Customized Sales Software and Implementation

Abstract

Customized sales software for consolidating, organizing and integrating data and process flow in a manner especially suited for sales operations. The customized sales software is customized to represent the user company's business process and integrates the user company's applications and data but does not change the user company's existing applications or databases. The sales software is designed in layers to enable seamless integration of legacy systems and external data sources, without requiring change to them, while at the same time enabling the introduction of new interfaces, transactions and processes. Integration with legacy systems and external data sources is possible at different layers within the software and may or may not utilize existing legacy system applications and processes. Generally speaking, integration with legacy systems and data sources may be either one or two way or in real time, depending on the requirements of a particular business process.

1 . A sales application for consolidating, organizing, and integrating data and process flow, the sales application comprising a plurality of tiers including:
 a user interface for communicating with a customer;   a transaction engine for performing a plurality of sales-related processes, wherein the transaction engine manages communications to and from the user interface;   a data repository for storing sales-related data, the sales-related processes requiring for completion at least a portion of the sales-related data; and   an integration engine enabling integration of the sales application with a legacy system for storing sales-related legacy data of a third party, the sales-related processes further requiring for completion at least a portion of the sales-related legacy data, wherein enabling integration of the sales application with the legacy system includes customizing the data repository in accordance with a configuration of the legacy system and customizing the transaction engine to conform to business requirements of the third party.   
     
     
         2 . The sales application of  claim 1 , wherein the sales-related data includes customer data, product data, and price data, each required for completion of the sales-related processes. 
     
     
         3 . The sales application of  claim 1 , wherein the sales-related legacy data includes customer data, product data, and price data, each required for completion of the sales-related processes. 
     
     
         4 . The sales application of  claim 1 , wherein the transaction engine includes predefined sales-related functionality, and wherein a determination to implement the predefined sales-related functionality for completing the sales-related processes is based on existing capabilities of the legacy system. 
     
     
         5 . The sales application of  claim 1 , wherein customizing the transaction engine includes modifying the sales-related processes performed by the transaction engine based on the business requirements of the third party. 
     
     
         6 . The sales application of  claim 1 , wherein customizing the data repository includes modifying data structures in the data repository in accordance with the configuration of the legacy system. 
     
     
         7 . The sales application of  claim 1 , wherein user interface is provided to the customer through a browser delivered application. 
     
     
         8 . The sales application of  claim 1 , wherein the legacy system includes a legacy system database. 
     
     
         9 . The sales application of  claim 1 , wherein the legacy system includes a legacy system transaction engine and a legacy system database. 
     
     
         10 . The sales application of  claim 9 , wherein during operation the integration engine transmits requests to the legacy system transaction engine and the legacy system database. 
     
     
         11 . The sales application of  claim 10 , wherein during operation the legacy system transaction engine and the legacy system database transmit data responsive to the requests to the integration layer. 
     
     
         12 . The sales application of  claim 1 , wherein the sales application supports the legacy system in accordance with a subscription agreement. 
     
     
         13 . The sales application of  claim 12 , wherein the subscription agreement provides for adding enhancements to the sales application. 
     
     
         14 . The sales application of  claim 1 , wherein the legacy system is external to the sales application. 
     
     
         15 . A method in a computer system for facilitating electronic communication between a sales application and a legacy system of a third party, the method comprising:
 receiving through a user interface of the sales application a customer request from a customer;   providing at least a portion of the customer request to a transaction engine of the sales application;   accessing a data repository of the sales application, wherein the data repository stores sales-related data, including retrieving from the data repository at least a portion of the sales-related data required for processing the customer request;   determining whether the sales-related data is sufficient to process the customer request;   retrieving from a legacy system that stores the third party's sales-related legacy data a portion of the sales-related legacy data required for processing the customer request, if the sales-related data from the data repository is not sufficient to process the customer request; and   processing the customer request on the transaction engine,   wherein the transaction engine is customized to conform to business requirements of the third party and the data repository is customized in accordance with a configuration of the legacy system.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising the step of updating the legacy system, if processing the customer request modifies the sales-related legacy data. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein retrieving from the data repository at least a portion of the sales-related data includes retrieving customer data, product data, and price data, each required for processing the customer request. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein retrieving from the legacy system a portion of the sales-related legacy data includes retrieving customer data, product data, and price data, each required for processing the customer request. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 :
 wherein the transaction engine includes predefined sales-related functionality, and   further comprising the step of determining whether to implement the predefined sales-related functionality for processing the customer request based on existing capabilities of the legacy system.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein customizing the transaction engine includes modifying processes performed by the transaction engine based on the business requirements of the third party. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein customizing the data repository includes modifying data structures in the data repository in accordance with the configuration of the legacy system. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising adding enhancements to the sales application in accordance with a subscription agreement. 
     
     
         23 . A method for integrating data and process flow of a sales system with a legacy system of a third party, the method comprising:
 determining a configuration of the legacy system, including identifying legacy sales processes performed by the legacy system and legacy sales components stored on the legacy system; and   mapping preexisting sales applications of the sales system for performing predefined sales-related functionality and preexisting sales databases of the sales system to the legacy system based on the configuration of the legacy system, including identifying a subset of the legacy sales processes to replace with preexisting sales applications and identifying a subset of the legacy sales components to replace with preexisting sales databases.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising the step of customizing a data repository of the sales system and a transaction engine of the sales system to accommodate the configuration of the legacy system. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the step of mapping further includes logically connecting sales-related data of the sales system to the legacy system based on the configuration of the legacy system, wherein the sales-related data of the sales system includes customer data, product data, and price data. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the step of mapping further includes logically connecting the preexisting sales databases to sales-related legacy data stored on the legacy system based on the configuration of the legacy system, wherein the sales-related legacy data includes customer data, product data, and price data. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising the step of customizing the predefined sales-related functionality based on the configuration of the legacy system. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising the step of customizing a data repository of the sales system by modifying data structures therein based on the configuration of the legacy system.