Patent Document

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/812,945, filed Jun. 22, 2007, entitled “Delivering Financial Services to Remote Devices,” which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/323,210, filed Jun. 1, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,249,344, entitled “Delivering Financial Services to Remote Devices,” which is a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,816, filed Aug. 7, 1997, entitled “System and Method for Delivering Financial Services,” which claims priority to a U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/029,209, filed Oct. 31, 1996, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. Reference is also made to a related patent application entitled “Method and System for Automatically Harmonizing Access to Software Application Program via Different Access Devices,” Ser. No. 08/741,121, filed on Oct. 30, 1996. 
    
    
     NOTICE OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN DISCLOSURE 
     A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention generally relates to a system and method for delivering financial services and, more particularly, to a system and method for delivering financial services to a plurality of different devices. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Banks and other institutions that provide financial services are facing increased amounts of competition and are being pressured to provide a greater diversity of services to their customers. Not too long ago when customers traveled to the bank to make all of their transactions, the bank could focus on the customer-bank teller interaction to improve the quality of services. The bank could improve the quality of service by staffing a larger number of tellers at peak times and by offering drive through services. Banks developed internal computer systems and provided their tellers with staff terminals so that the bank tellers could access the books of the bank when they were entering customer transactions. 
     This simplified model of banking, while still in existence, has been greatly expanded. In addition to the bank tellers, banks provide Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) so that customers can perform transactions at literally any hour of the day. The locations of the ATMs are not limited simply at the bank&#39;s branch locations but can be found, for instance, in shopping malls, airports, grocery stores, hotels, and building lobbies. Since the ATMs must access the books of the banks to allow customers to perform their transactions, banks had to provide an interface between the ATMs and the bank&#39;s internal computer system that allows the ATMs limited but secure access to the bank&#39;s books. 
     The model for providing financial services has been expanded even further to enable home banking. With home banking, a customer can access his or her personal account and perform transactions, such as bill paying, money transfers, etc., in the convenience of one&#39;s home through the customer&#39;s personal computer. To enable home banking, banks had to provide an interface between the bank&#39;s internal computer system and the customer&#39;s personal computers to allow limited and secure access to the bank&#39;s books. Due to the differences between ATMs and personal computers, the interface for the personal computers is typically separate and distinct from the interface provided for the ATMs. 
     One difficulty facing banks is that they must provide a first interface between the bank&#39;s internal computer system and the staff terminals, a second interface between the internal computer system and the ATMs, and a third interface between the internal computer system and the personal computers. Each of these interfaces or platforms adds complexity to the bank&#39;s overall computer system and each competes with the other for access to the bank&#39;s books. This added complexity is significant since the amount of resources that the bank must devote toward maintaining its computer system is increased due to these three separate platforms. 
     The complexity of a bank&#39;s computer system will only grow as banks continue to provide more and more services. One area of service that banks are already beginning to explore is the granting of access to the bank&#39;s books by devices other than personal computers, such as screen phones or personal data assistants (PDAs). Another area of service that banks are contemplating is the granting of access to the bank&#39;s books through the Internet, such as through an Internet service provider (ISP) or other external service provider (ESP). These additional remote devices and the connection to the ISP would further complicate the bank&#39;s internal computer system and would require the bank to devote more resources in maintaining and upgrading its computer system. 
     In addition to additional channels of access to the bank&#39;s books, banks have been expanding the types of services that can be accessed by a remote device. In addition to traditional checking and savings accounts transactions, banks are also enabling the paying of bills, the buying and selling stocks, the quoting of stocks, as well as other types of services through the ATMs, personal computers, or other remote devices. Each expansion into another type of service requires a significant amount of modification to the software and possibly hardware in the bank&#39;s internal computing system. These additional services, although necessary to remain competitive, require a considerable amount of work on the bank&#39;s computer system. 
     The complexity in offering financial services will also be compounded as more and more services are being provided in an international market. As individual national markets in the world continue to merge together, both businesses and individual customers will have an increased need and desire to access their account information from another country. The platform or platforms needed to interface with the banking systems of other countries will further tax the ability of a bank to maintain its computer system and its books. 
     Another difficulty facing a bank entering another country is that the bank must, in effect, create a new computer system for each country that it enters. Each country has its own unique regulatory and legal environment which dictates the manner in which financial services must be performed. The bank cannot simply duplicate a computer system operating in another country but rather must specially tailor each computer system to the regulatory and legal environment of that country. This extra amount of effort required to shape a computer system according to the rules and laws of its home country consumes more of the bank&#39;s valuable resources. 
     The creation of computer systems for banks in other countries is complicated by the difference in languages. Because of a language difference, the interface between the computer system and the customer, such as through a graphical user interface (GUI), will vary according to the national language or languages of a particular country. These differences in how customers interface with the bank&#39;s computing system are not limited simply to words and different alphabets but also encompass manifestations of language due to differences in culture or norms of a particular country. These manifestations of language, for instance, may dictate the selection of certain colors in a GUI, the use of a particular set of symbols, and the selection of certain audio indicators, such as beeps or other tones. 
     In view of a desire to allow international access to the bank&#39;s books, each computer system should also be able to receive and send communications from the other computer systems, which possibly may be in numerous languages. For instance, the bank&#39;s books which are stored in the United States may need to be accessed by a newly installed banking system in Thailand. Before this access is possible, however, the banking system in the United States may need to be modified to recognize the bank&#39;s computer system in Thailand. Consequently, with the introduction of each computer system in one country, the computer systems in all of the other countries may need to be modified accordingly. 
     As discussed above, banks are increasingly providing new types of access to the bank&#39;s books and are providing new services in an ever-increasing number of countries. All of these changes in services and access to services are accomplished by rewriting the application which governs all operations of the bank&#39;s internal computer system. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the data in the bank&#39;s books and the need for total accuracy, any modification to this application must undergo an inordinate amount of testing. Since the application covers all aspects of the system, any modification to one part of the application which may cover only a minor aspect of the system can potentially have an effect on any other part of the system. The testing required for any modification, even for just a minor upgrade, must therefore be performed on the entire system. 
     Thus, a need exists for a computer system or method that has a reduced amount of complexity yet offers access to various remote devices and enables the expansion of access to new types of devices. A need also exists for a computer system or method that can offer new or modified services more easily with less testing. A need also exists for a computer system or method that can more easily accommodate the legal and regulatory environment of a host country and which can more easily interconnect and communicate with the systems in other countries. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention, in a preferred embodiment, is a system and method for delivering financial services to a remote device. Through the remote device, a customer or employee of a financial institution can select a mini-app dialog component to perform a function. Preferably, each function that may be performed is represented by a separate mini-app dialog component. Upon selection of a function, the mini-app dialog component collects information needed to perform the requested function and instantiates a transaction executor component to carry out the function. The remote device may comprise any type of device, such as a personal computer, screen phone, ATM, personal data assistant, or an internal staff terminal. The remote device may access the system in a variety of ways, such as through an external service provider, through the Internet, or through dial-up access. Thus, the system provides a single base for interfacing with all types of remote devices. 
     In generating graphic interfaces, the system and method preferably separate content from format to accommodate variations in the remote devices. The system includes a presentation manager which maps messages from a canonical representation into the format desired for a particular remote device. The content of the messages is regulated through a language man component. In response to a request for a named phrase, the language man component provides the phrase in the language and the content specific for that customer and that remote device. As a result, the system and method can provide state of the art user interfaces, can provide interfaces consistent for a financial institution, and can allow a customer to custom design a user interface. 
     The system and method operate in sessions with a session bubble instantiated for each session with a remote device. After receiving an initial contact with a remote device, a session controller instantiates a session component to manage resources for the session bubble. The session component, in turn, instantiates a number of components for the session, such as a welcome mat component, front door man component, rule broker component, and acquirer component. The welcome mat component sends a logon message to the remote device and instantiates a profile transaction executor component to authenticate a customer. A navigation shell component notifies the remote device of the list of available functions, such as cash withdrawal or bill payment, and instantiates a mini-app dialog component based on the function selected through the remote device. To coordinate communications with the plural sessions that may occur simultaneously, a touch point interface component routes incoming messages from remote devices to the appropriate session bubbles and a back door man component coordinates messaging between the various sessions and an external service provider. 
     The system and method employ a rule broker component that other components within the system may query to obtain an answer to any question that might arise. The rule broker component registers rule authorities as the answerers of questions and directs the querying component to the rule authority for the answer. The rules within the system and method may be modified independently from other application components. With the rule broker, regulatory or business rules can be easily added, changed, or modified with only a minimal impact on overall operations. 
     The system and method are operable in conjunction with any legacy application that may already exist. A legacy app bridge component converts data from a canonical representation to the global data structure needed by the legacy applications. On an exit from a legacy application, the legacy app bridge component translates the data from the legacy application into the canonical representation. The legacy app bridge component therefore enables the continued operation of the legacy applications. 
     It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a delivery system and method that provide a common application base for all remote devices. 
     It is also an object of the present invention to provide a delivery system and method that provide a set of re-usable components that can be easily modified or expanded to fit the needs of a particular environment. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide a delivery system and method that provide and can easily maintain state of the art user interfaces. 
     It is a further object of the present invention to provide a delivery system and method that reduce development and maintenance cycle time. 
     It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a delivery system and method that are capable of supporting existing remote devices having legacy applications. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram of a delivery system according to a preferred embodiment of the invention connected to a plurality of remote devices. 
         FIG. 2  is an overall block diagram of the delivery system of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIGS. 3A to 3C  are flow charts depicting operations of the delivery system in starting a banking session. 
         FIGS. 4A to 4C  are partial block diagrams of the delivery system depicting the operations shown in  FIGS. 3A to 3C . 
         FIGS. 5A to 5D  are flow charts depicting operations of the delivery system in authenticating a customer. 
         FIGS. 6A to 6C  are partial block diagrams of the delivery system depicting the operations shown in  FIGS. 5A to 5C . 
         FIGS. 7A and 7B  are flow charts depicting operations of the delivery system in the selection of a mini-application by a customer. 
         FIGS. 8A and 8B  are partial block diagrams of the delivery system depicting the operations shown in  FIGS. 7A and 7B . 
         FIG. 9  is a block diagram of a NetCAT delivery system according to a preferred embodiment of the invention for use in providing CAT software to foreign CATs. 
         FIG. 10  is a block diagram of a CAT delivery system according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 11  is an exemplary diagram of an interaction between a legacy app bridge component  84  in the system of  FIG. 2  with a legacy application. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiment of the invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The invention is described with reference to a system  10  for use by a bank, although the system  10  may be employed by any type of institution offering financial services. The financial system  10  includes a delivery system  12  for providing financial services to a variety of remote devices. These remote devices include a screen phone  14 , an automated teller machine (ATM)  16 , such as Citibank&#39;s CAT/CASST terminals, a personal computer  18 , or a personal data assistant (PDA)  20 . The remote devices can practically be any type of device and can be installed with any suitable software for communicating with the delivery system  12 , such as a standard web browser or any other third party software product. The remote devices that the delivery system  12  can provide financial services to is therefore not limited to any particular class or type of remote device but instead may include any future device or system. Further, the delivery system  12  provides services not only to customers of a financial institution but may also provide services internally to the institution, such as at staff terminals  26 . 
     The delivery system  12 , furthermore, provides financial services over a plurality of different delivery networks. As an example, the delivery system  12  may deliver financial services to the screen phone  14 , personal computer  18 , or PDA  20  via dial-up access or through an application server, such as the home services delivery system (HSDS), which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,370 to Moss et al. and which is hereby incorporated by reference. Alternatively, the delivery system  12  may provide financial services to remote devices  24  through an Internet Service Provider (ISP)  22  or an on-line service provider  22 , such as through the Internet or World Wide Web. The delivery system  12  advantageously is able to provide financial services over a variety of communication paths, such as the Internet, a land-line telephone network, a cellular network, or a cable network, and can be easily modified to operate over new transmission paths or new transmission protocols. 
     I. Service Sets and Components 
     With reference to  FIG. 2 , a delivery system  12  according to a preferred embodiment of the invention comprises plural sets of service components. These sets of service components include a touch point and display set  30 , a touch point interface services set  40 , and a touch point services set  50 . In general, the touch point and display set  30  provides actual customer display and input facility and the touch point interface services set  40  provides an interface to the touch point services set  50 . The touch point services set  50  provides presentation mapping and front door security for the delivery system  12 . The delivery system  12  also includes a peripheral device services set  60  providing peripheral device interface and management services. A system services set  70  provides logging, event brokering, service registry and crypto services and a dialog services set  80  provides welcoming, navigation shell and application specific dialogs. A transaction services set  90  provides transaction coordination and ESP message formatting and an external service provider interface services set  100  provides message sequencing and ESP interface protocols. A customer services set  110  provides customer identification, relationship, account, acquirer, and issuer services and a business services set  120  provides rule brokering and language services. A session services set  130  provides session start up and session and delivery vehicle context. 
     A. Touch Point and Display Set  30   
     The touch point and display set  30  provides the actual customer display and input facility on the remote device. The touch point and display set  30  includes a touch point and display component  31  that displays pages on the remote device screen and sends customer inputs to the delivery system  12 . The touch point and display component  31  is responsible for managing the link/session level protocols with an application server on the remote device. The touch point and display component  31  also decodes the server interface protocol and outputs a page to the local screen of the remote device. The touch point and display component  31  acquires customer inputs, including choice selections and forms input, encodes the input in the server interface protocol, and sends the customer input to the touch point interface set  40 . For Internet sessions with the delivery system  12 , the touch point and display component  31  preferably comprises a web browser that handles protocols such as TCP/IP, HTTPS, and, less preferably, FTP. 
     B. Touch Point Interface Services Set  40   
     The touch point interface services set  40  provides an interface to the touch point services set  50  and includes a touch point interface component  41 . The touch point interface component  41  is responsible for managing the link/session 25 level protocols with a remote device. The touch point interface component  41 , for instance, notifies the session services set  130  to start a new session on initial contact from a remote device. The touch point interface component  41  also encodes messages in the interface protocol, sends messages to the touch point services set  50 , and decodes messages received from the touch point services set  50 . The touch point interface component  41  further routes received messages to an appropriate session front door man component  51  of the touch point services set  50 . For Internet sessions with the delivery system  12 , the touch point interface component  41  preferably comprises a web server which handles the protocols such as TCP/IP, HTTPS, and, less preferably, FTP. 
     C. Touch Point Services Set  50   
     The touch point services set  50  is responsible for final device specific presentation layout and front door security and includes the front door man component  51  and a presentation manager component  52 . The front door man  10  component  51  guards access of a remote device into a session. For remote sessions, the front door man component  51  adds a session security token to outgoing messages and verifies the session security token for incoming messages. For sessions with a CAT/CASST  16 , the front man component  51  may simply pass through communications. Although the front door man component  51  has been shown as a single component, the front door man component  51  preferably comprises a separate component for each type of remote device. 
     The presentation manager component  52  is responsible for mapping a canonical representation of information on pages into a specific style layout in a  20  device specific presentation format. Thus, the same application can have different presentation styles on different device types. For instance, the same application may have different presentation styles depending on whether the application is displayed on a personal computer  18 , a PDA  20 , a screen phone  14 , a CAT  16 , a third party kiosk terminal, or another type of remote device. The style templates can be˜customized by region to support local cultural differences in areas such as color schemes, graphics, icons, and font sizes. The presentation manager component  52  maps tagged phrases and data from the application into specific fields of a particular page template referenced by the application. A template controls the layout and representation of frames on a page, multi-media elements, 30 choice and data fields, and input forms on the page for a specific style and device type. The presentation manager component  52  also encodes the resulting page in the device specific format for the particular remote device and sends the page to the front door man component  51 . The presentation manager component  52  also receives incoming messages from the remote device, converts choice information and form fields from the device specific format to a tagged canonical representation, and routes the representation to the appropriate component within the dialog services set  80 . The presentation, manager component  52  uses delivery system specific templates to enforce consistent layout styles across pages having similar choices, data fields, and forms. A template can be the superset of all possible objects on a page since the presentation manager component  52  can “drop out” fields and choices which are not associated with any data. Reference is made to a related application Ser. No. 08/741,121, “Method and System for Automatically Harmonizing Access to a Software Application Program Via Different Access Devices,” filed Oct. 30, 1996 which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     D. Peripheral Device Services Set  60   
     The peripheral device services set  60  is responsible for handling application requests for peripheral device services and for managing the software components that handle such requests. Peripheral device services set  60 , for instance, provides a custom high-level application interface to peripheral devices associated with a remote device, such as the CAT/CASST  16 . The peripheral device services set  60  includes a peripheral device handler component  61 , a peripheral device manager component  62 , and a session device manager component  63 . The peripheral device handler component  61  represents and controls a specific kind of connected peripheral hardware device. Several kinds of peripheral devices may be connected to a service delivery platform for the CAT/CASST  16 . The peripheral device handler component  61  preferably comprises a plurality of peripheral device handler components  61  with each peripheral device handler component  61  providing a generic device management interface and a specific service interface. Further, the peripheral device handler component  61  is not limited to a single component, but may comprise specific subcomponents to interface with its associated peripheral hardware device. The peripheral device handler component  61  loads and activates needed subcomponents and initializes the specific peripheral device hardware. The peripheral device handler component  61  maintains persistent peripheral-specific management statistics and reports these statistics as well as status of the peripheral device upon request. The peripheral device handler component  61  also notifies interested parties of changes in peripheral device status and recovers peripheral device hardware functionality after a failure. The peripheral device handler component  61  finalizes by releasing any needed system resources and deactivates and unloads subcomponents. In addition to its device management responsibilities, the peripheral device handler  61  also provides application services. For instance, the peripheral device handler component  61  tests the connected hardware device for correct operation, normalizes the service interface so that similar devices share a common interface, and translates application requests into detailed hardware device requests. As will be appreciated to those skilled in the art, the specific nature of the services rendered by the peripheral device handler component  61  depends upon the specific hardware device type. 
     The peripheral device manager component  62  manages the components that interface with the connected peripheral devices. The peripheral device manger component  62  loads the peripheral device handler component  61  for the connected devices during startup and initializes the peripheral device handler component  61  during startup. The peripheral device manager  62  notifies interested parties of changes in peripheral device availability, finalizes the peripheral device handler component  61  during shut down, and unloads the peripheral device handier component  61  during shut down. In addition to its responsibilities for device management, the peripheral device manager component  62  also provides application services. For instance, the peripheral device manager component  62  coordinates usage of the peripheral devices by customers versus diagnostics and serializes application requests to each peripheral device. The peripheral device manager component  62  also routes each application request to the appropriate peripheral device handler component  61  and reports status of all connected peripheral devices upon request. 
     The session device manager component  63  is an in-session component that coordinates the control access to control devices via an acquisition mechanism. Upon request, the session device manager component  63  first determines the availability and capability of the acquired device and returns the device reference to the client. The session device manager component  63  queries the peripheral device manager component  62  to determine devices available to the system, queries the delivery capabilities to determine the available remote devices and creates instances of those devices for use by session components and services acquired device requests from the dialog services set  80  for requested type of interface for a specific device. The types of interfaces supported, for instance, include management interface, application interface, and diagnostic interface. 
     The delivery system  12  is not limited to any particular type of peripheral device. Further the delivery system  12  is not limited to peripheral devices that are associated with any particular type of remote device, such as the CAT/CASST  16 , but rather may be associated with any remote device. The peripheral devices include, as examples, a touch screen, screen display, form printer, card reader, PIN encrypter, envelope depository, cash dispenser, speech generator, and sound generator. The peripheral devices also may include an audio generator, video player, proximity detector, and a biometric scanner. As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the status of a peripheral device and statistics associated with that device will vary with the particular peripheral device. For instance, with a card reader, the status may be up/down and capture bin full. The statistics associated with a card reader may include the number of cards read, the bad reads, cards captured, long time-outs and short time-outs. As another example, the status of a depositor may include up/down, ink low, or bin full and the statistics for the depositor may include the number of envelopes captured. 
     E. System Services Set  70   
     The system services set  70  provides common services for all sessions within a server, including logging, event brokering, service registration, and cryptographic services. The system services set  70  includes a process controller component  71 , a logger component  72 , an event broker component  73 , a services registry component  74 , a crypto man component  75 , an instrumentation component  76 , a system management agents component  77 , and a test manager component  78 . 
     The process controller component  71  starts up all the non-session system service and peripheral device management processes in the delivery system  12 . The components that the process controller starts includes the logger component  72 , the event broker component  73 , the services registry component  74 , the crypto man component  75 , the instrumentation component  76 , the system management agents component  77 , and the test manager component  78 . The process controller component  71  further starts up the peripheral device manager component  62  in the peripheral device services set  60  and a session controller component  131  in the session services set  130 . 
     The logger component  72  writes and manages log files and works in conjunction with an NT log facility. The logger component  72 , for instance, adds standard headers to log entries and writes the log entries to a log. 
     The event broker component  73  provides a way for a business to do specialized processing of events for the purpose of monitoring and acting upon activities in a server. Local business provided components can register with the event broker component  73  to receive specified events. The event broker component  73  evaluates filtering rules associated with events and then calls the registered component as a result of a rule succeeding. The event broker component  73 , for example, could decide when to send notifications to a system management system. 
     The services registry component  74  registers the mini-apps and legacy app bridges that are available. The services registry component  74  has a CreateComponent function that, given a well-known name for a service, will look up the full class name and create the component. The services registry component  74  works in the context of the procedures for software distribution and cutover/fallback of releases in order to maintain a registry of the mini-apps and legacy apps that are currently available. The services registry component  74  also provides information to a navigation shell component  82  within dialog services set  80  about the mini-apps and legacy apps that are currently available. 
     The crypto man component  75  performs cryptographic functions necessary to handle security. The crypto man component  75  manages secret keys associated with external service providers and performs authentication of public key certificates. The crypto man component  75  holds security keys for each external service provider, which may be multi-level keys for each external service provider. Further, the keys may be shared secret or private key associated with a public key. The crypto man component  75  also updates keys and uses keys to generate message MAC and encrypt message. The crypto man component  75  also encrypts and re-encrypts customer PIN/TPIN. 
     Many components of the delivery system  12  need to update counters or provide some means by which they may be monitored or controlled, especially components that need to support being monitored and controlled by the system management facilities. Several instruments allow interested components to observe changes in other components. Each instrument provides a point of contact or rendezvous between an instrument updater and its interested observers. Whenever an instrument updater changes the instrument value, the interested observers are notified of the change, giving the opportunity to observe the changed instrument value. All instruments are created and maintained by the instrument manager component  76 . Both instrument updaters and instrument observers obtain references to instruments from the instrument manager component  76 . Each kind of instrument has a publisher that defines the name of the instrument and the value of the various instrument properties. The instrumentation component  76  performs an important function of keeping a record of counters and controlled variables in a persistent store. The supported instruments include, but are not limited to, the counter instrument, bounded counter instrument, status instrument, and control instrument. The instrument component  76  creates and maintains counters, maintains a value, publishes a list of the status values and names, registers and unregisters value observers, and increments or decrements a value. The instrumentation component  76  also notifies registered observers when a value changes and notifies registered observers when a limited counter value crosses a threshold, such as a lower bound or an upper bound threshold. 
     The system management agents component  77  comprises three agent components: a management protocol agent, a command dispatch agent, and a status management agent. The management protocol agent interfaces with an external system management product on the system  10  and translates a specific system management protocol to or from a format supported by the command dispatch agent and the status monitor agent. The management protocol agent translates an incoming management request into an inquiry or modify for the command dispatcher agent, translates a system management alarm from the status monitoring agent into the remote system management protocol, and supports secure access to the management server. The command dispatch agent translates requests for actions or status into the proper control instrument variables needed to control a component or retrieve its status. The command dispatch agent translates inquiries/modify requests to proper instrumentation component instrumentation objects, such as control variable, counter, and status indicator. The status monitor agent monitors status instrument variables and events, determines if an external system management product needs to be notified, and sends any important “alarms” to the external system management product. The status monitoring agent registers for events from the event broker component  73 , registers for changes to instruments, state machine correlates and filters information, uses instruments for some local action or inquiry, and sends a “higher level alarm” to the management protocol agent and/or to an event broker management protocol agent. 
     The test manager component  78  manages the testing and tracing of components in the system  12 . The test manager component  78  collects information from the various components in the system  12  by wiring itself into them during component creation. Then, the components that have been wired for test report method entries and exits to the test manager component  78  during their operation. The configuration of which components are under test or trace can be driven by scripts or by an on-line test management user interface. The test manager component  78  records information reported by the components under test in a log or it can report the test results to the tester through the test management user interface. The test manager component  78  therefore knows which components are under trace and test and wires new components for tracing and testing. 
     F. Dialog Services Set  80   
     The dialog services set  80  is responsible for the semantic content and interaction with the customer and for initiating transactions on the customer&#39;s behalf The dialog services set  80  includes a welcome mat component  81 , at least one navigation shell component  82 , at least one mini-app dialog component  83 , and at least one legacy app bridge component  84 . Although the navigation shell component  82 , the mini-app dialog component  83  and the legacy app bridge component  84  have been shown as single components, each of these components may comprise a plurality of components. 
     The welcome mat component  81  outputs the initial welcome page to the customer and collects customer identity and preference information. After determining the issuer of the customer ID and possibly authenticating the customer, the welcome mat component  81  instantiates several customer services objects to hold information about the customer and then starts a navigation shell component  82  which carries out the next level of dialog with the customer. The welcome mat component  81  establishes connection sessions with a back door man component  101  in the ESP interface services set  100  as needed by a session. The welcome mat component  81  also acquires devices needed by the session and creates a scam transaction executor to handle unsolicited scam events from a host. The welcome mat component  81  presents an out of service or welcome page, enables a card reader, and waits for card read events. If the card event is an administration card, the welcome mat component  81  instantiates an administrative welcome mat component. The welcome mat component  81  collects various information from the customer including language choice and other preferences, such as navigation style. The welcome mat component  81  also collects customer ID information, such as CIN/PIN and public key certificate, in a manner consistent with the customer remote device and mode of access, such as dial-in or Internet. The welcome mat component  81  handles retries if errors occur on customer identity input, for instance by re-reading a card, and asks customer ID component  111  for issuer. The welcome mat component  81  instantiates a profile transaction executor component  91  to authenticate the customer and get the customer&#39;s relationships or customer profile. This process typically involves interactions with the issuer external service provider, but may alternatively be performed locally based on information in a SmartCard. The transaction executor component  91  instantiated by the welcome mat component  81  will instantiate the following customer service components: customer ID component  111 , customer relationship component  113 , account component  115 , and issuer component  112 . The welcome mat component  81  will also initialize legacy app bridge components  84 , and start a navigation shell component  82  based on delivery capabilities, acquirer rules, and customer preferences. 
     The welcome mat component  81  may rely on separate micro-app dialog subcomponents to do some parts of the dialog that may be common to several business functions or which may vary depending on the remote device peripherals. For instance, the welcome mat component  81  may rely on a hello screen micro app, a language select micro app, and a get PIN customer data micro app. 
     The welcome mat component  81  may do four things for customer authentication based on acquirer rules and the type of customer ID, such as public key certificate, ATM card, credit card, on-us, or off-us. The welcome mat component  81  may provide immediate local authentication using public key certificates or may provide immediate authentication with the issuer, waiting for a response. The welcome mat component  81  may also provide background authentication with the issuer while going on to the navigation shell component  82  or may defer authentication to the first transaction. With deferred authentication, the welcome mat component  81  may need to instantiate a default customer relationship component  113  and a default set of product types, such as checking, savings, or credit card. If a rule broker component  121  does not have a registered issuer for the card/CIN prefix number, a customer ID component  111  is instantiated and marked invalid, further authentication of the customer is skipped, and a navigation shell component  82  for invalid customers is started. Invalid customers may still be allowed to use certain information only in mini-app dialogs. 
     The navigation shell component  82  informs the customer of the range of mini-apps that are available and provides top level navigation across these applications. The navigation shell component  82  assigns a frame space within which a mini-app runs. To support complex grouping of functions or a variety of navigation styles, the navigation shell component  82  may contain shells within shells. The navigation shell components  82  available for selection by a customer include linear, which guides customers through detailed question and answer steps; nonlinear broad branching, such as pull-down menus; preferred, such as customer specified short cuts; or query, which may include a search engine or natural language searching capabilities. The navigation shell component  82  obtains lists of possible services available from services registry component  74 , checks rules to see what services are actually available in the current system context, and makes the customer aware of the range of mini-apps available. The range of mini-apps available will be based on the customer&#39;s relationship, the issuer/acquirer rules, and the set of dynamically registered mini-apps. The mini-apps may be organized and identified by the navigation shell component  82  with names, icons, or any other type of representation. The navigation shell component  82  instantiates additional navigation shell components  82  as necessary and instantiates mini-app dialog component  83  as requested by the customer. The navigation shell component  82  supports switching between concurrently active mini-app dialogs and, at the end of a session, instantiates and calls end of session mini-app. The delivery system  12  preferably supports the customer leaving a mini-app to enter the navigation shell component  82  and to start another mini-app, while leaving the former mini-app suspended in its current context state. The customer can later exit from the new mini-app and go back to the former mini-app or can switch between multiple concurrently active mini-apps. In an environment where the screen has imbedded frames, a main navigation shell component  82  may, for example, invoke one or more sub shell components  82  to control individual frames. 
     The mini-app dialog component  83  manages the dialog with a customer for a specific business function in a specific dialog style. The mini-app dialog component  83 , for instance, may manage the business functions of transferring funds or bill payment in the styles of question and answer or forms. The mini-app dialog component  83  presents information and choices to the customer and collects and validates customer inputs. The mini-app dialog component  83  is responsible for the content of information on pages and the flow of the customer interaction, but preferably not the style and layout of the presentation. The mini-app dialog component  83  may comprise several different mini-app dialog components  83  with different dialog styles for the same business function. The mini-app dialog components  83  may support different modes of the customer entering information, such as guiding the customer through detailed question and answer steps or forms with multiple input fields. After collecting the necessary customer inputs for a particular business function, the mini-app dialog component  83  uses a transaction executor component  91  to carry out the function by doing transactions with external service providers and operating peripheral devices, such as a cash dispenser or depositor. The mini-app dialog component  83  implements the customer-visible control flow for a particular function in a specific dialog style. The flow may be tailored based on the customer relationship and on various countries/business rules. The mini-app dialog component  83  uses a language man component  122  within the business services set  120  to do translation of phrases into target languages for display or print. The mini-app dialog component  83  assembles phrases and formatted data into pages, for display or print, with each page constructed in a canonical format by setting properties of named objects within named templates. The mini-app dialog component  83  sends pages to the presentation manager component  52  which handles the final style and layout for the specific remote device. The mini-app dialog component  83  collects customer inputs and validates customer inputs using business rules. Validation, for instance, includes basic field validations as well as cross-field validations. The mini-app dialog component  83  instantiates and calls transaction executor components  91  to do transactions with external service providers and also operates remote devices, such as a cash dispenser or a depositor, needed by the business function. The mini-app dialog component  83  queues transaction data for printed record and increments transaction counters in the instrumentation component  76 . A mini-app dialog component  83  may, for instance, use separate mini-app dialog subcomponents  83  to do some parts of the dialog that may be common to several business functions, such as PIN entry, account resolution, and entering currency amount. 
     The legacy app bridge component  84  is a bridge that enables a legacy application set to operate in the delivery system  12 . The legacy app bridge component  84  translates data between customer and business services objects in the delivery system  12  in the form that data is stored in the legacy applications. A different legacy app bridge component  84  may exist for each type of legacy application set, such as USCAT, AsiaCAT, LatinCAT, and EuroCAT. On entrance to a legacy application, the legacy app bridge component  84  obtains data from the session services set  130  and customer services set  110  and translates the data into the global data structures needed by the legacy application. On exit from a legacy application, the legacy app bridge component  84  takes modified data from the legacy structures and puts the data back to the customer services set  110  within the delivery system  12 . The legacy app bridge component  84  translates legacy pages into the canonical page structures needed by the presentation manager component  52  and interfaces with the back door man component  101  to send messages to external service providers. The legacy app bridge component  84  also interfaces with the logger for logging errors and transactions. During initialization of the legacy app bridge component  84 , the rule broker component  121  and various rule authorities, primarily acquirer and issuer, may need to be interrogated to obtain data needed to populate static tables used by the legacy applications for processing rules. Depending upon the extent of migration, the legacy app bridge component  84  may have several different relationships between it and the navigation shell component  82 . For instance, the navigation shell component  82  may provide the top level navigation across the new mini-app dialog component  83  as well as the individual legacy app bridge component  84 . For some card types and issuers, the navigation shell component  82  may be faceless and all business functionality is provided by the legacy apps. In this alternative, top level navigation may be provided within the legacy applications. For CAT applications, one of a pool of CAT/TAFE runtimes will be assigned to a session at start-up. The legacy applications will be assigned a frame space within which the navigation shell component  82  “plays” its applications. Individual CAT level 3 functions will be individually registered and exposed. The navigation shell component  82  supports exposing CAT level 3 functions without the need to traverse the existing level 2 menu structure. 
     G. Transaction Services Set  90   
     The transaction services set  90  handles external service provider transactions needed to accomplish particular business functions. The components within the transaction services set  90  provide transaction coordination and external service provider message formatting. In some cases, more than one transaction executor component  91  may be associated with a given business function. Some examples of typical transaction executor components  91  are profile transaction component, scam transaction component, withdrawal component, deposit component, transfer component, transaction journal component, get payee list component, update payee list component, and make a payment component. Each transaction executor component  91  performs a particular business function, such as cash withdrawal, by doing transactions with external service providers. The transaction executor component  91  validates properties of data obtained from mini-app dialog components  83  to determine whether the required information needed to do the transaction exists. If the data is missing, the transaction executor component  91  immediately returns an error. The transaction executor component  91  collects additional information needed to do the transaction from other objects, such as customer ID component  111 , acquirer component  114 , issuer component  112 , or account component  115 . The transaction executor component  91  formats messages to be sent to external service providers and orchestrates complex transactions by sending messages to multiple service providers, serially or concurrently, as necessary. The transaction executor component  91  also parses response messages and returns information as properties of a transaction object and recovers from external service provider transaction failures. The transaction executor component  91  may also reverse transactions during a recovery. The transaction executor component  91  calls system logger component  72  to record an audit trail of transactions. 
     H. External Service Provider Interface Set  100   
     The external service provider interface services set  100  provides protocol support for interfacing with external service providers  22 . The external service provider interface services set  100  includes the back door man component  101  and the external service provider interface component  102 . 
     The back door man component  101  multiplexes messages from multiple transaction executor components  91  in several sessions to a single external service provider. The back door man component  101  provides message sequencing over all messages sent to a particular external service provider and also provides response routing back to the requesting transaction executor component  91 . The back door man component  101  secures messages exchanged with an external service provider, such as with MAC or encryption. The back door man component  101  generates sequence numbers, adds external service provider envelope to outgoing messages, and sends outgoing messages to the external service provider interface manager. The back door man component  101  is responsible for retry of messages and checks sequencing of incoming messages. The back door man component  101  routes response messages to the proper transaction executor component  91  and routes incoming unsolicited messages to a registered or well-known system component. The back door man component  101  switches between alternate or back-up external service providers to provide error recovery, load sharing, or alternate routing. The back door man component  101  can support multiple outstanding requests simultaneously. During operation, the back door man component  101  knows which of the alternate or back-up external service providers are active, the name/addresses of external service providers, server ID information, message sequence numbers, and message security context. 
     The external service provider interface manager component  102  provides protocol support for connecting to an external service provider  22 . For example, the external service provider interface manager component  102  might provide X.25, 3270, or SNA protocol support. The external service provider interface manager component  102  provides protocol support for a specific type external service provider interface, if needed. 
     I. Customer Services Set  110   
     The customer services set  110  provides a category of services that includes all information specific to the customer who initiates a session. All information related to identifying the customer, the issuing business of the customer, the customer&#39;s profile, and all the customer&#39;s accounts are the component objects included within this category of services. The customer services set  110  includes a customer ID component  111 , an issuer component  112 , a customer relationship component  113 , an acquirer component  114 , and an account component  115 . 
     The customer ID component  111  contains information and answers questions about a customer&#39;s identity and associated information. The customer ID component  111  supports query of customer ID and card information, supports update of customer ID and card information, and identifies card issuer. The customer ID component  111  knows the customer primary ID including the CIN, encrypted PIN/TPIN, and public key certificate. The customer ID component  111  also knows the status and profile action code indicating ID validity: valid, invalid, or unknown. The customer ID component  111  has card information, if a card was used, including the type of card, such as ATM, credit card, SmartCard, and tracks present and track data. The customer ID component  111  knows the tier of service a card supports, the advisory message text to be displayed, the primary relationship type code, and the deposit only flag. The customer ID component  111  has links to account list, an issuer list, and a customer relationship list. The customer ID component  111  may also store the name of a customer, mail address of customer, E-mail address of customer, and phone numbers of the customer and provide this information to the customer or external service provider  22  so that this information does not have to be requested more than once. 
     The issuer component  112  represents the issuing business for the customer-ID information that was used to start a session. The issuer component  112  is the rule authority for all general, issuer related, non mini-app specific business rules. The issuer component  112  supports query of issuer information and supports answering questions about general issuer business rules. The issuer component  112  has information about the issuer of customer&#39;s identity, for instance, business code, financial institution identifier, and issuer type, such as bank card, credit card, or other third party card. The issuer component  112  knows the PIN length supported and the issuer country and ISO currency code for the issuer default currency. The issuer component  112  has a list of customer relationships for the issuer and a list of accounts for the issuer. The issuer component  112  also knows the products and services supported and the transaction and product limits. The issuer component  112  is informed of the issuer&#39;s presentation rules, such as data, format, and account number masking, and the issuer&#39;s local rules, such as collect call support, currency, and product names. The issuer component  112  also knows the issuer&#39;s servicer-ESP communication rules, for instance, profile message support, the languages supported, and the navigation schemes supported. The issuer component  112  knows when or how to authenticate customer, such as by local validation of public key certificate, immediate to issuer, background to issuer, or delayed to first transaction. 
     The customer relationship component  113  contains information and can answer questions about a customer&#39;s relationship. The information contained within the customer relationship component  113  includes the accounts and products owned by the customer, customer type, preferences and privileges. The customer relationship component  113  supports query of customer relationship information and supports update of customer relationship information. The customer relationship component  113  knows the owner of the customer relationship or issuer, the customer relationship ID, the customer relationship type, such as Citibank account or CitiGold, and the customer relationship nickname. The customer relationship component  113  has a list of accounts/products associated with a customer, a list of account categories, and a list of accounts for the customer. The customer relationship component  113  also knows the customer&#39;s predefined transactions and has an account summary status. The customer relationship component  113  has the list of payees and the payee list status. The customer relationship component  113  knows the customer privileges or limitations, such as the number of quotes allowed for that customer. Some businesses, such as those in Mexico, Venezuela, or Brazil, can have multiple relationships per card. In the top level navigation, the customer may select one of them as the primary relationship to use for a session. The transfer application, however, can transfer between accounts in different relationships. 
     The acquirer component  114  contains information and answers about the acquirer. The acquirer component  114  represents the acquiring business for a session and is the rule authority for business rules that are acquirer related, but not mini-app specific. For rules that are acquirer related and mini-app specific, separate rule authorities may be registered as part as a dynamic installation of a mini-application. The acquirer component  114  supports query of acquirer information and processes certain specific rules associated with the acquirer. The acquirer component  114  knows information about acquiring business for a session, for instance a financial institution identifier and business code, and knows the country or region of acquirer. 
     The account component  115  contains information and can answer questions about a particular account. Each individual account preferably has only one account component  115  with the account details and rules varying for the particular individual account. The account component  115  supports query of account information and supports update of account information. The account component  115  knows the business owning the account, the category of the account, and the product type and subproduct type of the account. The account component  115  also knows the fund family code and fund code, the category code, the account name, account number, and account details, such as currency code, balances, and terms. The account component  115  has information on the functional privileges and limitations and also information on associated link accounts. The individual accounts may be customer owned or payee accounts that can be the target of a transfer or bill payment. 
     J. Business Services Set  120   
     The business services set  120  provides formal mechanisms for dealing with business rules, language support, and acquirer services. The business services set  120  includes a rule broker component  121  and a language man component  122 . 
     The rule broker component  121  formalizes a mechanism for dealing with business rules that have conventionally been ad hoc. The rule broker component  121  is a central registry for all business questions. Other components within a session address named business questions to the rule broker component  121 . The rule broker component  121  routes the question to the rule authority or authorities that have registered for a rule. By having a separable rule authority for each mini-app specific business rule, new rules can be added independently without affecting the rest of the delivery system  12 . The rule broker component  121  supports the concept of overrides, which allow the dynamic registration of a new rule authority when changes to business rules are necessary. The rule broker component  121  may either answer questions directly or route questions to another component, such as an account component  115  or the issuer component  112 . The rule broker component  121  is also responsible for interfacing into rules databases and knows what component will answer each question. 
     The language man component  122  provides the application with a facility to resolve the necessary text phrase needed in a particular context. The context includes the language selected by the customer and the type of device in use. The language man component  122  provides a repository of phrases which allows an application to be written in a language and device independent way. From the application point of view, all phrases are named. When an application needs to display a phrase, the application queries the language man component  122  for the correct text for this phrase name given a specified language choice and the current presentation device type, which has been provided by the presentation manager component  52 . The language man component  122  can also extend this capability to the use of phrases with imbedded variables. Thus, the application may supply additional parameters to be inserted into the phrase at a required point. To resolve a request, the language man component  122  uses a phrase repository to look up the correct version of a particular phrase, with the repository being segmented. A set of “global” phrases are usable by all applications and a mini-app dialog specific set of phrases is established. Thus, given the ID of a requesting mini-app dialog component  83 , the repository specific to that mini-app dialog component  83  is searched first and then, if the phrase is not found, a global repository is searched. The phrase repository allows a degree of independence in the creation of mini-app dialog components  83 . No coordinated update to the global repository is needed to release a new mini-app dialog component  83  and a mini-app dialog  83  can override the global phrase. The language man component  122  also provides APIs for the dynamic construction of phrases needed to deal with gender and plural issues encountered in some languages. The language man component  122  looks up a requested phrase in a phrase repository and returns the phrase based on the client ID, language ID, locale, phrase medium, phrase formulate, and device type and may be qualified by the device, as well, such as short form of the phrase for a small display on the device. The language man component  122  is backed by a set of development tools to create and maintain phrase repositories. These development tools provide for creation and deletion of phrase IDs, mechanisms to add, change, and delete phrase text in the repository, multi-lingual text entry, and specification of variable insertion points as well as graphic files or sound or video files. 
     K. Session Services Set  130   
     The session services set  130  includes a session controller component  131 , a session component  132 , and a delivery capabilities component  133 . The session controller component  131  manages all the sessions in the delivery system  12 . When a new customer contacts the delivery system  12 , the session controller component  131  starts a session by instantiating a session bubble for the session. The session bubble, for instance session bubble S shown in  FIG. 2 , bounds a secure set of resources allocated to one and only one customer session. The session controller component  131  is aware of the type of customer remote device a start session request came from and the broad product type of service requested so that the appropriate type of session bubble can be instantiated. The session controller component  131  creates a session when a customer contacts the delivery system  12  by instantiating a new instance of the session object. The session controller component  131  maintains a registry of all active sessions with handles to the session objects. The session controller component  131  also terminates a session when a customer abnormally breaks the connection. 
     The session component  132  manages the resources associated with this session. The session component  132  brings up some initial session resources and is the registry for the brought up session components. The session component  132  also knows certain session context information as well as all assigned session resources and services. The session component  132  instantiates and initializes the following resources when a session is created and deletes them when the session is terminated: delivery capabilities component  133 , rule broker component  121 , front door man component  51 , presentation manager component  52 , acquirer component  114 , language man component  122 , and welcome mat component  81 . The session component  132  sends touch point attached notification to each of the components and supports registration of additional session components that need to be accessed globally by the session. The session component  132  recovers resources when a session abnormally terminates and logs significant session events, such as start or end of session and session errors. The session component  132  has session initiation information including the session ID and the start of session time. The session component  132  also has the handles for linking to many other session components and knows which navigation shell components  82  and mini-app dialog components  83  are active. The session component  132  also knows the reason for the end of a session. 
     The delivery capabilities component  133  holds data and answers questions about the delivery capabilities of a remote device for a particular session. The information contained within the delivery capabilities component  133  is communicated either explicitly or implicitly in the start up message from the remote device causing the initiation of a session. The delivery capabilities component  133  is available for interrogation from other components within the delivery system  12 . The delivery capabilities component  133  answers questions about the delivery capabilities of a remote device. For instance, for a web browser remote device, the delivery capabilities would include the HTML level, less preferably, FTP, picture formats, applet types, script types, and international fonts. The delivery capabilities component  133  is instantiated by the session controller component  131  with the initial capabilities based on access mode, for example, Internet, dial-in, or CAT. 
     II. Walk-Through Examples 
     A. Start of Banking Session 
     An example session will now be described with reference to  FIGS. 3A to 3C  and  FIGS. 4A to 4C . At a step E 1 , a customer initiates a session. The customer may initiate a session in various ways depending upon the remote device used to communicate with the delivery system  12 . For instance, the customer may use a screen phone  14 , a CAT/CASST  16 , a personal computer  18 , or a PDA  20 . The customer may also use a remote device  24  and an external service provider  22  to communicate with the delivery system  12 . The customer, regardless of the particular remote device used, initiates the session through the touch point and display component  31  of the delivery system  12 . At a step E 2 , a start banking message is sent from the touch point and display component  31  to the touch point interface component  41 . At step E 3 , the touch point interface component  41  sends the start session message to the session controller component  131 . At step E 4 , the session controller instantiates session component  132 . At step E 5 , the session component  132  then instantiates the delivery capabilities component  133  and the session device manager component  63 . 
     At step E 6 , the session component  132  instantiates the front door man component  51 . The session component  132  instantiates the presentation manager component  52  at step E 6  and instantiates the presentation manager component  52  at step E 7 . At step E 8 , the session component  132  instantiates the rule broker 5 component  121  and at step E 9  instantiates the language man component  122 . At step E  10 , the session component  132  instantiates the acquirer component  114  and at step E 11  instantiates the welcome mat component  81 . 
     At step E 12 , the welcome mat component  81  sends a logon to presentation manager component  52 . The presentation manager component  52 , at step E 13 , formats the screen based on device specific template and sends formatted information to the front door man component  51 . At step E 14 , the front door man component  51  assigns a session cookie and sends a response via the touch point interface component  41  to the customer. 
     As reflected in steps E 1  through E 14 , a customer can access the delivery system  12  with any type of remote device. In response, the delivery system  12  will create a session bubble specific for that customer. This session bubble will preferably have a session component  132 , a delivery capabilities component  133 , a session device manager component  63 , a rule broker component  121 , a welcome mat component  81 , a front door man component  51 , as well as various other components dedicated for that particular session. Through the presentation manager component  52 , front door man component  51 , touch point interface component  41  and touch point and display component  31 , the delivery system  12  can format messages to any type of remote device and can custom tailor this message according to the desires of a particular customer. The delivery system  12  is also capable of providing uniformity across the various remote devices so that the customer is presented with a consistent and familiar interface regardless of the remote device used. 
     B. Customer Authentication 
     An example of the process of authenticating a customer will now be described with reference to  FIGS. 5A to 5D  and  FIGS. 6A to 6C . At step E 21 , a customer enters his or her CIN and PIN at the touch point and display component  31  which forwards the information to the touch point interface component  41 . At step E 22 , the touch point interface component  41  forwards the message to the appropriate session bubble based on the session ID in the session cookie. At step E 3 , the front door man component  51  performs a security check on the cookie and other parameters before forwarding the message to the presentation manager component  52 . At step E 24 , the presentation manager component  52  routes the input to the dialog services set  80 . For instance, the presentation manager component  52  may route the input based on mime type and URL to the appropriate dialog welcome mat component  81 . 
     At step E 25 , the welcome mat component  81  asks the rule broker component  121  who is the issuer based on the CIN. The welcome mat component  81 , in turn, instantiates the customer ID component  111  at step E 26  and instantiates the issuer component  112  at step E 27 . At step E 28 , the welcome mat component  81  instantiates the profile transaction executor component  91  for authenticating the customer and then passes the CIN and encrypted PIN to the transaction executor component  91 . At step E 29 , the transaction executor component  91  formats a reply message and sends the message to the host through the back door man component  101 . At step E 30 , the back door man component  101  adds a universal message sequence and, at step E 31 , the external service provider interface component  102  provides protocol gateway to the external service provider  22 . 
     At step E 32 , a response is returned to the back door man component  101  and the back door man component  101  routes the response to the appropriate transaction executor component  91 . At step E 33 , the transaction executor component  91  extracts information from the external service provider message and gives this information to the welcome mat component  81 . At step E 34 , the transaction executor component  91  instantiates the customer relationship component  113  which, in turn, instantiates the account components  115  at step E 35 . At step E 36 , the welcome mat component  91  instantiates the navigation shell component  82  which sends initial navigation choices to the customer at step E 37 . At step E 38 , the presentation manager component  52  formats style of screen display and sends a response to the customer via the front door man component  51 , touch point interface component  41 , and touch point and display unit  31 . 
     C. Selection of Mini-App 
     The selection of a mini-app will now be described with reference to  FIGS. 7A and 7B  and  FIGS. 8A and 8B . At step E 41 , the customer selects a mini-app with the touch point and display component  31  and the request is sent into the delivery system  12 . At step E 42 , the presentation manager component  52  demultiplexer the request based on mime-type and URL and sends the request to the navigation shell component  82 . A step E 43 , the navigation shell component  82  instantiates the appropriate mini-app dialog component  83 . At step E 44 , the mini-app dialog component  83  returns choices to the customer. At step E 45 , a back and forth dialog occurs between the customer and the mini-app dialog component  83  until all information is collected for a function. During this step, the mini-app dialog component  83  directs business rule questions to the rule broker component  121  for resolution during the dialog. 
     At step E 46 , after all information has been collected, the mini-app dialog component  83  instantiates the transaction executor component  91  for the selected function. At step E 47 , the transaction executor component  91  formats a message to the external service provider  22  and does the transaction with the external service provider  22 . At step E 48 , the transaction executor component  91  extracts information from the host message and passes the information to the mini-app dialog component  83 . As step E 49 , the mini-app dialog component  83  formulates content of response and sends the response to the presentation manager component  52  for formatting. At step E 50 , the presentation manager component  52  formats style and layout of response and sends the response to the customer via the front door man component  51 , touch point interface component  41 , and touch point and display component  31 . 
     III. Rendering Model 
     To allow for both local delivery to the CAT  16  and to other remote devices, the basic rendering model is indirect. Preferably, none of the components within the dialog services set  80  draw directly to the screen but rather produce a stream of data, the app stream, that will ultimately be rendered by the touch point and display components  31 . The app stream is preferably an HTML encoded stream of named, objects or tokens with a named template or forms. The dialog services set  80  may then set the properties of these named objects within named templates. Although the dialog services set  80  may set any property of a named object, the delivery system  12  preferably separates content from style so that a specific mini-app can be leveraged and delivered across many delivery vehicles. In general, the mini-app dialog component  83  will operate by setting the values of named  20  properties of named objects and named templates, such as TemplateX.ObjectY.PropertyZ=Value. 
     The presentation manager component  52 , using delivery vehicles specific named templates, is responsible for style and mapping to the encoding language of the target device. The presentation manager component  52  takes the app stream received from the mini-app dialog component  83  and, based on delivery vehicle specific templates, merges the data based on mapping rules and produces the final token stream that is sent to the touch point and display component  31 . A one to one mapping exists between canonical templates that mini-app dialog components reference and delivery vehicle specific templates that the presentation manager component  52  uses. Delivery vehicle specific templates include specific information on the layout, colors, and mapping of individual objects. A set of emerging standards from Microsoft and WC3 on advance style sheets, including style sheets that allow precise X, Y positioning of objects may be used as part of the templating mechanism. 
     Separation of content from style provides many benefits. For instance, separation allows the style and layout of a presentation to be defined and changed independent of the code in the mini-app dialog components  83 . Also, separation allows a single mini-app dialog component  83  to deliver its functions to more than one target delivery vehicle through the abstraction of individual objects or tokens. The delivery system  12  allows and encourages the use of abstract objects in the app stream. For instance, the use of an abstract object like “choice” instead of a specific object like “button” allows the choice to manifest itself in many ways on the target delivery vehicle. A choice could manifest itself in one case as a CAT button, in another as a Windows style button, as an HTML anchor, or as an item in a scrolling list. 
     The delivery system  12  preferably supports ActiveX visual controls within delivery vehicle specific templates. The delivery system  12 , however, is preferably expanded so as to map controls to alternative objects for presentation on delivery vehicles that do not support ActiveX controls. The delivery system  12  also encourages the grouping of logically related named objects into named groups. The grouping facilities allow the masking out of a group so that it will not be delivered to certain delivery vehicles based on the capabilities of that device or screen real estate. 
     The delivery vehicle specific templates define layout and style both for frame sets and within a frame. A frame is a well-known concept within Web browsers and is a rectangular portion of screen real estate, which may be bordered or borderless. A frame set defines the layout of frames within an overall screen window. The frame set defines the width and height of each frame and an initial link to the HTML page or program that will provide the content for that frame. The presentation manager component  52  manages the overall display. Based on templates, the presentation manager component  52  assigns a frame or frames to a navigation shell component  82 . In turn, based on templates, the navigation shell component  82  assigns a frame to a mini-app dialog component  83 . Within a frame, the layout of that frame is controlled by a delivery vehicle specific template. By assigning frames that bound the display space of specific mini-app dialog components  83 , an independence between one mini-app dialog component  83  and another can be maintained and different navigation shell components  82  may be installed independently of the mini-app dialog component  83 . The presentation manager component  52  will model the display space as a set of frames and, based on the delivery vehicle specific templates for non-framed devices, the presentation manager component  52  will merge information from many frames into a single frame for delivery to a remote device. 
     The canonical templates that mini-app dialog components  83  use are bounded by a frame. The mini-app dialog components  83  are responsible for setting the properties of the named objects within its canonical templates. One of these properties that the mini-app dialog component  83  is responsible for setting for “choice” objects is a link. A link is a standard universal resource locator (URL) that specifies the target object, such as the mini-app dialog component  83 , and a list of parameters that will be returned if this choice is selected by the customer. The activation of links by the customer is one of the main ways of making choices and navigating through a mini-app dialog component  83 . In addition to links, data entered by the customer in input fields, select lists, check boxes, radio buttons, as well as in other ways will be returned to the mini-app dialog component  83  in the app stream in the standard HTML encoding style of name-value pairs. The basic app stream interface can be produced with any programming language. For instance, any programming language that can produce a text stream can also produce an app stream. The programming language preferably should be able to communicate via COM but otherwise has no restrictions. The app stream is a multi-channeled stream capable of supporting the basic text based app stream as well as other mime types. 
     Although the delivery system  12  encourages leveraging one mini-app dialog component  83  over a large range of delivery vehicles, the delivery system  12  does not preclude writing mini-app dialog components  83  targeted towards a specific delivery vehicle or class of delivery vehicles. The mechanism of passing the app stream between mini-app dialog components  83  and the presentation manager component  52  would remain the same. The mini-app dialog component  83  is still responsible for content and the presentation manager component  52  for style and layout. In this case, however, the range of visual object types or capabilities may only be available on a specific delivery vehicle and might not lend itself to abstraction. For example, the inclusion of client-side scripting may only be available on certain devices or class of devices and may not be easily abstracted. 
     The delivery system  12  can easily support multi-media. HTML has well-known means for embedding and referencing a wide range of media types, for instance graphics, sounds, and movies. The delivery system  12  preferably uses standard HTML encoding techniques to incorporate this ever expanding set of media types into the delivery system  12  for use by remote devices. To support various error conditions and easy switching and restarting of mini-app dialog components  83 , the presentation manager component  52  preferable caches the last page output for each frame that it manages. 
     IV. Mini-App Packaging 
     A fundamental advantage of the delivery system  12  is the independence of one mini-app dialog component  83  from another. The delivery system  12  provides a safe environment for the dynamic insertion and registration of new mini-apps with their navigation shell components  82 . The delivery system  12  can introduce a new mini-app dialog component  83  so as to require a complete testing cycle only on the introduced application and not a regression test of the entire delivery system  12 . The mini-app dialog components  83  are therefore preferably packaged as separate entities. For instance, a mini-app dialog component  83  may include an executable (.EXE) for the mini-app dialog component  83  including the transaction executor component  91  as a DLL or OLE object. The mini-app dialog component  83  also includes a rule file, including all new rule entries to be registered with the rule broker component  121 . Also, when appropriate, the mini-app dialog component  83  includes a rules engine file per rule for any rules that can be interpreted by the general purpose rules engine and a rule database file per rule that supplies any needed data to support mini-app specific rule authorities. The mini-app dialog component  83  also includes a language file including all mini-app specific language phrases needed and, when appropriate, a template file containing all mini-app specific templates. 
     V. Netcat 
     An example of a NetCAT server  200  is shown in  FIG. 9 . The NetCAT server  200  has the ability to present a traveling customer their “home screens.” This ability is accomplished without the need to load CAT software for, all regions on all CATS  16  around the world. The basic notion is to have at least one NetCAT server  200  for every region. On this NetCAT server  200 , a region&#39;s CAT software will run and it will be capable of being “remotely projected” through any acquiring CAT  16  around the world, thus providing almost all of the customers home screens around the world. Differences from the customer&#39;s home screen will show up on the initial welcome screen, until the customer&#39;s issuer is identified, and during certain transactions, notably cash withdrawal, where foreign exchange rates will have to be displayed and regulatory requirements of the acquiring country will have to be honored. 
     To start a NetCAT session, the traveling customer dips his or her card at “foreign” CAT  16  and a session bubble starts up normally at the CAT  16 . When the welcome mat component  81  determines that this customer is off-region, the welcome mat component  81  makes a connection to the appropriate regional NetCAT server  200 . The welcome mat component  81  on the CAT  16  communicates with the session controller component  131  on the NetCAT server  200  to start up a session. The welcome mat component  81  on the NetCAT server  200 , after given card parameters upon start up, instantiates the customer ID component  111  and issuer components  112  on the NetCAT server  200 . After NetCAT server  200  authenticates the customer, with its own external service provider, the NetCAT server  200  starts up a navigation shell component  82  on the NetCAT server  200 . The CAT  16  exposes/copies certain of its components to the NetCAT server  200  for its use. The CAT  16 , for instance, exposes the session component  132 , the acquirer component  114 , the delivery capabilities component  133 , the front door man component  51 , the peripheral device manager component  62 , the transaction executor components  91 , and the welcome mat component  81 . The NetCAT server  200  uses these components for business rule inquiries, for delivery to CAT screen, for operation of the CAT peripherals, and for inquiry about the capabilities of the hosting CAT, such as fonts supported and pictographic printing. An example of a CAT  16  is shown in  FIG. 10  with the exposed components marked with a black dot. 
     VI. Legacy Migration 
     The delivery system  12  supports an orderly migration of CAT functionality from implementation with AGS applications to implementation with service components on all platforms where AGS is used to delivery CAT look-and-feel functionality. An example of the interaction between CAT AGS applications and service components will be described with reference to  FIG. 11 . The AGS applications are executed within an instance of a TAFE process, the legacy run time AGS driver and associated functionality, and share a single persistent global data store. At the time a CAT application is invoked, session context is completely represented by the current state of the persistent global data and the content of the Exit message TAFE passes to the application. If this context can be instantiated by alternate means, then the business/customer functionality normally performed by the AGS level one and level two applications need not be performed before running a level three transaction application. At a high level, pretransaction session context is imported to the TAFE and a level three application is invoked with Exit message. After a return from level three application with Exit message, post transaction session context is exported from TAFE. For the case of a complete session performed in AGS, the interaction includes importing prelanguage selection session context to TAFE, invoking level two application with Exit message, returning from level two application with Exit message, and exporting post end-of-session context from TAFE. 
     The vehicle for import and export preferably is ELF formatted messages that can be defined in an AGS data dictionary and received and sent by AGS applications. These messages may be defined to be composed by the persistent global variables and tables that comprise the necessary context such that no data manipulation is required in AGS after receipt of the import message or prior to sending the export message. The delivery system  12  does not specify the handling of these message within TAFE or whether they are implemented as a single import message and a single export message per interaction. In general, the session services set  130  must capture and maintain sufficient session context information from which to derive the context representation required by the AGS application to be invoked. The required context will vary in detail by target AGS application set, such as USCAT, EuroCAT, AsiaCAT, LatinCAT and ICC. The required context will also vary with the application being invoked such as a level two or level three application. The legacy application bridge component  84 , whether representing an AGS session or an individual AGS transaction application, preferable is capable of constructing and interpreting ELF messages using the data name space appropriate to the target AGS application. The legacy app bridge component  84  embodies the knowledge of the other components it queries and in the specific properties it assesses in order to assemble the session context that it delivers to TAFE. Likewise, the knowledge of the components and properties that must be updated by the modified session context at the completion of an AGS processed transaction or session is also embodied by the legacy app bridge component  84 . 
     The delivery system  12  is not limited to any particular manner for initiating a CAT AGS application. As an example, however, a pre-initialized TAPE AGS driver process is associated with the session bubble. Within the bubble, a faceless level one application waits on receipt of a start of session context message. The legacy app bridge component  84  for the customer selected transaction sends a start of session context message to the TAFE including track two data. The message sent to the TAFE preferably does not contain data from an element ID range specific to a card issuer. The level one application receives the message and updates session context and persistent global memory. Using the track two data, preinitialized static tables, and existing functionality, the level one application creates and sends the exit message to invoke the level two application appropriate to the card issuer. In this example, the level two application is a faceless, special purpose replacement for the original level two application. The level two application is specific to the element ID range of the issuer and sends a request message for the remainder of the session context data. The request message is routed from the TAFE to the legacy app bridge component  84 . 
     The legacy app bridge component  84  queries other service components in order to construct and return a response message containing the remainder of the session context, including data in the element ID range specific to the level two application that sent the request. The level two application receives the message and updates the session context and persistent global memory. Using the transaction type code, language code, and application state code received in the context data, together with existing functionality, the level two application creates and sends the exit message to invoke the level three application appropriate to the transaction type. The level three application processes the transaction and presents screens, sends and receives external service provider messages, device messages and logging messages, and updates session context in persistent global memory. Upon completion, the level three application sends an Exit message to return to the level two application. The level two application sends a message containing the updated post transaction session context which TAFE routes to the legacy app bridge component  84 . The level two application also sends an Exit message to return to the level one application. The level one application waits in receipt of another start of session context message. The legacy app bridge  84  receives the post transaction session context and processes it causing the session context to be updated in the other appropriate service components. In this example, the level one and level two applications perform no customer or business functionality. The role of the level one and level two applications instead is preferably limited to receiving and returning context data and invoking the appropriate lower level application. The delivery system  12 , however, can vary from that described above. 
     VII. Rule Broker 
     One advantage of the delivery system  12  is the separation of individually-installable business rules from the code embodied in the transactions specific components. Application components needing answers to rule questions asks the rule broker component  121  without knowing any details about how the rules are encoded and answered. The rule broker component  121  routes the question to the appropriate component which can supply an answer. Components which supply rule answers may be installed independently of components which ask the rule questions. In addition, any data used by a rule “answerer” may be installed or replaced independently from components which use that data to determine answers to rule questions. 
     In general, a business rule is a statement of policy driven by business or regulatory needs, which defines context specific behavior of the applications. A business rule in the delivery system  12  may comprise any statement policy driven by business or regulatory needs, which defines context-specific behavior of an application. Business rules are discrete items which may be modified independently from other application components. Examples of business rules are choosing dispense amounts to display, maximum PIC retries, assignment of product types to summary categories, assignment of product types to product categories, and the number of account digits on print records. On average, fifty to one hundred business rules may exist per region with most of the rules being issuer rules and a fewer number of acquirer rules. 
     The rule broker component  121  is a single entity which components of the delivery system  12  may access to obtain answers to the business rule questions which affect application processing. The rule broker component  121  receives rule registration requests, registers rules in a rule registry, receives rule queries and routes them to the registered provider for that rule. The rule broker component  121  provides a mechanism for rule authorities to register themselves as answers for particular rule questions. When application components query the rule broker for a particular rule, the rule broker component  121  routes the query to the appropriate rule authority or to the rule engine. The rule broker component  121  itself is not aware of the actual semantics of any of the rules. In the preferred embodiment, the rule broker component  121  is used by the mini-app dialog components  83 , the transaction executor components  91 , the presentation manager component  52 , the navigation shell component  82 , the welcome mat component  81 , and the legacy app bridge component  84 . Although the delivery system  12  preferably includes the rule broker component  121 , certain components within the delivery system  12  can be direct answerers of questions when appropriate. 
     The rule authority is a component which can answer rule questions. Components within the delivery system  12  act in the role of a rule authority component if they register themselves with the rule broker component  121  as the answerer of a named rule. For instance, the issuer component  112 , the acquirer component  114 , and the delivery capabilities component  133  may each be a rule authority. The rule authority components register rules with the rule broker component  121  and provide answers for the rules that they have registered. The rule authority components may access separately installable data to answer rule questions and this data may be separate from the rule registry information used by the rule broker component  121  and the rule engine. 
     The rule engine is a general rule interpreter. The rule engine can answer a rule query based on parameters passed in the query and some interpretable rule data in the rule database. Unlike rule authorities, the rule engine has no specific knowledge of rules or applications. The rule engine determines answers for rules and is used by the rule broker component  121  and calls the rule registry. 
     In operation, each rule registered with the rule broker will have a unique name which includes a version identifier. The name will be passed separately from other parameters in a rule query. All rule query parameters aside from the name will be passed in a self-defining way, for instance, a rule query may contain a name, type, and value for each parameter. Each rule registered with the rule broker will exist as an independent record in a rule registry. A rule in the rule registry will be defined as either data, such as an encoded string, which can be interpreted by a general rules engine or a rule authority which is registered to answer a rule. A component&#39;s registration of a rule may override a previous component&#39;s registration for that same rule. Each registered rule will define the expected type of parameters to be passed and rules can be dynamically added to the rule registry independently of all other rules. 
     The rule broker component  121  will route a rule query either to the general rules engine or to a sequence of rule authorities until an answer is obtained or no more authorities are available. The rule broker component  121  routes queries based only on the rule name and does not validate the parameter list. The rule authority or authorities are responsible for validating the parameters. 
     A preferred protocol exists between the rule broker and components querying the rule broker. Any component querying the rule broker must be prepared to handle the case of “no answer” gracefully. For example, a no answer may occur when no such rule is registered or when the component registered to answer the rule cannot answer. Also, the rule broker component  121  must return a specific “no answer” answer to a requester when no answer is available. Further, the rules engine and all rule authorities should dynamically check the parameter list and return the appropriate “no answer” if a discrepancy between the expected and received parameters exist. 
     A. Example 1 
     Dispense Amounts 
     A set of complex rules, spanning multiple configuration tables, is used in the AGS implementation when choosing what dispense amounts are displayed on selection buttons to a customer withdrawing cash at a CAT  16 . The existing “withdraw cash” application is tightly coupled to the structure of these tables. The acquirer component  114  might register as a rule authority for the “WhatDispenseAmounts?” question. The input parameters for this question include the product type, which specifies the product being withdrawn from, and the currency. The output parameters include the result code and the variable length list of amounts. Some of the session data needed to answer the question, such as card type and level of service, is available from known session components and consequently is not passed as input. The acquirer component  114 , in processing the request, may query whatever database contains specific rules for dispense amounts and ask the peripheral device manager component  62  to determine what denominations are available. 
     B. Example Two 
     Maximum PIC Retries 
     As another example, a rule “MaxPICRetries?” to be processed by the rule engine is registered in the rule database. This rule has no input parameters and has output parameters of a result code and MaxPICRetries. As rule data, some interpretable data which indicates that a “business options” table should be searched for the MaxPICRetries value matching the session values of issuer and card type. All of the session data needed to answer the question, such as the issuer and card type, is available from known session components so no specific input parameters are needed. The rule engine searches the specified table for a match on the session issuer and card type and returns the value of MaxPICRetries for that match. 
     VIII. Tools and Languages 
     The delivery system  12  is preferably language neutral. The applications can be written in any language which supports the object model used to specify the delivery system  12 . Consequently, different components may be implemented in different languages and may migrate to a different language over time. As examples, VisualBasic, C++, and Java may be used in implementing the components of the delivery system  12 . 
     The delivery system  12  is also not limited to any particular integrated development environment (IDE). The IDE, however, should have support for multi-user shared development and should have integration with a configuration management capability. The IDE should also support a tool “plug-in” capability to allow tools to be added which are unique to the delivery system  12 . Some examples of these “plug-in” tools include configuration tools. to allow for the maintenance of system configuration information and test tools including host and device emulators. Other tools include software distribution tools to standardize the method by which software upgrades are distributed, system management and logging tools, security protocols, and middle-ware for distributed object support in legacy system interfaces. Further tools include template development tools for both canonical and device specific templates, a rules database editor, services registry maintenance tools, and language man repository editor. The IDE preferably supports all of the selected targeted languages so as to minimize retraining and allows reuse of “plug-in” of tools across development languages. The operating system for the delivery system  12  is preferably Microsoft&#39;s Windows NT but may alternatively operate on other operating systems, such as a Macintosh or a UNIX operating system. 
     A component in the delivery system  12  may comprise any piece of hardware or software that is potentially independently replaceable with the software components being embodied as either executables (.EXEs) or dynamically loaded libraries (.DLLs). Components generally have well-defined interfaces. An application, in contrast, is a set of components that does a specific business function, such as cash withdrawal and may comprise several components. Each application in the delivery system  12  preferably comprises one or more dialog components  83  for handling the user interface, one or more business rule components  121 , and one or more transaction executor components  91  for handling the message interface with external service providers  22 . 
     IX. Conclusion 
     The delivery system  12  advantageously provides a common application base for customer activated applications for all remote devices. Thus, a financial institution need not have a first delivery system for its ATMs, a second delivery system for its staff tellers, a third delivery system for personal computers or PDAs, and a fourth delivery system for external service providers. Instead, home banking devices such as a personal computer  18 , a smart phone  14 , an Internet browser remote device  24 , and a PDA  20  may all access the books of a financial institution through the delivery system  12 . In addition, the delivery system  12  may provide financial services to its customers through its CAT/CASST  16  and to its employees through branch and CSR staff platforms  26 . 
     The delivery system  12  supports convergence to a base set of reusable global application components. These components may be reassembled in different combinations and organizations to form application suites or they may be customized for the environment in which they are used. Furthermore, the global application component may be complemented by components from a local business. 
     The delivery system  12  provides state of the art user interfaces. The interfaces provided by the delivery system  12  support integration of standard 15 multi-media elements, such as pictures, video, and audio. The interfaces also support customizations needed for specific devices, languages, countries, and other local business needs. The interfaces further support multiple co-existing application navigation paradigms and also support the user working in multiple application components at a single time. 
     The delivery system  12  substantially improves development and maintenance cycle time. The delivery system  12  uses prefabricated components and templates instead of “from scratch” development. The delivery system  12  may embrace widely accepted industry standards for component interfaces so that off the shelf “plumbing” may connect components and enable plugging-in third party components. The delivery system  12  supports “plug and play” application components that can automatically configure themselves for the environment and automatically insert themselves into top level navigation menus. The delivery system  12  supports high productivity prototyping/development tools for top level navigation definition and user interface design, making use of predefined look-and-feel standards. The delivery system  12  separates different parts of an application so that changes in one part do not affect other parts. 
     The delivery system  12  provides a smooth gradual migration from legacy applications into a new architecture. The delivery system  12  supports the harmonious coexistence of software built under the delivery system  12  along with existing legacy AGS applications. As a result, financial institutions do not need to introduce a totally new system but rather may leverage their existing legacy AGS applications while taking advantage of the delivery system  12 . 
     It should be recognized that the system and method disclosed are merely illustrative of the principles of the present invention. Numerous modifications and adaptations thereof will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the invention is only limited by the following claims.

Technology Category: 3