Methods and systems for delivery of information upon enrollment in an internet bill presentment and payment environment

1. In a bill presentment and payment environment with a scheduled time to communicate billing information with a set of billers, a bill presentment and payment method comprising:

receiving, from a customer computer and at a client object of a consolidator server of an Internet bill presentment and payment (IBPP) system, customer registration information, including information sufficient to identify the customer;

providing, by the client object of the consolidator server, the customer identification information to one of the billers as part of a first request indicating enrollment in the bill presentment and payment system, said customer information being provided to a biller server associated with the biller, the biller server including a server object, a request handler, connected to the server object, and an implementation object which receives requests from the request handler; and

upon validation of the customer information by the server object of the biller server, permitting access by the customer to billing information from the one of the billers at an unscheduled time.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein permitting access by the customer to billing information comprises:

transmitting a second request to the one of the billers to access billing information; and

receiving the billing information from the one of the billers.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first request is independent of the biller.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the billing information includes at least one of a customer profile or billing data associated with the customer.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the customer identification information includes one or more of name, address, phone number, e-mail address, social security number, date of birth, or account number.

6. In a bill presentment and payment environment with a scheduled time to communicate billing information with a requesting Internet bill presentment and payment (IBPP) system, a method for providing billing information comprising:

receiving, by a server object of a biller server having a request handler connected to the server object and an implementation object which receives requests from the request handler, and from a client object of a requesting IBPP system, a request for information associated with a customer, wherein the request is verified and validated by the server object;

retrieving the requested information; and

forwarding the retrieved information to the requesting IBPP system at an unscheduled time.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the step of forwarding the retrieved information comprises the steps of:

transforming the retrieved information to a format accepted by the requesting IBPP system; and

forwarding the transformer information to the requesting IBPP system.

8. A system for permitting real-time access by a customer to billing information in an Internet bill presentment and payment environment, the system comprising: a consolidator server; and a biller module, connected to the consolidator module, wherein the biller module includes biller-independent submodules for communicating with the consolidator module; biller-dependent modules for retrieving information from data stored by the biller; and an interface enabling the biller-independent submodules to interact with the biller-dependent submodules, wherein the biller module includes: a server object, which receives a request from the consolidator module; a request handler, connected to the server object; and an implementation object which receives the request from the request handler.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the consolidator server includes:

a bill presentment and payment module; and

a client object, connected to the bill presentment and payment module.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the bill presentment and payment module provides an interface for accepting registration and requests from the customer.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the server object, the request handler, and the implementation object are included in the biller-independent sub-modules.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the implementation object is configured to implement the interface, based on information included in the request.

13. A computer-readable medium including instructions for performing a method in a bill presentment and payment environment with a scheduled time to communicate billing information with a set of billers, when executed by a processor, the bill presentment and payment method comprising:

receiving, by a client object, customer registration information, including information sufficient to identify the customer;

providing, by the client object to a server object, the customer identification information to one of the billers as part of a first request indicating enrollment in the bill presentment and payment system; and

permitting, upon verification of the customer registration information by the server object through a request submitted via a request handler and an implementation object that receives the request from the request handler, access by the customer to billing information from the one of the billers at an unscheduled time.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the step of permitting access by the customer to billing information comprises:

transmitting a second request to the one of the billers to access billing information; and

receiving the billing information from the one of the billers.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the first request is independent of the biller.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the billing information includes at least one of a customer profile or billing data associated with the customer.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the customer identification information includes one or more of name, address, phone number, e-mail address, social security number, date of birth, or account number.

18. A computer-readable medium including instructions for performing a method, when executed by a processor, in a bill presentment and payment environment with a scheduled time to communicate billing information with a requesting IBPP system, for providing billing information, the method comprising:

receiving, by a server object and from the requesting IBPP system, a request for information associated with a customer;

retrieving, in response to a request from the server object to a request handler and from an implementation object that receives the request from the request handler, the requested information; and

forwarding, by the server object, the retrieved information to the requesting IBPP system at an unscheduled time.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the step of forwarding the retrieved information comprises the steps of:

transforming the retrieved information to a format accepted by the requesting IBPP system; and

forwarding the transformed information to the requesting IBPP system.

20. In a bill presentment and payment environment, a method of requesting information from a biller comprising:

receiving, by a client object, customer registration information, including information sufficient to identify the customer; and

providing, by the client object to a server object, the customer identification information to the biller as part of a request indicating enrollment in the bill presentment and payment system,

wherein the request is provided to the biller in accordance with a bill data exchange protocol and upon verification of the customer registration information by the server object through a request submitted via a request handler and an implementation object that receives the request from the request handler, permitting access by the customer to billing information from the biller.

21. In a bill presentment and payment environment, a method of providing billing data to a requesting IBPP system, the method comprising:

receiving, by a server object of a biller server having a request handler connected to the server object and an implementation object which receives requests from the request handler, and from a client object of the requesting IBPP system, a request;

retrieving the billing data based on the request; and

providing the retrieved data to the requesting IBPP system,

wherein the retrieved data is provided to the requesting IBPP system in accordance with a bill data exchange protocol.

22. In a bill presentment and payment environment with a set of billers, a real-time bill presentment and payment method comprising:

receiving, by a client object of a consolidation server, customer registration information, including information sufficient to identify the customer;

providing, by the client object, the customer identification information to a biller server associated with one of the billers as part of a request indicating enrollment in the bill presentment and payment system; and

upon verification of the customer registration information by the server object through a request submitted via a request handler and an implementation object that receives the request from the request handler, permitting real-time access by the customer to billing information from the one of the billers.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein permitting access by the customer to billing information comprises:

transmitting a request to the one of the billers to access billing information; and

receiving the billing information from the one of the billers.

24. The method of claim 22 , wherein the request is independent of the biller.

25. The method of claim 22 , wherein the billing information includes at least one of a customer profile or billing data associated with the customer.

26. The method of claim 22 , wherein the customer identification information includes one or more of name, address, phone number, e-mail address, social security number, date of birth, or account number.

27. In a bill presentment and payment environment, a method for providing billing information to a requesting IBPP system in real-time, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server object and from the requesting IBPP system, a request for information associated with a customer;

retrieving, in response to a request from the server object to a request handler and from an implementation object that receives the request from the request handler, the requested information; and

forwarding, by the server object, the retrieved information to the requesting IBPP system in real-time.

28. The method of claim 27 , wherein the step of forwarding the retrieved information comprises the steps of:

transforming the retrieved information to a format accepted by the requesting IBPP system; and

forwarding the transformed information to the requesting IBPP system.