Patent ID: 8131759

Claim:
A method for identifying matching records in two record sets, the method comprising: initiating a synchronization process over a computer network; responsive thereto, analyzing a first record set to match records of the first record set with records of a second record set maintained remotely from the first record set; selecting a subset of fields shared in common by the records of the two record sets to determine a record match; for each pairing of a subject record from the first record set and a subject record from the second record set, calculating, based on the subset of fields selected, a record matching score, wherein said each pairing of a subject record from the first record set and a subject record from the second record set comprises a record pair, the record matching scores are calculated based on how well individual fields of the subset of fields in each subject record pair compared, the individual fields of the subset of fields in each subject record pair comprise field group pairings, and for each field group pairing, the individual fields of the subset of fields in each subject record pair are concatenated to form strings; identifying the matching records of the first record set and the second record set by identifying record pairs having a highest record matching score over a threshold; excluding identified matched record pairs from further analysis, and successively identifying further matching record pairs according to associated record matching scores of the further matching record pairs and excluding the further matching record pairs from further analysis until all record pairs having record matching scores exceeding the threshold are identified, and for each pair of the strings representing each field group pairing, calculating a field group matching score, the field group matching scores each comprising a uniqueness component, a difference component, a magnitude component and a conflict score.