns the credit data and score to the requesting entity, and may record additional information in the consumer's credit file (such as recording that a credit inquiry was received).

[0016] These and other features will now be described with reference to the drawings summarized above. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate certain embodiments and not to limit the scope of the invention. Throughout the drawings, reference numbers may be re-used to indicate correspondence between referenced elements.

[0017] Among other things, this disclosure describes systems and methods for providing alerts in association with monitored events, where the alerts may be electronically delivered to a number of event subscribers substantially in real time relative to the occurrence of an underlying event trigger.

[0018] In conventional negotiations and transactions, an entity that is selling products or services may have more information (e.g. credit information) than a buyer when bargaining for the entity's products or services. Without understanding, at the point of negotiation, the condition of an individual's credit data, the individual is placed at a disadvantage. The individual does not know whether an offer for sale or extension of credit is a reasonable one based on the individual's credit data. Furthermore, the individual may not know whether credit data can be easily improved to order to simply return at a later time for a better product or service. The individual may not know if the offer for the service or product is reasonable based on other services and products that the individual is qualified for from other vendors.

[0019] Furthermore, credit data may be maintained by a credit bureau which may include account data for millions of customers based on information retrieved from a myriad of different sources. The credit bureaus receive information that may result in changes to credit data (e.g. payments or inquiries change a credit file), but many of these payments take about thirty to sixty days to update. Generally, a credit bureau system utilizes batch processing on a periodic basis to update the credit file. Thus, an individual may not have access to opportunities such as an extension of credit or better products or services until the update takes effect on the credit data. Product and service providers would also have to wait before identifying the individual as having met a certain criteria for a product or service.

[0020] Disclosed herein are systems and methods for generating event objects that meet a certain criteria and then generating an alert including an event message that may be electronically delivered to a number of event subscribers substantially in real time relative to the occurrence of an underlying event trigger. In some embodiments, a “publish and subscribe” events-based architecture may be implemented to distribute the alert in real time to target end point systems. Aspects of the present disclosure include a notification system that provides an alert to event subscribers to cause the event subscribers to send relevant information to an individual (e.g. current credit data, credit score) in association with activity related to credit data, such as a request for credit data from the credit bureau, as well as providing notification to the individual on other information (e.g. alternative products or services, suggestions and advice).

[0021] As used herein, a “notification module” generally describes any software, firmware, and/or hardware that provides a backbone to publish and subscribe events. For example, a notification module may include an enterprise service bus (“ESB”), data streaming technology, or any other technology that can publish to subscribers. Certain examples herein refer to an enterprise bus or ESB for ease of description, but those embodiments may be implemented with any other notification module discussed herein and/or later developed. For example, the notification module may leverage an Enterprise Service Bus (“ESB”) architecture when a trigger event meets certain broadcast criteria (e.g. an increase of a credit score by a certain value, a credit score meeting a threshold, or debt below a certain number). The notification system may generate an event object based on the broadcast criteria to post to an ESB, and the notification module may send a broadcast event message based on the event object to subscribers, allowing subscribers to obtain information on the individual in real-time.

[0022] Subscribers may use the information in the event object to send alerts to individuals in real time. Equipping the individual with such information empowers the individual with real time facts that will help him or her in the negotiation process. For example, in some embodiments, information identifying an individual may be sent to a credit bureau from a requesting entity in response to a request for a car loan. The requesting entity may be, in some embodiments, a vendor or service provider for the car loan and the entity that receives information from the individual to send to the credit bureau asking for credit data. In response to the credit bureau receiving the request for credit data from the requesting entity, the credit bureau may respond with credit data to the requesting entity. The credit bureau may also determine information derived from the inquiry (e.g. name of the requesting entity, purpose for the inquiry) and send the derived information to a notification system.

[0023] The notification system may assess the information derived from the inquiry, in particular whether the information meets a certain broadcast event criteria. This assessment may be the decisioning for generating a broadcast event object. For example, the notification system may assess whether the request meets a certain criteria (e.g. a credit score increase of 80 points or a total score greater than 700), which may be associated with one or more subscribers. Based on such criteria, the notification system may generate a broadcast event object. The notification system may generate a broadcast event object if the information received from the credit bureau indicates that a broadcast event criteria has been met. In other embodiments, the notification may generate multiple broadcast event objects where each broadcast event object is created based on its own set of broadcast criteria, which may each have been established with respect to different subscribers.

[0024] In some embodiments, the notification system receives information derived from the inquiry for credit data. The notification system can additionally receive other information about the individual, such as transactional data, personal identification information (“PID”), medical information, information associated with big data (e.g. search or browser history), and/or other information to determine and generate an event. In some embodiments, the event can identify (or be associated with data that identifies) a category of subscribers to receive information or updates associated with the individual. In some embodiments, the event can include information that can be posted to an enterprise service bus to be sent to subscribers to the enterprise service bus. The subscribers can then determine alerts that can be generated that provide value to the individual. For example, the individual may receive an alert that indicates the individual's latest credit score and/or other relevant information (e.g. how the credit data has changed recently, any mechanisms or actions that can be used or performed to increase the credit score, and/or other information).

[0025] Furthermore, the subscriber may extend offers to the individual providing the individual a baseline for the negotiation and that provides immediate alternative offers to compare. For example, the notification system may receive an indication from the credit bureau that the request for credit information came from a car dealership. The notification system may have a broadcast event criterion that identifies requests for individuals interested in a car loan. The notification system may generate a broadcast event object for the criterion, and post the broadcast event object to an ESB and/or other notification module. The ESB can then send a broadcast event message based on the broadcast event object to subscribers that are subscribed to the broadcast event criterion. The subscriber may receive information that the individual requested a car loan from a particular car dealership. The subscriber may determine loan details that the individual may be pre-qualified for to send to the individual based on the individual's credit data. Then, as the individual is negotiating with the car dealership, the individual will be empowered with an alternative loan such that the individual can simply walk away from the loan from the car dealership and go with the loan in the alert. The individual may also be equipped with sufficient information to understand that the individual can step away, take mitigating actions to improve the credit data, and reapply for the product/service for better terms.

[0026] Aspects of the present disclosure offer technical advancements that provide vendors and service/product providers with a new and effective way to market their products immediately at the point of sale. Traditionally, vendors and providers can send their marketing alerts at particular times (e.g. daily, monthly), or embedded in certain websites (e.g. searching for a particular product on a search engine or social media feed). However, aspects of the present disclosure provide a notification system that can generate a broadcast event object based on certain criteria and utilize a notification module (e.g. an ESB) to send a broadcast event message to vendors and service/product providers in substantially real-time from the event trigger in order to enable vendors and service/product providers to offer alternative offers for sale in real time as the individual is negotiating a competitor's offer for sale.

[0027] Various embodiments of systems, methods, processes, and data structures will now be described with reference to the drawings. Variations to the systems, methods, processes, and data structures that represent other embodiments will also be described.

[0028] Credit data may be maintained by a credit bureau or similar entity. Credit data maintained by a given credit bureau may include account data for millions or even billions of customers, where each customer identified in the data may have one or more accounts. The credit data may be based on several sources of data which include existing trade data, new trade data, inquiries, public record data (for example, bankruptcy filings), change of address data, and so forth. A common type of credit data is “tradeline data” (or trade data). Tradeline data may be an entry by a credit grantor to a consumer's credit history which is maintained by a credit reporting agency. A tradeline describes the consumer's account status and activity and can include names of companies with which the applicant has accounts, dates the accounts were opened, credit limits, types of accounts, account balances, payment histories, and/or other data.

[0029] In the United States, for example, multiple credit bureaus are constantly receiving data from a large number of data sources, including, for example, banks, creditors and other account providers. The credit bureaus use the data, among other things, to provide credit reports, credit scores and other credit-related products or services to consumers and businesses. The systems of a given credit bureau are typically tailored to specific legal and business requirements based on a number of factors, as well as the needs of its customers, which may have evolved over a long period of time.

[0030] In the United States, three hundred million consumers make payments to over fifty thousand entities every month, totaling thirty-five billion payments each year. The entities may include a variety of banks, utility companies, property owners, and the like. Many of these payments take about thirty to sixty days to show up on the consumers' credit ledgers after the payments are made. Generally, the reporting entities and a typical credit bureau system utilize batch processes on a periodic basis to update many aspects of a credit bureau's electronic records.

[0031] Disclosed herein are systems and methods for delivering key event alerts, such as credit inquiries and credit dispute status updates, in real time or near-real time from a system operated by a credit bureau to other systems either internal or external to the credit bureau. In some embodiments, a “publish and subscribe” events-based architecture may be implemented to build a real time “pub/sub” protocol, whereby transactions or business events from a producer system (e.g., a central credit bureau system, and/or various other systems) can be distributed to target end point systems (such as subscribers) simultaneously in real time. In some embodiments, the notification system uses data streaming to distribute the events.

[0032] In some embodiments, an event may be sent via a notification module when a significant change of state occurs in the producer system in which one or more target systems or end-point subscribers are interested. This events-based architecture may complement Services Oriented Architecture principles, whereby each change of state in the producer system may be considered a unique event and wrapped as a “business service” to be delivered to target end points or systems. Aspects of the present disclosure may provide a foundation for a loosely coupled enterprise architecture, thereby significantly reducing if not eliminating the need for point-to-point integration between application systems and the associated complexity.

[0033] Aspects of the present disclosure may leverage the capability of a notification module, such as an ESB, data streaming, or other publish and subscribe middleware, to implement an events-based architecture, and may be used to deliver atomic events in a publish and subscribe model. The publisher may be a system of records that creates various atomic events, and the subscriber may be a system that consumes the events. The publisher may deliver the events to various subscribers by posting the event in an Enterprise Service Bus. In some embodiments, the ESB may eliminate any point-to-point integration between the publisher and subscriber, and act as a backbone channel for both delivery of events to many subscribers and the clustering of different application systems within the enterprise. An ESB software suite, potentially combined with specialized hardware in some embodiments, may provide a mechanism wherein the events manifested from the publishing system can be cataloged, and each subscribing system can subscribe to certain atomic events from the catalog based on event type and/or various data or metadata associated with each event. In some embodiments, the publisher of events may not even know how many subscribers are there, as the ESB may render these events to different subscribers through listeners which are associated with each subscriber in the ESB framework. The ESB may also provide a flexibility whereby the role of producers and subscribers can be reversed, so that each application system can be either producing events or consuming events. In some embodiments, a single system may be both a producer and subscriber with respect to different events. For example, a given system may automatically produce an event in response to some other event that it consumes. The ESB backbone can also be leveraged, in some embodiments, to implement request-reply web services for any application systems clustered in an ESB cluster.

[0034] In some embodiments, a publish and subscribe model as described herein may provide functionality whereby a publisher effectively posts an event once for consumption by a large number of listeners or subscribers. Individual listeners may be configured to react to certain events uniquely by event type and/or other information, then repost a subsequent response event to the ESB.

[0035] In general, it is desirable for the payload of an event posted to the bus to be relatively small (e.g., less than a few hundred bytes). Accordingly, in some embodiments, an application programming interface (“API”) and/or other functionality provided by an operator of a credit bureau may be configured to receive data from various sources and package the data into an event object in a manner that ensures a payload size below a pre-established threshold set based on size or efficiency benchmarks established to meet the technical and/or business needs of the ESB and/or credit bureau. For example, the event may provide notification of a change in credit data, personal identification information, information on the requesting entity, and/or other credit data.

[0036] In some embodiments, an API may be provided that enables consumers and/or financial entities (e.g., banks, credit card providers, etc.) to report credit data for inclusion in a credit bureau database in a real time manner utilizing features of the ESB architecture. As volume needs increase, systems disclosed herein may be scalable and self-adjusting, such as by automatically triggering multiple instances of an API to scale to volume or bandwidth needs. In some embodiments, many aspects of the system may be designed to have built-in redundancy and/or may be modular in order to enable increased flexibility.

[0037] The data layout of an event may depend on the type of event. For example, a generic layout may be established and used for certain events, while other events may be organized in a customized format based on the event type, specific subscriber needs, the producer's needs, and/or other factors. As a specific example in one embodiment, the payload of an event for reporting a credit inquiry may include fields indicating a consumer's basic information (e.g., name, birthday and social security number), credit data, address information, and the name of the inquiring entity. In some embodiments, the payload of an event may be in a JSON format in order to minimize ties to any specific schema, although other configurations (e.g., XML) are contemplated and intended to be within the scope of this disclosure. In some embodiments where multiple payload formats can be posted to and processed by the same ESB, only certain listeners/subscribers may be configured to process specific formats (e.g., a customized data layout may be used for a specific bank listener).

[0038] In some embodiments, the ESB may be configured to process both regulated and non-regulated data. For example, certain types of credit data and personal information may be regulated by one or more government entities in a given region or country. The ESB may be configured such that any events posted to the bus are checked automatically to determine whether the data types involved trigger any rules that require certain consumer consent or other special treatment. In the case that one or more consent rules are triggered, the producer system may be configured to automatically check for a record of the appropriate consent in an electronic data store, where the consent may have been previously obtained from a consumer via an API (such as the consumer agreeing to certain consents when previously self-reporting credit data to the credit bureau via an API, or in association with a firm offer of credit).

[0039] As mentioned above, a single system, in some embodiments, can act as both publisher and subscriber. For example, a given listener (e.g., a continuous scoring listener) can be configured to automatically perform an action (e.g., generate a credit report) upon listening to a certain even type, and then automatically post a resulting new event (e.g., a credit score) back to the ESB in real time. Events may be split into different parallel queues based on filtering, rule sets and/or load balancing, then a regulator associated with a given queue may determine one or more specific listeners to receive each queued event.

[0040] According to certain embodiments, a notification system, which may include an enterprise service bus, may broadcast an event to subscribers to cause the subscribers to provide an alert to an individual when an entity uses information of the individual to request credit data. In other embodiments, the notification system may generate an event to send directly to a consumer computing device. In some such embodiments, the consumer computing device may be a subscriber, and may launch an application upon receiving an event message in order to provide additional related information to the consumer. For example, a notification system, as disclosed herein, may provide an alert to a device associated with the individual when identification information associated with the individual is included in a request associated with a request for credit data, such as requesting a credit file.

[0041] In some embodiments, the credit bureau and/or the notification system may determine information underlying the request, such as the name of the requesting entity and/or the purpose for the request. The notification system may also determine third party vendors, financial institutions, or subscribers to which to broadcast the event. In some embodiments, the financial institution may be, for example, a bank or credit card issuer that maintains credit accounts for individuals on behalf of a separate entity, such as a vendor or service provider. The notification system may determine how the event will be broadcasted (e.g. categories of event receivers or particular receivers of the broadcast event). The notification system may, in some embodiments, provide information associated with related offers (e.g. categories of relevant offers for the receivers of the broadcast event).

[0042] In some embodiments, the notification system as described herein may include a subscription component. For example, the subscription component may be offered via a monitoring service that enrolls third parties to the enterprise service bus to receive broadcast messages. In some embodiments, a notification system may have a relationship with a credit bureau, or other entities (e.g. subscribers to the enterprise service bus, product or service providers, and/or financial institutions), such that certain requests that are received by the credit bureau or other entities are sent to the notification system prior to being processed by the credit bureau or the other entities. Furthermore, in some embodiments the notification system may be an intermediary that receives requests associated with a request for credit data from requesting entities or financial institutions and transmits the requests to one or more credit bureaus or other entities after (or concurrently with) extraction of information regarding an individual identified in the request and initiation of alert transmission to the consumer.

[0043] In some embodiments, alerts and/or events may be generated very quickly (e.g., in real-time or substantially in real-time) after a request associated with credit data or other event-triggering action occurs. For example, alerts may be transmitted to subscribers within seconds of the triggering event occurring. Similarly, notifications from subscribers indicating feedback, relevant offers, suggestions, and the like may be transmitted to the individual also in real-time or substantially in real-time. Although the disclosure discusses offers, feedback, information, and the like sent to the individual, the same notification or alert can be sent to other entities (such as the requesting entity). In other embodiments, notifications or alerts to individuals may be transmitted in batches, where the batch processing may occur every N seconds, minutes, hours, or other period.

[0044] In some embodiments, identity information that may be included in a request for credit data may broadly include various types of data associated with an individual. Examples that may be considered identity information, in some embodiments, include name, address, telephone number, email address, social security number, etc. Although the description provided herein refers to individuals, consumers, or customers, the terms “user,” “individual,” “consumer,” and “customer” may, according to some embodiments, include groups of individuals, such as, for example, married couples or domestic partners, organizations, groups, and business entities. Furthermore, request for credit data may broadly include various types of data associated with the requesting entity, for example, requesting entity name, address, and the like. The request for credit data may also include information on the purpose of the inquiry, for example, a loan amount, a purpose for the loan, etc.

[0045] A request for credit data may generally refer to a request for more information on the individual based at least in part on one or more pieces of identification information. For example, the request for information may be non-credit data and/or credit data. For the purposes of discussion, the request will be described as a request for credit data directed to a credit bureau. In some embodiments, a request for credit data may be a part of an account opening transaction or request. For example, when an entity initiates a process to open a new credit account or other account for an individual, the entity may first attempt to receive credit data of the individual. The entity may subsequently request credit data associated with the individual as a part of the account opening process. In other embodiments, the entity may open an account for the individual by submitting a credit data request. As will be appreciated, examples described herein with reference to requests for credit data may also be applicable to requests for other types of requests associated with the opening of an account, line of credit, or other transaction. Examples of account types that may be associated with a request to open a new account may include, for example, a mortgage, a revolving loan, a credit card, financial services, utilities, leasing, renting, television service, telephone service, and/or other types of credit or non-credit accounts.

[0046] FIG. 1A is a functional block diagram showing a sample high-level flow of events in a notification system, according to certain embodiments. As shown in FIG. 1A, an individual applies for an account with a product or service provider (requesting entity) 102. For purposes of example, the individual applying for the account may be an individual named of Jim Smith. The requesting entity 102 may be attempting to open a credit account, for example, in the name of Jim, such as a department store credit card. As will be appreciated, the product or service provider (requesting entity) 102 could be any of a number of business types involved in products or services, even for products or services ancillary to credit data. For example, the requesting entity 102 may be involved in opening accounts for consumers, including credit accounts and/or non-credit accounts. While credit bureaus are often referred to in this disclosure to maintain credit data, it is appreciated that in other embodiments, some or all of the credit data may be maintained by other entities (such as the subscriber 105, financial institution 104, or third party vendor 103. In some embodiments, the requesting entities may be the entities to receive the broadcast event message. In some embodiments, the entities receiving the broadcast event message may be the requesting entity. Thus, a given system may both provide input to the notification system that triggers an event object to be created, and may receive event messages as a subscriber.

[0047] The credit bureau 120 may determine information regarding the request for credit data. For example, the credit bureau 120 may identify the name of the product or service provider (requesting entity) 102, the purpose of the request for credit data, or the like. The credit bureau 120 may retrieve credit data (e.g. a credit file) for the individual from a credit data store 121. In the illustrated example, the credit bureau 120 generates and provides the requested credit information to the product or service provider 102. A request for credit data is also sent to a notification system 150. As will be appreciated, requests for credit data and/or other requests associated with an account opening may additionally or alternatively be received by entities other than a credit bureau (such as an authentication service in the event of an account opening transaction, where the authentication service may be operated by the same operator or different operator than the credit bureau services).

[0048] In some embodiments, the notification system 150 may also receive consumer information from a consumer information data store 112. For example, the consumer information may include non-credit information that may be used by the notification system 150 when identifying whether an incoming request or other occurrence satisfies criteria for broadcasting the occurrence as a broadcast event. The consumer information may include information such as transaction data, browser data, personal information, and/or any other information that may be used when determining whether to generate a broadcast event object related to a request for data. Such information may be provided by financial institutions, credit bureaus, vendor or service providers, big data providers, the individual, and/or other entities that have relevant information on the individual. The consumer information data store 112 may include multiple data stores, in some embodiments.

[0049] Next, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1A, the notification system 150 may identify that a broadcast event object related to the request for credit data should be generated as a result of the incoming notification meeting previously established event criteria, as will be discussed in more detail below. For example, the broadcast event object may include information regarding a credit file and/or other credit data, changes in credit data, consumer information (such as personal information, and/or non-credit data such as browser history), requesting entity information, information related to the purpose for the request for credit information, and/or the like. The notification system 150 may comprise a notification module, such as enterprise bus 155, data streaming, or other technology that can publish to subscribers (herein referred to as an enterprise bus for convenience, but any discussions of an enterprise bus are equally applicable to other notification module) as will be described in further detail below.

[0050] The notification system 150 may determine one or more broadcast event types in response to information received by the credit bureau 120. For example, the notification system 150 may determine that one broadcast event type is an increase in credit score over a specified threshold. In another example, the notification system 150 may determine a broadcast event type based on the type of requesting entity 102 (e.g. a car dealership), or the purpose of the information received from the credit bureau 120 (e.g. a car loan). In some embodiments, the broadcast criteria may include whether the information received by the credit bureau 120 falls under a particular event type. This event type information may be incorporated into an event object generated by the notification system 150.

[0051] In some embodiments, the notification system 150 may use the enterprise service bus 155 to send broadcast event messages to other entities. For example, the notification system 150 can send the broadcast event message to subscribers 105 of the enterprise service bus. In some embodiments, the notification system 150 may send the broadcast event message to third party vendors 103, financial institutions 104, and/or any other third party that may use the broadcast event message and/or related request information to determine an alert to send to the individual.

[0052] In some embodiments, the notification module comprises data streaming configured to publish events to subscribers. Data streaming, as used herein, generally refer to any technology that processes events in the order they occur, and may include the transfer of data at a high speed sufficient to support sufficient bandwidth and for real-time human perception of data. One example includes the KAFKA stream configured to stream messaging data in a publish and subscribe architecture. The KAFKA stream is a distributed streaming platform that allows the platform to publish and subscribe, to store streams of records, and to process streams of records as they occur. Other examples of data streaming technology include FLINK, and SPARK. “The Forrester Wave™: Big Data Streaming Analytics, Q1 2016,” by Mike Gualtieri and Rowan Curran, published Mar. 30, 2016 by Forrester™, available at http://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/en_us/doc/analystreport/forrester-big-data-streaming-analytics-108218.pdf, and “Top Streaming Technologies for Data Lakes and Real-Time Data” by Greg Wood, published Sep. 20, 2016 by Zaloni The Data Lake Company, available at http://blog.zaloni.com/top-streaming-technologies-for-data-lakes-and-real-time-data, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety, describe additional details and options in using data streaming technology that may be used in certain embodiments of notification systems discussed herein. The notification module may include a form of middleware, data streaming, other technology that may allow a system to publish/subscribe architecture, to publish or sent to an entity to consume, or send to subscribers of a certain event.

[0053] The entities (third party vendor 103, subscriber 105, and financial institution 104) that receive a broadcast event message may then, extract the information related to the request for credit data from the message, and determine relevant offers to send to the individual. Then, one or more entities may send an offer, an alert, notification, and/or message to a consumer computing device 130. The alert may include a notification of information (e.g. current credit score), suggestions for the consumer (e.g. mitigation factors to increase credit score), competing offers (e.g. other offers for a car loan), or any other information that may be helpful for the individual (e.g. helpful for the purpose of the inquiry).

[0054] The event message receiving entities (third party vendor 103, subscriber 105, financial institution 104) may, in some embodiments, de-dupe, parse, and/or re-phrase the broadcast event messages received from the notification system 150. For example, multiple alerts may be generated by the entities (third party vendor 103, subscriber 105, and/or financial institution 104) for the same consumer activity, such as when multiple entities may generate and transmit alerts to the consumer computing device 130. The consumer computing device 130 and or other system may parse and/or re-phrase the alert to make it user friendly. For example, the consumer computing device 130 may correlate information included in the alert, such as alert type, with a particular alert message and/or integrate the messages together in a single application or message. Additionally, different alert messages or formats may be accessed depending on the delivery medium, such as e-mail, software application, SMS, voice, etc.

[0055] The notification system 150 and/or an entity that receives an event message (such as third party vendor 103, subscriber 105, or financial institution 104) may determine contact information and/or contact preferences for the individual based on, for example, information that the individual provided when enrolling in a monitoring service or alert/notification service. The one or more alerts may be provided in various manners, and may depend in part on the device type. For example, alerts may be delivered, in some embodiments, via one or more of e-mail, text message, phone call, an online portal that is accessible to alert members (e.g., a credit monitoring or identity protection website), printed digests, mobile applications, etc.

[0056] In the embodiment of FIG. 1A, the individual may provide an indication back to the relevant entity (such as third party vendor 103, subscriber 105, or financial institute 104) to receive more information on the offer, such as details on the counter offer or view mitigating steps to improve credit score. The respective entity (such as third party vendor 103, subscriber 105, or financial institute 104) may implement one or more responsive actions in order to provide the individual with more information, or more detail on the contents of the offer. In some embodiments, the individual may have preconfigured notification/alert preferences. For example, the individual may allow for certain notifications (such as alternative counter-offers), but not authorize messages to be sent suggesting mitigating steps to improve the individual's credit score.

[0057] The alerts to consumers may include detailed information regarding the requesting entity. For example, rather than simply indicating the name of a chain store from which the request for credit data was received, in some embodiments the alerts may include the particular information regarding the individual that was provided to the requesting entity. Having more detailed information on the information provided to the requesting entity allows the consumer to better determine its negotiation stance.

[0058] FIG. 1B is a functional block diagram showing another sample high-level flow of events in a notification system, according to certain embodiments. As shown in FIG. 1B, an individual can perform an action with a product or service provider (requesting entity) 102 that affects credit data. For example, the individual may have a debt with the product or service provider 102. However, the individual may pay off the balance of the debt, which would thereby affect the individual's credit score. Accordingly, as illustrated, the product or service provider 102 may send updated information on the action (e.g. paying off the debt) as performed to the product or service provider 102 by the individual. Alternatively, the credit bureau 120 may request such information upon the change, at different time intervals, upon a request for such information (e.g. request for a credit file), and the like.

[0059] The credit bureau 120 may update the credit data store based on the information related to the action that affects the credit data (e.g. paying off the debt). For example, the credit bureau 120 may update statistics on the credit file, such as total debt, or the like. The credit bureau 120 may also generate updates on the credit file, such as an updated credit score. The updated credit data and/or the action that affects the credit data can also be sent to the notification system 150. As will be appreciated, updates to the credit data may additionally or alternatively be received by entities other than a credit bureau.

[0060] In some embodiments, the notification system 150 may also receive consumer information from a data store 112, similar to FIG. 1A. Next, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1B, the notification system 150 may generate a broadcast event object related to the credit data and/or action that affected the credit data. For example, the broadcast event object may include information associated with a credit file and/or other credit data, changes in credit data, consumer information (such as personal information, non-credit data such as browser history), requesting entity information, information related to the purpose for the request for credit information, and/or the like.

[0061] In some embodiments, the notification system 150 may use the enterprise service bus 155 to send broadcast event messages to other entities, as in FIG. 1A. The other entities (such as third party vendor 103, subscriber 105, and/or financial institution 104) may then each receive a broadcast event message, extract the information related to the updated credit data and/or actions that affected the credit data, determine relevant offers to send to the individual, and send an offer to a consumer computing device 130, as in FIG. 1A.

[0062] Although the embodiments of FIGS. 1A and 1B describe the notification system 150 including the enterprise service bus 155, and entities (e.g. subscriber 105, financial institution 104, third party vendor 103) external to the notification system 150, it is appreciated that part or all of the enterprise service bus 155 (and other modules described in the notification system 150 in FIG. 3A) may be placed external to the notification system 150, and part or all of the entities (e.g. subscriber 105, financial institution 104, third party vendor 103) may be local to the notification system 150.

[0063] FIG. 2A is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method for sending a broadcast event message to subscribers based on a request for credit data, as described in FIG. 1A. The illustrative method may be implemented by a notification system, such as the notification system 150. In some embodiments, the notification system 150 may include an enterprise service bus 155 that implements some of the steps of the method illustrated in FIG. 2A. The illustrative method begins at block 202, where the notification system 150 receives an indication related to a requesting entity's request for credit data of an individual or other entity. As discussed above, an individual may apply for a service or product from a service or product provider 102. The request may be associated, for example, with a transaction to open an account on behalf of the individual. As used in the illustrated example, the underlying vendor or service provider 102 that submitted the initial request to the credit bureau 120 may be referred to as the requesting entity 102. In other embodiments, the notification system 150 may receive the indication related to the request for credit data from an entity other than the credit bureau 120, such as a subscriber 105, a financial institution 104, a third party vendor 103, an authentication service, or other entity.

[0064] Once the notification system 150 receives the indication related to a requesting entity's request for credit data, the method proceeds to block 204, where the notification system 150 accesses information associated with the identified consumer. The information can include personal identification information of the individual, transaction data, sociodemographic information, preferences, browser history, and/or any other information relevant to the consumer. For example, the notification system 150 may retrieve contact information from one or more data stores based on a determined match between the consumer identification information included in the request for credit data and contact information associated with a number of different consumers. The contact information retrieved may include, for example, one or more of an e-mail address, phone number, address, IP address, a user account name associated with enrollment in a monitoring service, etc.

[0065] At block 206, the notification system 150 may, in some embodiments, determine if the request for credit data meets event broadcast criteria based on the indication related to a requesting entity's request for credit data. The notification system 150 can also use a variety of other information in its decisioning whether to generate and/or how to generate the broadcast event object. The notification system 150 can use information directed to a change in the credit file. For example, the notification system may generate a broadcast event object if the credit score has increased by 80 points, or if the total credit score is above 700. The notification system 150 may also apply criteria directed to the requesting entity. For example, the notification system 150 may generate a broadcast event object if the requesting entity is associated with luxury brands (e.g. generate a broadcast event object if the requesting entity is associated with a luxury brand car dealership).

[0066] In some embodiments, the notification system 150 may generate a broadcast event object based on information on the requesting entity. The notification system 150 may generate an event broadcast criteria when the request for credit data is associated with a particular financial institution. For example, a subscriber that is a financial institution may subscribe for broadcast event messages that are associated with itself or its competitors. A financial institution may desire to receive messages in real time for requests associated with itself to identify better offers than the ones allowed by the requesting entity. The financial institution may have special promotions or have a long standing relationship with the individual that the financial institution would like to promote and foster. In some embodiments, the request for credit data may only provide the name of the requesting entity and not a financial entity associated with the requesting entity. The notification system 150 may retrieve data from one or more data stores that associates each of a number of different financial entities with one or more requesting entities with which the given financial entity is associated. Such association data is described with more detail below with reference to FIG. 4B. In this manner, the notification system 150 may set criteria to create a broadcast event object based on an association with a financial institution even if the request for credit data does not contain the financial institution. For example, if the data store links a real estate company to a particular financial institution, then the notification system can identify the financial institution from the identity of the real estate company that may be the requesting entity requesting credit data. In some embodiments, the notification system 150 and/or the subscriber 105 may provide the consumer directly with an alert about the specific underlying requesting entity in order for the consumer to better determine if the offer for the service or product is a fair one.

[0067] In some embodiments, the notification system 150 may generate a broadcast event object based on criteria related to information on the individual. The notification system 150 may generate a broadcast event object for a particular individual, or characteristic associated with the individual. For example, the notification system 150 may generate a broadcast event object for individuals based on gender, geolocation/residence, socio-economic attributes, race, age, level of education, income and employment, psychiatric or medical data, a personality trait, an interest, values, attitudes, lifestyles, opinions, preferences, likes or dislikes, predilections, purchase history, browser history, financial history and data, credit history and data, personal history and data, other activity data, and the like. The notification system 150 may receive information from the credit bureau 120 that may identify the individual, and may access other information on the individual from the consumer information data store 112.

[0068] In some embodiments, the notification system 150 may generate a broadcast event object based on criteria related to the request itself. For example, the notification system 150 may generate an object if there are a number of requests by a particular requesting entity or for a particular individual. Subscribers may subscribe to receive broadcast event messages when multiple occurrences of a request for credit file is placed for a particular individual. The notification system 150 may also assess the purpose of the inquiry to determine whether to generate a broadcast event object. For example, the notification system 150 may generate a broadcast event object for requests to open a line of credit, or for real estate loans for a particular amount in a specified area.

[0069] At block 208, the notification system 150 generates a broadcast event object associated with the request for credit information and optionally other non-credit information (e.g. information regarding the requesting entity, information regarding the consumer, etc.), and, at block 210, posts a corresponding broadcast event message to an intermediary message broker. The broadcast event object may include the indication related to the requesting entity's request, information on the requesting entity, information on the individual, information on the request itself (such as the purpose of the request), the criteria for the broadcast event object, the intermediary message broker, and/or other information that may be used by the intermediary message broker, the enterprise service bus 155, the individual, or the subscriber 105. The enterprise service bus 155 identifies subscribers 105 registered to receive subscriptions from the intermediary message broker at block 212. In some embodiments, each subscriber may be subscribed to one or more broadcast criteria. For example, a subscriber may be subscribed to receive broadcast event messages where (1) credit score is greater than 700, as well as receiving broadcast event messages from (2) individuals residing in California.

[0070] At block 214, the notification system 150 transmits the broadcast event message to subscribers 105 to cause the subscribers 105 to determine relevant offers for the entity (e.g. the individual) based on the indication related to the requesting entity's request for credit data at block 204. The broadcast event message may include at least a portion of the broadcast event object, routing information, information on the subscriber, and the like. Then, the subscribers can transmit a notification or alert to the consumer using one or more delivery mediums according to the contact information retrieved. For example, the alert may be delivered via e-mail, within a software application, an online portal or website, SMS text message, voice call, etc. In some embodiments, the delivery method may be selected based on preferences previously provided by the consumer. In some embodiments, the blocks of FIG. 2A may all be performed substantially in real time (such as within seconds or milliseconds, in one embodiment) with respect to the indication being received at block 202.

[0071] FIG. 2B is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a method for sending a broadcast event message to subscribers based on an action affecting credit data (such as paying off debt), as described in FIG. 1B. The illustrative method may be implemented by a notification system, such as the notification system 150. In some embodiments, the notification system 150 may include an enterprise service bus 155 that implements some of the steps of the method illustrated in FIG. 2A. The illustrative method begins at block 232, where the notification system 150 receives information on an action that affects credit data. As discussed above, an individual may pay off a debt owed to a service or product provider 102. As used in the illustrated example, the underlying vendor or service provider 102 that submitted the change to the credit bureau 120 will be referred to as the reporting entity. In other embodiments, the notification system 150 may receive the indication related to a change, update, or action that affects credit data from an entity other than the credit bureau 120, such as a subscriber 105, a financial institution 104, a third party vendor 103, or other entity.

[0072] Once the notification system 150 receives the indication related to a requesting entity's request for credit data, the method proceeds to block 234, similar to block 214, where the notification system 150 accesses information associated with the identified consumer. The information can include personal identification information of the individual, transaction data, sociodemographic information, preferences, browser history, and/or any other information relevant to the consumer. For example, the notification system 150 may retrieve contact information from one or more data stores based on a determined match between the consumer identification information included in the request for credit data and contact information associated with a number of different consumers. The contact information retrieved may include, for example, one or more of an e-mail address, phone number, address, IP address, a user account name associated with enrollment in a monitoring service, etc.

[0073] At block 236, the notification system 150 may, in some embodiments, determine if the information regarding the action that affects credit data meets an event broadcast criteria. The notification system may generate a broadcast event object based on criteria relating to the individual, the requesting entity, the action affecting credit data, and the like. For example, the broadcast event criteria may include a threshold or a particular change to the credit data (e.g. an increase of 50 points to the credit score) that one or more subscribers have previously indicated an interest in being notified about.

[0074] At block 238, the notification system 150 generates a broadcast event object associated with the information on the action that affects the credit data and other non-credit information (e.g. information on the requesting entity, information on the consumer), and, at block 240, posts the broadcast event object to an intermediary message broker. The enterprise service bus 155 identifies subscribers registered to receive subscriptions from the intermediary message broker at block 242, and at block 244, the notification system 150 transmits the broadcast event object to subscribers to cause the subscribers to determine relevant offers for the entity based on the information on the action that affects credit data. Then, the subscribers can transmit a notification or alert to the consumer using one or more delivery mediums according to the contact information retrieved. In some embodiments, the blocks of FIG. 2B may all be performed substantially in real time (such as within seconds or milliseconds, in one embodiment) with respect to the information being received at block 232.

[0075] FIG. 3A illustrates a notification system 150 in communication with various systems, according to one embodiment. As illustrated, the various systems are in communication via network 160, which may be one or more of a LAN, WAN, and/or the Internet, for example. As illustrated, the notification system 150 is in communication with a consumer computing device 130. The notification system 150 may receive request for credit data from a credit bureau 120, which may provide the basis for the notification system 150 to generate and deliver an alert to one or more entities (such as third party vendor 103, financial institution 104, and/or subscriber 105). Alternatively or additionally, the notification system 150 may receive notification of a request for credit data for a given consumer from an entity (e.g. third party vendor 103, financial institution 104, or subscriber 105), which may be a basis for an alert to be delivered to the consumer, in some embodiments. As will be appreciated, the alert delivery device may be in communication with credit bureaus, a number of other alert providers, vendors, service providers, and consumer devices not illustrated in FIG. 3A.

[0076] In the illustrated embodiment, a notification system 150, which includes an enterprise service bus 155, a services registry 310, a services orchestration 320, a generic score monitoring listener 330, and a score-able events listener 340, is in communication with a network 160 and various systems are also in communication with the network 160. The notification system 150 may be used to implement systems and methods described herein. For example, the notification system 150 may be associated with an event generator that causes an event to be broadcasted to another entity (e.g. third party vendor 103, financial institution 104, and/or subscriber 105) to deliver a notification or alerts to a user. The alert and/or notification can additionally or alternatively be performed by the notification system 150. In other embodiments, a credit bureau, third party vendor 103, financial institution 104, subscriber 105, and/or other third-party system may include a computing system that includes components of notification system 150.

[0077] The notification system 150 may include, for example, a personal computer that is IBM, Macintosh, or Linux/Unix compatible or a server or workstation. In one embodiment, the notification system 150 comprises a server, a laptop computer, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, a kiosk, or an audio player, for example. In one embodiment, the exemplary notification system 150 includes one or more central processing unit (“CPU”) (not shown), which may each include a conventional or proprietary microprocessor. The computing system 700 further includes one or more memory (not shown), such as random access memory (“RAM”) for temporary storage of information, one or more read only memory (“ROM”) for permanent storage of information, and one or more mass storage device (not shown), such as a hard drive, diskette, solid state drive, or optical media storage device. Typically, the modules of the notification system 150 are connected to the computer using a standard based bus system (not shown). In different embodiments, the standard based bus system could be implemented in Peripheral Component Interconnect (“PCI”), Microchannel, Small Computer System Interface (“SCSI”), Industrial Standard Architecture (“ISA”) and Extended ISA (“EISA”) architectures, for example. In addition, the functionality provided for in the components and modules of notification system 150 may be combined into fewer components and modules or further separated into additional components and modules.

[0078] The notification system 150 is generally controlled and coordinated by operating system software, such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server, Unix, Linux, SunOS, Solaris, or other compatible operating systems. In Macintosh systems, the operating system may be any available operating system, such as MAC OS X. In other embodiments, the notification system 150 may be controlled by a proprietary operating system. Conventional operating systems control and schedule computer processes for execution, perform memory management, provide file system, networking, I/O services, and provide a user interface, such as a graphical user interface (“GUI”), among other things.

[0079] The exemplary notification system 150 may include one or more commonly available input/output (I/O) devices and interfaces (not shown), such as a keyboard, mouse, touchpad, and printer. In one embodiment, the I/O devices and interfaces (not shown) include one or more display devices, such as a monitor, that allows the visual presentation of data to a user. More particularly, a display device provides for the presentation of GUIs, application software data, and multimedia presentations, for example.

[0080] In the embodiment of FIG. 3A, the I/O devices and interfaces provide a communication interface to various external devices. In the illustrated embodiment, the notification system 150 is electronically coupled to a network 160, which comprises one or more of a LAN, WAN, and/or the Internet, for example, via a wired, wireless, or combination of wired and wireless, communication link. The network 160 communicates with various computing devices and/or other electronic devices via wired or wireless communication links.

[0081] According to FIG. 3A, information is provided to the notification system 150 over the network 160 from one or more data sources including, for example, the credit bureau 120, or other entities (e.g. third party vendor 103, financial institution 104, and/or subscriber 105). The information supplied by the various data sources may include a request for credit information such as credit data, personal information, application information, and/or other like data, notification of a request for credit information, or information on the requesting entity or the purpose for the request, for example. In addition to the devices that are illustrated in FIG. 3A, the network 160 may communicate with other data sources or other computing devices, such as a requesting entity 102. In addition, the data sources may include one or more internal and/or external data sources. In some embodiments, one or more of the databases or data sources may be implemented using a relational database, such as Sybase, Oracle, CodeBase and Microsoft® SQL Server as well as other types of databases such as, for example, a flat file database, an entity-relationship database, and object-oriented database, and/or a record-based database.

[0082] A consumer computing device 130 may be connected to the network 160 and used by a user to receive and respond to alerts provided by the notification system 150. The consumer computing device 130 may be a desktop computer, a mobile computer, or any other mobile device such as a mobile phone or other similar handheld computing devices. In some embodiments, a consumer can be a subscriber. For example, a consumer may subscribe to receive broadcast event messages from the notification system 150 on a consumer computing device 130.

[0083] In the embodiment of FIG. 3A, the notification system 150 also includes an enterprise service bus 155, a services registry 310, a services orchestration 320, a generic score monitoring listener 330, and a scorable events listener 340 that may be stored in the mass storage device as executable software code that is executed by the CPU. This components or modules may include, by way of example, software components, object-oriented software components, class components and task components, processes, functions, attributes, procedures, subroutines, segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuitry, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A, the notification system 150 is configured to execute the enterprise service bus 155, a services registry 310, a services orchestration 320, a generic score monitoring listener 330, and a scorable events listener 340 in order to receive indication of a request for credit information or other underlying action or occurrence, generate event objects and messages, transmit broadcast event messages to other entities (e.g. third party vendor 103, financial institution 104, and/or subscriber 105), receive feedback from consumers regarding provided alerts, and/or other functionality described elsewhere in this specification.

[0084] The notification system 150 may include an enterprise service bus 155 that includes several process clusters (process cluster 1 302, process cluster 2 304, process cluster 3 306) to process services related to the notification system 150. The notification system 150 may also include a services registry 310 that is used to publish or post events to the intermediary message broker. In some embodiments, the service registry stores a catalog or index of events that the subscriber can access to select event subscriptions. The catalog of events may include a grouping of event types or may include an a la carte selection of different listings of events. For example, a new inquiry for a credit file may be an event type, and may publish to any subscribers who are interested in a new inquiry. Account level events may be another example of an event type, where account level events may include changes to account information (e.g. balance updates), adding an authorized user, opening/closing an account, and the like. Depending on the embodiment, the subscriber can subscribe to event types on various levels of granularity, such as subscribing generally to “account level events” as well as subscribing to individual account level events, such as one or more of those noted above. In some embodiments, each subscriber has associated access rights that identify types of events, sets of consumers, and/or other criteria required for that subscriber to enroll for notifications of particular events. For example, a financial institution may be limited to subscribing to events for that financial institutions customers. In some embodiments, each subscriber must have a “permissible purpose” under applicable Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulations to access credit data of consumers associated with subscribed events.

[0085] The intermediary message broker (also referred to as the services orchestration 320, or bus) may also be included in the notification system 150, used to broker messages, and perform mediation and transformation of the events. The services orchestration 320 may use EBS, other middle layer technology, data streaming, or other technology that is able to recognize events and publish events to subscribers to the event.

[0086] For example, the mediation and transformation of the events may include changing the payload to the format that the subscriber 105 has enrolled in. In some embodiments, the mediation and transformation may also include changing payload formats for consumer computing devices that the subscribers 105 will send alerts and notifications to. The mediation and transformation can change the payload to a text file to send as a text message or format the message to fit in an application of a mobile device. The notification system 150 may also include generic score monitoring listener 330 (also referred to as a custom score listener) that may be created for subscribers that request to listen to a score event (e.g. listen to score changes and have the ability to select score ranges to tune into). The notification system 150 may connect to one or more subscriber systems for decisioning services based on the credit data. The notification system 150 may also include a score-able events listener 340 that may be used to listen to real time events such as hard inquiries, credit card payments, etc. The score-able events may flow into a scoring process that invokes a credit score calculator, creates a payload containing consumer identification and an updated credit score, and posts the score event back onto the bus.

[0087] While an enterprise service bus is often used as an example herein, other forms of middleware may be used in addition to or instead of an ESB, in some embodiments, or data streaming technology may be utilized. Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configured to facilitate communications and/or process transactions between disparate computing systems. Middleware may be implemented through commercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardware and/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middleware may reside in a variety of configurations (e.g. as a part of the notification system 150), may exist as a standalone system, or may be a software component residing on the Internet server. Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the various components of a notification system 150 and any number of internal or external systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. In various embodiments, where more than one notification system 150 components are dispersed across a network, middleware may be used to carry messages between components. These messages could be organized in any logical manner. WebSphere MQ™ (formerly MQSeries) by IBM, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of a commercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus (“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

[0088] The credit bureau system 120 may include a credit data store 121 that contains credit data for individuals, businesses, and/or entities. The credit bureau 120 may include a batch processing system 350 that processes the individual modules in batches, where the batches may include: inquiry updates 352, public record updates 354, single updates 360, trade updates 356, changes of addresses 358 or other personal information, consumer updates 362, a PIN merge 364, a PIN split 366, and/or other processes 368. In other embodiments, the credit bureau processes these modules in substantial real time upon receipt of a change, request, or other action or information that would initiate an action performed with respect to any one of these modules.

[0089] A consumer may include any individual, user, business, entity, government organization, software and/or hardware that interacts with a system to receive offers for products or services. A consumer computing device 130 may include any hardware and/or software suitably configured to facilitate input, receipt and/or review of information relating to alerts, notifications, and the other means of communication that may include information on the consumer, such as credit data and/or offers for products and services.

[0090] A consumer computing device 130 may include any device (e.g., personal computer) which communicates (in any manner discussed herein) via a network. The consumer computing device 130 may take the form of a computer or set of computers, although other types of computing units or systems may be used, including laptops, notebooks, hand held computers, personal digital assistants, set-top boxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers, mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets of computers, and/or the like.

[0091] As used herein, the term “network” (or similar terms) shall include any electronic communications means which incorporates both hardware and software components of such. Communication among the parties may be accomplished through any suitable communication channels, such as, for example, a telephone network, an extranet, an intranet, Internet, point of interaction device (point of sale device, personal digital assistant, cellular phone, kiosk, etc.), online communications, satellite communications, off-line communications, wireless communications, transponder communications, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), virtual private network (“VPN”), networked or linked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or any suitable communication or data input modality. Moreover, the network 160 may also be implemented using IPX, Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec), or any number of existing or future protocols.

[0092] FIG. 3B is a flow diagram illustrating an example embodiment of a notification system 150 that outputs custom payloads 302B to multiple subscribers 105A, 105B, 105N (herein referred to as subscribers 105). As discussed above, in some embodiments the services registry 310 allows subscribers 105 to indicate which of multiple credit events 301 the particular subscriber 105 would like to receive. Thus, for a particular credit event type (or other credit event criteria that may be identified by a potential subscriber 105), multiple subscribers 105 may request receipt of matching events 301 (or custom payloads that are generated based on the matching events). In FIG. 3B, the notification system 150 receives an event 301 that executes one or more process clusters 302, 304,306 to generate a generic payload 302A. Then, the generic payload 302A is provided to the notification module 154 (or some other component such as data stream) as an event, such that the notification module 154 may trigger one or more additional process clusters 302, 304, 306 based on receipt of the generic payload event. Additionally, the generic payload 302A is processed by one or more listeners 330A, 330B, 330N (herein referred to as listener 330A) to determine if any custom payloads 302B should be generated. As discussed elsewhere herein, each of the listeners 330 include criteria, rules, requirements, etc. for identifying particular events, which will then be processed to generate corresponding custom payloads 302.

[0093] In the example of FIG. 3B, the listener 330A determines that the generic payload 302A matches criteria for generating a custom payload 302B by the listener 330A. One or more additional listeners may also generate custom payloads based on matching the listener criteria to the generic payload 302A. The listener 330A then generates the custom payload 302B and transmits to any subscribers 105 that have subscribed to receive that custom payload 302B. In the example of FIG. 3B, the custom payload 302B is transmitted to each of multiple subscribers, including 105A, 105B, and 105N (which signifies that any amount of subscribers may receive that same custom payload 302B). As an example application of FIG. 3B, the event 301 may comprise an indication of a late payment that is received from a bank on a consumer's credit card account. The generic payload 302A may be triggered based on a rule that indicates a new credit score should be calculated when any of a certain group of changes are identified, including a late payment. Thus, the listener 330 A may then generate the particular consumer's credit score as the custom payload 302B and transmit the newly calculated credit score to multiple subscribers. Furthermore, each subscriber 105A, 105B, and 105N may receive the same custom payload 302B. In other embodiments, each subscriber 105A, 105B, and 105N may request a payload that is customized to the subscriber 105A, 105B, and 105N (e.g. different formats, varying levels of information). The payload can also be published as an application program interface (API) or implemented as an HTTP direct push.

[0094] FIG. 3C is a flow diagram illustrating the example notification system 150 executing a multi-phase processing of an event in order to generate a custom payload for a subscriber. In this example, the event 301 is initially transformed into a generic payload 302A which is detected by the listener 330A. The listener 330A then transforms the generic payload 302A into a custom payload 302B. In some embodiments, the custom payload 302B may be transmitted to one or more subscribers (not shown in this figure). In this example, the custom payload 302B is provided back to the notification module 154 (or some other component of the notification system 150 such as a data stream component), such as in the form of an event. Listener 330B then identifies custom payload 302B as matching that listeners processing criteria. Thus, Listener 330B generates custom payload 302C which, again, is provided back to the notification module 154. The custom payload 302C is identified by listener 330C as matching that listener's criteria, which generates custom payload 302D for transmission to a subscriber 105C. As one example of the various payloads, the generic payload 302A may be a credit inquiry, payment on a credit account, balance change, late fee, etc. The custom payload 302B may be a credit score, such as the Experian Plus credit score, the custom payload 302C may be a customer specific risk score (e.g., a lender-specific risk score), and payload 302D may include prequalification results that are based at least on the lender-specific risk score. Advantageously, each of the custom payloads may be identified by multiple listeners and processed into multiple different custom payloads. Thus, a single event 301 may advantageously trigger generation of one or more custom payloads and transmission of one or more different custom payloads to a plurality of subscribers, all in substantially real-time in response to the notification system 150 receiving the event 301. For example, the prequalification offers may be provided to the subscriber 105C, such as an automobile lender, while the consumer is at the point of sale, e.g. the automobile dealership, in response to the consumer paying off a credit card balance to increase the consumer's credit score and chances of the consumer qualifying for an automobile loan. In this example, the listeners 330A, 330B, 330C are internal subscribers to the notification system 150 and the subscriber 105C is external to the notification system 150. However, it is appreciated that listeners 330A, 330B, 330C and the subscribers 105 may be external, internal, or a combination of internal and external to the notification system 150.

[0095] FIG. 3D is a flow diagram illustrating an example processing method that may be performed by the notification system 150 to reduce processing cycles required to identify matching listeners from a large set of multiple available listeners (e.g., hundreds, thousands, or millions of different listeners). As discussed above, the listeners may include generic listeners 330G which are triggered when generic payloads are placed on the bus, and custom listeners 330C, which are triggered when custom payloads are placed on the bus. In this embodiment, the notification module 154, or some other component of the notification system 150 (such as data stream), determines whether an event 301 comprises a generic payload or a custom payload (e.g., whether the event is received from a financial institution or from an internal listener) and provides the payload to only a set of corresponding listeners. For example, any new events or payloads received by the notification module 154 would be analyzed by the generic listeners 330G. Similarly, any custom payloads received by the notification module 154 are processed by the custom listeners 330C. In this way, processing of incoming events is optimized by reducing processing power required and increasing speed at which events may be processed.

[0096] FIG. 3E is a flow diagram illustrating example event/payload data that may be transformed in various ways to provide a payload to a subscriber. In this example, the event comprises information regarding a balance change on an account owned by John Doe in the amount of −$400, and resulting in an account balance of zero dollars. In this example, the notification module 154 makes the payload available to the listeners, or to only a set of generic listeners in some embodiments. In the example of FIG. 3E, a listener 330A is illustrated as triggering generation of a payload in response to the event, but as discussed above, multiple listeners may be triggered in response to the same payload. In this example, the custom payload A comprises a credit score of 725 for John Doe, who is identified only by an alphanumeric identifier in this example payload. As shown, that payload A is made available to the listeners by the notification module 154 and, in this example, triggers listener 330B, which generates a bank-specific risk score for John Doe of BBB. For example, the bank-specific risk score may be calculated based on an algorithm from a particular bank, such as the subscriber 105 illustrated in FIG. 3E. Next, the payload B is recognized by the listener 330C, which transmits the payload B, or in some embodiments generates a new payload that includes additional information indicated by the subscriber 105, to the subscriber 105. As noted above, this process advantageously is performed in real-time or near real-time in response to receiving of the original balance change event by the notification module 154.

[0097] In some embodiments, the payloads are in an “atomic format” that provides minimal information regarding the event and any calculated custom data (e.g., calculated scores). For example, as shown in FIG. 3E, the custom payload B that is transmitted to the subscriber 105 includes only two data elements, a consumer identifier and a calculated bank risk score associated with that consumer identifier. Provision of only this minimal level of information allows the system to process larger amounts of events and more quickly and efficiently transmit payloads to subscribers, which can help provide distribution to a wider range of listeners and/or subscribers. The small payloads may be used by the subscribers to then provide alerts and notifications to consumer computing devices 130 that are also small in payload size to further improve speed and efficiency of the dissemination of information back to the individual, thus supporting the implementation of a response in substantially real-time. Thus, the payload may not need to send a full credit file, or a substantial portion thereof, but may only need to transmit the information the subscriber is interested in. Then, if the subscriber is further interested, the subscriber may request for more credit data or a full credit file for the individual.

[0098] FIGS. 3F and 3G are example payloads that may be provided to a subscriber. The payload in FIG. 3F illustrates a version number for the payload, a sourceID that may be used as an identifier for the transmitter of the payload, a UniqueTransactionID used to identify the individual, and an event type of 2. The event may trigger a listener based on the EventType matching an event type to which a subscriber has subscribed. For example, event type 2 may refer to a change in address. Thus, the payload includes information on the address of the individual. Furthermore, the payload may include a CompanyID that may indicate the source of the change of address for the individual (e.g. the individual requests a change of address in a company associated with the identifier NationalB). FIG. 3G is another example of a payload, where a consumer identifier is sent, and the event type is a 4. In this example, this event type references a change in credit score. Thus, the payload also transmits the score of 733, and a change in the score of +25 points. FIG. 3H is another example of a payload including a CreditBureauSubscriberID that may be used to identify the individual associated with the credit data using a credit bureau identifier of the individual. In this example, the EventType is “I”, which indicates a credit inquiry. Thus, subscribers enrolled to receive alerts on credit inquiries may receive a payload include data similar to what is illustrated in example 3H. Information identifying the entity that submitted the inquiry request may be included as well, such as the name and address.

[0099] As a further example of event and alert content (e.g., the payload of these communications), below are some example payloads. These examples do not limit the type or content of data included in payloads in other embodiments. First below is an example of an alert payload, such as the data that may be received from a credit bureau by the notification system indicating that an inquiry request was received for the individual, John Doe:

• • [0100] {“Id”:“XYZ23424242342323”,
  • [0101] “CompanyId”:“3323”,
  • [0102] “PortfolioId”:“11”,
  • [0103] “CampaignId”:“42111”,
  • [0104] “VersionNum”:“001”},
  • [0105] “EventInfo”:{“EventType”:“X”,
  • [0106] “ExperianConsumerIdentifier”:“V”,
  • [0107] “EventDisplayCode”:“SECUR”,
  • [0108] “MonitoredAccount”:“PIN00432425243242”,
  • [0109] “ConsumerStatementlndicator”:“A”,
  • [0110] “FactaCode”:“26”,
  • [0111] “FCRAAttr”:“00 0100”},
  • [0112] “CustomerSuppliedName”:{“Name”:{“FirstName”:“JOHN”,“MiddleName”:“D”,
  • [0113] “Surname”:“DOE”,
  • [0114] “SecondSurname”:“DOETWO”,“Gen”:“D”}},
  • [0115] “CustomerSuppliedData”:“CUSTOMER SUPPLIED DATA PRESENT”,
  • [0116] “BestAddressInformation”:{“PrimaryStreetId”:“1111”,
  • [0117] “PreDirectional”: null,
  • [0118] “StreetName”:“STREET”,
  • [0119] “PostDirectional”:null,
  • [0120] “StreetSuffix”:“ST”,
  • [0121] “UnitType”:null,
  • [0122] “UnitID”:null,
  • [0123] “City”:“DOETOWN”,
  • [0124] “State”:“MN”,
  • [0125] “Zip”:“111111”,
  • [0126] “NonStandardAddress”:null},
  • [0127] “SecurityAlertEventInformation”:{“SecurityAlertDate”:“234234234”,
  • [0128] “SecurityAlertType”:“26”,
  • [0129] “SecurityAlertText”:“26& 2016-11-22 3999997 ID SECURITY ALERT: FRAUDULENT APPLICATIONS MAY BE SUBMITTED IN MY NAME OR MY IDENTITY MAY HAVE BEEN USED WITHOUT MY CONSENT TO FRAUDULENTLY OBTAIN GOODS OR SERVICES. DO NOT EXTEND CREDIT WITHOUT FIRST VERIFYING THE IDENTITY OF THE APPLICANT. THIS SECURITY ALERT WILL BE MAINTAINED FOR 90 DAYS BEGINNING 07-10-15.”}.
  • [0130] “NumOfStatements”:“0001”,
  • [0131] “ConsumerStatement”:[{“StatementIndicator”:“A”,
  • [0132] “StatementType”:“26”,
  • [0133] “SubscriberName”:null,
  • [0134] “AccountReferenceNumber”:null,
  • [0135] “DateOpenedFiled”: null,
  • [0136] “AcctCond”:null,
  • [0137] “Status”:null,
  • [0138] “StatementText”:“26& 2016-11-22 3999997 ID SECURITY ALERT: FRAUDULENT APPLICATIONS MAY BE SUBMITTED IN MY NAME OR MY IDENTITY MAY HAVE BEEN USED WITHOUT MY CONSENT TO FRAUDULENTLY OBTAIN GOODS OR SERVICES. DO NOT EXTEND CREDIT WITHOUT FIRST VERIFYING THE IDENTITY OF THE APPLICANT. THIS SECURITY ALERT WILL BE MAINTAINED FOR 90 DAYS BEGINNING 07-10-15.”}]}

[0139] Next, below is an example of a custom data package that may be generated by the notification system and transmitted to subscribers to inquiry requests (for a group of individuals that includes John Doe), such as in an HTTP data package or via an API.

• • [0140] {“Id”:“RTE000022421000110000008357T60023001”,
  • [0141] “CompanyId”:“224210”,
  • [0142] “PortfolioId”:“11”,
  • [0143] “CampaignId”:“8357”,
  • [0144] “VersionNum”:“001”},
  • [0145] “EventInfo”:{“EventType”:“I”,
  • [0146] “ExperianConsumerIdentifier”:“KLJFOI34343DSFAD”,
  • [0147] “EventDisplayCode”:“INSTI”,
  • [0148] “MonitoredAccount”:“POSITIVE9227”,
  • [0149] “ConsumerStatementIndicator:null,
  • [0150] “FCRAAttr”:“00 0601”},
  • [0151] “CustomerSuppliedName”:{“Name”:{“FirstName”:“JOHN”,
  • [0152] “MiddleName”:“D”,
  • [0153] “Surname”:“DOE”,
  • [0154] “SecondSurname”:null,
  • [0155] “Gen”: null}},
  • [0156] “CustomerSuppliedData”: null,
  • [0157] “BestAddressInformation”:{“PrimaryStreetId”:“1111”,
  • [0158] “PreDirectional”: null,
  • [0159] “StreetName”:“STREET”,
  • [0160] “PostDirectional”:null,
  • [0161] “UnitType”:null,
  • [0162] “UnitID”:null,
  • [0163] “City”:“DOETOWN”,
  • [0164] “State”:MN”,
  • [0165] “Zip”:“111111”,
  • [0166] “NonStandardAddress”:null},
  • [0167] “InquiryEventInformation”:{“KOB”:“IZ”,
  • [0168] “PurposeType”:“OA”,
  • [0169] “InquiryDate”:“2016-11-22”}}

[0170] Below is an example custom payload that may be transmitted to a subscriber, such as a credit access control system associated with a credit bureau, to request freezing of an individual's credit file:

• • [0171] {“RTTRG”:{“RecordType”:“T”,“VersionNum”:“2.00”,
  • [0172] “UniqueTransactionId”:“65465464536546543”,
  • [0173] “EventType”:“2”,
  • [0174] “SystemID”:“CAP”,
  • [0175] “ReturnedPin”:“ ”,
  • [0176] “LoggingPin”:251369794,
  • [0177] “OptOut”:“ ”,
  • [0178] “OnsInd”:“ ”,
  • [0179] “FCRAAttr”:“ ”,
  • [0180] “InquiryPre”:“ ”,
  • [0181] “CrsReferralPre”:“ ”},
  • [0182] “RTFRZ”:{
  • [0183] “NCACId”:“5445343”,
  • [0184] “Type”:“FREEZE”,
  • [0185] “CapId”:“4534543543543”,
  • [0186] “StartDate”:“2016-11-22”,
  • [0187] “AdditionalText”:“A security freeze has been successfully placed on your credit report.”}}

[0188] Below is an example event payload that may be received by the notification system, indicating that the security freeze has been placed on the individuals credit file:

• • [0189] {“Id”:“RTE00002242100011000000835707222016001753000003655”,
  • [0190] “TransactionInfo”:{“EventDeliveryDate”:“2016-11-22”,
  • [0191] “EventDeliveryTime”:“001753”,
  • [0192] “CompanyId”:“45454”,
  • [0193] “PortfolioId”:“11”,
  • [0194] “CampaignId”:“8357”,
  • [0195] “VersionNum”:“001”},
  • [0196] “EventInfo”:{“EventType”:“2”,
  • [0197] “ExperianConsumerIdentifier”:“235445243DFGSDFG3456345”,
  • [0198] “EventDisplayCode”:“FRTHL”,
  • [0199] “MonitoredAccount”:“PIN45345243”,
  • [0200] “ConsumerStatementIndicator:null},
  • [0201] “CustomerSuppliedName”:{“Name”:{“FirstName”:“JANE”,
  • [0202] “MiddleName”:null,
  • [0203] “Surname”:“DOE”,
  • [0204] “SecondSurname”:null,
  • [0205] “Gen”: null}},
  • [0206] “CustomerSuppliedData”: null,
  • [0207] “FreezeEventInformation”:{“NCACId”:“454545454545”,
  • [0208] “Type”:“FREEZE”,
  • [0209] “CapId”:“45454545454”,
  • [0210] “StartDate”:“2016-11-22”,
  • [0211] “AdditionalText”:“A security freeze has been successfully placed on your credit report.” }}

[0212] FIG. 4A is an illustrative representation of a table 400 associating credit data with other information, such as information from the inquiry for credit data, along with corresponding personal information for the individual. The data represented in illustrative table 400 may be stored in one or more data stores accessible to the notification system 150. The data may be determined and stored, for example, based on information provided by each financial institution to the notification system 150, either in bulk prior to sending individual requests for credit data or in a piecemeal fashion as requests for credit data or other requests are processed by the notification system 150. In some embodiments, when the notification system 150 receives indications of requests for credit data, the notification system 150 may consult the data in table 400 to determine information on the consumer and the request for credit data to be used in generating an event to broadcast to the other entities.

[0213] Example table 400 includes columns indicating the name of an individual 420, consumer personal identification information 422, other consumer information 424 that may be relevant to the alert, credit information 426 of the individual, and credit request history 428 for the individual or related information. This information can be gathered from one or more of the credit data store 121, the non-credit consumer information data store 112, and/or other database. The table of information may be stored in separate tables of information located within different entities, but accessible by the notification system 150.

[0214] As illustrated in table 400, row 402 includes information associated with Jordan Lee, 404 for John Doe, and 406 Jim Smith. Column 422 includes consumer PID for the three individuals, which may be relevant for the notification system to send to the subscriber when the subscriber is generating the alert to send to the individual, or event object to generate by the notification system with respect to the individual's action(s). For example, the consumer PID may include the contact information to send the alert, such as a phone number or email address.

[0215] Column 424 may include consumer information and column 426 credit data regarding the three individuals. For example, for Jordan Lee, there may be information about his income that may be relevant to an alert to send based on the request for credit data. For example, if it is known that Jordan Lee's income is $422,000 and his credit score is above a certain threshold, then the notification system 150 can use this information to determine an appropriate event for the request for credit data (e.g. an event for lenders that may have certain loans at better rates for individuals with high income and good credit score than the loans provided by the lender associated with the requesting entity).

[0216] In another example, John Doe in row 404 has been watching a lot of online videos and a large portion of his browser history is direct to boat purchases and price comparisons around $70,000 in column 424, and the credit request history includes a requested loan for $70,000, which may indicate his decision to purchase a boat, which may be used by the notification system 150 to generate an event object. In row 406, Jim Smith recently purchased a stroller as shown in column 424, opened several credit cards in a short period of time and has many purchases directed to childcare. The notification system 150 may generate an event object based on these types of information (e.g. identifies entities or subscribers to broadcast event information that may have products or services related to products or services that the user is currently seeking). A subscriber may receive an event message regarding John Doe and suggest better loan rates based on a discount for loans for boat purchases. A credit card supplier may offer a credit card with a high balance and low interest rate to suggest Jim Smith to consolidate his total debt of $13,455 into a single credit card.

[0217] FIG. 4B is an illustrative representation of a table associating financial institutions with vendors and/or service providers, along with corresponding contact and other information. Column 470 shows the identifier for the vendor/service provider, shown in column 472. Column 474 shows contact information for the vendor/service provider. The vendor/service provider is linked with a financial institution 476.

[0218] The requesting entity can be associated with the request by matching data included in the request with data previously stored in table 450. In this manner, the notification system may quickly provide an alert to subscribers who may use the alert to send information to the consumer that includes additional information (such as the identity of the requesting entity) that was not necessarily included in the request for credit data itself. As illustrated in table 450, row 452 includes a financial entity identifier (“ABL5533”) associated with the vendor “ABL Cable Co.” In some embodiments, the identifier may be included in the request for credit data without any other indication of the identity of the product/service provider. The product/service provider is tied to the financial institution American Bank. The vendors for American Bank are identified as “ABL Cable Co.” and “Quality Cellular Phones” in columns 452 and 454. The identifier may also be an identifier for a financial institution, which may have been the identifier included in the request for credit data. For example, the request for credit data may have been associated with an individual visiting BL Cable Co. (vendor of row 452), but the request for credit data may include the identifier 545AM1 associated with American Bank. In some embodiments, the requests for credit data from the vendor/service providers may include the vendor identifier associated with the requesting entity, such that the notification system can determine the name and contact information of the requesting entity by matching the vendor identifier in the request with data in table 450. As indicated in rows 452, 454, 456, the stored data associated with each vendor or service provider includes contact information, which may include multiple forms of contact information for a single vendor, such as one or more e-mail addresses and/or phone numbers. The stored information may also include contact information for the financial institution.

[0219] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example notification system in communication with various publishers and subscribers. The notification system includes a message QUEUE client that queues the messages as they come into the notification system, sends the messages to the notification module (or other middleware, data streaming, or other publish and subscribe technology), the notification module contains the catalog of events that the subscriber can enroll in, the services orchestration uses the USB to recognize events and publish events to subscribers to the event, and the subscriber or informal listener can receive such events.

[0220] The notification system may receive data to and/or send data to a variety of modules that may be internal, external, or a combination of both to the notification system. For the sake of discussion, the descriptions will be shown to be external to the notification system.

[0221] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes Sending Contributing Data which are applications responsible for sending data from contributors into Credit Bureau that may affect credit data. The Sending Contributing Data can be both Subscriber and Publisher of Credit events actions to be sent through notification system.

[0222] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes Consumer Disputes that is an application responsible for creation and management of consumer disputes (e.g. disputes reported to consumer call center either through Agents or through Webapps or API). The Consumer Disputes can be both subscriber and publisher of credit events actions to be sent through notification system.

[0223] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes Data Furnishers (real time updates) that can be responsible for providing data to the bureau either through Real time, API, or Batch process.

[0224] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes Freeze/block transactions that are transactions where specific data furnishes account information and status could be disputed. In some embodiments, the freeze/block transactions cannot be accessed. This transaction types may be publisher of events to the notification system that others can subscribe to.

[0225] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes a Billing System that may be responsible for processing billing transactions from the system of records and feeding the records to a central billing system, which could be both a publisher or subscriber to the notification system.

[0226] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes a Customer Master that may be responsible for maintaining customer information (e.g. maintaining credit files for individuals) and the products for which the individuals are authorized to use.

[0227] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes Business Information Services that may be responsible for managing Business information related to credit data similar to a consumer information related to credit data. The Business Information Services can use the same underpinning notification infrastructure to perform subscription and publication of events.

[0228] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes Decision Analytics that may be responsible for managing decisioning related products such modeling, aggregation, tools and fraud services. The ecosystem may also include an Event Transaction Analytics that is done at an event level (e.g. atomic payload level). The Event Transaction Analytics may also feed into the Decision Analytics for further processing and analysis at the macro level.

[0229] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes a real time prescreen notification that may be responsible for receiving event notification that is related to a prescreen of customers. For example, events may be published to subscribers that would like to prescreen customers based on a certain credit criteria. The notification system may send event notifications to marketing services that may use the published event notifications to market to consumers. The notification system may send event notifications to external clients that may have interest in the published event notifications.

[0230] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes the real-time event notification that can receive notification in real-time, or substantially real time. The real-time event notification may then be able to notify or alert the individual in real-time and empower the individual with information at the point of sale or during negotiation. In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes a real-time account review notification, where a business uses an existing relationship with the individual. For example, if an entity is notified of a new delinquency reported on one of their subscribers, the entity may take proactive action to mitigate risks while managing their accounts.

[0231] In some embodiments, the notification system may send events to a continuous scoring module that continuously listens to a particular score, such as changes to a credit score.

[0232] In some embodiments, the notification system may send event notifications through HTTP direct pushes, in continuous batches, through API services, and other modes of communication. In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes an event transaction enrichment which may be responsible for the ability to add enhancement in real time to an event. For example, upon closing a balance on a revolving account, the event can be enriched by further calculating a generic credit score or a custom model score. The event enhancement can be sent with or without the event in combination.

[0233] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes a skip tracing notification, which notifies any changes to credit data from a collections perspective. For example, a new address for the consumer will be sent to the skip tracing notification.

[0234] In some embodiments, the ecosystem includes platforms that can deliver products such as prescreen or account monitoring. The ecosystem may also include products for commercial application, in a business-to-business context or directly to consumers. Furthermore, the ecosystem may also include platforms that allow consumers to share their own credit reports or other credit data to others, such as sharing credit reports with potential tenant screeners for renting.

[0235] In general, the word “module,” as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, possibly having entry and exit points, written in a programming language, such as, for example, Java, Lua, C or C++. A software module may be compiled and linked into an executable program, installed in a dynamic link library, or may be written in an interpreted programming language such as, for example, BASIC, Perl, or Python. It will be appreciated that software modules may be callable from other modules or from themselves, and/or may be invoked in response to detected events or interrupts. Software modules configured for execution on computing devices may be provided on a computer readable medium, such as a compact disc, digital video disc, flash drive, or any other tangible medium. Such software code may be stored, partially or fully, on a memory device of the executing computing device, such as the computing system 700, for execution by the computing device. Software instructions may be embedded in firmware, such as an EPROM. It will be further appreciated that hardware modules may be comprised of connected logic units, such as gates and flip-flops, and/or may be comprised of programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays or processors. The modules described herein are preferably implemented as software modules, but may be represented in hardware or firmware. Generally, the modules described herein refer to logical modules that may be combined with other modules or divided into sub-modules despite their physical organization or storage.

[0236] Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or “may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

[0237] Any process descriptions, elements, or blocks in the flow diagrams described herein and/or depicted in the attached figures should be understood as potentially representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing specific logical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations are included within the scope of the embodiments described herein in which elements or functions may be deleted, executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

[0238] All of the methods and processes described above may be embodied in, and partially or fully automated via, software code modules executed by one or more general purpose computers. The methods may be executed on the computing devices in response to execution of software instructions or other executable code read from a tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium. A tangible computer readable medium is a data storage device that can store data that is readable by a computer system. Examples of computer readable mediums include read-only memory, random-access memory, other volatile or non-volatile memory devices, CD-ROMs, magnetic tape, flash drives, and optical data storage devices.

[0239] Although this disclosure has been described in terms of certain example embodiments and applications, other embodiments and applications that are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, including embodiments and applications that do not provide all of the benefits described herein, are also within the scope of this disclosure.

[0240] Unless otherwise explicitly stated, articles such as “a” or “an” should generally be interpreted to include one or more described items. Accordingly, phrases such as “a device configured to” are intended to include one or more recited devices. Such one or more recited devices can also be collectively configured to carry out the stated recitations. For example, “a processor configured to carry out recitations A, B and C” can include a first processor configured to carry out recitation A working in conjunction with a second processor configured to carry out recitations B and C.

[0241] Disjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y, or Z,” unless specifically stated otherwise, is otherwise understood with the context as used in general to present that an item, term, etc., may be either X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and/or Z). Thus, such disjunctive language is not generally intended to, and should not, imply that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z to each be present.