Patent ID: 11935005
Assignee: SHUTTERFLY, LLC
Field: IT methods for management (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 11:
12. A computer-implemented method for automatically designing and fulfilling requests for communication services, comprising:
receiving, with a communication resource allocation server, a request for a communication service from a user, wherein the requested communication service includes one or more electronic communications and physical mailing pieces to be sent to one or more recipients;
automatically creating designs, with an intelligent communication design server, for the electronic communications and the physical mailing pieces based on the received request;
automatically analyzing, with a user request analysis module, types of communication services in the request and automatically determining amounts of design work, printing and finishing work, and transmission work required to fulfill the requested communication service;
wherein the user request analysis module automatically determines an amount of design work required by the request based on a level of customization for the communication service and a number of variations of different electronic channels, including device types, operating systems, types of viewing software, and viewing platforms for the communication service;

monitoring, with a printing resource tracking module, workloads and anticipated workloads of the one or more product fulfillment centers, a communication server, and an intelligent communication design server to determine available design, printing, and transmission resources at the one or more product fulfillment centers, the communication server, and the intelligent communication design server;
dynamically assigning, with a communication resource assignment module, the available design, printing, and transmission resources with the determined amounts of design work, printing and finishing work, and transmission work for fulfillment of the received request;
designing the electronic communications and the physical mailing pieces by the assigned design resource based on the received request;
transmitting the electronic communications by the assigned transmission resource to at least some of the recipients; and
printing and finishing the physical mailing pieces by the assigned printing resource to be mailed to at least some of the recipients.