Web-based customer prospects harvester system

Abstract

A web-based customer lead harvesting system. The system is based on an application service model, with the programming for the system being accessible to users of the system via web browsers and the Internet. The users, who are typically business enterprises, may access the system to search unstructured Internet data to obtain leads for prospective customers. The system accepts criteria from the user that describes a type or types of potential customers, as well as addresses of Internet sites of interest. A crawler process retrieves the web site data, and stores the data in a web archive. A harvester process then searches the Internet data according to the client-provided criteria. The system returns the names or the identifying information about the prospect together with a link to the document that verifies the prospect's match to the criteria.

Description

RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a Continuation of patent application Ser. No. 09 / 862,814, filed May 21, 2001 and entitled “Web-Based Customer Prospects Harvester System”, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 206,772, filed May 25, 2000 and entitled “Server Log File System Utilizing Text Mining Methodologies and Technologies”. The present patent application and additionally the following patent applications and patent are each conversions from the foregoing provisional filing: patent application Ser. No. 09 / 862,832 entitled “Web-Based Customer Lead Generator System” and filed May 21, 2001; patent application Ser. No. 09 / 865,802 entitled “Database Server System for Web-Based Business Intelligence” and filed May 24, 2001; patent application Ser. No. 09 / 865,804 entitled “Data Mining System for Web-Based Business Intelligence” and filed May 24, 2001; patent application Ser. No. 09 / 865,735 entitled “Web-Based System and Method for Archivin...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Most small and medium sized companies face similar challenges in developing successful marketing and sales campaigns.

These challenges include locating qualified prospects who are making immediate buying decisions.

Other challenges are to assess current customers to determine which customer profile produces the highest net revenue, then to use those profiles to maximize prospecting results.

Further challenges are to monitor the sales cycle for opportunities and inefficiencies, and to relate those findings to net revenue numbers.

Today's corporations are experiencing exponential growth to the extent that the volume and variety of business information collected and accumulated is overwhelming.

Internet data intelligence and data mining products face specific challenges.

First, they tend to be designed for use by technicians, and are not flexible or intuitive in their operation; secondly, the technologies behind the various engines are changing rapidly to take advantage of advances in hardware and software; and finally, the results of their harvesting and mining are not typically related to a specific department goals and objectives.

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